Question: Why do you treat all addictions with the same approach?
Dr. Gala’s Response:
At RecoverYES.com, we know that all addictions look the same in the brain. Any addiction lights up the reward centers of the brain generating a distorted experience of pleasure with one caveat. Some addictions provide a quicker and/or more intense experience.
For example, opiate addicts have trained their brains to expect a heightened state of euphoria that is not possible to sustain in everyday life. The addict brain craves the recreation of the experience which ultimately leads to disaster.
If you’re in early recovery (the first week or two), the detoxification process might require a different approach even medical intervention. There are certain drugs, for example, where the detoxification process can be life-threatening. Physician supervision is advised.
So, in the very initial stages, you may need to treat addiction a bit differently from what will be your ongoing approach to addiction treatment. It will accelerate your healing to accept that while your circumstances are unique the way your brain responds is not.
Once you get through the initial detox process, it’s important to recognize that addiction is just a coping mechanism and it really doesn’t matter what addiction you’ve used to provide medication. The addiction is being used to cope with life, to quiet emotions you don’t want to feel, and to deal with situations that you don’t want to face.
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People that are genetically predisposed to addiction describe the relief they feel when the effects of the substance or behavior they’re engaging in washes over their brain. Unfortunately, it is the calm before the storm!
In order to beat addiction, you must get to the root cause of the pain and discontent. You need to understand your addiction and what you developed it to cope with. Then, you need to learn new coping skills.
A word of warning it’s common to trade one addiction for another. It’s known as cross addiction. Whether your problem is substance abuse (consuming alcohol or drugs) or behavioral problems (like sex, eating disorders, video games or other computer-related addictions), they’re all nothing more than coping mechanisms.
So, you have a bit of advanced insight when someone says, Well, I was only drinking alcohol at least that’s legal. I wasn’t consuming illegal drugs, or I got hooked on pain medication that was being prescribed by my physician so that’s not as bad as sex addiction and cheating on my spouse.
It’s not helpful to judge which addictions are better or worse. If someone is suffering from addiction, it’s a clear sign that there are emotional issues that are not being effectively addressed.
Even if you’re trying to beat addiction with rehab, the addiction help you use must address the underlying issues that are fueling the addiction. It is possible to find some sobriety without working on the underlying emotional issues but to lead a full and fulfilling life the addiction’s power must be taken away. That’s not possible if you’re trading one addiction for another or avoiding what we call the core wound.
Fortunately, much work has been done to develop help for addiction that can be easily modified to suit each person’s individual circumstances. We encourage you to start by understanding how your addiction works. This begins to take the addiction’s power away.
We provide addiction help online to make it convenient to get the process started today.
