So I posted in my first post a little bit about addiction being a disease and that I would go more in depth on another post..... This is that post!
"Why cant you just stop Mal"
I got asked this question a lot. Mostly by myself... lol. I would beat myself up everyday asking myself this question. Why cant I just stop. It wasn't until I started treatment that I discovered the answer to this very frustrating question. My hopes while you read this post is to get you to understand an addicts mind. It differs, greatly, from your mind. Our priorities and survival methoods become warped. Our mind is "rewired" to think that the only way to survive is to keep doing drugs.
The area of the brain that encourages a human to perform or repeat and action that promotes survival is called the survival/reinforcement circuit. Its normal function is to reinforce an action that promotes survival (eating, drinking) Unfortunately is also the part of the brain that is most effected by psychoactive drugs. When a psychoactive drug activates this pathway, the result is a feeling of satisfaction, a high, or a physical/emotional pain relief witch prompts the urge to do it again.
Now that we have stared using the drug, we have an altered brain chemistry. It makes our "stop" switch dysfunctional. Think of the SRC as a "go" switch. And the control circuit as our "stop" switch. So when this "stop" switch becomes dysfunctional and does not shut off the craving, the person continues to use because there are no instructions to stop. The SRC ("go" switch) and the control circuit ("stop" switch) have been hijacked, so the individual continues to use because its tricked into sensing that survival depends on it.
The "do it again" message becomes impossible to ignore, resulting in the drug seeking/using behavior regardless of the amount of pleasure the user experiences or the destruction the use ultimately causes.
Remember my cold glass of water story in my first post. Knowing what the water would do to you, of coarse you wouldn't drink it. That's because your brain recognizes the danger and figures out an alternative way to survive, and that's when your "stop" switch kicks in. For an addict, our "stop" switch is totally disabled, all our brain says to us "do it again" "cant survive with out it" so we still take that glass of water.
Why couldn't I just stop? Because my brain literally didn't have a stop circuit.
Our brains are wired to ensure that we will repeat life-sustaining activities by associating those activities with pleasure or reward. Whenever this reward circuit is activated the brain notes that something important is happening that needs to be remembered, and teaches us to do it again and again without thinking about it. Because drugs stimulate the same circuit, we learn to abuse drugs in the same way. And they are so much more addictive then natural rewards (like sex, eating, exercising) because they release 2 to 10 times the amount of dopamine that natural rewards. The effects of such a powerful reward strongly motivates people to take drugs again and again.
When you take away the drugs, addicts dopamine levels become abnormally low, and their ability to experience any pleasure is reduced. This is why an addict feels flat, lifeless, and depressed when they are not using. So they keep taking the drugs again and again just to try and bring their dopamine levels back to normal. Which only makes things worse, its just this vicious cycle addicts go through everyday.
I hope that can help you understand why addicts feel like they have no other choice but to use. From personal experience, I just wanted to feel normal. I honestly wanted to quit, but at the time, I couldn't see a future where I could be happy again unless I was using. So I kept using. It wasn't until December 2016 that I finally made an effort to get sober. It was extremely hard at first, honestly, the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I have had to retrain my brain. Will it ever go back to normal? No. It wont. Because of my use, I have now given myself a disease. Can I live a functioning life? Yes. Just like any other disease, it can be treated.
So I hope this helps anyone who doesn't understand addiction, and why it is considered a disease. The next time you think in your head "why cant they just stop", remember that they are only trying to survive. They don't know any other way.
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