Some people end up suffering a great deal before they become ready to get help for their addiction problems. It doesn’t have to be this way though because the person can stop this behaviour at any time. All they need to do is develop the willingness to change. If you feel that substance abuse has already taken too much from you, there will be addiction help out there that will allow you to escape this situation.
Denial of the Need for Addiction Help
One of the most common reasons why people fail to get addiction help is that they are in denial for the need of this. Even when the suffering caused by alcohol or drug abuse becomes so much that the person is unable to ignore it, they will still come up with excuses for why they do not need any help. The person trapped in addiction has an impressive ability for denial and they may be convinced that their current problems are just a temporary event. The person may truly believe that if they continue to use alcohol or drugs that it will only be a matter of time before the good days return.
One of the other reasons why the individual will resist any type of addiction help is that they want to sort out their own problems. This type of attitude is commendable in many areas of life, but when it comes to addiction, it is usually just an excuse not to change. These individuals will often have devoted a lot of time to sorting out their own problems, and the fact that they remain addicted is evidence that they do need some help. This is a very serious condition and the addicted individual who refuses help is like the person with curable cancer who refuses any help.
The Downward Spiral of Addiction
The longer people remain addicted to alcohol or drugs, the more they are going to end up losing. This is because of the way dependence work. When individuals use alcohol or drugs for a long time then it means that they develop tolerance. They have to use more of the same substance in order to get the same effect. Of course, by using more of the substance, the person will be experiencing more negative effects, which can then further encourage them to use more of the substance to escape the negative effects. The person is now caught in a downward spiral and unless they are able to escape, it will mean that they will continue until they die.
Addiction Help at Rock Bottom
It is often stated that people need to hit rock bottom before they will be able to break away from addiction. There is a great deal of truth in this claim, but there can be confusion as to what it means to hit rock bottom Some people will mistakenly take this to mean that they are going to need to lose everything before they are able to get better. This is not what is meant by rock bottom, and if individuals keep on drinking or using drugs until they have lost everything, there is a good chance they will end up dead.
Hitting rock bottom only means that the person has reached a stage where they feel they have had enough. Some people will have a high rock bottom, meaning they will have lost very little to their addiction before becoming ready to get help. Other people will have a low rock bottom, meaning that they will have likely lost a lot. It is always going to be better to have a high rock bottom, and there is no reason not to stop at this point.
