Helping Someone with a Drug Addiction

If people stop following their medical treatment plan, they are likely to relapse. Addiction affects your whole life, including your relationships, career, health, and psychological well-being. Treatment success depends on developing a new way of living and addressing the reasons why you turned to drugs in the first place.

1. They may offer you treatment at the practice or refer you to your local drug service.
2. Your loved one will need to find ways to cope with drug cravings and triggers.
3. The other important aspect of avoiding replacement addictions is to address any underlying mental health problems.

Around 40% to 60% of people working to overcome a substance use disorder will relapse at some point. However, it is important to recognize that this rate is comparable to relapse rates for other chronic health conditions such as hypertension and asthma. Fortunately, most of the acute symptoms of withdrawal pass within a week or two of quitting. However, some people who quit an addiction find that certain withdrawal symptoms seem to go on and on. This is known as post-acute withdrawal syndrome (PAWS), and it can continue for weeks, months, or even years in some cases.

Triggers can be any person, place, or thing that sparks the craving for using. Common triggers include places you’ve done drugs, friends you’ve used with, and anything else that brings up memories of your drug use. Follow-up care virtual meeting schedule or continuing care is also recommended, which includes ongoing community- or family-based recovery support systems. Support groups or self-help groups can be part of in-patient programs or available for free use in the community.

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Instead of giving in to an urge to use, come up with alternative activities, such as going for a walk or calling a friend or family member to talk, so that you keep busy until the urge passes. Be prepared to deal with things that trigger your cravings, such lsd effects short-term and long-term effects of lsd as being in an environment where others are using. The self-help support group message is that addiction is an ongoing disorder with a danger of relapse. Self-help support groups can decrease the sense of shame and isolation that can lead to relapse.

Treatment Options

Sign-up to get Mayo Clinic’s trusted health content sent to your email. Receive a bonus guide on ways to manage your child’s health just for subscribing. Substituted cathinones, also called “bath salts,” are mind-altering (psychoactive) substances similar to amphetamines such as ecstasy (MDMA) and cocaine.

How to Overcome Drug Addiction

You can always reach out to a mental health professional, or attend a local or online support group with individuals who are navigating similar thoughts and feelings. Do you need comfort or to cope with something that happened? Often folks turn to substances to mask emotions they may need to cope with holistically. For many, access to substances to manage mental health or pain symptoms may be easier than accessing healthcare services. Committing to change includes stages of precontemplation and contemplation where a person considers changing, cutting down, moderating, or quitting the addictive behavior.

If you do start using the drug, it’s likely you’ll lose control over its use again — even if you’ve had treatment and you haven’t used the drug for some time. The best way to prevent an addiction to a drug is not to take the drug at all. If your health care provider prescribes a drug with the potential for addiction, use care when taking the drug and follow instructions. As time passes, you may need larger doses of the drug to get high. As your drug use increases, you may find that it’s increasingly difficult to go without the drug. Attempts to stop drug use may cause intense cravings and make you feel physically ill.

Talking therapies, such as CBT, help you to see how your thoughts and feelings affect your behaviour. You’ll also be given a keyworker, who will support you throughout your treatment. They can discuss your problems with you and get you into treatment. Whatever is said during an intervention should be done so with the intention of helping the person accept help.

Drug paraphernalia to look out for

Remember, drugs change the brain—and this can lead to addiction and other serious problems. So, preventing early use of drugs or alcohol may go a long way in reducing these risks. You may have heard the myth that addiction is inescapable, but that’s not true.