Drug Addiction: Facts on Drug Addiction, Abuse

Drug Addiction Explained

Drug addiction has been misunderstood by many. Does this mean that drug addiction is something that should be ignored?

Studies have shown that the more drug education is the best prevention.

The Atlanta Recovery Center not only works with recovering drug addicts, helping them kick their drug addictions, but also works in educating people who may not be drug addicts.

“Everyone needs basic information on things in life that may be dangerous,” comments Mary Rieser, Executive Director of The Atlanta Recovery Center. “If you don’t know anything about something that can be a danger to you or someone you love, it is very likely that if you encounter this, you may not know how to deal with it and make a bad situation worse.”

“A prime example is drugs or drug addiction. People don’t understand how drugs work, why some people become addicted, why they can’t just stop. This can be not only frustrating to the drug addict, but anyone around who doesn’t understand.

“Knowledge is the key to resolving any detrimental situation in life, and in this case lack of knowledge can cause death, misery and unhappiness. This is why we explain how a person can take drugs and become addicted. Once this is known, they can get help.”

How does a person become addicted to drugs or alcohol? It starts with some aspect of their life that they cannot face: emotional pain, a loss, physical pain. The person tries to escape some physical or emotional pain by taking drugs.

This offers temporary relief, and the person may forget their pain, but when the drugs wear off, the person finds his situation has worsened. They continue to use them to get more relief.

The cells in the body become accustomed to large amounts of drug metabolites (a broken down form of the drug). The person soon finds they have to take larger and larger quantities of the drug to feel the same effect.

The person may find themselves in a place they don’t like, and try to quit. However, when one tries to quit, cells in the body that have become accustomed to such large amounts of metabolites are now forced to deal with much decreased amounts.

The body perceives that it needs the drug to function and demands the drug through physical cravings.

With continued use of the drug, the body's inability to completely eliminate all traces of the drug metabolites diminishes. The metabolites that remain are stored in the fatty tissues and these, released, cause cravings.

Cravings become so severe that the addict will do almost anything (in many cases abandoning all previous moral teachings) to get more of the drug.

The addict commits misdeeds against family, friends and self to satisfy these unrelenting cravings.

Because of these misdeeds, the addicts cannot face themselves and dive deeper into drugs.

They are now entrapped in full blown addiction, with two aspects of the condition, the biophysical condition and the biochemical personality.  The Atlanta Recovery Center Drug Rehab Program addresses both conditions.