Why does an addict do what they do?

• How can they put a needle in their arm?
• Why do they always fail?
• Why do they do things that defy reason, and neglect themselves and others?

Those are just the tip of the Iceberg when you think about the questions related to the people who have the disease of addiction.  To really understand why people with the disease of addiction do those inconceivable things, you should read “The Chemistry of Addiction” and “The Physiology of Addiction” and “The Psychology of Addiction”.  

But let’s take a less scientific, more empathetic route to understanding…

Imagine your own brain is lying to you.

Because of the disease of addiction and substance abuse, the primal (Non-reasoning) part of your brain craves the stimulus from the substance of choice more than ANYTHING (Water, food, shelter, love).  Over time with continued use, this primal part of the brain can actually grow its influence to be greater than the reasoning part of the brain (Pictures Anyone?).  So the reasoning part of the brain becomes a slave to the primal, non-reasoning part of the brain. Doing as ordered, justifying every action, creating a fertile soil for the disease to grow and flourish.

Think about that for a minute.

The disease to grow and flourish.

Just like any disease, the disease of addiction creates an environment that will insure that it gets what it needs, that substance.  And with addiction there is the ultimate carrot and stick. The carrot? The best, most wonderful feeling you have ever had.  The stick?  Withdraw is the worst flu you can imagine (No worse than that).  So we have a wonderful learning environment with positive reinforcement for providing the substance and negative reinforcement for not providing the substance.  Our brains learn pretty quickly.

So our brain bends the rules, not to hurt anyone, but to ensure a constant supply of what it needs.

So your brain tells you:

• “I will make it to work, I just need to take this side trip”
• “Shoot, the first option, that could have worked, didn’t, but the next one is just a little longer”
• “I can just show up for work late, they will believe a quick excuse (Lie), my boss is stupid anyway”
• “It’s ok to miss work, I had more important things to do, and being high is way better than work”

Or

• “I can show up to work high, I got this!”
• “Who needed that job anyway, all those rules were stupid and the boss wasn’t fair”
• “I need the cash and they were stupid enough to leave their purse here”
• “It’s simple, just grab the stuff and I know this guy who will give us cash for it”
• “I can’t believe they are throwing me out.  It’s not like I don’t want to get better”

Ok, how might the brain support the disease:

• “This is not wrong, it’s fun, cool and way better than alcohol and everyone is doing it”
• “They really don’t understand me, I understand it all now”
• “It’s ok to party”
• “They don’t have my best interest in mind, otherwise they wouldn’t be on me so much”
• “I look good like this”
• “I am cool and in control”
• “I mean I had to get out of there, they were so strict and I just wanted to get high”
• “I am one of the coolest people, let all those losers climb onto their hamster wheels and chase their cheese”

And the disease gives reasons to not do treatment…

• I can’t take time away from my job, family, life
• I can do this, I can just quit

Or the ever dangerous:

• I’m going to party hearty one more time before I go into treatment tomorrow (Oversleep and miss our appointment, or worse overdose!)

Or reasons to not follow their program

• “I can see my old friends (or worse spouse), I can’t just not have friends”
• “Those people (The ones at the support group) are weird, I’m not sick like them, I don’t need that stuff”
• “The medicine doesn’t do anything except make me feel weird”
• “It’s ok I got this, I can drink and not use…”
• “Marijuana is not bad, it’s not like I using dope”
• “You can’t expect me to never party / date / have fun the rest of my life?”

All of these seemingly justifiable statements can totally make sense to the person whose brain came up with this idea. Perhaps you might have thought or seen the same or similar statements.  With the disease of addiction, it gets magnified.  There is a much diminished voice of reason when a person is suffering from active addiction.  If the voice of reason does speak up, it is quickly dismissed and the disease inspired thought is believed.

But this is just the beginning of the disease creating an environment to thrive.  In order to thrive, the brain encourages whatever supports the continued use of our substance of choice, or failing that, any substance that at least helps satisfy our need.

So we see a person with the disease:

• Creating chaos around them (Thus running to the substance to “Escape the chaos”)
• Surrounding themselves with “friends” who think alike and each working together to support their disease
• Eating poorly and skipping meals causing poor physical and mental health
• Avoiding situations where they might actually need to face their problems or get help

Once we understand how the disease works to support itself, we begin to understand why the person with the disease lies, cheats, steals, fails, and neglects.