Understanding An Addict

The first step to understanding an addict is to know what addiction is. Addiction is a dependence on a behavior on a substance that a person is powerless to stop. The addiction has been extended to include mood-altering behaviors or activities. Some researchers speak of two types of addictions: substance addictions (drugs and alcohol) and process addictions (gambling, sex, etc). 

In addition to noting a preoccupation with using and acquiring the abused substance, the diagnosis of addiction focuses on five criteria:

• loss of willpower
• harmful consequences
• unmanageable lifestyle
• increased tolerance or escalation of use
• withdrawal symptoms of quitting

Treatment for addictions involve three primary goals: 

1. The patient abstains from or reduces the use and effects of the substance/activity.
2. The patient reduces the frequency and severity of relapses.
3. The patient develops the psychological and emotional skills to restore and maintain personal, occupational, and social functioning.

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) and American Medical Association (AMA) have outlined some general characteristics of addictions:

• The substance activity or activity that triggers must initially cause feelings of pleasure and changes in emotion or mood.
• The body develops a physical tolerance to the substance or activity, so people with addictions so people must take larger and larger amounts of a substance to feel the same effects.
• The removal of the drug or activity causes painful withdrawal symptoms.
• More than physical tolerance, an addiction develops physical and psychological dependence separate from the need to avoid the pain of withdrawal.
• Addiction always causes psychological, chemical, and anatomical changes in the brain along with behavior changes.
• Addiction develops after an initial exposure to the addicting substance or activity. That initial exposure must occur for addiction to develop, but addiction does not always develop.
• The cycle of quitting the addictive behavior, going through withdrawal, and relapsing may become self-reinforcing. 

12 Step Programs are very affective for treating addictions, especially after a rehab facility. Most people are Familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) but there are hundreds of other 12 step programs. Some of these are Narcotics Anonymous (NA), EA (Emotions Anonymous), SLA (Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous) , Eating Disorders Anonymous (EDA), Codependents Anonymous (CODA), Al-Anon, and many others.

The 12 steps are as follows:

1. We have admitted we are powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable. 
2. Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God AS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM. 
4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to ourselves, God, and another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character.
7. Humbly ask Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all the persons we have harmed and became willing to make amends to them.
9. Made direct amends to such people except when to do so would be harmful to injure them or others.
10. Continued to take inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, AS WE UNDERSTOOD HIM, praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.