You can help people make their own decisions (self-efficacy) and advocate for services to improve the lives of people who use substances and live with SUDs. Many individuals struggling with addiction have a history of trauma or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as physical or emotional abuse, neglect, or the loss of a loved one (Hays-Grudo et al., 2021). These experiences can create deep psychological wounds that make it difficult for individuals to manage stress and regulate their emotions. Addiction is often described as a brain disease because it alters the brain’s structure and function (Koob et al., 2023). The repeated use of addictive substances or engagement in addictive behaviors hijacks the brain’s reward circuitry, primarily in regions such as the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex. Over time, the brain becomes dependent on the substance or behavior to maintain normal functioning, leading to tolerance (needing more of the substance to achieve the same effect) and withdrawal symptoms when the substance is removed.
Opioids and Nutrition
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests drug addicts may lack belonging, love, respect, and self-actualization during rehabilitation. This experience of social rejection and lack of belonging and respect can lower their level of self-acceptance. The LCP considers multiple pathways contributing to disease, at the biological level (genetic/epigenetic) but also emphasizing how social ties influence health behavior and how these accumulate throughout the life course (217). Meanwhile, LCP consider not only how disadvantage impacts health outcomes, but how cumulative advantage https://yourhealthmagazine.net/article/addiction/sober-houses-rules-that-you-should-follow/ can play a role (218).
Personality Theories in Addiction
Therefore, it is necessary to adopt an individual-centered research approach (LPA) to study the heterogeneity of self-acceptance among drug users and to determine the existence of subgroups in sample 34. This study could also explore differences in subthreshold depression levels between profiles of self-acceptance, providing a basis for precise interventions. In summary, although self-acceptance has been found to be a protective factor for mental health 10,11,12, 23, 24, few scholars at both domestic and international level have investigated the relationship between self-acceptance and subthreshold depression among drug addicts. The study in this paper used LPA to explore the subtypes of self-acceptance among drug addicts in Sichuan Province, China, and then analyzed their influencing factors through multiple logistic regression.
This results in several unpleasant symptoms, such as anxiety, restlessness, and irritability. These withdrawal symptoms can be very intense and drive the person to use the substance or engage in the behavior again to relieve the discomfort. Personality theories in addiction explore the connection between personality traits and a person’s vulnerability to addiction.
- It has been argued that the microbiome is the link between person, public, and planetary health (184) and therefore we must consider environmental, psychosocial, and personal/nutritional factors implicated in gut dysbiosis.
- For instance, the genetic predisposition to addiction can shape personality traits and influence social behaviors.
- Attention to and research on the special group of drug addicts cannot be overlooked.
- Researchers, armed with this multifaceted approach, can explore new avenues for prevention and intervention.
- Some authors have suggested that resources should be invested into policies and programs that prevent ACEs as a mechanism to reduce substance misuse (76).
- While genetics cannot be changed, epigenetics and the microbiome are both potential intervention targets by way of nutrition, albeit much slower than medication, and therefore difficult to measure (behavioral outcomes vs. biomarkers).
The Biopsychosocial Model
Further, the clinically observed defining feature of addiction a loss of control is understood as a socially normative notion. Thus the claim that “an addict cannot be a fully free autonomous agent” (Caplan 2008, p.1919) is debatable. Because of a tendency to focus on extreme pathological states, the wide range of normal is often forgotten. Both social norms and laws influence Sober House Rules: What You Should Know Before Moving In attitudes, perceptions, and beliefs of the effects of substances and considerably affect consumption rates (Babor, Caetano, Casswell et al. 2003; Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller 1992).
Overall Health
Participants filled out questionnaires and souvenirs and gifts were distributed to all participants. Sandwell H, Wheatley M. Healthy eating advice as part of drug treatment in prisons. Culture is different for everyone, even if they were brought up in the same environment.
Life Course Perspective
Interventions focusing only on prescription opioids are unlikely to be sufficient as long as heroin and other synthetic opioids such as fentanyl and carfentanil continue to flood the market. Illicit drugs are increasingly available through the “dark web” and are an important but less documented mechanism driving the opioid crisis. The biopsychosocial systems model implicitly calls for an integrative discussion in the ethics debate on substance use, decision-making, and responsibility. The model avoids a forced choice between brain disease and condition of a weak will, and thus provides a useful framework for overcoming a neuro-essentialist trap.
Psycho-Social Systems
- Family-based therapy, such as multidimensional family therapy (MDFT), has been shown to be effective in treating adolescent substance use disorders by addressing communication patterns, family roles, and relational dynamics that contribute to addiction (Liddle et al., 2023).
- Blum and colleagues created the Genetic Addiction Risk Score (GARS) as a marker for predisposition to RDS (106).
- Participants filled out questionnaires and souvenirs and gifts were distributed to all participants.
- This accepting attitude helps them to reduce their internal conflicts and anxiety, thus lowering the risk of subthreshold depression.
- Mental health conditions like depression or anxiety can also make someone more susceptible to seeking relief through addictive behaviors.
For example, an individual’s socioeconomic status is correlated with increased negative consequences from substance use, such as increased sharing of used injecting equipment and higher prevalence rates of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and hepatitis C (Strike, Myers, and Millson 2004). This can be individual, family, peer and community.(30) Substance use may be familial, a person may have watched a parent or caretaker use alcohol on special occasions or more frequently. Perhaps you had a parent who smoked tobacco, and this may have played a role in whether you smoke. These social connections that are critical for our development as babies, toddlers, youth and into adulthood play a role in what we do, how we act, and how we live. The moral model suggests using a substance is a moral failing which will lead to a path of destruction.
Thus deficiencies in any combination of these neurochemicals may contribute to a predisposition to addiction. It is important to note that one person’s reaction to the reward experience may be quite different from another’s. This realization should help us cultivate empathy for those with addiction—it is very likely that others truly do not know how drugs make them feel.
All of the evidence suggests that the earlier a person begins using alcohol or other substances, the greater the likelihood of eventually developing a substance use disorder, because of the interaction between exposure and these brain changes at a critical developmental point. Finally, consider the fact that a person’s overall health and development may be affected by poor nutrition, physical trauma or injury, or exposure to diseases that often accompany substance misuse. Males had lower levels of self-acceptance than females, HIV-positive than negative, less educated than more educated, and drug addicts who were alienated.
