Understanding & Talking To Someone About Getting Help
No one wants to be addicted, it comes from a root cause, there’s a root problem here. You really have to get to that root problem or it’s just gonna keep coming back. Say I hurt my back at work and go to the doctor, instantly I get four prescriptions, so that’s kind of where the addiction starts. I take lots of them, three times a day and at first it’s great. So eventually after three months, I need them, it wasn’t “Oh,it makes me feel better. ” I’m running from being sick at that point. I keep telling myself it’s okay because the doctor gave them to me, I’m in pain so I need to take these.
When you’re dealing with Opiate pain medications, they are typically prescribed by a primary care physician or some sort of attending physician because of another physical issue. That gives the client ‘permission’ to use these things and unfortunately, when they start using them and become dependent on them, what happens with prescription pain medications is, it’s an Opiate, so it depletes the dopamine in the brain and that becomes their reinforcement.
Then, say my family notices, and they started confronting me about it, but of course I’d be like “No, I’m okay, I’m doing what I need to do, they’re coming from the doctor. ” I would never come out and say “Oh, I’ve taken ten already and it’s only eight o’clock in the morning. ” I would hide it like that, even though they all knew. But in my mind,they didn’t know so I lied to them, I begin to lie about it alot.
Initially when people come into treatment, denial is one of the very first barriers that comes up. It’s something that is a little difficult to overcome because they’re being challenged to manage something that has become a deeply embedded relationship in their life. They become numb to emotions, to regret, to guilt, all those things that you would think someone who’s addicted to something might feel, but they don’t.
When someone is in addiction, they don’t feel some emotions therefore you keep doing using, cause if they did, they wouldn’t let themselves take that next pill. So, they block it out and all of those emotions that a normal person feels don’t matter in that moment, they’re gone. A lot of times, what is done in treatment is a counselor may have them write letters to their addiction saying goodbye or addressing or confronting it, almost as if it were a relationship that needs to end. Denial is one of the stages of grief, so it’s almost like they’re mourning that relationship and coming to terms with that and breaking it off completely.
Really talking to someone, very calmly and saying something to the effect of, ‘this is what I see, this is what you see, we need to talk to somebody like a professional. We need to get somebody in here that doesn’t know either one of us and put out the pro’s and con’s, the facts and go from there.’ Definitely don’t be too aggressive with it because it may only go to make that person want to do it that much more. Just be honest and talk calmly and open and go get help with it.