Addiction and Recovery For Dummies

Brian F. Shaw, Paul Ritvo, Jane Irvine

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781118069981
• Edition: 1

Evaluate medications and treatment programs Break free from addictive substances or behaviors and get a fresh start Think you have an addiction? This compassionate guide helps you identify the problem and work towards a healthy, realistic approach to recovery, explaining the latest clinical and self-help treatments for both adults and teens. This book also offers tips on reducing cravings, handling your relationships, and staying well for the long run. Discover how to
* Identify the reasons for addiction
* Choose the best treatment plan
* Handle slips and relapses
* Detect addictions in a loved one
* Find help and support

Part I

The Hole in the Heart: Detecting Addiction

In this part . . .

W e help you detect the signs of addiction and determine whether you or someone else is addicted. We provide surprising facts about how common addiction is and about the many forms it takes. We especially focus on substance addictions (such as drugs and alcohol) and behavioral addictions (such as gambling, sex, and eating).

One of the challenges is knowing whether your use of a substance or reliance on a behavior is a problem. In this part, we explain the differences among use, abuse, and dependence. Finally, we discuss how costly addictions are — to you personally and to your family.

Chapter 1

Addiction: What Is It?

In This Chapter

Looking at use, abuse, and addiction

Understanding your personal risk of addiction

Reviewing treatment options

Stepping onto the road to recovery

A ddiction robs you of freedom and control. You may think that you choose

In this chapter, we tell you about the different types of addictions, especially about substance addictions and behavioral addictions. We tell you about how the medical community views addiction and how your personal view, when it’s all said and done, is what you’ll most likely follow. We also briefly overview what the rest of this book can offer.

We’ve designed this book to help you gain an understanding of where you are right now in regard to your control over addictive substances and behaviors. This understanding can help you develop a strategy for seeking freedom, well-being, and control in your life.

Substance Use, Abuse, and Addiction

A number of addiction-related terms are used throughout this book. We want to be clear about what they mean before proceeding.

Addiction: The definitions

In 1964, the World Health Organization suggested the term addiction be replaced. The group wanted to replace it with the word dependence, because dependence describes the feeling that, physically and mentally, you have to use the substance. Your brain and body cry out. You gotta have it!

We however, don’t agree with the World Health Organization entirely. So in this book, we use the term addiction to refer to a combined experience of mental and physical dependence. In addiction, as we see it, you’re compelled to use a substance or behave in a certain way, even though you know you face considerable harm by going through with it.

You’re addicted when you can no longer direct yourself out of harm’s way. You’re addicted when you continue to use a substance or engage in a behavior that puts you in harm’s way.

Simply put, addiction causes a change in your brain. A change that we, and other scientists and clinicians, are trying hard to understand. Make no mistake; although this change is something of a mystery, it’s still powerful. When the change occurs, you lose control over your urges to use a substance or engage in certain behaviors. The urges are irresistible. You can become so compelled by your addictive behavior that nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how accomplished you are, or how physically strong you are. It can happen to anyone.

Dependence is really one step along a slippery path that leads to addiction. At a certain point, a prolonged dependence results in another switch being thrown. The experience you have after that switch is thrown is what we call addiction.

It’s important now to talk about both mental and physical dependence. Mental dependence refers to associations that develop in your mind between specific events (called triggers) and emotional and physical urges to use the substance or take part in the addictive behavior. These triggers are actually memory traces that are set off by various stimuli. When set off, they exert a powerful influence on your behavior. Moreover, they’re not just in your mind — through a series of chain reactions, they induce biochemical changes in your brain as well.

What is the difference between mental and physical dependence when both cause changes in brain chemistry? The main difference is that the changes in chemistry brought on by the effects of mental dependence are due to mental associations. Put bluntly, just thinking about getting high changes your brain chemistry. Then the brain changes affect your whole body so that you feel physically excited.

Physical dependence, on the other hand, doesn’t require any thinking at all. It’s simply related to the physical effects of the addictive substance on specific brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. Certain neurotransmitters get altered by the substance. The brain adjusts — it tolerates the drug. And then you don’t feel normal or good unless you take the substance. Physical dependence describes your brain’s physical adaptation to the drug.

As you can read in Chapter 10, you can detoxify your brain (get rid of the foreign chemicals) from a physical dependence relatively quickly (a few days). However, your mental dependence can last a lifetime.

We describe more of the differences between mental and physical dependence in Chapter 5.

The difference between abuse and dependence

The difference between abuse and dependence is a matter of time and degree. The medical criteria for substance dependence and substance abuse are summarized below in the following sections. Essentially, the difference is that dependence is associated with tolerance (you need more and more of the substance to get the same effect) and withdrawal symptoms (you experience substance-specific withdrawal symptoms when you stop using), and abuse is associated with continued substance use despite adverse health, social, or financial consequences.

Abuse can occur without dependence but the reverse is rarely true; dependence almost always leads to abuse.

Medical criteria for substance dependence

From the medical perspective, dependence is defined as experiencing at least three of the following criteria occurring within a 12-month period:

Experiencing tolerance, which is defined as either a need for markedly increased amounts of the substance to achieve the desired effect or a markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount.

Experiencing withdrawal, as evidenced by either the characteristic withdrawal syndrome for the substance or when medication is taken to relieve withdrawal symptoms.

The substance is taken in larger amounts or over a longer time period than initially intended.

There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control substance use.

A great deal of time is spent in activities necessary to obtain the substance (being preoccupied with how and when you’re going to get your next fix dominates your daily thoughts).

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