When looking at drug use, and continued drug use, an important part of recovery is to examine the ways of thinking that justifies drug use. After all, there has to be a mechanism in the brain that makes drug use seem ok in order to continue drinking or using substances.
One popular justification is "I am not hurting anyone but myself". Well, unless you live in a bubble, then it does effect the people you care about in some way. If you do drugs away from family members, then you deprive yourself of the time with your family. Also, some of the ways that drug use effects loved ones is so subtle that we might not see them unless we ask. If you want to prove or disprove this concept, then I challenge you to ask your loved ones how they were effected by substance use.
Another way to justify drug use is to minimize. Minimizing involves telling yourself that the effect of drug use is actually less than what it is in reality. For example, you could justify going to jail by saying that "At least it wasn't a serious crime", or "noone got hurt". In reality, it would better to accept the fact that your drug use is what led to getting arrested (and stopping substance use could be a way for many people to reduce the amount of times they get arrested).
Another justification is blaming. This is common, but can become part of automatic thinking processes after we use it for awhile. When using, or relapsing, you might justify your drug use by saying that the reason you are using or drinking is because "my mother got into an agrument with me", or "my wife just won't see things my way". Blaming is a tactic used to avoid accountability and not take responsibility for our own drug use and alcohol consumption behaviors.
The list of justifications are endless. The important part is to remember that a justification is a form of denial. And denial is so subtle, that you don't know you are in denial. The only way to truly recover is to look at how we think, and change the thought patterns that support drug use. Thinking drives our behaviors.
Relapse is quite common among people recovering from drugs and alcohol. After a period of sobriety, people in recovery often experience a relapse trigger. A relapse trigger is known in the recovery community as people, places, and things. More specifically, triggers are the people, places, and things that are associated with the substance use.
Bars, slot machines, seeing the drug, and smelling the drug are all common relapse triggers. Sight, sound, and smell can all be triggers. These mentioned triggers are more external, but relapse triggers can also be rooted in an emotion or state of mind. Anxiety, depression, anger, moodiness, feeling inadequate, or happiness can all be triggers. Negative emotions are commons feelings triggers, but positive emotions can be a trigger as well.
Learning to manage relapse triggers is an essential part of treatment and recovery. The first step is to recognize specific triggers, and how to manage each trigger. Teaching relapse prevention skills to a person in recovery is a great way to be smart not strong in recovery.
Drug use in effect takes over the brain functioning. When a person uses substances, they are using a specific part of the brain, known as the reward system. This is the part of the brain that releases dopamines (a neurotransmitter in the brain that is responsible for use experiencing pleasure) to reinforce particular survival behaviors, such as eating and sex. What role does drug use play in survival: stress relief and escape.
When a person uses a drug, such as meth, the methamphetamines trigger a release of dopamines in the reward system of the brain. The result is a release of an incredible amount of dopamines not seen by the brain through normal brain functioning. Over the course of time, the brain decreases the amount of dopamine natural produced in the brain. Instead, the brain is taken over by the substance and only releases dopamines when the substance is used. Now, substance use literally becomes the only way to feel happy or whole again for the person who is recovering.
For the recovering person, this means that when they first get sober, they can experience low levels of dopamine when not using substances. It takes time for the brain to recover and start replenishing the natural or normal amount of dopamines. This is why persons in early recovery often experience feelings of boredom, or feeling down. Persons in early recovery often return to substance use due to this defeciency in brain chemistry. The bottom line is that people in early recovery need to stay sober, and give their brain a chance to heal. Returning substance use only reinforces the need for substances to feel better.
The main part of the brain used in substance use is the reward system. Neural pathways to other parts of the brain are "unused" and become weak. The frontal lobes are not utulized in the course of using substance, and also happens to be the part of the brain responsible for rationalizing and decision making. This makes sense because addicts often make decisions based on getting or using substances, no matter what the cost. As they enter into recovery, it is important for an addict to learn how to make decisions and weigh the consequences as part of a healthy decision making process. These new skills can help to strengthen the neural pathways to the frontal lobes of the brain.
Tolerance can be defined as increase in the amount of substance used in order to get the same effect, or getting a decreased effect from using the same amount of substance. In basic terms, it means that people who use substances develop tolerance to substances as seen by increase amounts of substance use, or more frequent substance use. Tolerance is a tell tale sign that the addiction mechanism in the body and brain has been activated.
Why do we develop tolerance to alcohol and drugs? Well, let's say that when you started drinking it only takes three beers to get you drunk. After time your body (particularly your liver) releases more enzymes when you drink, so your body can become more efficient and break down the alcohol in your body quicker. This means that you have to drink more than three beers to get drunk. Over time, as the liver becomes more and more effecient at breaking down alcohol, you would have to drink increased amounts of alcohol to get intoxicated.
One of the main reasons why tolerance is important to understand in early recovery is that the recovering addict, after several months of abstinence, doesn't have the same tolerance level as they did when they were using. While they are in recovery or in a treatment center getting help, their tolerance level drops because they are not using substances anymore, and the liver has no reason to work overtime breaking down the substances that they used before. If an addict or alcoholic does relapse and return to the same amount of subtance use previously, and their level of tolerance has dropped, the addict could risk an overdose or alcohol poisoning. This situation is common in early recovery.
Another reason it is important to understand tolerance is that it is a measure of how close a person is approaching their drug "threshold". The threshhold is the boundary that measures the amount of substance a person can take into their body before they overdose or die from the substance use. As tolerance to a substance increases, a person gets that much closer to their threshhold. It is very risky for a substance user or alcoholic to approach the threshold limit of substance or alcohol use.
Addictions is a strong theme in our society. We have a society that is secretive and closed about addictions, especially when it comes to drug use. Our society has taught us to not be weak, that we can overcome our problems on our own. As a result people don't share that they have a drug problem, and are reluctant to talk about their drug use and problems. I started this blog for that very reason: to allow discussion of addiction issues and how they affect our lives. People need to connect and realize that addiction effects us all, and sometimes in the same ways.
