Drug addiction is a brain disease. One of the reasons that people who are addicted to drugs just can’t stop on their own is that this disease is so powerful that
it changes the way people think and behave. Imagine if someone said to you to just cut back your eating from three meals a day to just one every other day. After a while, you would get an intense hunger and the only thing you would think about is food.
Drug addiction is very much like that — there is an intense hunger or craving with drugs that doesn’t just go away with willpower. Furthermore, patients with drug addiction have been shown to have abnormalities in the areas of the brain that are responsible for self-control. So, when these
parts of the brain are damaged, no matter how hard someone tries to stop, he or she cannot do it without admitting the problem and
getting help.
The good news is that once a patient with a drug addiction decides to quit, the success rates for treatment are actually pretty good. This is especially true when they have support from their families, friends and doctors in order to recover. Sometimes the toughest part about treating patients is just getting them motivated to start treatment.
For more information about
helping a friend who has a drug problem, visit the
Help section.