Why You (Temporarily) Feel Better When You Use Substances
When you use an addictive substance to compensate for a poorly balanced brain, you further short-circuit your brain chemistry. The substance temporarily makes you feel better by “fooling” your brain into thinking it’s producing enough of a missing neurotransmitter. And since your brain tries to tightly control neurotransmitter levels, it stops producing natural neurotransmitters in response to the fake ones. So, your shortages of natural neurotransmitters rise, as you become dependent on ever-increasing amounts of the substance to just “feel normal” again. Here’s an example from Dr. Gant... The neurotransmitter dopamine powerfully affects how we feel and behave and gives us the fullest enjoyment from pleasurable experiences. However, if there’s a shortage of even one key nutrient, dopamine levels may plummet. Several drugs, especially cocaine and certain amphetamines, act as dopamine substitutes. They can adversely affect natural dopamine production, making you more and more dependent on the drug.A Key To Recovery
Dr. Gant believes that 25 years of clinical experience and a mountain of research shows that substance abuse problems are primarily the result of biochemical imbalances in the brain. The key to recovery is to get your brain chemistry back to normal – with nutrients that support your brain’s neurotransmitter production. This rebalances your brain and body chemistry. It helps you experience your own feelings again, not the feelings that are artificially induced by some substance. Dr. Gant says that the failure rate of conventional substance abuse strategies is so high because none of them consider the biochemical aspects of substance abuse.Where The Four Conventional Substance Abuse Treatments Fail
Conventional approaches to healing substance abuse have been used for 175 years and have a deplorable track record. They are often founded on myths such as drugs, alcohol, and nicotine cause substance abuse and, even if you successfully stop using the substance, you’ll constantly struggle not to relapse for the rest of your life. Dr. Gant shares the four most popular approaches to substance abuse treatment and the specific problems he sees with each of them:- Moral approach: This is often based on the myth that substance abuse stems from a lack of willpower, and moral and spiritual weakness. Substance abusers often become ostracized from family and friends, as well as people in the community and workplace.
- Psychological approach: Many substance abusers receive very intensive and very competent counseling… including those in prison for drug abuse. Yet 80 percent of them relapse or end up back in prison.
- Medical/psychiatric approach: Substance abuse has been dubbed a “disease.” The professional view is that the substance caused the disease. Unfortunately, many of the drugs thrown out as a medical solution are also addictive drugs. With this approach the recovery “depends” on the skill of the attending physician and effectiveness of the drugs, instead of the power of the individual. Recovery rates are below 30 percent with this approach.
- Psychotropic substance approach: This approach is based on the myth that chronic substance users are “victims” of a disease that should be treated with prescription drugs, as we treat other diseases. Psychotropic drugs work by mimicking the effect of neurotransmitters. The substance can occupy receptors designed for a specific neurotransmitter. In effect, it fools the brain into thinking it is producing its natural neurotransmitters in adequate amounts.
- These are the cornerstone beliefs of traditional approaches to substance abuse. The only problem is they don’t yield good long-term results. On average, just 25 percent of people who use these conventional approaches recover. That means your chance of recovery through these four conventional approaches is a lousy one in four! Not very good odds.
