How People Get Addicted To Drugs

Drug addiction is a common issue throughout the world these days, as people think that they are strong enough inside to only participate in substance abuse once - only to find out that it hooks them in for life.

Every day, hundreds of new people are admitted to rehab facilities all across the world, suffering from moderate drug addiction, all the way up to life change and life depending drug addictions which cost a fortune to facilitate (not to mention the addition massive cost to society).

The Process of Drug Addiction

You will probably have heard before that a drug addiction is solely based in the brain - and this is true. The brain is the organ of the body which becomes "addicted" as such - to the pleasurable feelings of the side effects and processes of the drug.

Here is a step by step flow chart of how someone becomes addicted to drugs - from the very beginning:

  1. Drugs are consumed or used for the first time.
  2. The brain likes the feelings associated with the use, and creates new neural pathways defining that experience.
  3. These new pathways encourage the brain to ask for more pleasurable feelings.
  4. The brain responds by creating a "want" for the drug again and again.

This "wanting" sensation manifests itself in the much touted "need" for the drug on a regular basis, which is actually the basis of a drug addiction. It is what causes the grief of people spending money that they do not have on drugs which ultimately are doing no good for their bodies.

How to Beat the Process of Drug Addiction

Unfortunately, once the new neural pathways are created in the brain, there is very little which can be done to prevent those "wanting" feelings from returning, until the brain is definitively told that it is not getting any more of the drug, and that it therefore needs to close those pathways down.

This process can take anywhere from a few days to a few months, and unfortunately, the harder and more potent the drug, the stronger the neural pathways are, and therefore the longer it will take to get over a drug addiction.

So - If you are thinking of quitting drugs or if you know someone who is in need of rehabilitation - keep this information in mind and think of the reasons they became addiction in the first place.