Drug Addiction
The NHSDA has stated that over 13 million Americans currently use illegal drugs. This is a staggering figure, especially when you consider that no one intends to become an addicted drug abuser or addicted to alcohol. No one plans on destroying their own lives and making the ones they love suffer. These are, simply put, the effects of the cycle of addiction.
Addicts lie, they steal, they do whatever they need to in order to keep their addiction fed. These things are clearly visible to those living with someone experiencing drug addiction, and to those who were close to him or her. Drug addicts and alcoholics are often very intelligent and creative individuals with great potential. This only makes the disaster of their downward spiral worse for them and everyone around them.
Addiction is generally used to compensate for something that is missing in their lives, or to meet some need that the addict knows no other way to meet. It could be depression, general unhappiness, or a simple inability to deal with the situations that occur in life.
There is no single reason why someone turns to drugs and alcohol. Anything, including a bad break-up, divorce, death of a loved one, or other life crisis could cause a person to take the wrong turn to drug abuse. Drugs and alcohol are used to dull the pain that the addict feels in his or her life. Whether the pain is emotional or physical, the result is the same; numbness.
There is irony in the fact that while drugs and alcohol are used to deal with life’s problems, they eventually become the biggest problem in the addict’s life. Addicts can be totally focused on their addiction, so much so that they may have literally forgotten all about whatever it was that made them start using in the first place. It isn’t long that the user moves into full-blown addiction, and feels the need to use the drug constantly.
This is where a user becomes trapped in the cycle of drug addiction and alcoholism. They start to show the physical symptoms of their addiction. They are hard to deal with, hard to communicate with. They begin to behave strangely and withdraw from society. The more they try to kill the new pain created by their addiction with the drugs, the worse their pain becomes. Desperation, discontent, and depression soon follow.
It isn’t long then before their relationships begin to deteriorate. The addict may lose his or her job, empty their bank account, and lose everything in their lives that they valued. Their focus shifts entirely from what used to be important to obeying the needs of their addiction.