Get this and other drug rehab and addiction information from http://www.stgregorycrt.com if you or a loved one is suffering from chemical addiction, my heart goes out to you. PLEASE take a moment to watch this short video, it just might save a life. http://www.stgregoryctr.com/help.php
(non 12 step, alternative to 12 step programs, non religious treatment center)
The Cycle of Addiction
No one intends to become a drug addict or alcoholic. Our experiences show that the drug addict or alcoholic was usually an intelligent and often creative person with much hope for the future.
However, they were unable to deal effectively with life’s problems and turned to drugs or alcohol as a means of dealing with unwanted situations.
The person usually takes drugs because they attempt to compensate for some personal deficiency or life situation. They may be depressed, in pain or incapable of dealing with a loss of a loved one or extreme circumstance. It could also be as simple as a need to fit in and make friends, or a way to lose weight. Regardless of the reason, the person begins to seek "help" in the form of drugs or alcohol.
Drugs are essentially a pain-killer. They lessen emotional and physical pain and provide the user with a temporary escape from problems. When a person is unable to cope with something in life and take drugs as a result, they feel they have found a way to deal with the problem.
The more a person uses drugs or excessive alcohol, the worse the problem becomes. So they continue the “solution†for their problems, more drugs. Soon new problems are created by drug use. The person feels the need to use consistently, and will do anything to get high.
They are now addicted. They become difficult to communicate with, withdrawn and begin to exhibit the strange behavior associated with being on drugs. The more the person uses to try to counter this effect, the more desperate he becomes.
Their use begins to affect their personal relationships, their job, their bank account, and anything of previous value to the addict. Now the person’s entire focus becomes centered on using drugs and getting more drugs, regardless of the cost. They sacrifice everything to avoid the pain of withdrawal, the guilt of what they have done and the problems they have been running from.
At this point, the average drug user does one of three things:
- Continues using drugs and becomes more and more lost, unhealthy and degraded until he eventually becomes homeless or dead.
- Gets arrested for some drug-related activity and goes to jail or prison.
- Attempt to quit drugs in any one of a variety of ways. He may try to stop on his own, or go to a drug addiction treatment center or program. Sadly, the success rate of traditional treatment is not high and most addicts continue to relapse. This destroys the addict’s confidence and leads him to feel he will remain a slave to drugs forever.
HOWEVER, there is a way out…..
Once you have made the decision to get help for you or a loved ones addiction, please 
contact us at http://www.stgregoryctr.com/help.php for FAST, Confidential drug rehabilitation.
Please remember, 12 step programs do not work, they never have, by their own admission they have a 0% recovery rate because they believe every alcoholic is an alcoholic for the rest of their lives, how is THAT recovery?
St. Gregory’s is a NON 12 step program and we are one of the only drug & alcohol treatment center that continues to contact EVERY member even after they have left our clinics, this is one reason for our fantastic success rate in treating alcohol and drug addictions!
Think drug rehab is just for movie stars and politicians? think again, we offer competitive rates, we accept most insurance, female only and male only treatment centers, onsite and offsite locations and a confidential safe environment with highly trained, confidential staff members.
PLEASE visit us today, it just might save a life. http://www.stgregorycrt.com
In medical terminology, an addiction is a chronic neurobiologic disorder that has genetic, psychosocial, and environmental dimensions and is characterized by one of the following: the continued use of a substance despite its detrimental effects, impaired control over the use of a drug (compulsive behavior), and preocupation with a drug’s use for non-therapeutic purposes (i.e. craving the drug). Addiction is often accompanied the presence of deviant behaviors (for instance stealing money and forging prescriptions) that are used to obtain a drug.
Tolerance to a drug and physical dependence are not defining characteristics of addiction, although they typically accompany addiction to certain drugs. Tolerance is a pharmacologic phenomenon where the dose of a medication needs to be continually increase in order to 
maintain its desired effects. For instance, individuals with severe chronic pain taking opiate medications (like morphine) will need to continually increase the dose in order to maintain the drug’s analgesic (pain-relieving) effects. Physical dependence is also a pharmacologic property and means that if a certain drug is abruptly discontinued, an individual will experience certain characteristic withdrawal signs and symptoms. Many drugs used for therapeutic purposes produce withdrawal symptoms when abruptly stopped, for instance oral steroids, certain antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opiates.
However, common usage of the term addiction has spread to include psychological dependence. In this context, the term is used in drug addiction and substance abuse problems, but also refers to behaviors that are not generally recognized by the medical community as problems of addiction, such as compulsive overeating.
The term addiction is also sometimes applied to compulsions that are not substance-related, such as problem gambling and computer addiction. In these kinds of common usages, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences, as deemed by the user himself to his or her
