Cravings as a Barrier to Recovery

drug craving

Barriers to recovery are important to recognize for anyone planning on staying sober. Awareness is the first step toward a successful life. For those no longer using drugs and alcohol, without having some insight a mental roadblock can lead to relapse. Cravings are best described as an intense or abnormal desire for something. For substance abusers, the habituation of getting high is deeply planted inside the mind and a craving is nothing more than wanting to get back to that feeling of the very first high. The pleasure and euphoria that was initially felt is sought from a stimulus of some kind causing the person in recovery to revert to thoughts of when they used.

Let’s examine the process for further understanding.


There are cravings we have that are healthy. Craving food and water are essential to life. Craving drugs is not, so why does it exist? A person who has abused substances has a long memory track of using. The human mind has a great capacity to recall past events. It is, therefore, necessary to understand what can cause someone to think back to such times. When a person used alcohol and drugs, drug metabolites are created by the body and released into the body. Most modern day drug testing is looking for specific metabolites of drugs rather than the drug itself. So from this, it is logical to think that after the drugs are gone from the system, these residues are left inside the body.

Drug Metabolite fat cells

The Mechanics of Relapse

A person who smokes marijuana will test positive for quite some time. The metabolite remains inside the body stored in fat cells. The chemical is released over time and reintroduced into the body when fat cells are used for energy. A person is essentially continually under the effect of drugs as metabolites enter the blood stream. This is true for alcohol and other drugs as well. Only a small portion of fatty tissue is used at any given time for energy, so the question begs what happens to the rest of the metabolites waiting in storage?

The answer is they remain there until they are expelled.

When metabolites are released, the memory track reverts to times of using and hence the craving process has begun. The person feels a desire to get high again and begins to want the drug which can quickly lead to a cycle of once again using drugs and alcohol. The recovered user may be highly committed to staying clean and still not understand why cravings are continually happening.


The rehab process needs to incorporate this aspect of addiction. To anyone wishing to put drugs and alcohol behind them and start a new life without substances, please call an addiction specialist at 1-855-646-8505. They will be able to guide you on a revolutionary sauna process that achieves just that, a fresh start. Eliminating such a barrier is like breaking through a steel wall that will immensely increase the odds for a fantastic recovery.

AUTHOR

Troy

I am a graduate of the Narconon program currently working for Narconon Arrowhead as Director of Promotion and Marketing.

NARCONON ARROWHEAD

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION