For many people in Pasadena trying to overcome drug addiction, recovery is an uphill battle as they attempt to avoid temptation and relapse. You can’t just decide one day to quit taking drugs and expect that by next week you’ll be clean. The problem with taking illegal substances over a long period of time is that they tend to cause 3 specific issues:
a.) Chemical Imbalance
Similar to what can be seen in the case of long term nicotine consumption through smoking, long term drug addiction can actually cause a chemical imbalance in the brain. This is due to the chemicals in the drugs taking up space in the brain’s receptors which, over time, causes the body to believe that the drugs are a normal chemical substance that “should” be there. This is one of the reasons why people have such a hard time when it comes to stopping themselves from smoking, drinking or taking drugs since the body has grown used to the drugs being in the system resulting in a biological “need”. Attempting to go cold turkey and wait out the addiction results in the body practically demanding for the drugs to be placed back into it which manifests in the “shakes” that patients experience when they undergo withdrawal procedures.
b.) Psychological Dependence
Aside from a chemical imbalance that leads to physical dependence, illegal substances like cocaine also create a psychological dependence in the person that uses them. One of the reasons why people take cocaine in the first place is because it activates the same receptors that people attribute to “feeling-good”. In other words, it is an artificial and external source of endorphins that helps a person feel better. Since people enjoy “feeling good” this results in a gradual psychological dependence on drugs in order to get the same feeling they desire. Unfortunately, due to the nature of artificial substances and the body’s capacity to adapt, drug addicts require greater quantities of drugs in order to obtain the same feeling.
c.) Habitual Desire
The last issue is closely connected to psychological dependence; however, habitual desire is more of a result of learned behavior rather than the desire to feel good. In this case, an addict has internalized the behavior of taking in drugs as a normal process. For them, drugs are no longer something that is foreign but something as familiar as drinking water or even eating. The problem with habitual desire is that it reinforces the psychological dependence a person has which makes it that much harder to overcome.
In order to truly recover from taking substance addiction, a person would need to overcome the three issues that were just mentioned which can be a grueling endeavor at best and hellish at worst.
ASAP Rehab helps its patients overcome the three factors that were mentioned through its team of specialists. If you want to know what sort of services you can avail of, please visit our website for more details.
