UNDERSTANDING ADDICTION, RECOVERY, & WELLNESS: RELIEF (Part 6)
The downward descent of the addict can be slow (taking many years) or fast, depending on the individual and the environment around that person. What is certain is that there will be a deterioration in mental and physical health if the addicted person continues to use the addictive substance all leading to the ‘relief’ phase.
Pleasure
The addiction process involves changing motives as the disease progresses. We have gone over the first motive being the euphoric pleasure that certain mood-altering chemicals and some behaviors bring to just about all people. The difference for the addicted is that they start arranging their life around accommodating the addiction. The people and things that do not enhance the addiction are often rejected. Thus the addicted individual believes that the addicted behavior is normal because the individual is surrounded by people, places, and things that enhance the addiction. Furthermore, it does not end at this point but moves to another motivation which is relief.
Relief
The addictive person at some point starts using the chemical or behavior to cope with all manner of problems. For example, the person has a headache from stress in their life. They use the drug to cope. Problems with relationships, teachers, bosses all are handled by taking the addicting chemical. The result is that that the addicted individual does get temporary relief. However, the problem is not solved. This often causes more problems and more use to get temporary relief. The addicted person is now using primarily to get this relief from problems and pains of daily life.
Troubled Life
The addicted person although using primarily for relief still occasionally will use for euphoric pleasure like at a weekend party. Consequently, to the general public, this individual appears to be normal and in good health. This individual may be starting to have concerns about the problems in their life which are mounting because they are using their addiction to cope with real problems in life that are never really helped or solved. The result is that often the addicted person does not know any other way of solving certain kinds of problems because they use the addiction to get relief from, especially relationship, issues for many years.
Often the addicted can do well at work because there are checks on the results and the addicted want very much to do well at work. They know they need money from work to keep the addiction funded. Often the last thing to go for the addicted is employment. At this stage in the disease, the most havoc is with family and close relationships. The next post will be on the ‘Maintenance’ stage of the disease where the motive changes again to be able to function normally with daily activities. As a result, this is a stage that is often critical in recovery. For more information on the stages of chemical dependency check out the book “The Essential of Chemical Dependency” by Drs. Robert and Mary McAuliffe.
QUESTIONS
Do you have a specific question related to addiction and recovery? Please send your comments and questions to eaglekenj@gmail.com and I will cover it in a future blog post. Also, stay tuned for details regarding my online program, “Addiction, Recovery, Wellness.”
Kenneth J. Orlich, LMSW, LMFT, CAADC, ACSW is a clinical social worker, family and marriage therapist, and addiction specialist with over 35 years of experience working as a clinician with the addicted.
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