Addiction stories are, essentially, all the same.
No matter what the surrounding details might be — time, date, place, etc. — they all basically start with a person sampling a drug once and, soon enough, find themselves taking it again and again until they realize they cannot actually stop.
Addiction is, in fact, sadly banal, though it is no less dangerous for all that. Addiction stories follow the same pattern, again and again, meaning every addict follows a certain rhythm in their own battle with addiction.
Here are five things every addict goes through:
1. They can’t stop taking the drug. No matter how they started taking an addictive substance — first beer snuck when parents are away, first joint at a house party, first snort of cocaine shared by a friend in a college dorm room — they continue to take the drug and will, at some point, realize they can’t stop even if they try. The physical and psychological dependence will assert itself and start affecting their daily lives, at which point the addiction becomes clear.
2. They continue to use the drug, with negative consequences. Aware they cannot stop, they continue to use, even as it affects their jobs, relationships and routines in negative fashion. They show up to work late repeatedly, can’t make appointments, miss important family events. They become preoccupied with their substance abuse, doing what they can to get more of their drug of choice at the expense of anything else in their life.
3. Behavior changes set in. The preoccupation grows to change their entire approach to everyday activities. They no longer miss events accidentally while trying to acquire their substance, they skip things on purpose, putting little emphasis on anything but the addiction in their life. They socialize less and no longer partake of enjoyable activities they once loved. They grow angry and belligerent when confronted about such things. Increasingly, all they care about is the addiction.
- Substance abuse levels increase. Many drugs build up a tolerance in the addict’s system, meaning to reach the same high as before, they must take more of the drug than they once did. And more still. As tolerance increases steadily, so does the amount of substance abuse increase, until the addict is using large amounts of the substance and causing themselves real harm.
- Withdrawal sets in. Eventually, the addict may realize the problem they have and decide they can’t take it anymore. They will try and quit. They will not succeed. Withdrawal symptoms will rack them with pain and discomfort, until they’ll do anything to get another hit and end the suffering by getting high once more. And the cycle continues.
At this point, the addict often requires outside assistance to get the help they need. An intervention is often necessary to show them the problem they face and get them into a rehab and recovery program.
At Good Landing Recovery, every client will share similar stories about their struggle with these stages of addiction. But they can break the cycle and find true recovery, with a little bit of help. Call today.