Becoming a drug addict or alcoholic is never planned. The question of how this could have happened to you or your loved one is common, and to that there is no single answer.

Drugs and alcohol kill the pain of ordinary life, they destroy the physical and emotional pain by changing an addicts perception on life. Drugs and alcohol make the drug addict or alcoholic become numb to the pain, unhappiness, or hopelessness that is a part of their lives. This mental numbness is part of the drug addiction cycle. The dealing with everyday life is part of a successful drug rehab program, Narconon offers several life skill classes that help re-program the addict to deal with life’s bumps without the aid of alcohol or drugs.

Drugs

Literally, the scientific definition of a Drug is: “articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in humans or other animals; and articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or other animals.”

Addiction

One common definition of addiction is: “the loss of control and compulsive use of mind-altering chemical(s) coupled with the inability to stop the use in spite of the fact that such use is causing problems with one’s life. Addiction can be a physical and/or psychological dependence of a chemical substance.”

How Does Alcoholism or Drug Addiction Affect the Mind?

A person’s mind is their most important asset. With mind power alone we can solve any problem that life presents. Drugs impair the addicts ability to reason and to make decisions that are based on their surroundings and situations. Even after the effects of the drugs have worn off and the addict has become sober, the negative effects on the ability to reason remain. A person will act differently under the influence of drugs and alcohol then they would normally.

By stimulating the internal reward system in the addict’s brain, drugs and alcohol make the addict crave the drug to again stimulate this reward center. These cravings lead the addict to stop focusing on those things that used to be important, and begin focusing on another dose of their drug or alcohol.

With long periods of drug use and alcoholism, the drug addict or alcoholic no longer receives the same effects that they once did from using. A good example is how after extended use, painkillers no longer manage the pain the way they once did, and the patient is forced to switch to a new drug or increase their dose. The same is true of illicit drug use and abuse. The human body will develop a tolerance for almost every drug. Keep in mind that while tolerance is not addiction, they often go hand-in-hand.