Millions of people interact with some form of addictive substance on a daily basis. However, these interactions do not necessarily make them addicts. They may drink alcohol or use tobacco or marijuana infrequently. In many instances, people can manage the usage of these potentially dangerous substances. 
But it is common for people to lose self-control and fall into a debilitating addiction to these substances. Addictions have the potential to ruin a person’s life, career, and health. Identifying these signs of addiction is the most important step to ensuring that a person stops the addiction spiral before it is too late.
Understanding Addiction
Addiction is a sliding scale that is directly connected to a person’s behavior and experiences. It is not connected to the amount of substances they use or the frequency at which they use substances. Addiction is more connected to the behavior associated with substance usage. In addition to using substances, an addict simply cannot stop using them. They do not moderate their usage at essential moments when that usage can start to impede their daily lives.
For many years, people believed that addiction was simply an individual choice. They mainly treated addicts with stigma and shame for their lack of will power. About a century ago, techniques were developed to help addicts work together in order to gain control of their behaviors and move forward with their lives.
The modern model of addiction sees it as a disease that needs to be treated like any other. The disease model has helped therapists treat addicts with both drugs and traditional therapies. It has been essential to replacing the view of addicts as failures in society — a view that did little to actually help those afflicted by addiction.
Signs and Symptoms of Addiction
There are many signs of addiction, some of which are directly associated with individual substances. They may include bloodshot eyes or slurred speech. Alcohol addiction, for instance, can lead to general cognitive decline and an immense lack of energy. Addiction to psychedelic and psychiatric drugs can lead to paranoia and a general inability to act in a way that a person previously did.
The mechanisms associated with these signs are not always readily apparent. While some signs of addiction are caused by the substances in question, others are caused by lifestyle changes based on the way people behave when they are using addictive substances. The aforementioned example of bloodshot eyes is a physiological response to some drugs.
But the same cannot be said for other symptoms. For a long time, people thought that “meth mouth” was directly caused by a substance in methamphetamine. Now, it is seen as a result of the lifestyle that people live while they are on the drug. People on meth tend to eat sugary foods and do nothing to take care of their teeth. It is a behavioral side effect of drug addiction and not a direct side effect of using the drug.
The most common signs and symptoms of addiction have to do with behavior and relationships. A person may abandon their previous relationships if their partners do not conform with addiction. They may stop talking to friends and family or couch all their conversations in their need for a particular drug. These behaviors are a clear sign that a person is making drugs or other addictive substances a big part of their lives. It can be an obvious sign that they need help as soon as possible.
Self-Assessment for Addiction
Anyone who is worried about addiction should ask themselves these questions:
- Do I regularly use a substance that has been known to be addictive? This substance can be either legal or illegal.
- Does my usage of this substance affect the relationships I have in life?
- Does my usage of this substance change the way I view and interact with my job, hobbies, friends, and family?
- Do I feel as though I could temporarily or permanently stop using these substances if I wanted or needed to?
Along with answering these questions about themselves, potential addicts should convince friends and family members to take the survey about them. If the answers don’t match too well, they should look into why the discrepancy may be the case.
Types of Addictive Behaviors
One common form of addictive behavior is self-rationalization. Very few people want to be addicted or fail to care about society’s negative view of addicts. Therefore, they find ways of rationalizing their behavior. In many instances, this rationalization involves downplaying the behavior and dismissing it as not a topic of concern. An addict may argue that they only use substances on specific days or times. They may lie about the number of beers they had or the number of hours they smoked marijuana. This behavior may be deliberate lying, or it could relate to the impaired judgment caused by the substances in question.
Another common tactic is professing that they could stop at any moment and then using brief respites in usage to justify this claim. The problem is that addicts do not need to constantly use a substance in order to be addicted. Even the most dedicated addicts often go days or weeks without using a substance and can occasionally moderate their usage. The issue is not about volume but the effect that using a substance has on their health and relationships.
Another common addictive behavior is overindulgence. A common reason for this is the tolerance that an addict builds up over time. They are chasing a bigger and bigger high that is similar to the first high they enjoyed. As their body builds up a tolerance for a particular substance, they need to take more and more of that substance to satisfy their cravings for it.
This drive becomes a serious problem when other parts of the body do not have the same tolerance as the brain. A person may take enough of a drug to give them a substantial high that is too much for the heart, lungs, or other parts of the body to handle. In that case, there is a strong chance of an overdose. There is also a good chance that other aspects of a person’s body will be negatively affected.
A third form of addictive behavior is general withdrawal. Many addictive substances rewire a person’s brain and activities so that they only want to find and ingest more of the addictive substance. As a result, people stop engaging in activities that previously brought them joy. They begin to focus only on obtaining and using the addictive substance they crave. They stop talking to their family and friends and interact only with people who can help them get more of the substance. All these behaviors are warning signs that people need to be aware of if they hope to recover from an addiction.
Seeking Help and Support
The most important step to treating addiction is to realize that a person actually is an addict and has a problem that requires treatment. Addicts often spend so much time rationalizing their behavior that they do not realize what is happening to them. The process can be so gradual that they do not know they are addicted until their lives have greatly declined.
Determining that a person has a problem is essential to getting beyond this cycle and acquiring help. But people who are addicts also need outside support from those they know and trust. This outside support will help them drop their bad habits and move into healthy situations.
Twelve-Step programs are a good example of the power of this approach. Along with providing 12 concrete steps, this program offers a network of people who are also battling addiction. These people can provide positive peer pressure that can help override the factors that created a person’s addiction in the first place.
Treatment Options for Addiction
There are two main, broad categories for treatment of addiction. One of these is therapy based. It involves addicts talking through their problems with an individual therapist or a group of other addicts. By working together, they identify the reasons for their addictions and different strategies used for coping with it. The most common treatment approach for addiction is therapy. Talk therapy, either with a group or individually, helps a person identify the reasons for their addiction and a number of helpful strategies for escaping from addiction.
The other common approach is drug therapy. People take a wide variety of controlled substances that help manage their cravings and reduce their need for the substance they are addicted to. Drug therapy is essential for many individuals who have a chemical dependency and would need to endure too many terrible side effects to withdraw on their own. Trusted partners like Liberty Bay Recovery offer both forms of therapy to help clients work their way out of drug addiction.
Overcoming Stigma and Shame
Society has been much more accepting of those with addictions in the past few decades. But that does not mean all stigma surrounding this condition has disappeared. Instead, the stigma associated with addiction is somewhat more subtle. The most obvious form of stigma appears with regard to drug tests.
Stigma is also evident in the way we talk about people with addictions. There is still a general trend of shaming and dismissing addiction as a behavior that can easily be fixed. Addicts are seen as less trustworthy than other people and are often kept out of jobs and other responsible positions simply because of their addictions. Treatment centers and recovery centers are essential to challenge this narrative and give addicts the support they need.
People who are suffering from addiction need to contact a helpful partner as soon as possible. They need to know that their problems will most likely not be resolved on their own. Instead, they need to work with an experienced professional and take substantial steps in order to get around other people, understand the reasons for their addiction, and start to embrace drugs and therapies that will make addiction more manageable. Only by taking these steps will addicts finally find the solace they need for their medical conditions.
If you believe that you or someone you love might be an addict, get in touch with our caring team at Liberty Bay Recovery Center. We’re here to help you leave destructive habits behind and start a healthy, happy drug-free life.
