The use of any substance or process which causes damage to a person’s well-being which they cannot / will not, give up. An addict is someone who is born with a heightened sensitivity which leads to emotions they cannot deal with, together with childhood experiences; they result in the use of a substance, Eating Disorder or relationship which becomes eventually both the medication and the problem.
At Serenity Healthcare, our treatment experts believe we can become addicted to almost anything with the power to alter our moods. Very few people are completely immune to this effect – all of us exist somewhere on the addictive spectrum.
However, for a sizable proportion of the population – perhaps as much as 10 per cent – addiction has the potential to become a serious affliction.
One reason why the medical profession finds it so hard to diagnose and treat addiction is because doctors routinely confuse physical dependency on drugs or alcohol with what we call ‘true addiction’ – which is something that’s caused by psychological and emotional factors.
Our expert leads a team who know how physical dependency on a substance can be very dangerous, but in the main he and his team regard it as a symptom of addiction, rather than a cause. If you habitually use something like alcohol or drugs, your body builds up a physical dependency on it in order to function. When you withdraw from the substance it can cause physical cravings and severe medical complications, but these can be alleviated with a residential detox treatment.
In order to understand addiction, we need to be aware that it isn’t just the amount that we consume (although obviously that’s an important indicator). Addiction is also characterized by the manner in which we behave, and the reasons we do it.
At Serenity Healthcare we strive to understand and help you, we will enable you to understand what drives you to self-destruct, despite the chaos and harm it causes.