Addicts Cannot Control the Addiction

Addicts Cannot Control the Addiction

What comes into your mind when you see a loved one struggling with a dreadful addiction? It creates an unbearable pain, doesn’t it? And the fact is, the addicted person is so engrossed in his/her addiction that they can hardly sense your pain, nor their own path to self-destruction.

So, instead of wondering why the addiction makes them not care about themselves or you, it is much more helpful if we realize that they are helpless and have no control over their actions. The addiction is in complete control. 

Addiction is not limited to substances — anything that takes over a person’s life can be attributed to addiction. For example, some play excessive video games, some people are uncontrollably addicted to pornography, and some are so dependent on medically prescribed pain medication that they seemingly cannot live without them.  It is hard for them to accept it as an addiction, and the drugs themselves block an addict’s ability to reason.

Undoubtedly, addiction brings a lot of stress to the family of the addict, but the family may be the only ones who can influence the addict to get help before it is too late. 

Addictions usually start in the teen and young adult years, but they can develop at any age.  Prescription and opioid addiction are often begun during a period of recovery from an accident or operation.  The freedom from pain and euphoria resulting from these meds leads to an ongoing urgency to take them, and usually in ever-increasing amounts, which can lead to death from overdose. 

Some of the main causes that drag our young adults and teens into addiction include:

Peer pressure or social demand: Sometimes, with no intention of being an addict, the wrong group of friends can persuade a young person to start to participate in dangerous activities that others in the group are daring to do. The impact of friends is nowhere a new concept, as everyone knows, and so is the impression of the group that drinking and smoking are not a big deal.

Dealing with mental illness: We have seen most people saying that their addictions help them to come out of the stress they are having, which is completely a myth. Anything that is harmful to our health can never be a remedy to our brains. Stress, depression, anxiety, etc. have become common health issues among teens and young adults nowadays. When these issues bring acute pain, headaches, then doctors prescribe several painkillers, drug-composed medicines, sleeping pills. Undoubtedly, a person with pain will love these opioids. But what happens if it is used over a long period? Those medicines react biologically with our brain cells and the absence of them actually brings back the pain they had before, only worse.  The addiction creates an illusion of everything being perfect and joyous in life, but without the drug, the individual suffers both mentally and physically.

Let’s try it once!: With this statement, the quick “try” can quickly shift into an addiction.  Some drugs are so addictive that all it takes is one try.  Many people want to experience a new thing in life–something that will make them feel something in their otherwise dull existence.  So they start, and they become addicted, leading to changes in their physical and emotional state marked by a constant craving for more.

At American Rehab Centers, we train each individual to dig into their reasons behind becoming an addict. We believe that every individual has a God-given purpose to live. So we work at relating their beautiful lives with the actual purposes and teach them to inculcate healthy coping mechanisms replacing the unhealthy ones to deal with their life problems. With a very holistic approach, we look forward to seeing an addiction-free society with our extensive rehab facilities.