The Subtle Mechanisms That Addicts Use to Avoid Treatment

Many addicts adopt a tongue-in-cheek attitude that “rehab is for quitters” and avoid all treatment for their substance abuse problems. Friends and family who see a loved one suffering from alcohol and drug addiction are often hard-pressed to understand this attitude. Addicts suffer health and social problems, lose their jobs, and see their friends and family members turn their backs on them, yet they continue their destructive behavior with no attempts to address and defeat the problems that all but destroyed their lives. The chemical and physical dependencies that are fostered by drugs and alcohol not only create overwhelming cravings for those substances, but also cloud the addict’s judgment as to seeking the help that the addict needs to fight those cravings.

I Can Quit Any Time I Want

In the broadest sense, an addict will believe that he can stop using drugs or drinking any time he wants to. An addict can tell himself that he will not drink or use drugs for a particular stretch of time, if at all, but when the addict experiences a stress trigger, come home after a hard day’s work, or gets depressed or anxious over any part of his life, he defers his decision to quit his addictions and turns back to old habits. This is more than just simple procrastination. If an addict were only procrastinating, he would eventually take steps toward doing what he professed that he would do. Addicts tell themselves that they can and will quit tomorrow, but tomorrow never comes. Their addiction is too great and they only delude themselves as to their intention and ability to stop using drugs or alcohol.

I Need This Right Now

An addict might also believe that he could overcome his addiction if all of the stresses in his life were to disappear. This attitude is reflected, for example, in addict’s professing that he picked a bad week to give up drinking or using drugs. The reality is that everyone experiences some level of stress and disruption in everyday life. The addict uses that stress as a rationale for his drug or alcohol addiction. An addict who desires to overcome his substance abuse problems needs to learn and adopt new mechanisms to deal with regular stress and everyday difficulties in life. Failure to do so will take the addict back to his old bad stress-reduction habits.

Don’t Tell Me What To Do

Drugs and alcohol can shield an addict from the problems his substance abuse habits are creating for people around him. As the addict sinks deeper into his addled world, he becomes more self-centered and less able to appreciate the harm that his actions create for friends and family. At this stage of addiction, the addict might profess that he is in charge of his own life and that he has every right to destroy his life is that is what he wants to do. A person who is intent on helping a drug or alcohol abuser will need to impress upon that person that his destruction of his own life will hurt many more people than just the addict.

Fear of Recovery

Addicts might fear detox, rehab and recovery due to stories they have heard about physical withdrawal from addictive substances, or  about relapses that other addicts have experienced after going through detox and rehab. An addict might also believe that he is too weak to suffer through detox and rehab. These fears and concerns are common among addicts and are a key reason why an addict needs professional assistance to overcome their problems.

Addicts are remarkably adept at framing excuses to avoid seeking treatment for their problems. Drug and alcohol abuse counselors have heard all of those excuses and can address and dismantle them as the addict makes them.

If you have been avoiding treatment for your drug or alcohol abuse problems for any reasons, please call the staff and counselors at Hired Power at xxx-xxx-xxxx to discuss and deconstruct those reasons. Drugs and alcohol will make you think that your reasons are valid and legitimate. We can show you the other side of that picture.