How We Should Be Preventing Addiction

What would your present-day self tell your younger self? If you’re struggling with chemical dependency, you might warn yourself. But how early can preventing addiction begin? More importantly, what do you do when you’re already dealing with it in your life?

Preventing Addiction Starts before the Preteen Years

Government officials track the ages of drug users they see in hospitals. They know that some start as early as 12 or 13. These are the kids they know about. There’s a good chance that some kids start earlier.

It’s fair to say that the message about preventing addiction needs to start in early elementary school. There, the dangerous substances are cigarettes, alcohol, pills, and inhalants. However, is warning a child enough? In fact, it might not be sufficient at all.

Understanding the Disease Model of Addiction

Addiction is a chronic illness. It’s difficult to predict who’ll fall victim and who won’t. Some people take drugs recreationally and then stop for a while. They pick up the habit again occasionally.

Others take a hit of cocaine or opiates and experience almost immediate addiction. They can’t stop. Experts believe that risk factors include easy availability of drugs, a lax attitude about use at home, and poverty. But this model only covers some of the adolescents who start using.

For some people, the development of mental health disorders results in drug abuse. Intrusive thoughts, for example, are easy to quiet with numbing drugs. When you don’t know that you’re dealing with mental illness, you might just self-medicate. Could preventing addiction also require an adult education component?

Addiction Education is Part of Rehab

In fact, therapists at rehab facilities recognize that many people don’t fully understand addiction. They know that chemical dependency hurts them. Most, however, don’t fully understand how they got there. All agree that they never planned to develop an
addiction.

At a rehab facility, therapists help you get a better understanding of how substances affect you. Examples of treatments include:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy to connect drug abuse to dysfunctional patterns
• Dialectical behavior therapy that ties out-of-control emotions to specific drug use patterns
• Dual diagnosis treatment that benefits people with co-occurring mental health problems
• Trauma therapy, which helps you uncover how unresolved issues from the past contribute to today’s drug abuse
• Development of a relapse prevention plan to protect against victimization through drug abuse again

Getting Help Today is Possible

Would you have listened to your older self? You probably wouldn’t have believed that life could spiral out of control the way it did. Like most people, you would’ve thought that you could handle things better than future-you. But you can’t change the past.

You can, however, change your future. If you had no luck preventing addiction earlier and are dealing with an addiction to a drug or alcohol right now, you can turn it around. With the help of therapists at Beaches Recovery, you can heal. Call 866.605.0532 today to take you