People often wonder why are drugs addictive and why an addictive substance is hard to give up, particularly when we have lost that “honeymoon” feeling with our substance of choice and know that we would be far better off – if only we could kick the habit.

 Ultimately it us who make the choice to use drugs addictively, and it is our responsibility to resolve the problem.

No one can be free of addiction to drugs while they continue to see in the use of drugs the answer to life’s issues.

Drugs don’t help us to resolve our problems - drugs are toxic and bring us down.

The more we use drugs, the less capacity we gradually have to get back on top of our problems. 

When we pump chemicals into the body it is as if pushing ourselves upwards on a swing, we cannot stay there forever, we have to come down again. And when we come down we don’t settle back to our original resting position – we swing back and forth until the swing slows down and eventually stops. 

The roller coaster of pain and emotions that we go through with drug withdrawal is something like what happens with the swing, when we are no longer putting in the effort to create a forward momentum, no longer focused on our purpose, no longer “high” on our drugs.

 The downswing after a drug high is partly a reversion back to our former depressed or anxious way of being, and partly caused by a physical reaction to the drug. We can expect symptoms of drug withdrawal to fluctuate, with increased levels of depression after use of a stimulant drug, and increased agitation and irritability after use of a sedative.

 Many people think that it is the suffering of mood swings and the pain of withdrawal that controls drug seeking behavior, that drug addiction is chemically based, and withdrawal-driven.

 The experience of addict’s does not appear to support this.

Addict’s suffer withdrawal symptoms after using drugs. They might simply suffer in silence, or perhaps use other drugs to help reduce withdrawal effects. They might not use again perhaps for days or weeks.

Triggers for compulsive drug use appear to be more complex than a reactive response to the experience of withdrawal effects. 

see article:  

Cocaine is an example of a drug that is extremely addictive, but which generally does not cause any major physical symptoms during withdrawal. The main withdrawal effect of cocaine is that it intensifies and prevents users from getting out of feelings of severe depression.

Cocaine users express their surprise that they feel driven to drug use again, compulsively and addictively, despite the fact that they are not experiencing physical pain.

 Cocaine users will use the drug because cocaine makes them feel positive, strong, empowered - without it they feel lost and unhappy. What drives cocaine addiction, and all drug use, is feelings of stress and tension, that have an emotional basis.

Drug use is about getting relief from negative emotional feelings.

 If we used a substance that only made us feel bad, not only would we not become addicted to it, we would not use it again. The attraction of drug use, it’s purpose, is to give us a fleeting glimpse of nirvana, eliminating, at least for a while, all of our physical and emotional pain.

 Drugs that we use don’t do anything good for our mind or our body. All drugs imitate natural substances that our body can produce by natural means given the chance and the opportunity. Natural endogenous “drugs” are cheaper to use, more potent in their actions, and come with no side effects. 

 Drug use is only a particular way of letting our burdens go, casting off the negative, so as to enjoy the relative freedom of the moment.The reason for us feeling burdened is persistent stress.

Stress is like a prevailing wind that causes young saplings and trees to grow bent over and flattened to the ground. Plants retain a capacity to grow straight, upright and tall, if and when environmental conditions improve. Drug use makes us feel as if we have suddenly sprung up, free of our pain and emotional burdens.

It is the attempted recapturing of this experience that drives drug use – some might call it the pursuit of illusion.

 Once we begin to associate drug use with the relief of pain, it can become like a knot.

We feel the stress, experience pain and immediately turn to our drugs.

The more we make this  a habit, the less we will rely on other relationships as a potential solution to our problems.

 The key to recovery from addiction is to give up drug use, and to regard the downswing as a positive step on the road to addiction recovery.

 Comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction recovery programs

provide complete and effective detox, to help eliminate triggers and cravings,

in a supportive, contained and nurturing environment,

and also promote the development of better life skills so that we no longer feel stressed and threatened, by our lifestyle and environment.

When people no longer feel fearful, stressed and depressed, they can give up their addiction to drugs.

Comprehensive programs offer drug addicts their freedom – to live a happy and contented life – without any need to use drugs.

