To recap, addiction involves a three-stage cycle—binge/intoxication, withdrawal/negative affect, and preoccupation/anticipation—that worsens over time and involves dramatic changes in the brain reward, stress, and executive function systems.
The five stages of addiction recovery are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.
Commonly, each addiction follows the same cycle. “The brain goes through a series of changes, beginning with the recognition of pleasure and ending with a drive toward compulsive behaviour,” said in Understanding Addiction, a Havard Health article.
To separate addiction from other neurological disorders, experts say that four factors must be present. These four factors, compulsion, craving, consequences and control, are unique to addiction alone and are classified as the 4 C's. The behaviors of most addicts are very similar.
These include increasing Awareness, restricting the Availability of drugs, and increasing Affordability and Accessibility to treatment programmes.
Purpose, Practice, Perseverance, Pray, and Praise—these Five P's, along with other tools you may develop and discover throughout your own journey, can provide a powerful framework for recovery.
Black addresses three major rules that exist within families when someone has a chemical dependency; don't talk, don't trust, and don't feel.
The initial decision to take drugs is typically voluntary. But with continued use, a person's ability to exert self-control can become seriously impaired. This impairment in self-control is the hallmark of addiction.
Detoxification is normally the first step in treatment. This involves clearing a substance from the body and limiting withdrawal reactions. In 80 percent of cases, a treatment clinic will use medications to reduce withdrawal symptoms, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Playing a role in the addiction process, compulsion is much narrower. It describes the intense urge to do something that can lead to a certain behavior. As an individual's addiction develops, they will develop a feeling of compulsion to take the addictive substance or carry out the addictive behavior.
The TTM posits that individuals move through six stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination.
Griffiths (2005) has operationally defined addictive behavior as any behavior that features what he believes are the six core components of addiction (i.e., salience, mood modification, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, conflict, and relapse).
“there is a five-second window between our initial instinct to act and your brain stopping you.” “Right before we're about to do something that feels difficult, scary or uncertain, we hesitate.” “That one small hesitation triggers a mental system that's designed to stop you.”
In families that deal with substance use disorders, there are also unwritten rules that members abide by in order to prevent disruption within the system. These rules are: Don't talk, don't trust, and don't feel. People within the system follow these rules to maintain the status quo.
The way the three-second rule works is this: after recognizing an unwanted, objectifying thought or sexual fantasy, sex addicts give themselves a maximum of three seconds to turn away from the triggering thought and focus on something else.
The DSM-5 specifically lists nine types of substance addictions within this category (alcohol; caffeine; cannabis; hallucinogens; inhalants; opioids; sedatives, hypnotics, and anxiolytics; stimulants; and tobacco).
3 “P's” for Recovery: Passion, Power and Purpose.
However, in terms of substance addictions, some of the more common types of addiction include: Alcohol addiction. Prescription drug addiction. Drug addiction.
Things. Objects surrounding your daily life can lead to drug and alcohol cravings. For example, if you were using spoons to consume heroin, the piece of cutlery can trigger those memories. Empty pill bottles, movies, magazines, and some paraphernalia are common triggers of substance use.
The ABCDE acronym defines the steps of the approach: Activating Event: Identifying the event activating the harmful belief. Beliefs: Recognising the feelings triggered by the activating event. Consequences: Realising the emotional and behavioural consequences of the beliefs.