Introduction
The concept of addiction has disturbed me for a long time since I know how people struggle with breaking their harmful habits and stopping drinking, smoking, or doing drugs. I believe it is of utmost importance to understand how to help individuals who struggle with staying sober or stopping their destructive obsessions. Unfortunately, any type of addiction worsens a person’s health and leads to quicker or unexpected death, meaning that curing this disorder is paramount to saving one’s life.
Discussion
To begin with, addiction is a complex disease that may develop due to many different reasons related to the mental health of an individual. However, I was surprised to learn that addiction is, in a way brain disorder (HMA Institute on Addiction, 2018; Grisel, 2019). Yet having thought about it, it seems reasonable to relate the illness to how the human brain works, considering that desire for drugs, alcohol, or other things is in no way physical. Addiction is just a person’s way of temporarily forgetting about life issues, negative emotions, and unpleasant feelings.
Furthermore, the treatment of this disease is not existent since every person can be cured in one’s way. Having listened to and read much information about how it is challenging to help people with their addictions, I was prompted to contemplate the matter more (HMA Institute on Addiction, 2018). Naturally, taking away the drugs from a drug addict will do no good, considering that one will seek other ways of getting the substances that may endanger one’s life. When addicts are forbidden from accessing the desired object, they cease to think rationally as their primary focus is on doing whatever is needed to get what they want.
Conclusion
Therefore, I realize how challenging it is to know how to help people who struggle with addictions. I now recognize the criticality of finding an approach for every individual and supporting them throughout the whole process of curing this harmful habit. Moreover, I have learned that it is not recommended to drastically remove what the addicts desire as they can become aggressive and irrational.
Reference
Grisel, J. (2019). Adaptation. In Never enough: The neuroscience and Experience of Addiction (1st ed., pp. 35–49). Anchor.
HMA Institute on Addiction. (2018). Addiction neuroscience 101 [Video]. YouTube. Web.