Author: James Anderson
Recovery from Addiction
The withdrawal symptoms seen in situations of drug and alcohol addiction may manifest in situations of sugar dependence. Employment is virtually essential for having a stable and meaningful life. But a history of addiction can be an impediment to getting a job.
• Identity—shifting towards a new, positive view of oneself, one more aligned with one’s deeper values and goals, one built on self-confidence gained by acquiring new skills and new behaviors. When the going gets tough—as it often does early in recovery—a coach can help you keep to your goals. Frequent feedback, encouragement, and support are vital, because physical and psychological resilience are still low, and the temptation is to give up and give in.
Diagnosing drug addiction (substance use disorder) requires a thorough evaluation and often includes an assessment by a psychiatrist, a psychologist, or a licensed alcohol and drug counselor. Blood, urine or other lab tests are used to assess drug use, but they’re not a diagnostic test for addiction. However, these tests may be used for monitoring treatment and recovery. The National Recovery Month webpage provides a host of resources that can be used to help promote the observance. Research has identified relapse patterns in adolescents and adults recovering from addiction. In one study, two-thirds of the adults relapsed in social situations in which they experienced urges and temptations to drink or use.
How to Help a Person Recovering From an Addiction
A good relapse prevention plan specifies a person’s triggers for drug use, lists several coping skills to deploy, and lists people to call on for immediate support, along with their contact information. The best way to handle a relapse is to take quick action to seek help, whether it’s intensifying support from family, friends, and peers or entering a treatment program. One advantage of mutual support groups is that there is likely someone to call on in such an emergency who has experienced a relapse and knows exactly how to help. In addition, immediately attending or resuming group meetings and discussing the relapse can yield much advice on how to continue recovery without succumbing to the counterproductive feeling of shame or self-pity.
- It’s up to each individual to decide when to begin “working the steps,” and when to approach a sponsor.
- Recovery from addiction is not a linear process, and increasingly, relapse is seen as an opportunity for learning.
- Recovery from addiction is not only possible, it is the rule, rather than the exception.
- This form of treatment can be done at a doctor’s office or via telehealth appointment.
- Treatment and information aimed at adolescents can help them learn techniques for managing both positive and negative emotional states.
It is now well known that the repetition of rewarding behaviors produces changes in brain function and structure that facilitate habits and, for some, sustained compulsivity and addiction. Like other complex illnesses and disorders, addiction is multifactorial, resulting from a combination of genetic, social, psychological, and environmental forces. Follow-up care or continuing care is also recommended, which includes ongoing community- or family-based recovery support systems. Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) – Specific conditions like opioid use disorder may require medication as the first course of treatment.
Innovative projects answer NIDA’s challenge to implement substance use prevention in primary care
Research shows that whether people make use of formal clinical services, mutual-help organizations like SMART Recovery and AA, or find their own unique path, they engage a common set of tools. The principle of equifinality states that there can be many different pathways to a common developmental endpoint. While our cultural psyche tends to default to a clinical recovery pathway involving some kind of mix of rehab and/or AA—which can be lifesaving—in fact, many recover without using any external services. Others make use of medications, and still others recover with religious or spiritual guidance. If someone you love is experiencing a substance use disorder, please bear in mind that they have a chronic illness and need support and help. Learning about addiction and how not to enable a person is one way you can help them.
This can have severe consequences, including increased tolerance to the substance, withdrawal effects (different for each drug), and social problems. Overcoming an SUD is not as simple as resisting the temptation to take drugs. Like many other chronic conditions, treatment is available for substance use disorders. While no single treatment method is right for everyone, recovery is possible, and help is available for patients with SUDs.
Still, some people in the addiction-treatment field reserve recovery to mean only the process of achieving remission and believe it is a lifelong enterprise of avoiding relapse. Recovery suggests a state in which the addiction is overcome; clinical experience and research studies provide ample evidence. Although addiction tends to cut people off from longtime friends, social support is a significant predictor of recovery. They may know something about the person’s deepest aspirations and voice them as a reminder that can help the person remain on the road to recovery. And they can help plan healthy joint activities to ensure that there are good days. Recovery from addiction is not a linear process, and increasingly, relapse is seen as an opportunity for learning.
Yet one more acronym captures the skills people actually deploy to successfully navigate the tricky terrain of early recovery. It’s DEADS, for delay, escape, avoid, distract, and substitute. When, for example, cravings hit, a helpful strategy is to self-negotiate a delay of use.
It’s hard to leave addiction behind without constructing a desirable future. Many people believe that they are powerless to change their own addictive behavior, and often it is a belief that keeps people addicted. The evidence shows that every day, people choose to recover from addiction on their own. One way or another, they learn and deploy a set of skills that help them get through the strong cravings and urges of the difficult early stages of recovery. Some of the most helpful strategies for dealing with cravings are summarized in the acronym DEADS.
Bear in mind that setting boundaries such as “I can no longer give you money if you continue to use drugs,” is not the same as threatening a person with punishment. Withdrawing from drugs should be done under the guidance of a medical professional to ensure safety. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, these groups that were often out of reach to many are now available online around the clock through video meetings. Such groups are not considered part of a formal treatment plan, but they are considered as useful in conjunction with professional treatment. Lofexidine was the first medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat opioid withdrawals. Compared to a placebo (a pill with no therapeutic value), it significantly reduces symptoms of withdrawal and may cause less of a drop in blood pressure than similar agents.
Counseling may also involve family members to develop a deeper understanding of substance use disorder and improve overall family functioning. Over 20 million people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder in 2018. The self-help support group message is that addiction is an ongoing disorder with a danger of relapse. Self-help support groups can decrease the sense of shame and isolation that can lead to relapse. In an opioid overdose, a medicine called naloxone can be given by emergency responders, or in some states, by anyone who witnesses an overdose.
People can learn to resist or outsmart the cravings until they become manageable. There are strategies of distraction and action people can learn to keep them from interrupting recovery. Another is to carefully plan days so that they are filled with healthy, absorbing activities that give little time for rumination to run wild. Exercise, listening to music, getting sufficient rest—all can have a role in taking the focus off cravings. No matter which pathway of recovery a person chooses, a common process of change underlies them all. The well-researched science of behavior change establishes that addictive behavior change, like any behavior change, is a process that starts long before there’s any visible shift in activity.
Coping and support
An SUD is a treatable, chronic disease, characterized by a problematic pattern of use of a substance leading to noticeable impairment or distress. SUDs can lead to significant problems in all aspects of a person’s life. Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world. • Empowerment—finding the wherewithal to cope with recovery and the challenges of life, which breeds a sense of self-efficacy. Saying a mantra, substituting thoughts of recovery goals, praying, reading something recovery-related, reaching out to someone supportive—all are useful tactics.
There are no lab tests that define recovery and no universally agreed-on definition of recovery. For many experts, the key components of addictive disorder are compulsive drug use that continues despite detrimental consequences, and the development of cravings with the inability to control use. Addiction develops over time, in response to repeated substance use, as the action of drugs changes the way the brain responds to rewards and disables the ability to control desire for the drug. Although there’s no cure for drug addiction, treatment options can help you overcome an addiction and stay drug-free. Your treatment depends on the drug used and any related medical or mental health disorders you may have. SUD is a treatable, chronic disease that can affect people of any race, gender, income level, or social class.