Can You Really Overcome Addiction?

You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped? True or false?

In my opinion, neither.

I used to believe addiction was something only the individual themselves could fix and that, “you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped”.

In other words, that sounds like a you problem.

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Can You Really Overcome Addiction?

Having been through it myself and also on the other side, helping others at the peak of their addiction, I learned that addiction has a lot to do with past trauma and the environment.

For recovery to be successful, one needs social support; something to live for, someone to run to. Without that, real transformation may not be possible.

Also to be considered are the people who are affected by someone’s addiction, watching someone you love self-sabotage, and trying everything within your power to help them, only to watch them slip away again, is just as painful as being the addict themselves.

When you’re invested in helping someone through recovery, you go through the same emotional rollercoaster they do. The same highs, the same lows.

An individual’s willpower to get sober is one thing, but the bigger factor is their environment. If they have overcome the addiction themselves but not their environment, then eventually they will fall back into their old habits because the environment is so seductive.

I used to believe an individual’s actions and behaviours stemmed from only within themselves, and the environment had some influence, but ultimately would not outweigh the individual’s desires.

I found that to be not entirely true. Environmental stimuli can affect one’s biological, chemical, and neurological state; a field of study called Epigenetics.

This area of study states that it is the environment that signals the gene and that genes can be turned on and off based on what the individual is sensing in their external environment.

Every thought we have, every action we take, and every experience we encounter creates a neurological link in our brain.

If we are continuously exposed to the same circumstances, then those neurological pathways become more hardwired to the point where they become unconscious.

Similar to you driving the same route to work every single day. Your mind will eventually “shut off” and you arrive at work wondering how you even got there.

That’s your nerve cells being hardwired.

So why do people relapse? Why is it so hard to get over addictive behaviour?

Because the majority of the time, it’s unconscious.

When you’ve been doing the same activity over and over and over again, your nerve cells fire faster and faster each time.

Let alone pure dependency, it’s greater than that. Your brain has literally changed itself.

For someone to change behavior, they must be consciously aware of their unconscious habits, combined with willpower to stop and think before the body takes over their mind.

That’s part one of recovery.

Part two is the environment.

The type of environment available to someone and the type of environment they choose to surround themselves with is so powerful that it can alter gene sequences that can be passed on to future generations.

For an individual to truly change, they must be greater than their environment and the seductions that come with it.

There is always a glimmer in those who have been through the dark

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I’ve always wondered why there are some people who can use illicit drugs here and there and never get addicted, and yet a handful of people will use it once and become addicted for life.

Until recently, understanding about this topic has led to new research examining the human genome and how our genes can dictate our lives, including our thoughts, habits, beliefs, and perceptions.

Epigenetics allows us to understand our entire human genome and how our genes can be altered and even modified by external factors.

An individual’s lifestyle and choices are intimately connected with what is in their environment.

Whatever they are sensing on a biological level activates certain genes to turn on and may remain on, while other genes are completely turned off for long periods.

This imbalance disrupts the body’s chemical equilibrium, leading it straight to disease.

An article by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (2019) states, “environmental exposures or choices people make can actually “mark”—or remodel—the structure of DNA at the cell level or even at the level of the whole organism”.

Future treatment options are now leaping into pharmacogenomics, where they “harness the power of genomic information to improve treatments for addiction by tailoring the treatment to the person’s specific genetic makeup”.

This type of precision medicine is the definition of client-centered treatment, as humans are so multifaceted, it would only make sense to have treatment options customized down to the very cell.

Given the significant impact of the environment, the information we absorb into our DNA can influence an individual’s risk of addiction and their ability to respond to certain types of treatment.

This means that if we can positively condition an individual’s environment, then we can control what gets absorbed into our DNA. Numerous studies have been able to “show that a person’s health is the result of dynamic interactions between genes and the environment” (National Institute of Drug Abuse, 2019).

All of these things that appear to be on the outside of the individual are essentially affecting what is happening to them on the inside on a cellular level.

Controlling how we think, what actions we take, and what we allow in from external factors is the first step in true recovery.

If we can fully understand how our body’s work in response to our environment then we can begin to create recovery by remodeling our external factors.

This part of recovery is fully dependent on creating a new environment; one where they can live in a community of healthy and positive thinking that will sustain a gratifying life and help refrain from relapse.

The significance of social support, especially from family and friends is highly overlooked.

For example, a mother who is an addict who has lost her children to the system is not allowed to see or talk to her children, as it will “destabilize” the child’s progress.

If you take everything away from someone, what is their reason to live? What do they have to look forward to? What will motivate them to change?

With nothing, she will return to her old ways.

Community, social connections, and environment play a huge role in our lives, affecting our cellular makeup and genomic sequence.

When an individual is ready to change and their heart is open, we can begin to guide their thinking process and rewire their neurological pathways so that the number of positive pathways outnumber the negative until it becomes unconscious.

Addiction is not a solitary issue

Leaving an addict to fend for themselves is the worst thing someone can do, as loneliness is when the devil creeps in.

On the surface, they will continue to push people away and isolate themselves. Sometimes they act out of fear, anger, resentment, dissatisfaction with themselves.

Since they do not know how to deal with those emotions and they cannot get in control of their lives, they quarantine themselves.

When friends and family see this, they give in to that outer emotion and let themselves be pushed away, when most people struggling do not want to be alone.

Deep down, they want to have someone there for them; they want to know they are still loved. They just do not know how to express that, or are not always coherent enough to show it.

The difference in coping is that people with addiction can “escape” while friends and family cannot. They cut themselves off as a coping mechanism because it is easier not to deal with the pain.

What they do not know is that pushing them away only makes it worse, leading them down a path of darkness.

The lifelong challenge is to teach friends and family how to live and cope with someone who has an addiction.

Help them understand the emotions they go through and what they mean; getting them to stay by their side, never giving up, and always having hope.

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