When we have the sense of purpose and resilience to stand on our own two feet, it really is very easy to see through the illusion that all drug use is, and simply say no to drugs, without cravings or regret.

Many natural, and safe pain relief options are available for people with chronic pain, so why take the risks and the hazards of using opioid drugs. 

Did you know that endorphins (endogenous morphine) are chemicals produced by the body that have the capacity to provide much higher levels of pain relief, than heroin or morphine.

In fact the natural pain relief of endorphins is precisely what doctors try to achieve when using the many patented forms of opioid drugs.

 Endorphins also provide a euphoric high, when the body or mind is under stress - equal to and safer than any illicit street drug.

Fear of pain fuels opioid drug use by people who are not in touch with better drug free solutions for resolving long term pain.

Did you know that chronic stress intensifies pain, and that often with release of internal tension – symptoms of pain are gone.

see article: 

There are around 20 different kinds of endorphin in the body, that when people are under stress, will produce natural pain killing biochemicals, improve the immune response, create a natural high, increase the sex drive and make people feel strong and empowered – which naturally – they are! 

There is no risk of addiction, or negative side effects, such as you get when using synthetic drug products such as Ketamine or opiates for the purpose of pain relief, and of course – there is no cost.

Unfortunately, no cost translates into no potential profit, which might be a reason why medical research into endogenous chemicals has languished in favor of the creation of lucrative, commercial drug products.

The evidence today, with our increasing synthetic drug dependence,  is that we are totally failing to “manage” increasing ill health, substance abuse and addiction.

Specific types of chemical in the body that regulate pain and good feelings include the enkephalin group that are a type of endorphin, that occur in the brain and the spine, pentapeptides that help to provide analgesic effects and assist recovery from various types of chronic pain.

Did you know that our atttitude and response to pain can make pain stronger – or reduce, if not totally extinguish, the various types of pain. 

see article

Pain is warning that we need to attend to something amiss in our lives – mental stress and emotional pain are both expressed as physical pain – causing similar symptoms to the pain we get from a physical cause. Effective pain management is about dealing with causes, not the medicating away of symptoms by use of synthetic drugs.

 Together with the natural opiate pain regulatory system, the body has a complete repair and recovery function,known as the glial system, that assists with tissue repair, and promotes neuroplasticity.

The glial system supports good health and life, attacking alien substances and pathogens that are toxic to our health.

It is therefore with some surprise that we see an article written by scientific researchers, in the field of health care and it’s promotion - actually blaming the glial system for protecting the body against the intrusion and toxicity of their synthetic drugs!

 see article 

So called “tolerance” of the body to drugs, that means you need more of the drug to get the same effect, is actually a sign that the body is trying to regulate and deal with drug toxicity.

The natural health sustaining and restorative chemicals produced by the body don’t get a chance to self regulate and restore health when there is a synthetic drug regime imposed, when we keep increasing drug levels for “health”management, and sometimes outwit our natural defenses by suddenly changing the ‘script.

Once it is understood that all synthetic drug use is toxic, and promotes long term ill health, people will next want to know, what to do when they throw out their drugs. There are many options for better healthcare, such as massage, homeopathy, acupuncture and osteopathy – methods effective, and in tune with the body – and no adverse side effects.

 see article: 

 There is nothing new in what it takes to bring about optimal health - attention to proper nutrition, adequate sleep and exercise, and above all else deconstructing the negative ways of thinking, the unhealthy values, that have been imposed upon us, that make us live our lives in a state of constant stress and agitation, preoccupied with worries.

 It is preoccupation with stress and worry that makes many turn to illicit drug use – both prescription medications and illegal street drugs.

Don’t give up on yourself!

Comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction recovery centers are based on holistic principles of health care that are 100% drug free.

With complete detoxification from chemical substances and drugs, using a sauna method, people can achieve complete freedom from drug abuse and addiction.

Changing our assumptions about good health and good relationships can bring about freedom from stress, drug use and promote good health and healing.

 People into drug use who want to be free can get the help that they need today by calling the Narconon helpline.

