Alcohol Abuse Advice

Addiction; Why Willpower Has Nothing to Do With Addiction Recovery

There are a number of myths that pervade our social consciousness pertaining to addiction, and these myths are almost universally unhelpful to addicts afflicted with the disease of addiction, and contribute greatly to the stigma that even recovering alcoholics and drug addicts must endure.

Addicts don’t have to hit “rock bottom” before getting help. In fact waiting this long almost always makes things far more difficult, and the necessary therapy and recovery needed that much longer. Addicts do not need to decide for themselves to get treatment either, and statistics show that addicts mandated to attend drug or alcohol treatment are just as successful as those that attend of their own accord.

But the possibly the most harmful myth related to addiction is that addicts are somehow weak, or lacking in willpower.

The impulses of addiction are beyond conscious control

It’s easy for us to explain addiction and the behaviors of use out of a framework of personal strength and willpower, and for those not addicted, willpower does control how much we drink, or even use illicit drugs. But for an addict, once drugs or alcohol abuse becomes addiction, willpower becomes irrelevant.

With addiction comes a physical change in the processes of the brain, and these changes occur in the mesolimbic dopaminergic area of the brain, an area that operates outside of our conscious control. The mesolimbic creates the impulses and cravings to abuse, and these impulses are not of a conscious nature. Although the behaviors and use of an addict appears at the surface considered and deliberate, those actions are in fact controlled at a preconscious level, and are beyond the scope of willpower.

It takes strength to overcome addiction, but not willpower

Although these impulses operate at a preconscious level, there are strategies, medicines and life changes that have proven effective in minimizing the impact exerted by the preconscious impulses to use. Willpower has nothing to do with it, but it takes enormous strength, courage and will to participate fully in difficult therapies of recovery and to make the life changes required to minimize the impact of these triggers to use.

We can never control what we are not fully aware of, but we can take steps to minimize the occurrence of these impulses. We do so through medications that affect the mesolimbic, and by cognitive and behavioral strategies that reduce out exposure to situations and environments likely to trigger a preconscious impulse. It’s not easy to change your life in such a way as to minimize these triggers to abuse, and those that can do so should be celebrated for their strength and determination, and never castigated for their weakness or lack of willpower.

Although addiction is medically recognized as a disease, the stigma associated with addiction recovery has a lot to do with myths and misunderstandings of the true nature of addiction. Recovering addicts deserve our support and admiration, and never the lingering stigma of personal weakness.

Related Alcohol Abuse And Addiction Articles