Stages Of Drug Addiction: Experimentation To Recovery
Are you addicted to drugs? Not sure where you are in the cycle of addiction? Some articles about drug dependence and addiction use language that medical professionals would find easy to understand but that mightn’t get the message through to you, the drug user.
I’ve always believed that if you want a message to be understood and acted upon, you must speak the language that person understands. I’m going to do my very best not to use terms like “substance use disorder”. Instead, I’m going to break the stages of addiction down to make them easier to understand and hopefully help you identify where you are at.
We’ll discuss the first stage of addiction, what full-blown addiction is and isn’t, and what the final stage of addiction looks like. I’ll also explain the signs of addiction you need to look out for and if you, spot that you have developed a physical dependence and you want to do something about it, what treatment options are available to you. Withdrawal symptoms you can expect will also be listed along with some helpful tips for reducing their severity. So if you’re ready, let’s get stuck in.
The First Stage Of Addiction
Most people think the first stage of addiction is where you spot you have a problem. Most experts disagree with this, and so do I. The very first stage of a drug addiction problem is when you use drugs for the first time. I remember the first time (and only time) that I ever smoked a joint. I was at a college party with guys and girls I knew well. One of them had brought a joint.
There was a subtle, unspoken peer pressure. No one wanted to be the nerd who said no. My initial use of cannabis wasn’t an enjoyable experience for me. I felt a bit nauseous and didn’t like it. So, for me, it was a one-time occurrence.
For others at that party, the joint was like a godsend. It gave them an escape. Escape from the pressure of their studies. Escape from whatever crap was going on at home. Maybe it’s just an escape from their internal self-criticism. Whatever the individual reason, some people got really “high” or “stoned”. In other words, they produced much more of a pleasure hit inside their brain than I did.
Their minds’ lesson from that experience was “Hey, here’s a thing that works for me”. Whenever their mind experienced stress or negative feelings, now it was much more likely to prompt them to have a joint. Their minds had learned a solution to their problems.
To put it simply, they had the thought “This is ok”. I had the thought “This is not ok!” I have no idea what percentage of my response was down to genetics, or indeed what percentage of their reaction could be attributed to that. All I do know is that it does play a role.
Your early experiences in life also play a role. The tolerance of alcohol by your parents is another factor. How you feel about yourself is yet another. The complex interactions between all of these things predispose one person to get addicted and another to never touch it again. Which one are you?
Self-Hypnosis Audio For Cocaine Addiction
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to help you stay clean and visualize a new future without drugs that feels better and more enjoyable..
The Next Stage Of Addiction
The next stage of drug abuse addiction is regular use. Maybe you use your substance of choice because everyone you hang around with uses that particular drug too. Whatever your drug of choice is, at this stage, you use it regularly, maybe in social settings or at house parties, or maybe even, at home, by yourself.
You are now in the addiction cycle but at this stage of drug use, you may be oblivious to the risk of getting addicted. You’re using your drug of choice for recreational purposes and it’s having the desired effects. What could possibly go wrong?
So you’ve passed through the experimentation stage and that went well. You got a buzz, it felt good and you thought “This is great!”. Now you’re into a stage that could be described as the regular use of drugs.
You’re not aware there is any problem. You are quite content with the positive effects it gives you. When someone refers to “illegal drugs”, you probably wonder why they are talking about them like that. It’s all good fun, isn’t it?
The "Risky Use" Stage
This is where you might drive under the influence of drugs, or put your job or relationship at risk. I had one guy who came to see me recently and told me he was happily married However, in the lead-up to coming to see me, he had gotten into going to these coke parties.
He and his friends would regularly snort a couple of lines of coke. In one of the most recent of those parties, one of the guys brought along two female friends. Pretty soon, he realized that they were hookers. They had finished a hard day and wanted to party. Soon enough he found himself in bed with both of them. He was coked up and just went for it.
The day after, he felt so guilty. But there was another party the next weekend and something similar happened. His wife found out what was happening from one of the other guys who was at the party. He was disgusted by what he saw and told her what her husband had been doing.
To say that it caused serious relationship problems was an understatement. There was screaming and shouting and tears. There were threats that he would never see his kids again. This was the first time he realized he had a serious problem. Most addicts tend to get discovered at this stage. It’s their risky behavior that alerts other people that there’s a problem.
That was an extreme case but I’ve heard of cases where people were threatened with job loss or legal problems as a result of their high-risk use. Typically, you arrive at this stage without ever being aware that you are developing a problem. It does come as a shock to most addicts when they realize that their addiction is now so bad that they need professional help.
Self-Hypnosis Audio For Cannabis Or Weed Addiction
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to help you stay clean and visualize a new future without drugs that feels better and more enjoyable..
Full Blown Addiction
If you somehow avoid detection, now you keep on indulging in your addictive behavior regardless of the negative consequences. This works the same for drug addiction as it does for alcohol addiction or addiction to prescription medications.
Now, you have to have it. It doesn’t matter anymore if your wife threatens to leave – you’ve got to have your drug. It doesn’t matter if you lose your job – that craving trumps it all. You don’t care if you are risking depression or an even more serious mental illness. Now all that matters is your drug. You have got to have it, no matter what.
For many addicts, mental health issues are caused by their drug use and then they take even more of that drug to dull the emotional pain of that mental illness. It’s now become a self-fuelling cycle and you require higher and higher doses of your drug just to maintain your current state.
Now, you just cannot stop by yourself. You may be aware now that you have a problem but you feel helpless. Many people feel hopeless at this stage and find it hard to believe that support groups or a treatment center will work for them.
Addiction Treatment Programs
So, what can you do to get help? The answer to that is, it depends on the nature of your problem. Some people need to go to a residential rehab facility where they physically detox. This is mainly for people who have a severe level of physical addiction. They may also have a severe level of psychological dependence. Those higher-end programs are necessary for those who also have mental health disorders as a normal, domestic setting probably wouldn’t work for those people.
If your level of addiction is milder, maybe an outpatient treatment program would work for you, or maybe going to see an addiction counselor every week for a while will be more appropriate for you. There are also wonderful support groups such as Narcotics Anonymous that can help you. Probably the first place to begin is by opening up and getting some professional medical advice. This will involve sitting in front of a doctor and admitting you have a problem. Don’t worry, you won’t be judged – just helped!
Self-Hypnosis Audio For Cocaine Addiction
Self-hypnosis can be a great tool to help you stay clean and visualize a new future without drugs that feels better and more enjoyable..
Drug Addiction Hypnosis
A very helpful addition to the recovery process is downloading a self-hypnosis audio for drug addiction and listening every day. It contains relaxation suggestions as well as positive visualizations of you in situations where you previously used to choose to take drugs except now making a better, healthier choice and enjoying it so much more.
If your drug of choice is cocaine, I have recorded a powerful self-hypnosis audio called “Overcome Cocaine Addiction” which can help you. For those with cannabis or weed addictions, I recorded “Overcome Cannabis Addiction” which you can download right now by clicking on the link.
Please bear in mind that there are some mental health conditions for which listening to a self-hypnosis audio might not be recommended. If in any doubt, always check with your doctor first!
Author: Paul Hunter
Although thousands of people read his blog every month, Paul's path to success was not an easy one. Click here to read his amazing story "From Unwanted Baby And Adopted To A Respected Self Help Blogger". If you want to send Paul a quick message, then visit his contact page here
