Psychology of Drug Addiction: Why People Start and How to Stop

Getting rid of drug addiction is a long process that includes not only drug withdrawal of intoxication. The effectiveness of the measures taken will largely depend on the quality of psychological assistance and the adaptation of the former drug addict in society because he will have to build relations with society again. In case of failure, disruptions are inevitable. According to world statistics, 20-30% of drug addicts are entirely cured, and this is not such a low indicator, taking into account all the risks. Drug addicts have a very fragile psyche, weak will, and the slightest stress can lead to a breakdown.

Therefore, they need to completely change their lifestyle to get rid of the craving for drugs and begin to control their desires. Drug treatment services are provided by plenty of state drug treatment centers. Private institutions carry out high-level drug addiction diagnostics, medical rehabilitation of drug addicts, and provide prevention. But in free drugs rehabilitation center, drug addicts can be treated as qualified as in the overpriced private clinic.

On average, rehabilitation measures to combat drug addiction take from 6 to 12 months. Getting rid of chemical addiction is only 10% success. The rest of the time is devoted to rehabilitation and social adaptation. Thus, drug therapy in a hospital will take from two and a half weeks to a month. Further, it all depends on the condition of the patient. In severe cases, it is recommended that the entire rehabilitation period be carried out in specialized centers. If relations with the family have been preserved and the connection with the social sphere has not been interrupted, then outpatient programs are preferable.

Why do people take drugs?

The main reason for drug use is to achieve euphoria. This means that a person not only wants to cheer himself up but wants to get away from real life, change his mind. The desire for euphoria is the need for a lifestyle change, an escape from the surrounding problems. In this case, drugs can be called a case in which the addict tries to hide, having forgotten for a while about a difficult life.

The brain of each person produces endorphin, which is responsible for the state of euphoria, ecstasy, pleasure, pain relief, and relaxation. Any substance, including alcohol and a drug, acts as a “substitute” or stimulator of the production of endorphins. But after a single dose of this kind of substance, endorphins are produced in humans in smaller quantities. An attempt to restore the lost endorphins leads to a new dose. Thus, from a certain moment, the person has to maintain himself in the usual norm continually – this is the reason for the addiction.

Drug use can be explained from different angles: financial, social, medical. But all of them show only apparent reasons for the onset of drug addiction. From the psychology of drug addiction, it is an attempt by a person to resolve his internal conflicts. That is, the essence of the problem must be sought first of all in the human soul.

All addicted people have certain personal qualities, such as:

• Vulnerability, resentment
• Low ability to accept, realize and express one’s feelings, unsuccessful attempts to control them and refusal to accept himself
• Little self-care, inability to take care of oneself
• Low self-esteem, alternating with high self-esteem (usually during or after drug use)
• Disruptions in relationships, low frustration stability, intolerance to failures, negative answers, which most often provokes either a rude or conniving attitude of loved ones

Social isolation

From the onset of drug addiction, the process of socialization of a drug addict’s personality stops or slows down. Weak and superficial socialization makes close contacts with people outside the subculture of drug addicts impossible. A drug addict can only believe a drug addict, even if the drug addict has already failed him. They treat all other people with distrust, which can sometimes take a paranoid coloring.

Addicts live in social isolation, within the boundaries of their subculture or as hermits. They can show their inability to live in society by taking a defensive position or by showing quick temper and open aggression.

The guilt that initially accompanies drug use weakens to a level of tolerance. The addict achieves this by adopting new philosophical views and a new worldview. The philosophy of drug addicts satisfies the intellectual and emotional needs of individuals with mental disabilities.

Contravention of instincts

A young drug addict demonstrates severe violations in the field of an intuitive life. This means deficient control of instinctual needs. Like the addict, there is only one need to satisfy desires as quickly as possible and at any cost. Some authors consider drug addicts to be individuals with characterological disorders, whose behavior is dominated by instincts. A chronic drug addict feels the need for a drug, and since he cannot resist it, he will not stop to get a substance that is precious to him. He cannot defer the satisfaction of this need.

A drug alters even animal instincts. Addicts realize the sexual instinct through the illusion of sexual intercourse, showing sexual impotence. Even parental ability, one of the main ones in human nature, is subject to significant violations. The addict, as a rule, doesn’t care who is the father of her child, and when asked if they would give their child a drug, most male addicts answer in the affirmative.

So, the least studied aspect of drug addiction is the central component of addiction – mental addiction to the drug. This is due, firstly, to a prolonged underestimation of the psychic factors of pathogenesis in drug addiction. Secondly, this is so due to the lack of reliable data on the effectiveness of various methods of breaking mental dependence. Thirdly, the undeveloped methodological base for the study of the structure, functions, and dynamics of a psychological dependence on narcotic substances.

However, all attempts at primary and secondary prevention of drug addiction will be ineffective without analysis of the central component of drug addiction – mental dependence.