A careful study of the behavior patterns of persons with what I would term addictive personality disorders will reveal an uncanny resemblance to persons with known psychiatric illnesses. If left unchecked the results can be the ruining of many an individual.
Such patterns include:
Anti-Social: These persons are potentially violent and given to lies, impulsive behavior, neglecting and/or ill-treating their family members and with the potential to commit murder.
Borderline: known for their emotional instability, low self-esteem, and suicidal.
Depressive: chronic pessimism, a why me syndrome!
Obsessive-compulsive: preoccupied with one or more activities, often unable to exercise control over certain actions.
Paranoid: constant feelings of suspicion and distrust. Reacts angrily to perceived slights.
Not everyone who experiments with drugs will become addicted as there are several other factors to be considered; and our ambivalent attitude towards the use of alcohol, marijuana and other drugs makes it difficult for many to admit to having a problem that requires him/her to stop its use altogether.
I have had the personal experience of others advising me that a “little drink or smoke never hurt anybody”, or that “half of my life was gone” because I politely chose a non alcoholic drink; however many others would accept this erroneous statement as gospel as the alternative of seeming to be different makes them uncomfortable.Incidentally many of those who criticized my decision to become drug-free back in 1977 have either gone on to the great beyond or are in very poor health.
The risk factor increases making it more difficult for persons to simply give up an addictive behavior pattern when that individual has begun at an early age i.e. pre-adult use, or where family members have been known to engage in similar activities.
Those who do become addicted always come to rue the day when they first experimented with gambling, tobacco, alcohol or other drugs as the full effects of their addiction begin to take hold, leaving a trail of destroyed relationships among family and friends.
Persons with chronic depression should guard against even the occasional use of alcohol which has been known to trigger murderous and/or suicidal episodes with several examples springing immediately to mind.
Those who have succumbed to the disease of addiction must come to accept that recovery is their personal responsibility and every effort should be made to follow a rigorous post-treatment recovery plan as hoping for a miraculous cure because of medical or psychiatric intervention will just not happen.
In this context behavior modification through prayer, medication, and counseling which ideally should include group therapy must become of paramount importance if they are to avoid relapses and the danger of giving up altogether.
Waiting expectantly for that desire to stop using addictive substances will not happen overnight, so repeating this trite phrase will not help.
The only solution is for the individual to admit that he or she is sick and tired of being sick and tired; and if this can be repeated whether tempted or not, he or she may find the motivation to attempt recovery.
Recovery must begin and it must begin now whether that desire is there or not. If you are already past that comfortable stage where you can take it or leave it, I recommend you visit a drug care facility for immediate assistance as supervised withdrawal may be of critical importance. You would not want to be seeing snakes and pygmies or hearing ants talking in your ears or even voices telling you to jump off high balconies.
One dear friend of mine now deceased, attempted to pull his family outside to hide in the dasheen field as he was hearing our ace crime fighter Randolph Borroughs at the back of his home directing his men to attack from the rear. Of course there was no Randolph Borroughs outside. A few days later he was on a boat and saw Jesus calling out to him over the waters so he walked off the boat to meet him almost drowning in the process.
Addiction is serious business and few persons as I've said before will ever understand it.
We will continue our conversations over the next few days. Please share with a friend; you may save a life or two.
There is one sure way of getting an addicted person who is in denial to admit to himself he has a problem and that is to get him to speak of his embarrassing moments while under the influence of an addictive substance. It takes time but after several of these self revelations the addicted person begins to wonder if it wouldn't be better if he did not use drugs.
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