If your substance use has become a problem, you're not alone. Nearly 1 in 10 adults and children in the U.S. is addicted to alcohol or other drugs such as cocaine or methamphetamines.1 Although substance dependence is often portrayed in the news and in movies as a problem of the underprivileged, it affects people from every walk of life.
When you first realize that your substance use has become a problem, it is natural to ask "why me?" and "how could this happen?" The more urgent question is: what can you do to get the treatment you deserve?
Use, Abuse, and Dependence
Almost everyone tries alcohol or other drugs at least once. For an unlucky few with strong genetic or environmental risk factors, the first exposure is enough to create an addiction. But for most people who develop a substance dependence problem, there is at least a short period of recreational use in which the pleasurable effects seem to outweigh the negatives. The difference between substance use, abuse, and dependence is a matter of degree and time.
Substance use is the use of alcohol or other drugs that is relatively free of negative consequences.
Abuse is the use of alcohol or other drugs despite adverse personal, legal, or health consequences.
Dependence is the physical and psychological changes to your brain, body, and social life that take place as a result of sustained abuse. Substance dependence causes you to crave drugs, need more to achieve the same effects, and have withdrawal symptoms when you stop. Substance dependence and addiction are similar, except the term "addiction" also describes compulsive habits that may not include drug use.
Once you develop a substance dependence problem, it never completely goes away. You may be able to control the problem, but there is no known cure.
Regaining Control
There are many routes to recovery, but the first step is always the recognition that your substance abuse is causing more problems than it is solving.
Continued drug abuse alters the way your brain works. Over time, the brain becomes increasingly dependent on receiving an external supply of brain chemicals. These changes in brain chemistry and function play an important role in the physical and behavioral symptoms of substance dependence, tolerance, withdrawal symptoms, craving, and relapse.
The PROMETA Treatment Program has been designed to address these changes in brain chemistry. To learn more about the science behind the PROMETA Treatment Program, visit these links:
Potential Consequences of Altered GABA Function
Cravings
Anxiety
Irritability
Sleep disturbance
Increased tolerance
Addressing Changes to GABA Receptors May Help Your Recovery
Restoring the altered GABA receptor may help relieve the cravings and anxiety associated with substance dependence. Relieving these physical symptoms may allow you to better engage in the psychological and social parts of your recovery, giving you a better chance of sustained sobriety.
The GABA system is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter system in the brain, which is believed to provide a relaxing, anti-anxiety effect. Alcohol and stimulant abuse can disrupt the function of the GABA system, which may contribute to the development of cravings and anxiety. Cravings and anxiety can become part of a daily or weekly cycle, emerging when the effect of the drugs or alcohol wear off, and may become a driving force in continued alcohol and drug use. See: The Role of GABA in Methamphetamine Addiction
