The Role Denial In Addiction

Denial, a defence mechanism often employed to cope with distressing emotions like anxiety, manifests as the act of ignoring, downplaying, or distorting reality. It represents both an inability and a refusal to accept the truth of a situation. 

 

In the context of addiction, denial allows individuals to persist in harmful behaviours, such as continued substance abuse, despite facing adverse consequences. While compulsion certainly plays a role, denial serves as a powerful enabler, shielding individuals from confronting the reality of their addiction and inhibiting effective intervention and treatment.

Common manifestations of denial in addiction

 

In addiction recovery, denial can look like:

 

• A refusal to talk about the problem

• Hiding or lying about the addiction

• Minimising the role drugs or alcohol have in your life or their impact on yourself and others. ‘It doesn’t matter if I’m late or hung over for work – I still show up.’
• Comparing your substance use to other people’s – ‘I don’t drink/use drugs as much as other people, so I don’t have a problem.’
• Rationalising drug addiction and alcohol addiction – ‘I deserve a drink/to use drugs because work was stressful today.’
• Blaming others – ‘I wouldn’t need to drink/use drugs if my partner didn’t argue with me if my job wasn’t as difficult.’

 

These manifestations show that denial protects the addiction, to the detriment of your recovery and health.

The ways we engage in denial in addiction

 

Conscious and unconscious denial

Individuals can have varying amounts of insight into their denial – it is possible to be dimly aware that you’re lying to yourself or unaware at all.

 

Cognitive dissonance

Denial is one of the most common mechanisms for dealing with cognitive dissonance – the phenomenon of holding two contradictory beliefs simultaneously. These beliefs can be the knowledge that drugs or alcohol are negatively impacting your life and the belief that you need them to function. Denial enters the picture to suppress the knowledge that you have a problem, allowing these two beliefs to co-exist.

 

Self-preservation

 

Denial allows you to preserve an image of yourself as not addicted while still being addicted to substances. You can tell yourself, ‘I don’t have a problem – I’m not like those other people who are addicted.’ 

 

Fear of change.

 

Accepting that you have a problem means you have to do something about it. Until then, denial hides this painful reality from your consciousness. As we will see, there are multiple stages of denial in addiction, and acceptance is the final one. 

The stages of denial

 

Denial serves as a protective mechanism, shielding individuals from the harsh reality of their dependency. Initially, there’s often a sense of disbelief or minimisation, where one downplays the severity of their substance use. This is followed by defensive reactions, such as rationalisation or blaming external factors. 

 

As the addiction progresses, denial can morph into outright refusal to acknowledge any problem at all. Ultimately, confronting and breaking through these stages of denial is a vital step towards recovery and healing.

 

The five stages of denial within addiction are: 

 

Stage one – no awareness of the problem

At this stage, the user isn’t aware they have a problem, even if it’s obvious to others. Downplaying drug or alcohol use is normal. ‘It was university – we all drank that way.’

 

Stage two – first awareness

These are often described as ‘epiphanies’ or ‘pivotal events’ – but they are not enough to convince the user that they need to stop. It can be a physical symptom, like a bleeding nose from snorting drugs, or crossing a boundary, like injecting drugs when that had previously been a hard line. 

 

Stage three – intermittent awareness

At this stage, denial starts to break down, and the user will become aware they have a problem and will need to work harder to repress or minimise it. This stage is closest to the descriptions of denial often found in clinical literature—blaming others, downplaying the clearly present problem, and continuing despite the obvious problem.

 

Stage four – continued use despite full awareness of the problem

At this point, the negative effects of the continued use of the drug are obvious to the user, and it is clear to them that their addiction is ruining their lives – but they are not yet ready to stop. 

 

Depression and nihilism are common – at this point, the addicted person may profess that they don’t care anymore, and they’ve accepted they have an addiction, and that’s just how it is. However, this is the last step before the final stage.

 

Stage five – desire to quit

In the final stage, denial has ceased to work, and the depression and nihilism of stage four have fully sunk in. This stage is the end of the ambivalence, resignation, and acceptance that the addiction needs to end.

 

Sometimes, a big event triggers the final stage, such as a relationship breakdown or prison – but sometimes, the final stage is simply an acceptance that denial is no longer working and that the addicted person can’t continue.

The impact of denial on relapse

 

Denial doesn’t just play a role in continuing active addiction – it can rear its head further down the recovery line and contribute to the risk of relapse. Because of this, people in recovery need to know the signs of denial.

 

Emotional relapse

During emotional relapse, people in recovery stop taking care of themselves effectively – isolating themselves, bottling up their emotions and not fully engaging with recovery. They’re usually in denial that they’re doing this and need to have this pointed out to them, as they aren’t fully aware that it’s happening.

 

Mental relapse

This is the precontemplation stage of relapse, marked by minimising and bargaining. In this phase, the person in recovery is actively denying the damage their addiction has done to their lives and telling themselves that it will be different this time – that they can allow themselves to indulge just this once, that it’s a special occasion, that it wasn’t so bad before.

 

Thoughts of using again are normal and can be dealt with in therapy and rehab, but it’s important not to let denial take hold and to see this phase for what it is. This can be worked through in therapy or rehab.

 

Physical relapse

Denial plays a key role if the person in recovery starts to use it again. The user may tell themselves that while they’re using again, it’s different – that they’re not the same person or have it under control.

 

Denial is present at every stage of relapse, which is why it’s important to be as honest with yourself as possible and with your therapist, addiction rehab or support network.

From denial to change

Honesty is the antidote to denial. Once it’s clear that you have to change, you need to keep this in mind and fully engage with the task of recovery.

 

Therapists and addiction recovery specialists are knowledgeable about denial and its role in continuing addiction. By keeping an open mind and committing to being honest, you can push back the role of denial in your addiction and continue down the path to recovery.

Contact Us Today