When you realise you or a close family member is suffering from a drug or alcohol addiction, this situation is surely frightening. This is because you are probably unsure where to turn to ensure the situation improves for the better.
Addiction is unpleasant to the person who has it, but also for close family members, friends and even colleagues of the person suffering from substance use disorder. Fortunately, if you seek these services in Banbury or across Oxfordshire, Rehab 4 Addiction is here to help.
Addiction is not something that develops overnight for an individual. Generally, there exists a series of steps that individuals go through from experimentation and occasional use through to the actual loss control of substance use.
This is when drug and alcohol use becomes compulsive and people become preoccupied with it. Addiction is generally defined as ‘wanting the wrong thing, and wanting it very, very badly.’
Essentially, drug and alcohol addiction is a disease of the brain that translates into abnormal behaviour. When a person who has this disease is exposed to cues and stimuli that remind him or her of the use of drug or alcohol use, there is an uncontrollable reflex that occurs very quickly in the brain.
This reflex is even viewable in a brain imaging scan. This urge to use drugs or alcohol brought on by cues and stimuli is often experienced at a subconscious level, meaning the person experiencing substance use disorder is unable to control his or her addiction.
Even when people have been free from drugs and alcohol for many years, the tendency to relapse may still be very strong. The tendency to relapse is part and parcel of the disease of addiction.
Relapse is not a failure of previous treatment, but it’s part of the disorder of addiction. If you have received treatment in the past, but you’ve subsequently relapsed, it’s important not to view this as a failure.
If you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, you may wonder: “why can’t I just stop? I’ve paid so much for my addiction!” If you are the parent of somebody suffering from substance use disorder, you may equally wonder: “Why can’t they just stop, they’ve wrecked their own lives and our lives through this addiction!”
However, it’s important to understand that addiction is difficult to treat and success requires a long term plan. Since addiction is a brain disease, it’s not enough to simply wish an addiction away.
When those experiencing substance use disorder sees these external and internal cues that encourage his or her addiction, it’s vital the person is able to consciously recognise these cues for what they are and then develop strategies to overcome these cues so uncontrollable cravings do not result in relapse.
Addiction is essentially a trick that’s played on your brain. This is because addiction hijacks your brain’s neurological pathways that allow you to experience pleasure.
These pathways are essential for keeping you alive and ensuring your genes are passed onto the next generation. This is because these pathways involving dopamine and opioids allowing you to experience pleasure when we seek natural rewards such as when you eat food, socialise, drink water or have sex.
However, addiction hijacks this circuitry so you now subconsciously believe that drug or alcohol use is vital for your very survival.
Addiction also weakens your brain’s ‘stop system’. This is because the frontal lobes that control your ability to make sound and healthy decisions are weakened by drug and alcohol use. Thus, your brain ‘go system’ (known as the limbic system) that seeks pleasure is stimulated for substance misuse whilst the brain’s ‘stop system’ is weakened.
This means those experiencing substance use disorder are unable to fully judge the consequences of their decision to consume these substances. In short, addiction has taken grip of their life,
People addicted to drug and alcohol see, smell and feel cues that consistently remind them of their addiction. This means it’s extremely difficult to ‘kick their habit.’ Thankfully, Rehab 4 Addiction offers a solution to your problem.
In Banbury, we offer a comprehensive and residential drug and alcohol rehabilitation programme. During this time, you will be removed from your environment. This means you will be removed from cues and triggers that cause urges to continue drug or alcohol use.
You will also be armed with a number of coping and avoidance strategies that will help you overcome these triggers when you return to your normal living environment following the conclusion of your rehabilitation programme in Banbury.
To access Rehab 4 Addiction’s revolutionary drug and alcohol treatment in Banbury, contact our admissions team today without delay on 0800 140 4690.
Alternatively, contact us through this website. We offer a range of detox and rehab options in Banbury to suit most addictions and mental health issues.
Rehab 4 Addiction officers a range of addiction treatments in Oxfordshire, including Banbury, Oxford and Henley.
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