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What We All Need To Know About Drug Addiction |
| Individuals who struggle with drug addiction do not set out to destroy themselves and everyone and everything in their path--rather, these catyclysmic consequences are the effect of the vicious cycle of addiction. |
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Drug use and abuse may seem to avert
emotional and physical pain by providing the user with a
temporary and illusionary escape from or way to cope
with life's realities. In fact, more problems--serious
ones--are created by using drugs. Over time, a person's
ability to choose not to take drugs can become
compromised. Soon enough, the person rationalizes the
need to use consistently and will do anything to get
high...
Drug addiction is complex. It's characterized by
compulsive--at times uncontrollable--drug craving,
seeking, and use that persists even in the face of
extremely negative consequences. For many people, drug
addiction becomes chronic, with relapses possible even
after long periods of abstinence.
Essentially, drugs are a pain killer. They may seem to
avert emotional and physical pain by providing the user
with a temporary and illusionary escape from or way to
cope with life's realities. In fact, more
problems--serious ones--are created by using and abusing
drugs.
Over time, a person's ability to choose not to take
drugs can become compromised--soon enough the person
rationalizes the need to use consistently and will do
anything to get high. They are now caught in the vicious
cycle of using to alleviate pain and creating more pain
by using...They now display the physiological symptoms
of addiction. They become difficult to communicate with,
are withdrawn, and begin to exhibit other strange
behaviorisms associated with addiction.
The compulsion to use drugs can take over the
individual's life. Addiction often involves not only
compulsive drug taking but also a wide range of
dysfunctional behaviors that can interfere with normal
functioning in the family, the workplace, and the
broader community. Addiction also can place people at
increased risk for a wide variety of other illnesses.
These illnesses can be brought on by behaviors, such as
poor living and health habits, that often accompany life
as an addict, or because of toxic effects of the drugs
themselves.
Because addiction has so many dimensions and disrupts so
many aspects of an individual's life, treatment for this
illness is never simple. Drug treatment must help the
individual stop using drugs and maintain a drug-free
lifestyle, while achieving productive functioning in the
family, at work, and in society. Effective drug abuse
and addiction treatment programs typically incorporate
many components, each directed to a particular aspect of
the illness and its consequences.
Three decades of scientific research and clinical
practice have yielded a variety of effective approaches
to drug addiction treatment. Extensive data document
that drug addiction treatment is as effective as are
treatments for most other similarly chronic medical
conditions. In spite of scientific evidence that
establishes the effectiveness of drug abuse treatment,
many people believe that treatment is ineffective. In
part, this is because of unrealistic expectations. Many
people equate addiction with simply using drugs and
therefore expect that addiction should be cured quickly,
and if it is not, treatment is a failure. In reality,
because addiction is a chronic disorder, the ultimate
goal of long-term abstinence often requires sustained
and repeated treatment. |
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