Alcohol addiction and drug addiction are the compulsive and repeated use of a substance, despite the consequences of using. One can be addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, food, gambling, the internet, or anything else that can have a negative consequence due to over-indulgence and abuse. Addiction is also classified as a progressive disease. This means that the habit will only intensify as time goes on if nothing or nobody intervenes with the addiction.
For someone to be addicted to substances, there must be three components present:
- Biological or chemical issues stemming from addiction or inherited through genetics
- Spiritual wounds, and
- Emotional scarring due to past experiences or situations
When your loved one has experienced all three components, they begin to go through four stages of addiction.
Four stages of addiction
Addiction does not happen overnight. The addict typically goes through the following four stages of addiction:
- Learned Mood Swing: The individual understands that by using substances they will experience a feeling of euphoria.
- Seeking of the Mood Swing: The individual now has developed a relationship with addiction beyond just recreational.
- Harmful Dependency: This is the turning point when the individual begins to display erratic and or bizarre behavior. This behavior causes the individual to feel guilt, shame, and depression which fuels the need to use.
- Abuses to Feel Normal: The individual is now in a downward spiral due to being bound between stages two and three. Addicts try to control their use, they fail to control their use and develop emotional pain and spiritual scarring from failing, which in turn causes them to use again and again. This pattern and perpetual feeling of pain reinforces the behavior and the addiction repeated.
When someone experiments with substances, they do not consciously decide that they are going to be an addict and live a miserable life. As their addiction escalates, the guilt, shame, and depression worsens with time known as signs and symptoms of addiction. At this point an effort may be made to control their use. This does not always work! When an addict fails to control their use, they develop emotional pain within because they have failed which, in turn, causes them to self-medicate. It is at this point that the user becomes trapped and thus begins the spiraling downward further in to the disease.
This detailed and powerful cycle entirely consumes the individual. Their psyche, core authentic self, and spirit are unable to escape the grasps of the disease. When you know of someone who is in this cycle, it is time to intervene between the individual and their substance of choice. If nothing is done to intervene with this terrifying process, it is inevitable that the user may end up doing time in jail, living in a psychiatric institution, or ultimately, dying.
Well tell me then, how can I help someone with an addiction other than this method of INTERVENTION?
I was a Xanax abuser for many years Drinking Beer also & I decided I needed to stop for good 1st I quit the Beer .The xanax took me months to slowly taper off 18 or so months but I did it so it is possible for anyone else to do the same but I know others will need a good Rehab. I wasnt into other Drugs so it was easier to stop probably because of that. I haven’t took anymore either & dont plan to.
Hi im here because of my sister she has been addicted to meth for about 10years now off and on she has lost all 3 of her kids and last year she got into a really bad car accident and almost died the right side of her face is now messed up. Well the day after she got out of the hospital she went right back to meth after she promised that she wouldn’t. She has never gone in for check ups like she needs to her jaw has been wired shut for almost. 10 months now (she was supposed to have the wires off after i think 6 weeks) over the winter i. Colorado she has been living in a storage unit with her abusive boyfriend. I just dont know what to do anymore ive tried to get her to move here to Florida with me so i can try to help her more. The only way that i was able to get clean was leaving Colorado it was not easy at all but getting off meth us the best chose that i have made. But this is not about me its about her. She says she wants help but never gets it im pretty sure that she has even slept with for the drug or money to get it im so lost on helping her
Is anyone on this discussion board anymore? Need help!!
People don’t engage in addictive behaviors because they don’t ‘want recovery enough’ or lack willpower. Addiction is caused by assaults or over-stimulation of the the brain’s limbic system. The science is out there yet sites like this and shows like Intervention continue to parrot the old, destructive and generally fatal crap about addiction that is not much more enlightened than the once prevalent belief that addiction was caused by demon possession.
These so-called reality intervention shows are exploiting people for the sake of mendacious entertainment value and the information provided here on this site is flat out wrong.
Shame on you for profiting from people like this. Dig into pubmed and do a real service by providing up to date information on addiction and treatment. Oh wait. That’s not what makes money nor is it what the sponsors who fund this site want, is it?