Psychological effects of addiction

Addiction can have profound effects on a person's thoughts, feelings and behaviour. It usually disturbs perceptions and attitudes, and can significantly disrupt someone's personality. This isn't just because the substances involved - such as alcohol, nicotine, cocaine, heroin and valium - interfere with the natural chemistry of the brain. The experience of addiction itself also has an effect on how a person thinks, feels and behaves.

However, the amount of psychological disruption from an addiction varies hugely. An addiction such as smoking, for example, doesn't have the same harmful social consequences as an addiction to a substance such as heroin might, and the psychological impact isn't so marked.

How severely people are affected psychologically depends on their mental health before becoming addicted and the ongoing circumstances of their lives. If you're unemployed, homeless and physically unwell, for example, your psychological health is likely to suffer more than if you have a home, job and supportive family. If the drug, such as alcohol, is particularly damaging to the brain, it may add to the long-term psychological harm. Such brain damage may be irreversible.

Not everyone who becomes addicted has the same experience. However, there are certain psychological symptoms that most addicted people suffer sooner or later, either all at once or in clusters. People may begin to look for treatment when these start to become severe, often because of the growing impact of the addiction's harmful consequences in their lives.

The psychological effects of addiction can be divided into those that relate to feeling and those that relate to thinking.

These thoughts and feelings are tied closely to addictive behaviours that can result from, and/or lead to, the thoughts and feelings, leading to a vicious circle. For instance, an addicted person may avoid others, leading to a feeling of isolation. They may also feel ashamed of their addiction and inability to cope. To deal with these feelings, they take more of the drug. Their relationship with the drug excludes people, who avoid that person. The result is increased isolation.

It's important to realise that the psychological effects of addiction aren't only experienced by the person who misuses alcohol and/or drugs, but also by those who are personally involved with them, such as families, friends and colleagues.

Feelings associated with addiction

Many of the feelings experienced in addiction derive from a sense of being unable to gain control of yourself or the use of the drug. Some, such as shame and guilt, come from finding yourself behaving in ways that are at odds with your personal values and beliefs. It isn't easy living with the knowledge that you've stolen money from your grandmother to buy drugs. Often the only way to cope with such feelings is to take more drugs.

Other feelings come simply from the daily misery of being in the kind of mess that's harming most, if not all, areas of your life.

Drugs are often referred to as mood-altering. People take them because they change mood, or feelings, in the short term. However, there can be a long-term effects from continuing to use drugs for this purpose. Addicted people often report an increase in the feeling they were trying to escape, such as:

• Depression - ranges from feeling very down and helpless to suicidal
• Anxiety - ranges from feeling generally fearful to loss of trust and paranoia
• Low self-esteem - may become self-loathing and links to shame and guilt
• No confidence - a state of mind related to anxiety and depression
• Anger - from touchy and irritated to explosive, often with blaming
• Boredom - the pattern of addiction becomes relentlessly, tediously the same

Thought patterns in addiction

Many of the thought patterns in addiction are defensive and designed to protect the addiction. Some are responses to the stress of the lifestyle of addiction. Some are the results of the damage done by a drug's chemistry.

Thoughts include:

• Believing others are responsible and can fix you - like the drug
• Denying reality - convincing oneself and maybe others that it's not as bad as it is
• Obsessive - exclusive focus on the substance and getting enough of it
• Grandiosity - thinking your concerns are more important than anything else
• If only... - focusing on everything but the real thing that needs changing
• Self-harm - ideas about ways to relieve or escape the suffering
• Mental ability - loss of memory and concentration

Behaviour of addicts

Behaviours tend to reflect the consuming relationship with the drug of choice. Addicts often postpone positive change and facing up to reality. They are usually self-defeating. In many instances, behaviour is simply about avoiding the discomfort of withdrawal.

Typical behaviours include:

• Avoiding - isolating yourself and not taking responsibility
• Controlling - including various kinds of manipulation and even violence
• Betrayal - anyone can be sacrificed because the drug comes first
• Self-harm - deliberate acts to hurt yourself for relief or punishment
• Deceiving - self and others to keep ahead of the consequences