Addiction And Alcoholism; Why Can't They Just Stop?

Why can’t they just stop drinking or using drugs? Can't they see the damage they're doing to themselves, to their families and to their careers?

For those that have never endured addiction or alcoholism, it can be tough to understand how anyone could continue to drug or drink even in the face of mounting adverse consequences. If the answer to the problem is as easy as to just stop doing something harmful, it seems a bit ridiculous that it ever gets so bad!

And the truth is that while drinking and drugging, we can’t even explain why we can’t stop. Sometimes we mean to stop, we try to and something just seems to happen. Our good intentions get thrown out the window, and we find ourselves drunk or high again.

We all start down the road to addiction with bad choices. No one ever forces us to drink so much or play around with addictive drugs, but once we get addicted, something happens deep within our brains, and although it looks like we are still making conscious choices to keep on using, we are actually controlled by something beyond our conscious control.

With addiction, there is a fundamental change within the mesolimbic in the brain. A deep rooted part of the brain, not under our control or even our awareness, but responsible for feelings of pleasure and pain, and capable of influencing our behaviors.

The mesolimbic demands more intoxication--it craves it--and it will just keep on sending you cravings and impulses to use, until you eventually just give in to the inevitable, and get drunk or get high. It's very hard to control something beyond your conscious control, and it makes the idea of willpower pretty meaningless.

The truth is that once we are addicted, few of us can stop on our own. The influence of the mesolimbic is just too powerful. Thankfully, the brain will heal and things will return to the way they were; but it takes time. It takes months or even years of sobriety to restore things to the way they were, and that initial sobriety is problematic and very challenging.

Most people can’t do it on their own, and most people will need to learn concrete and effective strategies to overcome these deep preconscious impulses to abuse. You can learn to change your actions and even your thoughts to reduce the influence of the mesolimbic and you'll definitely need to learn how to pull back from the brink of relapse when you find yourself ever so close to taking a drink or using once again.

Most people will need therapies of drug treatment to teach them how they can get through those first few months, to learn how to overcome the triggers to use, and to learn how they can act to minimize those impulses that risk sobriety.

Once it's addiction, we usually need treatment. Understand that an addict can’t get better without help, understand that although they appear to be choosing to drink or drug, that they are under the power of something beyond their control.

People get better every day. It can be done and they can leave it all behind, but once they're addicted, they are probably going to need a bit of help.