Avoid Replacing One Addiction With Another

When you have experienced addiction, it is straightforward to become addicted to something else. You are not necessarily replacing one type of drug or alcohol for another. You may find yourself finding comfort in a box of donuts instead of taking pain medication. You may even find yourself replacing an addiction to drugs or alcohol with a new obsession, such as collecting different items. Replacing one addiction with another, however different they are, is still giving in to addictive behavior.

Overcoming Addiction – Not Redirecting It

During your time at an addiction recovery center, you will learn many things about yourself and your addiction. Many people assume that addiction is simply a physical or mental need to use a substance. Addiction, however, is a culmination of many things, including being addicted to the habit itself.

When a person has a habit, any habit, there is pleasure derived from performing that task. For instance, if you have a habit of facing all of the paper money in your wallet the same way and arranging it by denomination, you will get a good feeling when you add or subtract money from your wallet and see that everything is still organized as you like. You will also get a pleasure release from your brain that says that this is a “good thing,” You will want to continue making this habit again and again to get that pleasure reward.

Addiction to a substance is the same thing. One of the prevailing substances in America is opioids. There is a long history of opioid addiction dating back to the 1800s. Overcoming opioid addiction can be difficult.  However, when you enter into a drug rehab program, you eliminate this habit from your life. This means that the repetitiveness of that habit is now gone, and that extra sense of pleasure that your brain gives you whenever you complete the task is now gone.

For some, this means that they have to find a new habit to fill the old one’s void. Replacing a habit with another, even if it is not using drugs or alcohol, can be an awful thing for you because it can interrupt the recovery process. By continually relying on the pleasure you feel from completing a habit, you may not enjoy the full benefits of recovery. You may even find it easier to relapse into bad habits.

One of your substance abuse counselor’s main goals is to help you find ways to break your addiction and not replace it with another habit.

Learning To Take Control

During your stay at an addiction recovery center, you are going to discover that you are now back in control of your life. One of the main things that happen when you become addicted to a substance is losing control. You no longer have free will to decide what you do; all you do is serve your addiction.

Part of drug rehabilitation understands how addiction has taken control of your life and how you can gain control. You will learn that once you are in recovery, you now have the ability to chose what you do every day. Part of these choices you will also learn is to avoid relapsing into your old habits and avoid getting into new ones.

Through the use of counseling and building support systems, while in rehab and after you leave, you will discover that you are now in charge of your life again. You get to start living as you have always wanted to without the addiction. It is a wonderful feeling.

Are Any Habits Good?

Of course, many habits are excellent for you to have. Buckling your seatbelt every time you get in a car or making sure that the lid on a bottle is screwed on tightly, so you don’t have an accidental spill are good habits. Habits that might be considered bad are being done to replace something or generate a good feeling and not necessarily because they are beneficial to your health, happiness, or well-being.

If you think that you have found a new habit to replace an old one, speak with your counselor or your support group about the situation. Getting an honest answer to the question will help you discover if you have replaced your habit with a new one.

Even if you have replaced your habit with something new, the great news is that you can break this habit as well. After all, you have already successfully broken an addiction, so breaking a new habit will be quite easy.