If you are addicted to drugs and cannot seem to break the addiction on your own, you are not alone. Breaking a drug addiction is not an easy task, even if you seek help. One of the key things you should know is that it takes time and work to break a drug addiction, and this is primarily due to the effects drugs have on the brain. Here are several important things to understand about this.

Effects On The Brain That Make Breaking Addictions Hard

If you use drugs just once or twice, it will not affect your brain greatly, but using them repeatedly over a period of time can have a lot of serious effects on your brain. These effects make it difficult for you to stop using drugs and live a normal life.

Each time you use drugs, the chemicals in them begin interfering with the way your brain sends and receives communications from neurons and normal brain chemicals. The chemicals in the drugs mimic the chemicals your brain naturally makes, and this causes the brain to stop making them. When you stop using drugs, your brain will no longer receive the chemicals it needs, and it will no longer be producing them. This is what leads to bad moods, irritability, and the incredible urge to use more drugs.

The only option drug users see, at this point, is to use more drugs. That is the only way to find instant relief of the withdrawal symptoms they are experiencing. Unfortunately, this is what keeps a drug user using drugs. This is also what interferes with a drug user from getting clean, especially if the drug user thinks getting clean is possible without experiencing any side-effects or withdrawal symptoms.

Why Long-Term Treatment Is The Most Effective Option

When you make the decision to break your addiction, you must keep a long-term treatment plan in mind. If you think you can break the addiction overnight, you are wrong. It just simply doesn't work like this. It takes time, and it often takes multiple forms of treatment. If you are really serious about breaking your addiction, you should plan on spending at least three months seeking serious help. This is the recommended amount of time from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, but you should be aware that it may take even longer than this.

If you are tired of living a life addicted to drugs, only you can make the decision to quit. To learn more or to get help, contact a substance abuse treatment facility like the Center For Behavioral Health today.