Drug Addiction

When you use drugs, they can quickly become a problem.  Drug Addiction can happen before you know it.  You need to really take a look at your drug use and be honest with yourself when evaluating whether or not that drug use has become a problem.

Start by asking yourself one simple question:  "Do you sometimes think you have a drug problem?" If the answer is yes, you probably do have an issue with drug addiction.  Why?
 
Most of the time, drug abusers deny they have a problem, or they hide from it by making excuses. It’s a natural reaction to defend yourself and your behaviors. But your defenses break down once in a while.  So if you sometimes think you have a problem, you almost certainly do.

Think about how you feel the morning after heavy using.  Your body aches, your head is cloudy, you feel guilty for over-using and promise yourself you’ll stop.  You decide that you won’t be using drugs that day.  You feel beaten and broken and want to do something about it.  Your defenses are down and you are vulnerable to your own rational thoughts.

As the day goes on, though, your defenses start coming back up again and you begin excusing yourself for the previous day’s binge.  You start to make excuses for your over-indulgence.  You tell yourself you were having a bad day, you didn’t eat enough, you were really stressed out, or some other excuse.

You decide to let yourself use "just a little".  After all, you were having a bad day yesterday. Today won’t be the same.  And the cycle continues.

You may go through this hundreds of time before you recognize that there’s a pattern going on.  Almost all drug abusers go through this cycle. 

When you decide to really face the possibility that you have a problem, how do you identify it?  The answer is really quite simple.

You have a problem when you use too much, too often, and the use is out of control.  But you have to be your own judge and be honest with yourself.  Pay attention to your feelings.  You may want to write down how you feel about your drug use.  Sometimes seeing the words can help you face the problem and start helping yourself.