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For those in drug and alcohol addiction recovery, sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, this thought will arise sooner or later: "I haven't had a drink or a drug in a while, I wonder if I am cured?".
It is the desire of many alcoholics or addicts to be able to use again like 'normal people'. But is this possible?
Given this mindset, the user will attempt to pound square pegs into round holes, searching out any justification that will again allow use. On the surface, the idea of being cured from addiction because a person has not had a drink or drug in a while seems logical. There is a fatal flaw to this concept.
The flaw in this thinking is that it is simply time away from use that is the cure. Here's an analogy using that logic: If a person is allergic to wheat and has really unpleasant reactions, they stay away from eating wheat products. Why would they assume that after a week, month or year, they could eat wheat products with impunity?
There is an overwhelming body of evidence that shows that an addicts or alcoholics brain and body has different reactions to drugs and alcohol than a non-addict. Time away from use is not a factor, biology is. With the improvement in brain imaging technology, we can now see the incontrovertible evidence of irreversible adaptations in the brain as a result of addiction.
If we look at the old adage of 'Once you cross the line, you can never go back', in terms of being unable to reverse biological changes, there is no 'cure'. Every year or two there seems to be eager announcements in the press about a 'magic pill' that will allow a safe return to use. This has simply not happened.
The topic of controlled drinking was a hot one some years ago. The evidence over time has shown overwhelmingly that it simply does not work for people who are addicted. Anecdotally, in my career as an addiction therapist, I have never once had a patient call me up and say that he had returned to using, had no further bad consequences, relationships are great, life is good. Never.
Instead of thinking in terms of a cure, it is more productive to think in terms of stopping the problem. There is, of course a solution to keeping the disease of addiction in a permanent state of remission, and that is ongoing abstinence.
The key is learning how to stay in a state of continued abstinence.
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