Breaking free from addiction is tough, like rerouting a well-worn path in your brain. But it’s possible. Many people succeed with determination, support, and the right help.
Celebrating even small victories is crucial on this journey. It boosts resilience and acknowledges the progress made. It also encourages a positive mindset and reinforces the belief that change is possible.
In this guide, we will take you through the process of healing, exploring various stages and the crucial role that therapy and counselling play in this transformative journey.
What’s an Addiction?
Addiction is commonly characterized by compulsive engagement in a behaviour or substance use despite negative consequences. It involves a loss of control over the activity or substance, with the individual continuing to pursue it even when it has harmful effects on their health, relationships, or overall well-being.
The NHS defines addiction as “not having control over doing, taking, or using something to the point where it could be harmful to you.”
This “something” could be gambling, smoking, alcohol, or drugs. That’s not the end of it. The less usual suspects include being addicted to work, the internet, shopping, and so on.
Parts of The Brain Affected By Addiction
Our brain is one of the most fascinating and complex organs of the human body and is made up of billions of nerve cells (neurons).
Sitting at the center of all human activity, the brain regulates our bodily functions—whether it’s eating, going for a run, driving the car, and so on—and shapes our behaviour.
In other words, your brain is you. Here are a few quick brain-related facts worth knowing:
- It weighs 3 pounds
- It has unlimited storage capacity as it comprises ~86 billion neurons, which continuously organize themselves into networks and circuits and send signals to the body.
- Around 60% of it is fat, which drives brain performance.
- The brain’s prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning and reasoning, continues to develop until age 25
Unfortunately, using drugs interferes with the way your brain’s neurons send, receive, and process signals. The same goes for alcohol, the use of which interferes with the brain’s communication pathways and affects the way your brain looks and works.
But which specific regions of the brain bear the brunt of substance abuse? Let’s find out.
Consistent substance abuse affects three primary brain areas:
1. The Basal Ganglia or the Brain’s “Reward Circuit”
It is the part of the brain responsible for driving motivation, forming habits and routines, and gaining pleasure from everyday activities such as eating, socializing, and sex.
Regular substance abuse overactivates your reward circuit and produces unparalleled levels of euphoria. Now, your brain circuit is smart. With repeated exposure, it gets “used to” the substance, lowering sensitivity in the process. This means you won’t be able to gain pleasure from anything else in the long run.
2. The Extended Amygdala
This part of the brain is responsible for developing feelings of anxiety, irritability, and unease. Here’s what happens when the “euphoria high” dies down: Your drug/alcohol high fades, and you set out to feel the high again.
But here’s the catch: The circuit becomes increasingly sensitive as your substance abuse escalates. With time, your priorities shift—you focus on getting temporary relief from the substance abuse discomfort instead of wanting to get high.
3. The Prefrontal Cortex
The prefrontal cortex is the brain part that helps you think, be rational, drive decisions, solve problems, and exercise self-control over being impulsive. Balancing between the three circuits is difficult for a person with a substance use history. In simpler words, they’ll succumb to alcohol or drug addiction as the walls of impulse control tear down with time.
Note that using opioids can disrupt other brain parts—most importantly, your brain stem, which controls your heart rate, breathing, and sleeping. This is why overdoses lead to respiratory issues and even death.
Can the Brain Heal Itself After Addiction?
Yes, the brain can heal itself after addiction but the thing about addiction is that it’s a chronic and (often) relapsing disorder. This makes it difficult for the brain to go back to its normal self. However, our brain possesses an incredible ability to adapt—even after prolonged substance abuse.
In technical terms, this is known as neuroplasticity, a process that enables the brain to build new brain cells and adapt, change, and grow post-addiction.
However, the process takes time, multiple attempts, and a lot of dedication. And in some extreme cases, substance-related brain damage cannot be reversed.
It has been seen that the more severe your history of substance abuse, the longer it will take for your brain to heal. If we were to put a number to it, know that your brain may be able to heal in as little as a month or may take up to five years to complete the healing process, depending on which substances you’ve taken and the extent of brain damage that has occurred.
How to Rewire Your Brain?
You can support and speed up the brain-healing process after addiction with:
- Regular exercising: Exercise regularly, as it increases the size of your hippocampus by 2% and boosts spatial memory
- Mindfulness: Engage in mind-body practices—or “brain fitness” exercises—such as meditation, which targets different brain systems responsible for regulating attention, emotional control, and mood, and prevents depression
- Nourishing diet: Consume a balanced diet, as substance abuse can cause deficiencies in vital minerals and vitamins, specifically an increase in copper and zinc and a decrease in iron
- Proper sleep: Sleep is known to restore the brain by flushing out toxins that build up during waking hours. So, maintain a healthy sleep routine to accelerate brain recovery.
How the Brain Rewires From Addiction: A Look At Its Process
Yale Medicine confirms that “addiction is now understood to be a brain disease.”
To heal your brain from addiction, it needs to be reprogrammed.
In most cases of addiction, people experience triggers—a stimulus that activates drug-related memories, leading to reward anticipation and craving responses. Your trigger could be internal or external, such as the smell of your favourite pub, a bad day at work, painful withdrawal symptoms, and so on.
