Just thought this may be helpful for those who are watching someone they love struggle with detox and addiction...
Detoxing is like childbirth - it cant be described and it comes from the very core of you with such a unbelieveable, inevitabile force you would do anything to make it go away even for a moment just to breath one more clear, pain-free breath. It's physical, emotional and spiritual. The difference, of course, is the immediate end result!
Lets have a quick look at what's going on in certain parts of the brain that make this detox process a complex trip for all.
Lets have a quick look at what's going on in certain parts of the brain that make this detox process a complex trip for all.
Addiction actually changes how your brain functions - not to get too technical, imaging those days when you are committed to a diet and there is a big piece of chocolate cake in the fridge - how hard is it to not have that piece of chocolate cake. Just a walk to the kitchen, open the fridge and you have the hit you WANT. But you can normally control this desire if you are reasonably motivated.
Now imagine your brain has been re-programed from WANTING that piece of chocolate cake to now telling you that you NEED it. You NEED this like you need water to live and as the hours move on it becomes a more frantic need - you NEED it to be able to breath... your mezzo limbic brain is sending you messages that you will not survive without this chocolate cake. You cannot deny with logical thinking, the power of this altered WANT which has now become a life destroying NEED. At the same time your smart prefrontal cortex that tells you what really going on is on a major "go slow" so there is no executive thinking telling you what you really should be doing.
You will go to the fridge and eat the cake and tell yourself you will not eat any more tomorrow because tomorrow you will be stronger. Cheers, Aly.
Now imagine your brain has been re-programed from WANTING that piece of chocolate cake to now telling you that you NEED it. You NEED this like you need water to live and as the hours move on it becomes a more frantic need - you NEED it to be able to breath... your mezzo limbic brain is sending you messages that you will not survive without this chocolate cake. You cannot deny with logical thinking, the power of this altered WANT which has now become a life destroying NEED. At the same time your smart prefrontal cortex that tells you what really going on is on a major "go slow" so there is no executive thinking telling you what you really should be doing.
You will go to the fridge and eat the cake and tell yourself you will not eat any more tomorrow because tomorrow you will be stronger. Cheers, Aly.
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