Drug Addiction, Tolerance and Withdrawal
Before we go further on our healing journey, it's important to establish some basic definitions and understand some basic terminology. First, through prolonged use of certain drugs that have addictive qualities, we can develop a dependency on those drugs. Among these are alcohol, morphine, cocaine, methadone, amphetamines, nicotine, heroin, oxycodone (such as OxyContin, Percodan, and Percocet), hydrocodones, (such as Vicodin and Lorcet), barbiturates (such as Nembutal and Seconal), and benzodiazepines (such as Xanax and Valium).
Addiction is defined as the compulsive, physiological need for and use of a habit-forming substance. It is characterized by tolerance and well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal. All addictive drugs produce a reward system in the brain. Using addictive drugs gives us a feeling of well-being and alleviates bad feelings. After using a drug for a period of time, users frequently develop a tolerance to the drug (they need more of the substance to accomplish the same feeling as when they began using the substance). This effect is thought to be related to our body's homeostatic mechanisms. Homeostasis is a relatively stable state of equilibrium (physiological and psychological balance). Homeostasis is our body's optimum state of functioning, and homeostatic mechanisms are the way our bodies achieve this balance. Our bodies maintain this ideal state by neutralizing any source of detriment to it.
For example, when we eat a candy bar, our blood sugar goes up and our pancreas then releases insulin to help us metabolize the carbohydrate and balance out glucose levels. If we exercise and our body heats up, sweat is released to cool it down again. By the same process, if we take a stimulant like an amphetamine, our body will counteract that change by producing sedative-like chemicals to return us to normal. However, as our body gets better and better at counteracting the disruptive effects of a drug, we experience less and less of the drug's effects because our body is essentially learning how to cancel out a great deal of those effects. The problem is, users don't typically say at that point, "Well, the drug isn't doing much for me anymore, so I guess I'll stop." Instead, they take increasingly larger or more frequent doses to produce the same relief from underlying problems.
That process is tragic. When you put a substance into your body that pushes it outside its range of peak functioning, your body learns to counteract that damage, and you must take more and more, which escalates into a terrible race with yourself. If this race continues long enough, your body will commit a desperate act of self-protection - it will get "used to" the drug. That is, it will shift from normal functioning to a new level of tolerance. The moment your body becomes accustomed to life with the drug, the lack of it is going to be felt as a disruption. So now if you don't get the drug, you'll feel symptoms of withdrawal. Once you shift to this new level of tolerance, you will find yourself taking the substance just so you can avoid the withdrawal symptoms.
Drug Withdrawal
Different addictive drugs have different withdrawal symptoms. They can include nausea, watery eyes, dizziness, fainting, muscle spasms, seizures, bone aches, muscle aches, headaches, intestinal cramping, runny nose, loss of appetite, insomnia, goose bumps, sweating, hallucinations, irritability, diarrhea, tremors, panic, chills, paranoia, anger, convulsions, heart palpitations, rapid breathing, tachycardia (speeding heart rate), apathy (lack of energy and enthusiasm), delirium, pain, depression, disorientation, fatigue, excessive periods of sleep, and even psychosis (a mental state in which a person loses contact with reality). In some cases, death can occur. The length of time it takes to become dependent to the point of experiencing withdrawal upon abstinence is different for each drug and for each person taking the drug.
Relapse Risks
A few weeks of abstinence from the drug is usually enough for the withdrawal symptoms to pass, but after the withdrawal symptoms end, we'll experience a return of the symptoms of the underlying condition, which the drug was masking. If those underlying conditions aren't treated, the return of those symptoms may cause us so much discomfort that we'll go back to using addictive drugs or alcohol to obtain relief. That's the primary reason there is such a high rate of relapse among people who have become dependent on alcohol and addictive drugs.
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