People can develop drug dependence when they habitually use a psychoactive substance to alter perception and mood. All psychoactive drugs have a capacity to become addictive, a process by which a person feels under a physical and mental compulsion to keep on using a particular drug, regardless of adverse consequences.

Drug dependence might be thought of as being a mid way stage, between casual drug use, and compulsive addiction. Every time a drug is used, to resolve a personal issue, in preference to dealing with the real conflicts and issues, it paves the way towards the drug habit becoming so entrenched that it becomes automatic conditioned behavior.

Studies have shown that the primary motivation of habitual, long term drug users is to alleviate feelings of pain and emotional stress. Although at first there is a rewarding high, with long term use, most drugs habituate, and the user can never again achieve that initial euphoria.

With drug use, many people begin to neglect health care and nutrition, added to which, the toxins in drugs cause damage to the body. Drugs interfere with patterns of sleep, some drug users on stimulants can remain awake for days at a time, other drug users of narcotics, can remain in a type of stupor in which they are neither awake nor asleep.

 see article 

With frequent drug use the body becomes depleted in health and energy – withdrawal effects and the avoidance of pain become the primary reason for continued drug use when a person has become drug dependent.

People first use and experiment with drugs for a variety of reasons – peer pressure, excitment, boredom, feelings of discontent. People use drugs to exert some level of power and control over their environment.

The reason for drug use is to enhance good feelings – no one starts using a drug intending to become addicted to or dependent on it.

 People try drugs, are tempted to use them because of a widespread cultural belief that drugs have the power to enhance and change your reality, and that drugs do no harm to the majority of people who use them, who are “responsible” users.

People think that by using drugs they are in control of their life, the reality is that no one can predict with any certainty the precise drug effects that will happen. Psychoactive drugs will interact with the mood and mind set of a person. Stimulant drugs meant to make you high can lead to extreme agitation and paranoia. Narcotics intended to take the edge off distress can make people feel intensely suicidal.

Unexpected drug effects can contribute to drug dependence as users reach for more of the drug in an attempt to self stabilize. Drug users who realize that their use of drugs is caused by a need to regulate their emotions can also see that the result of drug use is persistant overmedication.

Achieving a euphoric high from drug use is an empty and purposeless experience, a poor subsitute for the genuine warmth of loving human relationship.

Drug dependence helps to fuel defensive self sufficiency, a lack of “need” for anything else besides the drug.

Emotional defensiveness, taking on a “hard” tough personal style is always an indication that someone has suffered, and not fully recovered from an experience of immense emotional pain.

Adopting a hard and tough personality, together with the use of drugs creates a barrier to relationships and to the acknowledgement of vulnerability.

People would rather use and suffer from drug effects than admit to themselves, much less to anyone else, that underneath the veneer of drug use they feel sad, alone and abandoned, rejected or unloved.

Drug dependence is a bad relationship that will develop and progress in absence of better options. What originally feels good, providing comfort and companionship and feelings of control can rapidly become a situation in which your life becomes controlled by drug use.

 If you are or feel that you might have become too dependent on drug use, the answer is to stop the drug use and explore your feelings.

Those feelings that most trigger a desire to use drugs are the precise feelings that you need to uncover and resolve in order to emerge into freedom from drug use and dependence.

Comprehensive alcohol and drug addiction programs provide the best journey for self discovery and permanent recovery from all types of drug use and dependence. Drugs cut off rather than expand a person’s experience of reality and their ability to confront emotional problems. 

If drug use no longer fulfils its original promise of freedom, and is beginning to wear you down, it is time to take a new direction – the road to drug recovery.

see article

When you use a comprehensive drug detox and rehabilitation program – instead of using drugs – you can achieve a drug free happy life, and discover a new empowered self. 

The importance of family for providing values and setting an example as an antidote to youth drug use is not to be underestimated.

All families have their own unique structures and dynamics – from a single teenage mother to grandparents raising children, to families blended by a second marriage – all families are different.

