What are the 4 stages of drug addiction?
It may seem as if drug addiction happens in an instant. A person snorts or shoots up heroin, or uses another addictive substance, for the first time.
Or, they take their first hit of crack cocaine. One moment, they are regular people experimenting with substance use, and then they are addicts, even after initial use.
Does drug addiction or alcohol addiction really happen so quickly? Is addiction turned on in the brain like a light bulb after risky use of an addictive substance?
In recovery meetings, there is a saying that once a cucumber becomes a pickle, it can never go back to being a cucumber. Yet, the pickling of a cucumber takes time, and it happens in stages.
It may, after all, be possible to grab a cucumber out of the pickling juice fast enough to save it. Addiction, and addictive behavior, may be prevented if the pattern of drug use and drug abuse is stopped early enough.
Experimentation: The first stage of addiction.
Why do people experiment with drugs or alcohol in the first place? We know that drugs are bad for us from the very beginning.
From childhood, we hear the stories of cocaine users having a sudden deadly heart attack, or at least having their nasal septum destroyed by the toxic powder. Heroin users are covered in scars and track marks. Prematurely aged, they live under city bridges, sharing food from a dumpster with rats.
Our preconceived notion of drug use from childhood protects us to a certain degree. And then, the peer pressure begins.
A friend, family member, or classmate comes along to say that drugs are not all that bad after all. They promote the magical insight of psychedelics, the relaxed, cool baked feeling of cannabis, the freedom from inhibition that comes with a few beers or glasses of wine.
At some point, when a new drug user has accepted that it is fine to get drunk, or high, someone brings out the hard drugs. A little meth, or a snort of cocaine or heroin doesn’t seem to be as big of a leap to someone who is drunk or high on marijuana.
Drugs are bad and they are dangerous. Yet, to exaggerate the dangers of drugs in propaganda pieces on television and in schools may have the unintended effect of alienating children when they discover that drugs are not as bad as they thought, at least at first.
Who moves on from experimentation to the next stage of regular use?
Most people will not progress beyond the experimentation phase. We may think that everyone who tries hard drugs gets addicted, but this is simply not true.
Many people who engage in substance use will decide that ongoing substance abuse is not for them. They find the drug to be ineffective, unpleasant, or uninteresting.
It is quite common for a person to try marijuana, cocaine, meth, or heroin, and then walk away from it after the first try, or several tries. The drug did not provide any great benefit to them, so why take further risks with it?
Even people who drink excessively and get drunk regularly, often put down alcohol at some point. They simply decide that getting drunk and hungover the next day is just not for them.
Yet, there is a significant percentage of the population who will enjoy the experimentation with drugs, or find significant benefit from the effects of drug or alcohol use. Drugs can take away emotional pain and the pain of boredom.
Alcohol can take away the painful inhibition that makes it difficult for some people to socialize. People who suffer from a variety of mental health challenges discover that they can temporarily improve behavioral health by self-treating with drugs or alcohol.
Dependency is the third stage along the page to developing a drug or alcohol addiction.
By the third stage, dependence, the transformation through the addiction cycle is nearly complete. The addicted person starts to think more and more about their drug of choice.
They begin to experience cravings and obsessions. With opioids, they may also develop physical dependence.
Heroin addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to overcome, because it involves both psychological dependence and physical dependence. When a heroin addict goes for heroin addiction treatment, they experience both physical withdrawal and opioid cravings.
Cocaine addiction is said to only cause psychological dependence, but not physical dependence. Still, when someone quits cocaine, it may feel like a physical withdrawal syndrome.
Alcohol is similar to heroin in that alcohol abuse leads to physical dependence in addition to an addiction. In alcohol rehab, recovering alcoholics face a significant physical withdrawal syndrome.
The final stage is full-blown addiction.
When a person arrives at the fourth stage of addiction, they may be diagnosed as having a substance use disorder. In the first two stages, it is more likely that a person may quit drugs without help.
By the 3rd and 4th stages, most people will need help to overcome their addiction. Help may be in the form of an addiction treatment center or a medication assisted treatment program.
Withdrawal symptoms from trying to quit can be intense and unpleasant. Relapse, or returning to drug use, occurs frequently.
When a person with a drug addiction attends rehab, they will engage in individual therapy and group therapy. Some centers also provide family therapy and dual diagnosis treatment for mental illness.
When a person has become addicted to a drug, it is not easy to convince them to attend an addiction treatment program. There are stages of developing an addiction, and there are stages of recovery.
In the initial stage of precontemplation, the addict is not ready to accept help. They may be aware that they have a problem with drug use, but they justify to themselves that they can handle it on their own.
By the second stage of addiction recovery, the contemplation stage, the addicted person begins to contemplate the possibility that they need help. They start to consider that drug addiction treatment might be a good idea.
Active addiction is like playing with a gorilla.
When we play games with adult friends or children, we get to decide when we are done playing. When it gets late, or we get tired, we can simply say that we are done with the game, and we are ready to go home.
Have you ever played games with a gorilla? Probably not, because gorillas are much stronger than us, and they can be extremely dangerous.
When playing with a gorilla, the gorilla gets to decide when the game is over. Even if you are tired, sick, or realize that getting involved with a gorilla was not a good idea in the first place, you cannot stop, because the gorilla will hurt you.
Once you get started, playing with a gorilla, only the gorilla can decide when the game is over, and you get to go home. Active addiction is similar in that when you are addicted, you no longer get to choose when you want to stop.
The addiction is like the gorilla, a dangerous and powerful companion that is prepared to do serious harm to you. It may seem as if there is no way out.
Yet, in both situations, there is a clear way to get out of a dangerous place and get to safety. The key is to ask for help.
Addiction to drugs or alcohol can be treated with effective medical treatment. Addiction is a serious mental health condition.
While it may seem as if you can simply stop drug use on your own, it is not always easy, or even possible. However, by asking for help, it is possible to gain access to therapy, group support, and medication assisted treatment.
Addiction may seem impossible to handle alone. Yet, with help, it is possible to overcome nearly any addiction.
