Is it worth it to treat an addiction?
Yes it is. Addiction is very treatable. There is a great response rate when the treatment is well informed by medical science.
As with other illnesses of the nervous system, addiction is part biological and psychological and social.
There have been many advances IN understanding the biological underpinnings of different kinds of addictions.
To help people get off smoking cigarettes, the medication Chantix is very effective for stopping the urges for smoking. After 2 to 4 months, a person can slowly phase off Chantix, and they are no more intense automatic urges for cigarettes. Still there can be psychological cravings as a person daydreams about smoking, but these are much more easily dealt with as the person works with the counselor and opens up to friends and family about his struggles. We all have struggles. By admitting this and opening up, then we advance our cause by accepting support from other people. The psychological impact of accepting support from people who care about you is enormous.
Other things to help quit smoking cigarettes include the use of the medication bupropion, brand-name Wellbutrin. People can also use nicotine patches, nicotine gum and other formulations.
To help people quit narcotics, there is the medication Suboxone. This radically diminishes the cravings for narcotics and dramatically reduces the risk of death by overdose should a person relapse with using narcotics.
To help people quit drinking alcohol, there is the medication Acamprosate. It diminishes urges for alcohol, and if a person uses alcohol, it takes away from the mood elevating properties of alcohol. Naltrexone can also be used in this manner. Both don’t work well unless you are using a counsellor.
To help people quit marijuana, there aren’t any substances that kill the cravings for it. The best way is to slowly phase off that over several days to several weeks. Aversive conditioning, such as putting something that tastes bad on the marijuana cigarette, so the brain associates the bad taste with the marijuana, can be quite helpful. I’ve seen it work and it also help people trying to overcome their addiction to smoking cigarettes, and addictions to processed food and fast food. The main side effect is people don’t like the bad taste but that is just for 5 minutes.
To help people quit stimulants, the seizure medicine Topamax can sometimes diminish cravings for cocaine or amphetamines.
Often people with addictions are actually self-medicating an underlying psychiatric disorder. If there’s an underlying depression, then treating that with an anti-depressant can dramatically improve a person‘s chances for successfully getting clean. Likewise, a mood stabilizer can help for people who have bipolar disorder, and anti-anxiety medicines can help for those with anxiety, And similar help can be provided for people who have insomnia, panic, social, anxiety, or an attention deficit disorder. Because addictions are complicated, and there are often underlying issues, a person should work with a specialist, such as a psychiatrist, who knows what to look for in the biological factors contributing to an addiction and how to treat it. I go over dozens of successful examples of this in my book, “Prescription For Positivity.”