Chemical Dependence and Psychology

Chemical Dependence and psychology are often intertwined, but they’re not as closely related as most people believe. Chemical Dependence and psychology are related, but it’s a mostly relationship of co-existence. There’s a common misperception that chemical dependence is a result of unresolved mental and emotional conflict. It this were true, the addict could go through psychotherapy and this would allow the person to drink alcohol normally or use some other drug without the problems of chemical dependence.

When someone suffers from alcoholism or some other drug addiction, and they return to their drug of choice after a period of time, the active addiction returns — we see this over and over. Because society has had this misperception about addiction and mental health, most people who stop  drug use and improve their mental health feel as if they can now use a drug without consequences. If mental demons from the past drove them to drink heavily or use cocaine or seek relief with opiates, then surely if the mental/emotional demons have been identified and dealt with through counseling, there’ll be nothing harmful driving them to use drugs addictively. Recreational use ought to be possible, right? No, not right.

Research shows that drug users, including use of the drug alcohol, who become chemically dependent (the more scientific term), addicted (as we commonly call it), have a combination of factors that leads to chemical dependence. Genetics plays a large role. Brain chemicals and how the brain processes a drug plays a large role. The addict responds differently to a potentially addictive drug than others who don’t become chemically dependent regardless of the addict’s mental/emotional health. It’s also a mistake to equate chemical dependence with everything that people now call “addiction”, like chocolate addiction, yoga addiction, internet addiction — science hasn’t found any evidence that all these “addictions” are some common obsessive disorder.

Mental/emotional problems are often caused by addiction, and co-existing mental/emotional problems almost always become worse not better as a result of addiction, but the absence of mental/emotional problems doesn’t ensure an absence of addiction. It’s also evident from experience that addicts in recovery have to deal with mental and emotional problems if they want a strong and healthy recovery. Recovery from chemical dependence is at risk when a person suffers from unresolved mental and emotional problems, because if they’re in mental and emotional pain, they’re likely to try alleviating the pain with a drug, then the addiction takes over.

This is important for the person in recovery to understand, because once a person in recovery begins to feel better mentally and emotionally they might begin thinking they can handle a beer, or a glass of wine, or just one line of cocaine, or a joint every now and then. Once the recovering addict starts drinking or using again, they either become addicted to some substitute drug or return to their drug of choice and the vicious circle continues. So, in recovery, it’s a matter of dealing with addiction as a problem in and of itself, but also dealing with mental and emotional problems that exist to avoid relapse and have a healthy and happy recovery.