Three Common Reasons Why Drug Addiction Occurs And How To Treat These Causes

Drug addiction help can begin the minute you recognize you have a problem. However, you should be aware that there is almost always an underlying cause. People do not simply wake up one morning and become addicted to prescription pain pills or heroin. There is something else deep within their bodies or their minds that has triggered a need for relief, and the drugs they take seem to help resolve that for a time. Before you get started on your road to recovery and sobriety, consider the following common reasons/causes for drug addiction and whether or not any of them apply to you.

Abuse

Physical, sexual, psychological and emotional abuse are often catalysts for drug addiction. The abused seeks to calm and quiet the pain and anger from within, resorting to use whatever drug does that for them. Additionally, it has been shown that abuse alters the chemicals in the brain, which opens up a chain reaction that quickly receives the drug of choice, thereby making the person who suffered the abuse happier and more content than he or she has ever physically felt. In turn, that causes this person to use the drug even more to maintain that sense of happy, floating, pain-free balance. Counseling and cognitive behavioral therapy can help immensely.

Grief and Loss

Loss of someone very dear and near to your heart can also be a trigger for drug use. While you may refuse the anti-depressants offered by your doctor, you may find comfort in some street drug or prescription opioid that you take for another reason. The grief causes you take more than the recommended dose or indulge in a higher dose of the street drug just to cope with the pain and grief of your loss. Suddenly, you have a drug addiction when you realize that you are no longer grieving but you are still taking copious amounts of the drug anyway. Grief counseling from the moment you lose someone can make sure you do not slip into this dark place, while continued grief counseling can help bring you out of it.

Mental Health Problems Unrelated to Abuse or Grief

Some people have mental health problems unrelated to abuse or personal loss and grief. You may have seen people with schizo-affective disorder on the street, or someone you know who has bipolar disorder. All of these people suffer an organic problem with an imbalance of neurotransmitters and chemicals in the brain. When people with mental health problems take and abuse drugs, it is because they are attempting to self-medicate, stabilize their moods, or quiet "the voices" in their heads. Certainly, if you recognize that you have a problem of this sort, getting counseling will help get the proper diagnosis and legal medication you need to feel more "normal."

For more information, contact companies like Olalla Recovery Centers.