Recovery

Recovery

Recovery is not easy. Drug abuse impairs judgment and awareness. With the support and knowledge gained through counselors and leading edge alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs, an addicts power and ability to overcome their addiction increases. They begin to understand that they are ultimately capable of gaining control over their life and prevent a return to addicted behavior. But that almost always involves considerable despair, frustration and anguish along the way, not only from the symptoms of physical withdrawal but through the need for the individual to re-define themselves and their goals to prevent a relapse when they are back in the environment that the addiction developed.

Who is an addict

Most of us do not have to think twice about this question. WE KNOW! Our whole life and thinking was centered in drugs in one form or another, the getting and using and finding ways and means to get more. We lived to use and used to live. Very simply, an addict is a man or woman whose life is controlled by drugs. We are people in the grip of a continuing and progressive illness whose ends are always the same: jails, institutions and death.

Understanding Drug Addiction

Many people do not understand why individuals become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to foster compulsive drug abuse. They mistakenly view drug abuse and addiction as strictly a social problem and may characterize those who take drugs as morally weak. One very common belief is that drug abusers should be able to just stop taking drugs if they are only willing to change their behavior. What people often underestimate is the complexity of drug addiction—that it is a disease that impacts the brain and because of that, stopping drug abuse is not simply a matter of willpower. Through scientific advances we now know much more about how exactly drugs work in the brain, and we also know that drug addiction can be successfully treated to help people stop abusing drugs and resume their productive lives.

What is drug abuse and drug addiction

Drug abuse refers to the use of a drug for purposes for which it was not attended, or using a drug in excessive quantities. Drug addiction is a state of physical or psychological dependence on a drug. Physical addiction is characterized by the presence of tolerance (needing more and more of the drug to achieve the same effect) and withdrawal symptoms that disappear when further medication is taken. All sorts of different drugs can be abused, including illegal drugs (such as heroin or cannabis), prescription medicines (such as tranquilizers or painkillers), and other medicines that can be bought off the supermarket shelf.