“I only do it occasionally, I can stop whenever I want to”, “I have a condition, these were prescribed to me”, “It’s just through the summer, I’ll get back to normal easily”, are some excuses we are no strangers to.  

Thanks to the T.V and Radio, addiction is something that is always limited to substance use, aggressive and irrational behavior, and ending up on the streets. Not to deny the legitimacy of any of these situations, but we are all addicted to one thing or another. 

Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, prescribed medication, habitual eating, over-working, sex, or any part of your routine that becomes a ritual is an addiction. I will not go into these depths of all addictions, but will only cover a few helpful ways to break your drug dependency.

How A Drug Dependency Develops

We are exposed to tobacco, drugs, and alcohol at quite a young age. The reason may be a lack of attention during upbringing, an unstable household, or any pattern in life that fuels the fire of emotional detachment. 

The psychology behind this is that adolescence is the phase in life when we go through a severe identity crisis, and that is when we are most vulnerable to the euphoric experiences of various drugs. 

However, not everyone starts picks their addictions up because of the same reason. The more serious part of drug dependencies is the ones caused by prescribed medications. Adderall, Ritalin, anxiety pills, muscle relaxants, and painkillers being one of the most common to be abused.

Drug dependency is arguably the easiest of addictions to identify promptly. Whether or not you think you can control your urges, you always know exactly what drug or substance you rely on. You can ask yourself the following questions to really know how deep your dependency is.

• Am I using the substance habitually or willfully?
• How do I feel about doing so?
• How much this habit of yours interferes with daily chores?
• Can I quite right here, right now? If not, then why?
• How is affecting my health and social outgoing?

Though many substance users know well enough about the harmful effects of it, they still prefer to look the other way. This leads to more frequent use without any thought to implications, frequent use builds up tolerance and leads to more frequent use and higher dosage.

Another factor that contributes the most to developing a drug dependency is finding out how socially acceptable it may be. If everyone else around you is doing the same thing and not worrying about the repercussions then why should you?

Drug, alcohol, and substance use becomes even more common when it is used as a coping mechanism for something else. Lingering traumas or the urge to avoid pain makes it even more likely for a person to withdraw from reality and experience a state of high, and that can be a hard thing to get rid of.

Easy Steps To Overcome Drug Addiction

The majority of people overcome addiction by themselves and no external support, and that is no doubt the best and most effective one. Unlike other addictive behaviors, drug abuse can have a serious withdrawal phase and can throw up quite a fight when you go “Cold-Turkey” on it.

This is why it is always advised to reach out to a professional psychologist near you that specializes in drug addictions if you feel you cannot overcome it by yourself. However, here are some of the steps that I have found to be most helpful from a personal history of drug abuse and that of some close friends.

Acknowledge The Facts

The foremost stage of any addiction is the state of denial, not accepting you have a problem in the first place. This makes the acknowledgment of the facts even more important and the first step towards recovery.

If you know you use a drug or substance more than occasionally and would face difficulties in sleeping, eating, relaxing, or being productive when you quit, then it is without a doubt a dependence on it. There is no way towards recovery if you fail at accepting your dependency on something.

Evaluate Yourself

Self-evaluation usually gets the job done for most people. It is when you start asking the hard questions like, “Why am I doing this?”, “What do I believe about my dependence?”, “How can I try to overcome the problem?”

This is pretty much self-explanatory, you come up with a bunch of questions and try answering yourself in all honesty. Once you go through this phase of questioning and answering yourself, you’ll come at a point of realization about how you’re gaining nothing out of it and it is just affecting everything in your life even more.

Self-evaluation after acceptance builds up your motivation as you get a closer look at reality. Now, of course, you will experience a point of extreme guilt and self-pity because it has been a while since you last had a thoughtful insight. Drug and substance use not only block emotions of pain and stress but blocks out all emotions altogether, which is you end up feeling nothing and have no guilt at all.

Get In Driving Seat

To buy synthetic urine is quite effective when faced with the immediate worry of a drug test, but to grow out of the addiction and dependence, you have to quit using it altogether.

Through your self-evaluation, whatever points you come across, wherever you are to blame, whatever mistakes you’ve made, you have to take complete responsibility for it. Giving excuses to yourself is doing nothing but playing yourself, it is now time to start being honest with yourself.

A key thing to remember is not to be too hard on yourself while making this positive decision. Yes, you made mistakes and it is what makes you human, time to acknowledge them, learn from them, and move on with your life.

Getting in the driving seat of your life is going to take a lot of patience and effort, so you have to bear with it until it starts becoming easy, which it always does.

Find A Substitute

Addictions and dependencies become more of habits and compulsive behaviors over time and stop becoming euphoric. Anyhow, breaking an old habit isn’t easy either. You are dependent on the security and completeness from the high and you have to find something equally rewarding to replace it.

The best place to start looking for a substitute is your existing behavioral patterns. Find out why you use a drug when you use it, how often do you use it, and what feeling of relief it offers you every time. You may find using jet clean synthetic urine to be helpful in getting you through drug tests in the beginning.

Once you do, you can find a much healthier activity to indulge yourself in like meditation and exercise. The important thing to remember here is not finding another coping mechanism (switching from one drug to a less harmful one), it breaks the dependency altogether, which is why it has to be as natural as it can be. 

Conclusion

From the moment you acknowledge your dependency on a certain substance, you indulge yourself in an everlasting battle of quitting and relapsing. 

A relapse is not something to look up to but is not something to be hard on yourself for either. Allow yourself for the minor mishaps and learn from avoiding what caused the relapse every time. You will eventually get there, don’t lose hope!