Addiction or Psychological Problems

There’s still a misconception that addiction is caused by psychological problems. Psychological problems are often caused by addiction or co-exist with addiction. It’s a fact that addiction can complicate psychological problems, but addiction is a disease in and of itself. Addiction has a psychological component – otherwise, it’d be as simple as detox, just get the drug out of the system and go long with life. However, with addiction, there’s a progressive physical addiction coupled with a mental obsession that causes a person to crave the drug even after they’ve been detoxed. It’s a mental obsession that causes a person to go back to the drug despite negative consequences.

Progressive physical addiction means that the physical part gradually gets worse. It takes some people years to gradually become physically addicted to the point of serious withdrawals. The mental obsession is usually present much sooner. In the early and middle stages of addiction, a person likely thinks they can control their drug of choice, whether it’s cocaine, alcohol, opiates, pot, etc. The person in the early stage likely can control the drug to a point, such as the alcoholic in the early stage of alcoholism — she can go out to eat and have a couple of drinks then go home with no problem. Then the next week, she goes out to have a couple of drinks and drinks way more that she intended. This begins to happen more often over time. During middle stage and late stage alcoholism the person loses control of the drinking on a regular basis, until the person can’t go a day without drinking without having serious withdrawals. But this is the late stages, which means near the end. Ideally, a person gets diagnosed and treated before reaching late stages of addiction.

It’s typical for someone who begins having problems with drinking or using some other drug a little too much to blame it on stress, anxiety, depression, so on. In some cases there is a biological depressive disorder, or some other psychological problem, and the person uses alcohol or another drug to deal with the depression or anxiety. This could be diagnosed as drug abuse (abuse is different from addiction) rather than addiction, if there are no real signs and symptoms of progressive addiction. A person can even have a psychological problem, take a highly addictive drug and become physically dependent on the drug, but still not be an addict, if the addictive, mental obsession is not there. If the person deals with the psychological problem, finds the right medication for the problem, if it’s caused, say, by a lack of certain brain chemicals, then goes about their life with no obsession to use the drug they were previously physically dependent on, and there are no signs of an addiction disorder, then the person wouldn’t be diagnosed with addiction disorder. However, the person has to decide if they want to risk using any drug, other than the one prescribed for anxiety, depression, etc. since they have a tendency to abuse certain mood altering drugs. At some point, it doesn’t matter if you are diagnosed with an addiction disorder or with drug abuse, or a psychological problem, if you think your life will better without alcohol or other drugs, then that’s certainly a viable life choice.

It can be complicated. What we usually see in addiction treatment is a person who’s become progressively addicted to a drug, or drugs, which has caused the person to become anxious and depressed at times. The person then thinks that the anxiety or depression is causing the drug problem, when in reality it’s the drug addiction, and consequences of drug addiction, causing the anxiety and depression. It’s hard to tell until a person stops using all drugs for a period of time and has the proper assessments. Many people have died denying that addiction is a disease in and of itself. They go to therapists and deal with their emotional distress and mental demons, only to continue using their drug of choice and progressively becoming more addicted. They then become very confused and conflicted and they spiral out of control. If they don’t accept the addiction and become straight and clean, all their problems compound until something bad happens (divorce, bankruptcy, jail, hospitalization, etc.) or they die from physical complications caused by the drug and the risky behaviors under the influence. Addiction is a serious disorder, and if there’s a concern that it might be a problem, the person should seek help.