Addiction (or substance use disorder) is the compulsive use of any substance (alcohol or drugs) despite adverse consequences. It also entails loss of control over its consumption \u2013 attempts to control its use repeatedly fail.<\/p>\n
Drug addiciton and alcohol problem drinking leads to major issues \u2013 physical, mental, social (relationships), emotional and spiritual (erosion of ethical or value system).<\/p>\n
Several diseases such as liver cirrhosis, pancreatitis, brain stroke, heart disease, etc are directly linked to alcohol problem (physical consequences). Drug addiction leads to job or educational problems, crime and broken relationships. An individual with alcohol problem of drug addiciton tends to lose control of his emotional state \u2013 he or she gets angry easily and is not able to manage emotions normally.<\/p>\n
Other problems include a negative attitude, loss of memory and concentration, holding resentments and low self-worth and psychosis (psychiatric issues).<\/p>\n
Drug addiciton and alcohol problem also causes impaired judgement and irrational thinking \u2013 most notably denial. Denial means the person having a drug addiciton or an alcohol problem doesn\u2019t believe he or she has an addiciton problem. Or he or she minimizes or justifies the addictive behavior. So, if the individual does not believe that he or she has a problem, why would they accept a solution (treatment)? This makes it very difficult to get the addict or alcoholic into addiction treatment.<\/p>\n
Since addiction affects all areas of the individual\u2019s life, addiction treatment needs to be holistic. In short, this is called \u2018rehabilitation\u2019.<\/p>\n
The treatment module has to go beyond detox (medical management of withdrawal symptoms) and address areas such as relationships, attitudes, childhood trauma (if any), emotional identification and stress management, restoring a healthy lifestyle and inculcating open-mindedness, honesty and providing strong motivation. Negative emotions such as shame, guilt, fear and anger (abundantly present in individuals with drug addiction and alcohol problem) have to be addressed and therapeutically resolved.<\/p>\n
Since addiciton is highly relapse-prone, an effective relapse prevention program needs to be put in place for maintaining abstinence. Good rehabs provide follow-up programs.<\/p>\n