Understanding Substance Use Disorder (SUD)?
Substance use disorder (SUD) is a treatable mental disorder that affects a person’s brain and behavior, leading to their inability to control their use of substances like legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, or medications. Symptoms can be moderate to severe, with addiction being the most severe form of SUD.
People with a SUD may also have other mental health disorders, and people with mental health disorders may also struggle with substance use. These other mental health disorders can include anxiety disorders, depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, personality disorders, and schizophrenia, among others. For more information, please see the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Common Comorbidities with Substance Use Disorders Research Report . Source: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/substance-use-and-mental-health
Addiction and the Brain: Why are drugs so hard to quit?
Let’s Talk About Willpower!
We have many common names for willpower: determination, drive, resolve, self-discipline, self-control. But psychologists characterize willpower, or self-control, in more specific ways. According to most psychological scientists, willpower can be defined as:
- The ability to delay gratification, resisting short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals
- The capacity to override an unwanted thought, feeling, or impulse
- The ability to employ a “cool” cognitive system of behavior rather than a “hot” emotional system
- Conscious, effortful regulation of the self by the self
- A limited resource capable of being depleted
Many people, who try to recover from SUD on their own, often try to change their thinking about “the first one” or find themselves with a “fight” or “struggle” over the thought of taking the first drink or drug. They utilize their willpower to overcome these thoughts and often find that SUD or “taking the next one” wins out. Individuals will try repeatedly to employee their willpower against the obsessive thoughts that are often a part of SUD and active use. They try over and over, only to succumb to that “first one”. Many people, including the sufferer themselves, conclude they have not exerted enough willpower, or their repeated attempts to avoid “the first one” is a failure of their thinking or will. The idea that they are not capable of “putting it down” or “controlling or stopping” is a haunting idea and often keeps the sufferer in a continued state of shame or feeling inadequate. Equally, the stigma within society that SUD is simply a matter of willpower, makes the sufferer feel isolated or different from that society…and they ultimately continue to try and “beat the addiction or SUD” on their own.
Often, individuals who are diagnosed with SUD, find that they can utilize their willpower in many other areas of their lives. This compounds the idea that “insufficient willpower” is the problem, and they must strive to “do better” next time. Many people who suffer from SUD are simply unaware that there is a biological and powerful aspect at work. They are tying to use the same brain (through thinking, logic, rationalization, and “common sense”) to overcome a serious condition within the same brain. Upon arriving at treatment at Break the Cycle, we work diligently with individuals to take them on a new path in recovery. We help them understand the true nature of SUD and what actions can be taken to lead to “changes in their thinking.” The process of recovery is action oriented. It is at this juncture, that many who suffer from SUD have endured the symptoms of active substance use (and it’s subsequent consequences) long enough to focus their willpower towards new actions, ideas, and understanding. It is found that pointing willpower towards these new actions is vital to the effects of long term recovery.