The same just can’t be said for alcoholics and drug addicts. If you force a person with Bipolar Disorder to take the right medications, they’re going to have a reaction to those meds whether they like it or not and (hopefully) get better. It’s the same with many other types of mental illnesses. If someone has cancer and doesn’t think they have cancer or refuses treatment, in theory you could hold them down or knock them out and force them to have the treatments, and the cancer would be cured (hopefully) no matter what that person thought. That’s so different from other types of illnesses, even other mental illnesses. If someone doesn’t want to stop, they’re not going to get sober no matter what you do, and it doesn’t really matter if they’re a true addict or not at that point. It could be a ton of other reasons, but the reasons don’t really matter. I’ve felt that before, especially in the early days of my disease. It could be because they can’t imagine how they could live without it. They may never have tried to stop because they saw no reason to, especially if they weren’t have severe consequences (severe enough, in their opinion, to make them want to stop).īut they might also be like me and still not want to stop, which means they’re alcoholics/addicts and either don’t know it because they’ve never tried to stop or just don’t care if they are and wouldn’t stop anyway. There are certainly people out there who use and drink a lot like I do but have the ability to stop or moderate on their own, and for whatever reason, they don’t exercise it.įor many people who use or drink heavily, they may just not want to stop. Does this addict want to stop getting high?.If you’re reading this, and you have a friend or family member who is an addict or an alcoholic who can’t stop, there are 2 important questions to ask: If the Addict/Alcoholic Doesn’t Want to Stop, You Have a Different Problem So that answers the question of why addicts can’t stop using drugs, but there’s an important assumption being made here: we’re assuming the addict/alcoholic wants to stop. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t defeat the obsession to drink and use. I truly wished that I wasn’t doing those things. I wasn’t hurting my family and friends because I wanted to. But while it’s true my body is doing these things, for years I didn’t want to be doing it. After all, our hands are the ones lifting the bottles to our lips, putting the needles in our veins, putting the powders up our noses. I know that it looks like the addict/alcoholic is doing this on purpose. That’s why a true addict can’t stop using. I was using against my will, and it was horrific. I found myself buying coke despite the fact that I absolutely hated using it. I would find myself in liquor stores after I swore for the 100th time that I’d never drink again. I would find myself dialing the numbers of drug dealers after changing my number and getting a new phone. I watched myself do these horrible things and couldn’t make it stop. I’ve never felt more out of control than when I was using. It was disgusting, and I hated it, and I did it anyway. I’ve found myself walking into Staples to buy a can of air duster to suck down because I couldn’t get any alcohol or other drugs. It means I’ll use anything to get high because I cannot stop thinking about it. It means I cry while getting high because I don’t want to do it anymore, because I feel like a self-destructing robot with no free will. It means I walk out of rehabs wanting to stop, only to use that day. I use and drink despite the consequences. It means I use and drink far beyond the point where it feels good or is fun. That means I drink more than I intend to. When I am forced to stop (I go to jail or rehab or run out), I cannot get the idea out of my head no matter what I do. Once I start, that compulsion to keep going cannot be stopped. I have a compulsion to keep drinking and using once I put a substance in my body, and I have a compulsion to get more once I sober up. Just as a person with diabetes is physically different from me-my body makes the insulin I need, theirs doesn’t-my addict body is physically different from the average person’s: We call addiction a disease for a reason: drugs and alcohol do something to my body that they don’t do to other people. If they would, and they truly wanted to, I promise you that they could (some don’t want to stop, and that’s a different story). You’ll hear a lot of reasons why addicts can’t stop doing drugs and why alcoholics can’t stop drinking, but the main reason they can’t stop is because they literally cannot stop-their brains won’t allow it.
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