Helping children to understand addiction and withdrawal will enable them to see that addiction and withdrawal are essentially two sides of the same coin, and help them say no to drugs.
People addicted to drugs will tend to use more, and suffer withdrawal symptoms when the dose of the drug is reduced. If you are suffering from withdrawal, then it means that you are addicted.
People talk about physical and psychological addiction to drugs as if they were different things. If we have a psychological addiction to drugs, then it will cause us emotional pain to withdraw. If we have a physical addiction to drugs, then pain will be felt in various parts of the body when we try to stop using. We experience emotional pain through painful feelings in the body.
When the body is in pain from drug withdrawal, it will be a combination of physical and emotional pain that we feel, not always easy to separate the two. Drug use and withdrawal affect all the systems of the body and mind. People who are addicted might begin to hate using the drug, but at the same time they fear and can’t bear the pain of withdrawal – so they make a choice to use more of the drug, even though they no longer get enjoyment or pleasure from it. True addiction recovery is a healthy balance between body and mind.
To get freedom from drug use, the only option is to stop. People cannot get healthy again until all drugs are out of their body. Substitute drugs might ease your pain if you seek that kind of drug addict help, but similar addiction and withdrawal problems will occur with any substitute drug. Drugs are toxic to the body. The only way back to health is to remove all drugs from your body, and allow it to fully recover.
People become addicted if they keep using toxic drugs because it gives them pleasure. There are always better and healthier alternatives to drug use – but drug use is tempting and easy if you have pain or emotional problems. Drug use is like putting a bandage on a wound – it offers some protection but doesn’t bring about healing.
If you have physical or emotional pain, there is always a reason for it, and that is what needs to be healed. Using more drugs only leads to addiction, and more painful withdrawal, the more you choose to use drugs.
Some people think that you have no choice about getting addicted to drugs. Everyone has the choice at first to simply say no to drugs. If you start on the slippery slope towards drug addiction, one day you will have to face withdrawal – or use drugs for the rest of your life.
Withdrawal symptoms can be agony, but are very rarely fatal. Avoidance of pain by using other drugs is really no help at all. With natural methods to help you through, the experience of withdrawal will be beneficial. Withdrawal symptoms only mean that the body is trying to heal from toxic drug effects. With the right kind of natural, drug free detox you will come out of treatment feeling better than ever before.
When you combine your drug detox with a life enhancement program you will be well on the way to a happier life – with the cycle of addiction and withdrawal completely a thing of the past.
I do believe everyone should be properly informed about addiction and it’s symptoms from a young age. The key is describing it in a way that makes them effectively aware of the effects and repercussions instead of making them curious. I wish I was told about addiction when I was a kid, instead addiction was something to be ashamed of and hidden as if it didn’t exist. Even though he still won’t admit it, I know my father struggled with addiction to pharmaceuticals. I’ll never forget as a child seeing my father outside running in circles around the house in the snow with a gun in his hand yelling at what he thought was an intruder. Come to find out he was high on cocaine and was just chasing his own footprints. As long as I can remember he always had a copious amount of prescription drugs, a pill for every ailment. Anytime my two older brother or I were sick he would hand us four or five over the counter pills along with half of a blue oval shaped pill. Come to find out that blue pill was a ten milligram Vicodin. Because of that I would always associate that blue pill with a good feeling. When I was around 15 that I was in a car accident with a friend which sent me to the hospital with spinal injury. From that I was prescribed three different pain relievers, one of which was Vicodin. I was also given a three months supply with three refills on the Vicodin. I never took more than I was supposed to but because of how long I was on them I soon became addicted without being aware of what addiction was. When the meds ran out I found myself waking up with anxiety, muscle spasm and anxiety. I had no idea what was wrong and tried to shake it off by doing sit-ups and push-ups to tire myself out. After a few days of being extremely uncomfortable I finally talked to my older brother about what I was going through. What he said changed my life forever, he said “it sounds like your going through withdrawals”, “the only thing that’s going to make you feel better is taking more pain pills”, and so off I went. I called in a refill, picked it up, dumped out a couple 7.5mg Vicodin, tossed them back with a drink of water and sure enough I felt better, a lot better. From that conclusion and from my lack of knowledge about addiction I thought that if I didn’t keep taking these pain pills I would go back to feeling awful all the time, I thought the withdrawal symptoms would never end. If I knew what I know now I would have just pushed through it, knowing that I probably only had another day or so of withdrawals to get through. Instead my lack of knowledge and persistent pill taking led to years of addiction and pain.