What Is Addiction?

- User Abuser and Dependent
- Drug and Alcohol Stats
- Drug Types
- Signs Of Drug Use

Addiction is described as a compulsive and repeated use of a substance despite the knowledge of negative consequences. One can be addicted to drugs, alcohol, sex, food, gambling, the internet, or anything else that can have a negative consequence due to over-indulgence and abuse. Addiction is also classified as a progressive disease. This means that the habit will only intensify as time goes on if nothing or nobody intervenes.

For someone to be addicted to mind altering substances, there must be three components present. 1) Biological or chemical issues stemming from drug use or inherited through genetics 2) spiritual wounds, and 3) emotional scarring due to past and present experiences or situations. When your loved one has experienced all three components, they begin to go through four stages of addiction.

The four stages of addiction are:

1) Learned Mood Swing- The individual understands that by using a particular substance, they will experience a feeling of euphoria.
2) Seeking of the Mood Swing- The individual now has developed a relationship with a particular substance beyond just recreational use of the substance.
3) Harmful Dependency- This is the turning point when the individual begins to display erratic and\or bizarre behavior. This behavior causes the individual to feel guilt, shame, depression, etc...
4) Usage to Feel Normal- The individual is now in a downward spiral due to being bound between stages two and three. Addicts try to control their use, they fail to control their use and develop emotional pain and spiritual scarring, which in turn causes them to use again and again. This pattern and perpetual feeling of pain reinforces the behavior and the addictive behavior is repeated.

When someone experiments with drugs or alcohol, they do not consciously decide that they are going to be an addict and live a miserable life. As their use escalates, the guilt, shame, and depression worsens with time. At this point an effort may be made to control their use. This does not always work! When an addict fails to control their use, they develop emotional pain within because they have failed which, in turn, causes them to self-medicate. It is at this point that the user becomes trapped and thus begins the spiraling downward further in to the disease.

This powerful cycle then entirely consumes the person. Their psyche, soul, and spirit are unable to escape the grasps of the disease. When you know of someone who is in this cycle, it is time to intervene between the habit and the individual. If nothing is done to intervene with this terrifying process, it is inevitable that the user may end up doing time in jail, living in a psychiatric institution, or ultimately, dying.