Are your friends blaming you for not overcoming the drug addiction, or do you think you can do it alone through willpower? If you are, you don’t stand to blame, nor can your strong willpower alone help. Having a strong will to overcome addiction will only bring you more frustration.
The will and determination that work perfectly in personal achievements have been deemed futile in substance abuse. Drugs and substance abuse has proven to be a complex issue that doesn’t salute your strong willpower. This article gives you five reasons why willpower alone won’t get you far in your addiction recovery journey. Why it just doesn’t work!
It’s time; let’s get started!
Willpower Promotes Isolation
Most people claim that they can resist temptations and urge to get back to the old ways. However, this is certainly not the case. They claim to overcome addiction through sheer willpower, mainly because they don’t want to share. They feel ashamed to ask for help, and in the long run, they isolate themselves.
Most people get into addiction because of previous experiences that create painful memories. The memories bring about emotional pain and trauma that leads to drugs and substance abuse. Instead of facing these painful memories and trying to heal from them, they get into physical dependence.
Unfortunately for them, abusing drugs and alcohol increases their chances of suffering from mental illnesses like depression. The unresolved issues end up causing emotional wounds and, in the worst cases, anxiety.
Unlike believing that you can do everything to overcome addiction, you can opt for genuine recovery. Genuine recovery compels you to recognize that you need help to recover from the drug addiction problem. Once you submit that you can’t do it all alone, you’ll achieve lasting sobriety with the help of passionate experts.
Addiction Is Not Optional
More often than not, you will hear people claiming that they stopped smoking by sheer willpower. But what is addiction? It is the physical and mental dependence on a substance. Meaning, if you can recover by willpower, you weren’t addicted in the first place. Addiction is not an option, nor is it a choice.
As addiction to a substance develops, the power of choice is gradually taken away from you. It makes the willpower to control or restrain the impulses an impossibility. Impossible because when you are physically and mentally dependent on a component, you have zero control over it.
At some point in the addiction journey, you lose the decision of using the drugs. But, the earlier you realize the choice to abuse is no longer yours, the better. Self-realization is a crucial stage in your addiction recovery journey, and none can skip it. After self-realization, sourcing addiction treatment becomes the second step.
Humans Are Prone to Forget
Although people rarely admit it, humans are prone to forgetting. You probably can’t remember the first point in this blog post! According to a study, humans forget approximately 50% of new information in an hour of learning it, 70% within 24 hours, and up to 90% within a week. Herman Ebbinghaus explains the pattern better as the forgetting curve in his 1885 book on memory.
When recovering from drug and substances abuse, there are no days off. With willpower, you’re more likely to forget what you promised yourself and become nostalgic. Before you know it, you’re simply sliding back in, convincing yourself that “this is my last time”. Triggers to sink you in back to addiction are always around you and may include your friends.
Recovery is a process that needs constant monitoring so that you can stay healthy both physically and mentally. Addiction treatment can help walk with you in your recovery journey by instilling daily life skills to help build a sober life. Willpower helps but certainly, it is not the ultimate key to succeed in recovery.
Addiction Changes Your Brain
Alcohol addicts often experience alcohol shakes if they haven’t drunk it. What’s more, an addict can’t have clear thoughts or make a straight judgment on certain issues without using the drug. It happens because addiction changes how the brain works and its normal body operations.
Drug addiction changes how the brain works by altering sending, receiving, and processing of information. The drug achieves that by imitating the chemical messengers and stimulating the “reward circuit”. Through the reward circuit, the drug positions as the ultimate necessity for your survival.
With the drugs controlling the entire brain system, no willpower can change the pattern. Willpower can only serve as the first cognitive process to need help. On the other hand, therapy gives you the necessary help that you can’t get from lone recovery. Recovery treatment slides your brain back to its normal functionality.
A Decision Is Not Enough
Do you always keep the promises you make? Have you ever decided that you’ll stop drinking and found your way to the bottle, again? Well, deciding is good but, it does not always promise commitment and consistency in the long run.
Willpower is not consistent as the body has a way of convincing the brain back to drug abuse. Believing that you have the power to control everything without asking for help will hurt your recovery journey. Successful recovery needs support from experts and people who have been there before. Isolation in the name of willpower during the addiction recovery process is a recipe for disaster.
Does Willpower Help in Addiction Recovery?
Yes, willpower is the first step in your addiction recovery process. It plays an important as it helps you establish that you need help. Additionally, it pushes you towards consistency in achieving your recovery goals and resisting drug cravings and nostalgia. However, willpower shouldn’t cloud your need for a professional in addiction treatment. As much as you have the willpower to recover from drug addiction, you need an expert to guide you, open up, and keep you in check.
You can’t and shouldn’t recover alone; successful recovery needs support. Lucky for you, you can find help for you and other victims right here by contacting Covenant Hills Treatment Center. We love visitors! We are located in Orange County, CA.
