How to Better Understand Chemical Dependency

Chemical dependency is a term that you may associate with those considered to be addicts. While those who suffer from drug addiction may have a chemical dependency, not everyone with a chemical dependency may be an addict.

When it comes to prescription medication and chemical dependency, users describe different situations. For example, those people prescribed long-term medication as part of their therapy in treating chronic pain or discomfort, or even diseases that are seen to be terminal, are likely chemically dependent. However, this dependency does not automatically mean that they are addicts.

In the same way, those who do have a drug addiction, especially to alcohol or minor tranquilizers such as benzodiazepines (which are often prescribed to combat stress and relieve anxiety, assist healthy sleeping patterns, or treat alcohol withdrawal) and other drugs whose sudden cessation produce physical withdrawal symptoms, almost always include chemical dependency.

To ensure the two terms are kept distinct, we will examine each one separately.

How can we recognize addiction?

Have you ever felt compelled by something greater than yourself to act in a way despite knowing it is not in your best interest, perhaps seen when grabbing that extra chocolate bar on the way to the check-out? Or what about being desperate for a cigarette after a stressful commute to the office?

Addiction is broadly recognized by someone using drugs despite a keen awareness of its detrimental impact on their body and mind. Drug abuse experts based at the National Institutes of Health say that addiction is marked by the following:

• Increasing tolerance of the drug and the experience of withdrawal symptoms when the use is stopped.
• An inability of the person to stop using the drug.
• A regular failure of the user to fulfill family, social, or professional obligations.

When an individual has a mental and physical dependence on a particular drug, it is recognized as an addiction. The regular use of a drug after a specific event or to induce a certain feeling is seen as a mental dependence. These events or feelings are established as increasingly stronger emotional triggers that start biochemical responses in the brain and are seen as significantly influential on addictive behavior.

Statistically, if you list more than seven adults, someone on the list will have an addiction to nicotine, alcohol, or other drugs. The increasingly concerning statistics issued by the Center on Addiction are that 40 million US residents abuse drugs. The abuse of drugs is categorized under three tiers, starting at mild, progressing to moderate, and finally topping out at severe.

Mild substance abuse, often attributed to drug or alcohol abuse, is characterized by the user having fewer than four symptoms of addiction. Even though a mild substance abuse rating sounds almost harmless, users may experience detrimental consequences, which may include car accidents, family violence, or problems at school or work.

Each person who struggles with alcohol chemical dependency has a different experience. They often share key symptoms:

• Needing to drink more than a regular person to get buzzed or drunk.
• Driving under the influence.
• Reducing the number of social activities they attend.
• Coming up with excuses for their drinking.
• Not paying as much attention to personal hygiene and appearance.
• Frequent unsuccessful attempts to decrease the amount of alcohol consumption.

If a person, perhaps motivated by the negative effects of drug use, can stop using or change the way or frequency of their drug use so that it does not grow into a complete addiction, then their use of drugs is known as abuse.

The change from abuse to addiction, which is a severe form of substance abuse, is that it becomes a chronic disease that affects their bodies, and to help them recover from it, long-term and intensive treatment is often required. Like a person with a serious disease, those with severe addictions compromise their health and get more and more sick over time, often developing a variety of illnesses, which may lead to death.

Understanding Chemical Dependency

How a human body reacts to an addictive chemical is to develop a chemical dependency, which is often seen in people who suffer from chronic pain. Over the years of treating their condition, they have been placed on a regular schedule of medications to block or make the pain tolerable and develop a chemical dependency on their medication. This is because of how their medication influences their body’s central nervous system.

Painkillers often contain opioids that bind to receptors in the brain, and this causes the release of a chemical called dopamine. This is an important chemical that contributes to your feelings of satisfaction, pleasure, and motivation. An excellent resource for the effects of dopamine and our society’s addiction to it is Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke, MD.

Withdrawal syndrome is the reaction your body and mind have when you stop using a drug. If you drink coffee regularly and perhaps are not able to have a coffee on a particular day and develop a headache, this could well be a withdrawal symptom of a mild coffee addiction. On the other end of the scale are the withdrawal symptoms of severe addictions, which can be life-threatening.

As opioid-related drugs affect various areas of the brain, the pathways that carry messages stimulated by opioids will be affected by withdrawal. The reward pathway, along which the feelings of satisfaction, pleasure, and motivation travel, as well as the thalamus and brainstem areas of your brain that help communicate chemical messages from your brain to your body, are all directly linked to chemical dependency.

So, if someone who suffers from chronic pain is treated with opioids, they become dependent on the drug. And if the drug is stopped, they will, in all probability, suffer from withdrawal symptoms. However, this does not automatically qualify them as compulsive users of the drug, and therefore, they are not addicted, as per the medical definition of addiction.

How do you know if treatment is necessary?

In short, treatment is always necessary. However, what the treatment looks like varies greatly. In the case of an addict and someone who has chemical dependence, the substance that their body has come to rely on is removed, whether by choice or a change in circumstances.

In the case of a person with a chemical dependency, they can work alongside a medical professional who will help them wean themselves from this drug.

A detox protocol can be designed to slowly reduce the dosage of the medication. This will reduce the drug from the brain in small incremental steps. These reduced dosages, which become smaller over time, reduce the shock that their body would otherwise have experienced if they suddenly stopped taking the medication altogether. In this way, any withdrawal effects are minimized.

It is important to remember that if someone does not have an addiction, then their dependency does not involve the reward pathway. Thus, the cravings that are associated with addiction are not an added burden.

A severe substance abuse disorder will, however, include the person’s reward pathway, so long-term treatment is often required. Besides getting sober, the addicted person would also benefit from looking for residential addiction treatment at a reputable service center, as well as receiving advice on a long-term aftercare plan.

These treatments will give the person coping strategies and guidance on how to manage their physical, mental, and emotional health, as well as spiritual guidance as they retrain their brain’s reward pathway and journey toward long-term recovery.

Help with Chemical Dependency

If you’re looking for additional help with chemical dependency in understanding, diagnosing, or creating a treatment plan, then please contact my office to schedule an appointment. I would be honored to walk with you on this journey.