Drug Rehabilitation Blog

Feelings of Loss with addiction

Why Addicts Don’t Fully Comprehend Feelings of Loss

Drugs and alcohol can numb many different things within a person’s life.  In fact, substances are often used to dull feelings or senses so that something is easier to experience.  Due to this, individuals struggling with addiction often do not fully understand or comprehend the magnitude or extent of a certain situation or occurrence.  One scenario this often occurs with is when they are dealing with the feeling of loss.

Loss can be a very difficult thing to deal with no matter who you are.  When a family member or loved one passes away, it can be one of the hardest things to get through.  Unfortunately, this is why many people self-medicate with drugs and alcohol to make the difficult feelings easier to deal with.  Losing someone can bring a range of feelings, including anger, grief, and despair.  When using drugs or alcohol to mask these feelings, the person may feel better for a short period of time, but the feelings come right back as soon as the effects wear off.  This leads many to use quite regularly so that they do not have to ever confront the difficult emotions.

Drugs and Alcohol Prevent True Healing From Feelings of Loss

The reality is that when it comes to loss, feelings that arise need to be experienced and worked through for true healing to come about.  When they are continuously masked, they are never really resolved and so continue to be an issue.  When an addict experiences a loss and continues to use drugs or alcohol to mask it, they never really fully comprehend the loss because the emotions and feelings are being regularly dulled.  This makes it so the loss is never really resolved in their mind, whether they realize it or not.  When going through a loss, they never are able to truly experience it, which allows it to persist in a way.  Working through difficult emotions is what lets a person get past them, but with an addict, these feelings and difficulties are being temporarily pushed away and perpetuated.  The drugs or alcohol allow them to continue on with life superficially without understanding and working through the emotions of the loss.  In this way, they may carry on with business as usual like nothing really happened.  But this is an unhealthy way of living being that nothing is being resolved.

Once a person decides to get clean, these feelings may be part of what they eventually have to work through as part of their treatment.  Treatment can help a person to work through their addiction and the issues and emotions that lie beneath it.  A person who does not attend formal treatment can also always reach to a therapist or counselor to help them work through their addiction and difficult emotions.

Seeking Treatment for a Drug or Alcohol Addiction

Addiction can be a very despairing condition to find yourself or a loved one in, but there is help out there.  With the right treatment center and staff, addiction can be overcome, and an individual can live a long and sober life.  Here at Best Drug Rehabilitation, we offer a multitude of different treatment types so that the individual can find one or a combination that will be effective for them.  Many treatment centers use only one or a couple of types of treatment, which can force the individual into something that they do not agree with.  We know addiction is an individual struggle, and the way we tailor a person’s treatment allows them to receive a program unique to them.  Do not wait, give us a call today.

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