What Addiction Really Does to Your Brain

By now, it should be fairly clear that drug addiction has a profound effect on the brain. What isn’t quite so clear is just how that happens and what the specific effects might be. Addiction and the brain is not a new concept. However, it has only been in the last 10 years that doctors and scientists have been able to isolate the most important issues.

Understanding just how addiction causes changes in brain chemistry can help individuals come to see addiction for what it is, a disease. Like any disease, to heal and recover, individuals need professional support. At Beaches Recovery, our team of counselors, therapists, and medical professionals can guide those struggling with substance use disorder and those that care about someone who is through the treatment process. We’ll help you find the support necessary to heal.

Facts About Addiction and the Brain

The reality is that addiction is not a social or psychological disease. It’s a disease of the brain. This might seem like an odd statement, but the truth is that drugs and alcohol alter how the brain functions. It’s actually possible for alcohol and anxiety to go hand and hand with anxiety being a mental affliction. Therefore, it stands to reason that the disease of addiction is, in fact, a disease of the brain.

While it’s true that most addictions start with people voluntarily drinking or using drugs, there comes a point in time when the brain receptors become altered. In an altered state, the brain makes it clear that it needs drugs for survival. That’s where the impulse to keep drinking and using comes into play. That’s also the point where the brain is actually addicted–a disease of the brain.

How to Treat Addiction and the Brain

Counseling and treatment are intended as a means to address the psychological issues that make addiction possible. Counseling and therapy are a means to address mental and emotional habits. It examines the often unhealthy coping mechanisms we use to overcome or deny trauma, depression, anxiety, etc. As a complex disease, addiction has both physical and psychological aspects. Therapy addresses the psychological aspects including our mental state and emotions. Detox addresses the physical aspect in the form of withdrawal as the brain’s chemistry re-adjusts once drugs or alcohol are denied it while dependent.

Through the detox process, addictive substances are denied to the brain. In a fit, the brain sends messages to other parts of the body. These messages result in withdrawal symptoms. Over a specified period of time, the brain will begin to readjust to the absence of drugs and/or alcohol and the withdrawal symptoms will begin to subside. At the conclusion of detox, the brain will return to normal functioning.

Addiction Treatment at Beaches Recovery

At Beaches Recovery center in Jacksonville, Florida, we treat all aspects of addiction. When necessary, the treatment process begins with detox. As indicated above, the end goal is cleansing the mind of residual drugs to induce a higher level of functioning.

In order to treat the social and psychological causes of addiction, we use one of the following treatment plans:

• Outpatient care
• Intensive outpatient treatment
• Partial hospitalization program
• Inpatient and extended care
• Family therapy
• Residential treatment
• Aftercare counseling for transitional and sober living

Now that you have a better understanding of how addiction and the brain interact, it will hopefully motivate you to seek treatment for your addiction. When the time comes, we hope you will pick up the phone and call Beaches Recovery at 866.605.0532, or contact us online. Working together, there’s every reason to believe you will find recovery and rediscover a better way of living.