Today, a lot of people have some form of addiction or dependency. I'm thinking of alcoholics, gamblers and sex addicts. The society is very permissive in the sense, that it allows, for example, alcohol consumption. The message we get every day is that there is a place in our lives for the various chemicals, that are in alcohol. Let us consume them in moderation and responsibly.
Let's learn to handle it well, keep it under control. From the other point of view, we are very unfair, because when someone cannot handle moderation, we immediately say, that they are an alcoholic, a drug addict or any kind of addict. We immediately try to make them stop. I can't help you, you have to get on your feet.
The double message is, use it, but use it well, keep it under control. I find that very unfair, because alcohol is a chemical substance, that mankind has not been able to control for 2000 years. We say that there is a low consumption of alcohol, and yet the data show, that many people lose their lives, because of heavy drinking.
Who is to blame for all this? Are we humans or is alcohol really a chemical, that is difficult to control? There is a lot to say about addiction, but today in this article, I want to talk about the most important thing and that is that everyone can be helped, even people who have lost hope.
It is something we should and must strongly believe in. Unfortunately, having to wait until someone's life is ruined by addiction is a very bad thing. We don't have to wait. In fact we have to act immediately. The addict will not stop of their own accord, they need to be helped by professionals. Addiction can be triggered by lack of love and negligence.
Family Intervention
This is a therapeutic approach, where the professional first starts working with the family members. They prepare the family to get their addicted loved one into treatment. This therapy is predominantly used in the USA and has been successful in getting seven out of ten patients to voluntarily enter the treatment.
I am talking about patients, who previously did not want to hear from professionals. This is possible, because the patient feels, that they are not the object of hatred, but that the family is pulling together for him.
Addicts Crave Rewards
The whole addiction is nothing more, than how I can have a high-intensity pleasure, how I can get joy, how I can have fun. It's not just addicts, who want to be rewarded, it's every human being on earth, and it's to basically feel good and not suffer.
Addicts, in order to satisfy these needs, use a variety of chemicals to achieve their goals or in case gambling they have a sort of behaviour.
The Brain's Reward Centre
There is a very interesting biological background mechanism behind all this. When we do something in life, that gives us pleasure or satisfies our needs, such as eating, reading, writing, playing, playing sports, making love and many others, when we do these things, our brain develops a feeling of pleasure.
Nature has associated a reward with our activities. Why? So that we do it continuously. If it wasn't good to eat, we wouldn't eat, if it wasn't good to make love, we wouldn't have offspring. Nature motivates us with rewards, not punishments.
Different chemicals also act on this area of the brain. While the activities listed above are rewarded with one unit of reward, addiction is hundreds of times greater. In short, chemicals give us a much greater reward, than the natural things we need to survive. Who would not choose greater pleasure over greater rewards? Of course the question remains. What are the consequences of addiction?
What Is The Way Out?
Motivate with rewards instead of punishment. If we make sobriety worth rewarding, if sobriety is what we want to earn anyway, then we have to compete with our brains. We need to reward ourselves with things, that can compete with chemicals. This is not easy, because chemicals are much more effective.
That's where family members come in. They have to make sure, that what they are doing is attractive to the addict and make them to want that. However, the addict is not an easy case, because they ruin everything around themselves, they are selfish and egotistical and it is very easy to relapse.
Preparation Is Key
Family members, then will be prepared by the professionals. They teach them about addiction, how it works. Then the family members are surprised, because they realized, that their addicted loved one is not weak-willed, it's their brain they have the problem with.
Usually family members criticise the addict and do very little to help. The addict feels, that they are to blame for everything and they are the black sheep in the family. However, if they see that their loved ones are attending to a professional and they are prepared and educated about addiction, then the addict can change things in a positive way and start to work with the family and in many cases get to the point, as I mentioned earlier, where they will go to a professional of their own volition.
Lead Image Source: Unsplash via Michael Longmire
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I am guilty of not being so understanding of addicts, particularly drug addicts. It is because our country has most of its crimes relating to drugs: thief, murder, violence, and more importantly, RAPE. These topics, especially the last one, are really sensitive for me, and I abhor crimes, of course, the people that do them.
I do not mean to contradict or to be offensive, but most addicts became one because of their own accord—warnings have been openly spread, but they still chose to indulge in these addictions. In the end, it ain't just their lives who are ruined, other innocent people's, too.
However, there is absolutely nothing with your words. No matter how I try to think of it, no other way is effective in saving addicts than the ones you wrote here.
Persecution and neglect are surely not the right way to go, indeed.
On another note, nothing will be cured if it were prevented, anyway.