Many people find that helping others is also the best way to help themselves. Your understanding of how difficult the recovery process can be will help you to support others — both teens and adults — who are battling an addiction.
If you do have a relapse, recognizing the problem as soon as possible is critical. Get help right away so that you don't undo all the hard work you put into your initial recovery. And, if you do have a relapse, don't ever be afraid to ask for help!
Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. Defining an addiction is tricky, and knowing how to handle one is even harder. What Are Substance Abuse and Addiction? Physical Addiction Being physically addicted means a person's body becomes dependent on a particular substance even smoking is physically addictive. Psychological Addiction Psychological addiction happens when the cravings for a drug are psychological or emotional.
Signs of Addiction The most obvious sign of an addiction is the need to have a particular drug or substance. Signs that you or someone you know may have a drug or alcohol addiction include: Psychological signals: use of drugs or alcohol as a way to forget problems or to relax withdrawal or keeping secrets from family and friends loss of interest in activities that used to be important problems with schoolwork, such as slipping grades or absences changes in friendships, such as hanging out only with friends who use drugs spending a lot of time figuring out how to get drugs stealing or selling belongings to be able to afford drugs failed attempts to stop taking drugs or drinking anxiety, anger, or depression mood swings Physical signals: changes in sleeping habits feeling shaky or sick when trying to stop needing to take more of the substance to get the same effect changes in eating habits, including weight loss or gain page 2 Getting Help If you think that you or someone you care about is addicted to drugs or alcohol, recognizing the problem is the first step in getting help.
Tips for Recovery After you start a treatment program, try these tips to make the road to recovery less bumpy: Tell your friends about your decision to stop using drugs.
True friends will respect your decision. Unless everyone decides to kick their drug habit at once, you probably won't be able to hang out with the friends you did drugs with. Ask your friends or family to be available when you need them. You might need to call someone in the middle of the night just to talk.
If you're going through a tough time, don't try to handle things on your own — accept the help your family and friends offer. Accept invitations only to events that you know won't involve drugs or alcohol. Going to the movies is probably safe, but you may want to skip a Friday night party until you're feeling more secure. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. If you've never experienced addiction , it can be hard to understand.
Everyone's experience with addiction is unique. This article is intended to encourage an understanding of people with addiction , not to represent or stigmatize any individual or groups. Imagine, for a moment, that you've never really felt comfortable with who you are. It could be because you feel like you've failed at everything you've tried, or because you were never satisfied with the level of success you did achieve. It could be because you've had thoughts and emotions that make you feel different from other people, particularly if you feel that you aren't as good or as lovable as others.
None of the things that the people around you enjoy feel good to you, and the experiences that bring others satisfaction are hollow and unsatisfying for you.
Then imagine that you have an experience—you drink , take a drug , win a bet or a game, have a sexual experience , overeat, make a large impulse purchase—and suddenly, everything feels great. There is finally something you can depend on to be OK. It might be easy to get what feels good: for a person with a food addiction , a quick trip to the corner store and a few dollars can replenish your supply of chips and chocolate. But compared to the emptiness of what you felt before, investing in the chance that you could again feel good about yourself and about being alive is what matters.
For more mental health resources, see our National Helpline Database. Sure, those around you don't understand why you're doing what you are doing. But this just makes you want to spend time with people who do understand, whose addictions make them feel exactly the way you do. There is a steep price to pay for addiction. Most drugs affect the brain's "reward circuit," causing euphoria as well as flooding it with the chemical messenger dopamine.
A properly functioning reward system motivates a person to repeat behaviors needed to thrive, such as eating and spending time with loved ones. Surges of dopamine in the reward circuit cause the reinforcement of pleasurable but unhealthy behaviors like taking drugs, leading people to repeat the behavior again and again.
As a person continues to use drugs, the brain adapts by reducing the ability of cells in the reward circuit to respond to it. This reduces the high that the person feels compared to the high they felt when first taking the drug—an effect known as tolerance. They might take more of the drug to try and achieve the same high. These brain adaptations often lead to the person becoming less and less able to derive pleasure from other things they once enjoyed, like food, sex, or social activities.
Long-term use also causes changes in other brain chemical systems and circuits as well, affecting functions that include:. Despite being aware of these harmful outcomes, many people who use drugs continue to take them, which is the nature of addiction.
No one factor can predict if a person will become addicted to drugs. A combination of factors influences risk for addiction.
The more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance that taking drugs can lead to addiction. Confronting inadvertent stigma and pejorative language in addiction scholarship: A recognition and response.
Subst Abus. National Institute on Drug Abuse. Is there a difference between physical dependence and addiction? What Is Substance Abuse Treatment? Published January I understand you feel that way, but I feel this way: The benefits of I-language and communicating perspective during conflict.
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I Accept Show Purposes. Avoid Saying This You should be ashamed of yourself for abusing drugs. Try This Instead Everyone needs help sometimes. You don't have to be ashamed of your addiction. Avoid Saying This I can't believe you're a junkie.
When are you getting clean? Try This Instead I'm sorry you're struggling with your addiction. I am here to help support you. Avoid Saying This Why don't you just stop using drugs? You're being selfish.
Try This Instead You are still my friend, and I care for you no matter what. Is there any way I can help? Avoid Saying This What are you doing? Try This Instead Hey, do you have any plans this weekend? I would love to grab dinner if you're free. Avoid Saying This You're so annoying when you drink. I can't even talk to you when you get like this.
Try This Instead I feel disrespected when we have a conversation after you've been drinking. Avoid Saying This Come on, you can have one drink. It's fine.
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