There is no normal, no ideal family unit – a successful family unit is one in which a child feels nurtured, loved and is encouraged to become an independent, happy individual.

It is said in business management that when two people always agree – one of them is unnecessary. In the traditional family, with a father and a mother it is part of a child’s natural development to witness the difference in approach and style and interplay between the parents. Children need to experience the interplay between passive and dynamic roles even when there is no father or birth mother in the home.

The paternal role of the father is associated with protection, bringing home money to maintain food and shelter, discipline. and authority.

The maternal role of the mother is related to cleaning, feeding and making comfortable the father and the children in the home.

It is by experiencing and exploring the world of parental dynamic, its tension, how difference is dealt with, how love is expressed, that draws, impels the child into relationship, from the mothering environment into an experience of the wider world.

The abilty to function autonomously yet feel attachment and bonding with family is not something that can be forced, demanded or compelled. In fact, if there are forcing pressures, they will reduce overall freedom, confidence and self esteem in the child, and create overdependence or a spirit of rebellion.

If childhood is too oppressive, traumatic, the child tends to withdraw into himself and is not able to focus fully on the task of growth and development. The child gets stuck at points where there is inadequate support, or active pressures forcing him back towards immaturity and dependence.

When parents are into regular drug use, it interferes with the healthy parental dynamic – both parents can act in negative ways and the symbol of power, authority and strength – becomes the drugs, the rituals, the highs and lows of drug life. Drug abuse in the home does not enable the child to venture confidently into the outside world, leaves him with many unresolved, painful issues about his value and worth, the world and his proper place in it.

 Drug use as a “feel good” short cut to feelings of satisfaction and reward can easily be attractive to a young person who feels depressed, cut off and dissatisfied in his closest relationships. Parental drug abuse affects all children in the family, and interferes with normal sibling bonding and rivallry issues.

Family traditions and rituals are an important basis for encouraging feelings of belonging and status. When children use drugs it is often said to be surprising because the child has come from ” a good home”. A house that is triple A rated bricks and mortar, with a manicured lawn, is not necessarily also a good home. A good home can be a single parent in a state housing community, it can be grandparents, anyone who is bringing up children with love, and discipline, and support.

Families that are over restrictive, or overpermissive are setting up a store of troubles for the future, as children strive to fit in with family needs and demands the best way they can. The neglected child can be the child of drug addicted parents – just as much as the child of parents too busy working, and worrying to prioritize the needs of their child.

Any form of negative, attention seeking behavior from drug use to other forms of antisocial behavior in children is a call to be noticed, and understood. Graffiti brings forth a cry for financial compensation and redress.

Perhaps the compensation and redress that should be provided is to the child by the community that has allowed the child to “drop out”and fall by the wayside.

School and family are the main influences in a child’s life during their formative years. Increasing levels of alcohol drinking and drug  use should be seen as a warning sign that something is amiss – children are seeking relationship with mind-altering substances in preference to dealing with life.

 Governments throughout the world pay lip service to the strengthening of the family unit. Meanwhile nations play power games, prioritize financial gain over policies that are truly supportive. Families need to look inward, to review and develop their strengths.

 Narconon International director Clark Carr says that his long experience in alcohol and drug rehab services shows beyond any doubt that it is as a result of having inadequate skills to deal with life that people turn to alcohol and substance abuse.

see article:

The good news for families and children who want to do without drugs in their life is that there is an international institution, established for over 45 years that can help families reunite. Narconon helps families to renew and strengthen family bonds, using methods that are proven, natural and safe for complete alcohol and drug addiction recovery.

 see article:

If you or your children have made a wrong move, and use drugs to provide satisfaction, it is never too soon, never too late to make a start on the road to recovery of family strength, stability and harmony.

 Detox from drugs, build life skills – and regain the benefits and rewards of an empowered family life. 

My name is Nicole, I’m 31 years old and presently in a drug and alcohol rehab. I was 11 when I started smoking, 12 when I started drinking and 13 when I started using drugs. I did all of this because I thought it was cool. I could never have been so wrong that moment that I choose to smoke, drink and takes drugs was the moment my life took a turn for the worst.

