How to get out of the addiction cycle

Going into rehab is not a guarantee that you have broken through the addiction cycle. An estimated 40-60% of those people that book into rehabilitation centers will relapse, and that means that the cycle of addiction starts all over again. Triggers can be encountered at any time, and no matter where you are in the recovery process, tackling those triggers is difficult.

Finding coping strategies and understanding how the addiction cycle works is fundamental to reducing the risk of relapse. Both impulse and compulsion are reasons for relapse, and the addiction cycle usually follows a pattern of:

• Experimentation
• Regular Use
• Abuse
• Addiction

Addiction causes a chemical change to your brain, and those changes reinforce the physical and psychological reasons for ongoing addiction issues. Understanding the addiction cycle is the key to breaking free from it.

Defining addiction

There are several ways to define exactly what addiction is, but the American Society of Addiction Medicine defines it as “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory, and related circuitry.” This defining of addiction as a neurological disorder is why treatment has moved forward so well over the last two decades. Addiction does not occur in a bubble, and it is not a swift process. It develops slowly and over time, and that can make it very difficult to recognize and tackle.

Breaking the cycle

If you recognize the signs of addiction, then there is help available. There are rehab centers in every state, and they will be able to help you transition through the cycle and adopt coping strategies for the triggers that can lead to relapse. Your health insurance can help with paying for the cost of rehabilitation, and you can learn more here. Through the combined processes of group and solo therapy, medical detox, and personalized treatment plans, your ability to recover from addiction is manageable, but it will require a lot of work.

The Addiction Cycle

Stage One: Experimentation

The first stage of the addiction cycle is the first use. There’s a misconception that the first use of a new drug is always down to a lapse of judgment, but this is not the case. Many people forget that addiction is not simply a factor for illicit and illegal drugs. Painkillers, your first drink when you turn 21, or that first cigarette, all work in the same way when it comes to starting the cycle of addiction. No matter the reasons for your first use of a drug, this is where the cycle of addiction begins for everybody. The risk factors will depend on the following:

• Home environment
• Abuse/neglect
• Loneliness or depression
• Peer pressure
• A history of mental health problems
• A family history of addiction

It’s important to note that these risk factors are red flags but not guarantees of future addiction. If those risk factors are prevalent, then it’s worth talking to a medical professional who will be able to advise your use.

Stage Two: Regular Use

When your drug use becomes a habit, it can quickly turn into an addiction. For harder illicit drugs like heroin or cocaine, this very clearly means that addiction will be swift, but for prescription medications, this can be harder to spot. When a doctor is giving you medicine, it can be hard to contemplate that their use can lead to addiction. If you have found that you are using drugs of any kind more frequently than is considered appropriate, it’s worth recognizing that you may be the on the dangerous cusp of addiction.

Stage Three: Abusing the drug

There are some very real problems with the third stage of the addiction cycle. The first issue is going to be tolerance. This is when your body gets used to a certain amount of a drug and you find that you require more and more if it to feel the same sensations. This naturally leads to stronger and stronger doses, speeding up the process of addiction. Abuse of any drug, from alcohol to opiates, will usually mean that the user is no longer using their drug of choice in a socially acceptable way. Any harmful drug use is a sign of addiction. Examples would be the casual drinker who extends their drinking time until it takes up the majority of the day, or the patient on painkillers who ups their dose without discussing self-medicating with their doctor.

For stronger drugs like methamphetamine or heroin, addiction can start immediately, and there is no stepping stone from first use to regular use.

Stage Four: Addiction

This is the stage of the addiction cycle that is the most dangerous. It is when sufferers will be unable to function without their drug of choice. This dependency is different from the dependence that people in hospital have on the drugs that they need to stay alive. Drug dependency in the addiction cycle is a chronic mental health disorder. Psychiatrists from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich have analyzed which groups of patients on psychotropic drugs are more likely to increase. To do so, they evaluated data from 900 patients in Valium therapy: there are risks of overweight-related complications, including diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. More about this from NamiKeystonePa. Chemical imbalances that are due to the regular overuse of a drug are the main cause for relapse. The challenge is to recognize that you have an addiction issue. There are some key identifiers that should be used as a checklist to assess your addiction:

• Overusing a substance
• Craving your drug of choice
• Being unable to stop using the drug
• Your relationships are being harmed by your use
• Inability to meet your responsibilities
• Exchanging previously enjoyable activities for drug use
• Spending long periods of time finding new sources for the drug
• Negative effects on your health
• Feelings and symptoms of withdrawal when you stop using
• Using the drug in unacceptable spaces like work environments

Relapse is a constant concern for anyone who has been able to break the cycle of addiction. It is very often a gradual process that follows a pattern of self-justification and falling into the same patterns that lead to the initial stages of the cycle. The more that you are aware of the dangers of addiction and the way that the addiction cycle works, the more you will be able to tackle the perils of relapse, and break free from the cycle of addiction forever.