How Does Addiction Work?

We have never met an addict who intentionally set out to become one

. The pain of withdrawals etc once there is just too much to bear. From our own experience and from talkiing to experts there as almost always an underlying mental health disorder, most notably anxiety and depression.

This goes some way to explain whilst many of those who become addicted to alcohol describe how on taking their first drink they "feel normal for the first time" as in the initial stages at least alcohol can provide a buffer from the feelings which the future addict is seeking to retreat from.

This in broad terms explains why as their alcohol intake amplifies to create the same effect their brain little by little starts to crave alcohol. In scientific

Whilst society, ministers, public health advisors, commentators and the alcohol industry itself talks about problem drinking being the fault of the uncontrolled few, what we fervently believe is that the addict has inadvertently been drawn into a life of addiction because a primary mental health condition has gone undiagnosed and over time untreated.

Whilst this is a simplistic view of addiction it is an important set of statements as treatment of the underlying condition could prevent full-blown addiction and the misery and personal/public cost that it brings in its wake.

One of the key messages we want to share is that rather than addicts being cast aside as failures they are in fact real people who are vulnerable and who have needed help long before they end up in A & E or on rehabilitation programmes.

When addicts are not able to recover it is quite often the case that they die alone because family members cannot bear the pain of watching their loved one kill themselves with booze and because once addicted the behaviours that result in satisfying their cravings are unlovable.

Whilst our book talks about the various different approaches that family members and friends can adopt to help the addict realise they may have a problem and need help - this article does not intend to summarise this.

All we are trying to do here is to convey some key messages and highlight where we need change to happen in order that attitudes towards addiction and its treatment can be transformed.

In summary one of the key messages the public needs to understand (we believe people don't as we didn't understand this ourselves for a while!) Addicts do not set out to become addicted. They use drugs like alcohol to mask mental health problems. They are in fact vulnerable and early medical help and intervention could prevent them from going on to suffer from full-blown addiction. The fact that people like Professor Ameisen who cured himself of alcohol addiction by using Baclofen have recently told their stories means that there is also now hope that there will be a cure for alcohol addiction which is widely prescribed and available to all. We are campaigning for that to happen - the longer it doesn't the more people will suffer and die.

by: Ed Tirbutt

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