I‘m a mother of a little girl who is turning 11 in one month that is the age I was when I made my 1st life-altering mistake. I will tell you all what I’m going to tell her. Please stop and think twice before doing something to be cool because you don’t want to end up with a lifetime of regrets, sorrow and heartache. The coolest thing in life is to love yourself for who you are, and who you are is GREAT just as is, without smoking, drinking or using drugs.

Nicole C.

The fact that your Mother was an addict should certainly make you more aware of the dangers, if nothing else. Even if you are prone to addictions more through heredity, the fact still remains that you cannot become addicted if you never use the drugs. No one is an addict until they begin using drugs. If you already have tried drugs, or use drugs, there still is help available.

Heredity or not, addiction does not simply go away. The sooner one gets addict help, the better. Since you have family members who have had addiction problems, realizing that the potential is there should be enough incentive to get help. If you are using drugs, even occasionally or recreationally, there is a chance you are or can become addicted. The best course of action would be to stop the drugs completely. If you can’t, then get help.

The sad truth is; everyone should fear becoming an addict. It happens so quickly and so easily that the addict doesn’t even realize what is happening. Cases of addiction rise year after year everywhere in the world. Even people who have no family history of drug addiction can become addicts. If there is a family history of drug addiction, the chances are even greater.

Possibly more than heredity, the fact that you learned your coping skills from your parents may play a big role in whether you become an addict or not. Learning to cope in different ways is one of the most successful attributes of rehabilitation. Again, until you take that first drug…you will not become addicted. Once addiction occurs, it doesn’t matter how it started, the important thing is to quit. Virtually anyone who takes a narcotic drug can become addicted regardless of whether their parent’s were addicted or not.

6 years ago I became addicted to narcotics prescribed to me for a back injury. I began abusing these drugs.  My drug use escalated quickly, and my parenting skills deteriorated just as rapidly. I am hoping that by explaining my story that I may be able to help you avoid some of the heartache that I have experienced.

Although I swore to myself that I would never forsake my children for the drugs, I soon found myself doing just that. I stopped being the attentive, involved, loving, caring, responsible, content mother that I had been for many years. I was able to hide the drug use for awhile, saying I was just tired, etc, but just never feeling 100% “there” for the kids. Then it proressed to that I started sleeping late in the mornings, neglecting to get them up for school or to make their lunches.  I was once actively involved in heading up every organization or team that they joined, and I quit doing all that because I was exhausting my body with the drug use.  I had no energy to involve myself with their lives, and soon found myself losing touch with what they were interested in or what their lives outside were like. I became very selfish, irritable and emotional. I stopped trying to even appear interested in them or what they had to say. I made errors, lost things, forgot to cook dinners, left them home unattended for extended periods of time, or spent excessive periods of time sleeping off the effects of the drugs while they were home, leaving them there to amuse themselves.  Eventually they would start looking after themselves as they couldn’t count on me. All these drugs did was make me tired and zombie-like, wanting to sleep. Not the picture of the mother I once was at all.

The end result has my life looking and feeling like a war-zone.  My children were taken out of my custody by my ex-husband who by this time had filed for divorce.  My eldest, a son, and I had so many heated and violent arguments and battles during the time of my drug abuse that he has completely cut me out of his life.  I don’t blame him one bit.   I have not spoken to him in 2 and a half years.  Thankfully I still have my two younger children who are still present in my life, but of course treat me as I deserve: without trust and at arms length to some degree.
I have been in rehab now for 6 months and am working towards building these relationships back up.  It has been the most difficult thing I have ever done and I have no idea how it will all turn out but I have hope and help from great people.

My children used to be the center of my world. Drugs took their place.  Not anymore.  I AM BACK and stronger than ever!!

I am hoping that by reading this you might see somewhere in there a little bit of anything that might resemble your life,  and then see what could happen, once the drug use gets out of control.  And believe me, it does get out of control. I managed to be the ‘weekend warrior’ drug user for a while,  always thinking I could control it, but it doesn’t take long until drugs are running your life.

L.V.