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Your Drug Addiction

It helps to understand more about drug addiction as you start your survivor journey toward recovery. This page, from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, can be very helpful:
Understanding Addiction

If you're ready to accept that you have a drug problem, this page can help you understand how to stop using drugs:

Partnership for a Drug-Free America: I Have a Drug or Alcohol Problem

Your World

Leaving a drug addiction behind can be very difficult emotionally, as feelings you may have controlled with drugs come to the surface. (In fact, experts often refer to drug abuse as a form of "self-medication" against difficult emotions or memories.) Your body will also need to withdraw from having drugs in your system, and that too can unleash a lot emotionally. It can help to share what you're going through with others who've been in the same boat:
MDjunction.com: Drug Addiction Support Group

Drug Addiction Myths

• "Drug addiction is a voluntary problem."
• "Detox and rehab work every time."
• "People with drug addiction only need to stop taking the drugs and they'll recover."
• "People who relapse are hopeless cases."

For more, check out these links:

• HBO "Addiction" - Understanding Addiction
• DrugFree.org - Myths and Facts - Drug Abuse - Treatment

Survivors say these are the best guides for those working to end a drug addiction

• Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research Based Guide
• NIDA InfoFacts: Treatment Approaches for Drug Addiction

Books Suggested by Survivors

• Addict In The Family: Stories of Loss, Hope, and Recovery by Beverly Conyers
• 800 Meters: A Journey of Addiction Recovery and Redemption by Mikael D. Luman
• How to Quit Drugs for Good: A Complete Self-Help Guide by Jerry Dorsman
• Overcoming Prescription Drug Addiction: A Guide to Coping and Understanding by Rod Colvin

Best Ways to Thrive

• Stay in touch with your emotions; don't try to tamp them down.
• Accept help when you need it.
• Fight against relapse, but understand that it does occur and it doesn't mean that you are weak.
• Maintain hope.
• Connect with other survivors of drug addiction.

Preventing a relapse into drug dependence can be a tremendous challenge, but there are resources to help:

• Drugfree.org: How to Cope with Life After Treatment
• Dual Recovery Anonymous - Relapse Prevention

Never lose hope; new treatments are being developed all the time:

National Institute on Drug Abuse: Treatment Approaches for Drug Addiction

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