Quitting Drugs and Alcohol is not Easy
There are many reasons a person cannot just quit substance abuse. Some of these reasons are quite valid, such as the varied withdrawal symptoms that accompany each particular drug type. A person does not need a PhD in health care to realize the abuser is suffering each time they attempt to quit.
Warning – Stopping Certain Substances
Over the years, we have seen parents and friends of people with addiction ask, “Why not just quit or stop?” There are valid technical and other health reasons a person cannot just “cold turkey” stop their consumption of drugs or alcohol. For anyone with a heavy or long-term drinking issue, the health risk is quite high. Stopping suddenly to drink their daily 26oz of hard liquor or the case of 24 beers can cause seizure and delirium tremens, to name a couple. These occurrences are associated with alcohol withdrawal.
What of Illicit Drugs
There are also other factors that hinder a person from just quitting their daily doses of illicit drugs. Part of the inability to stop is when a person takes a drug that the body recognizes as a poison. It instinctively sends its “nutrient warriors”: vitamins, proteins, minerals and other poison-combating substances to preserve life.
It’s not much different from a cold, food poisoning, etc. This action explains why a person has a “down”; the body has used up so much of its inherent healthy material to fight the effects of drugs that, consequently, the person is now lethargic, dull-eyed, dry-mouthed, and has an overall drained energy level. This unwanted condition is met with more drugs.
Only Two Options Are Available
The addicted person now has one of two choices. The first would be replenishing their body with the proper nutrients to rebuild their system and get professional help. The second and often preferred choice, based on other factors explained below, is to get more drugs and begin their spiral back to unconsciousness, an unfeeling zombie-like lifestyle.
Choosing the second option is, unfortunately, the route taken because of the effect drugs also have on the person’s mind. A nondrug-abusing person will use their mind to increase their survival. They apply past experience, as retained in the mind, towards present and future situations.
Addiction Hinders the Mind’s Functions
When a person uses drugs, their poisonous compounds affect not only the body but also their mind. Depending on the drug being used, the effect on the mind can be as minor as not remembering certain immediate things. It can also include thinking that something is occurring now but is only a mix-up with a past event.
In other cases, the person can have a full-blown hallucination. Seeing or hearing things that are not there. Their past is mixed with recent events, and the conclusion is based on imagined thoughts. In other words, they begin to act crazy, and drugs are now controlling their most basic function: the mind.
The Right Action to Quit
If you know someone you care about who is abusing drugs and has become addicted, do not tell them, “Why not just quit?” Though a light drug abuse case may be able to. The great majority have flown right by that point of quitting.
Our advice is to contact an addiction referral counsellor or recovery coach and find out how to help this person get the required professional support.
There are no tricks or gimmicks with drug addiction. The only way to beat addiction is with professional support from drug rehabilitation centers in Canada. And guidance from people in the field who know what to do.
You are not alone; something can be done about it.
Marc J. Bernard
Author,
Substance Use Disorder & Recovery Professional,
Referral & Consultation Counsellor