To prevent these triggers from hijacking your brain again, you need to rewire your brain by way of:
- Learning how to interpret and react to those triggers differently
- Developing alternative, healthier coping strategies
- Speaking with a loved one for comfort
- Going on a run
- Doing yoga or journaling
Plus, practicing mindfulness and relaxation adds extra support to rewire your brain from addiction. It also helps create a sense of calm and control, which makes it easier to navigate the challenges of breaking free from addiction.
Can Behavioral Therapy Help the Brain Heal?
Yes, behavioural therapy can help your brain heal by teaching you new ways to cope with challenges without using drugs or alcohol. It is like retraining your brain to respond differently to cravings and triggers by:
- Developing healthier habits and coping mechanisms
- Understanding your triggers
- Building important skills like problem-solving and communication to stay sober and avoid relapse
In essence, you learn healthier ways to manage stress and emotions (as opposed to turning to substances).
Ultimately, this process helps create new pathways in your brain so that you can understand why you turned to substances in the first place. This “understanding” is instrumental in making lasting changes in your behaviour.
How Does Drug and Alcohol Abuse Damage Our Brain?
It’s important to understand how drug and alcohol abuse affects our brains.
Here’s the typical vicious cycle that follows an addict’s life across five stages:
Stage 1: Lowered Brain Sensitivity
The addict starts using the substance regularly. Every use interferes with the brain’s neurons and circuits, reduces its sensitivity, and damages it in the process.
Stage 2: Substance Cravings
As the alcohol/drugs flood the body with dopamine, the brain dials down on its dopamine production in response. Essentially, the brain is adapting to the high levels of dopamine in the substance. When the dopamine levels don’t match up, it starts sending signals of craving.
Stage 3: Changes in Brain Structure
Over a period of time, sustained substance abuse alters the brain chemistry as well as functioning—in that basic rewards don’t compare with the high you feel when you consume drugs or alcohol. Basically, your pleasure circuits go haywire. This is why substance abusers often feel sad and unmotivated, especially when it comes to enjoying activities they previously found pleasurable.
Stage 4: Dependence on Substance Abuse
As the substance abuser becomes tolerant of the drug/alcohol, they need more of it to keep the bad feelings at bay. This cycle of increased tolerance leads to physical and psychological dependence on the substance. Your brain and body become so accustomed to the substance that stopping its use often results in withdrawal symptoms, which can be severe and dangerous.
Stage 5: Brain Damage
Long-term substance abuse can lead to significant brain damage, such as impaired cognitive function, including low memory, reduced attention, and poor decision-making. Users may also suffer from mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and psychosis. In severe cases, substance abuse can cause permanent brain damage.
The Role of Therapy and Counselling
Getting sober involves more than just detoxing, though this is an essential step.
The right treatment also includes tackling the psychological aspect of being addicted. This is where therapy and counselling can help alter your attitude.
Even if things go south, as they often will, you won’t feel the need to rely on addictive substances to get through the day.
Once you’ve broken the chain of physical dependency in addiction, it’s time to address the psychological aspects through cognitive behavioural therapy, which is effective for 60% of patients suffering from cocaine abuse. Engaging in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves:
Engaging in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) involves:
- Undergoing motivational treatments, a counselling approach, to evoke internal motivation for changing negative behaviour related to drug and alcohol use
- Trying contingency management involves providing tangible rewards and incentives (like the “punchbowl lottery“) to people when they demonstrate the desired positive behaviour, such as refraining from drug or alcohol use.
- Joining a support group like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) will provide you with a sense of community and allow you to share your struggles with like-minded people.
- Going for the Relapse Prevention (RP) treatment, which focuses on identifying and preventing high-risk situations (such as favourite bars, hanging out with friends who also use, etc.) in which a person is more likely to engage in substance use
- Making healthy lifestyle changes such as eating a balanced diet, getting regular exercise, and practicing stress-reduction techniques like meditation and yoga
- Embracing family therapy, a form of counselling, helps the family understand the impact of addiction, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and support the person in recovery.
- Undergoing psychoeducation, cognitive reappraisal, skills training, and other behavioural strategies to avoid triggers, build problem-solving skills, improve coping skills, etc.
Get Expert Help to Rewire Your Brain From Addiction
Addiction is treatable—as long as there is will.
In your brain recovery journey from addiction, a change in mindset is a great start.
Taking the first step towards overcoming addiction is crucial, and at Simcoe Addiction and Mental Health, we’re here to support you. Our experienced professionals offer personalized care and evidence-based treatments to guide you toward a healthier, addiction-free life.
FAQs
1. How long does it take to produce dopamine again?
It can take within three months to produce dopamine again. As an addict on the road to recovery, your brain’s ability to produce dopamine should go back to pre-substance misuse levels within three months. This timeline can vary depending on several factors, including the substance of abuse, the duration and intensity of use, individual differences, and the effectiveness of the recovery process.
2. How long does it take to break an addiction?
It can take 1 to 60 months to rewire the brain from addiction, depending on the type of substance you’re addicted to and the duration of your addiction. When it comes to breaking an addictive behaviour pattern, everyone is different.
3. How long does it take to balance brain chemicals?
It takes a minimum of 3 to 6 months to balance your brain chemicals and restore them to their normal level. The timeline for balancing brain chemicals can vary widely among individuals and is influenced by several factors.
While some improvements in neurotransmitter balance may be observed within a few weeks, achieving a more comprehensive and stable balance often takes longer. The 3- to 6-month timeframe is a general estimate and may apply to certain individuals and situations.