Substance Use Disorder
When does substance use become a problem?
It might be when it starts affecting your career. It might be when you start feeling horrible when you haven’t had a drink or used a drug for a while. Or it might be when you’re facing a judge after a night you can’t remember.
Everybody has a point when they realize they have a problem. The next step?
Deciding what to do about it. As devastating as addiction is, it’s a treatable condition. Discovery Addiction Centers has years of successful experience treating substance use disorder (SUD)
and more.
What Is Substance Use?
Put simply, substance use is the use of any psychoactive substance, be it illicit drugs, alcohol or other substances. A psychoactive substance is any substance that alters the way the brain functions.
Psychoactive substances include:
Legal substances like alcohol and caffeine
Prescription drugs such as benzodiazepines
Illicit drugs like meth, cocaine and heroin
Put simply, substance use is the use of any psychoactive substance, be it illicit drugs, alcohol or other substances. A psychoactive substance is any substance that alters the way the brain functions.
What Are Some Common Addictions?
There are many different kinds of addictive substances. Here are a few of the more common ones we treat at Discovery Addiction Centers:
Alcohol
It’s easy to forget that alcohol is one of the most widely available and addictive drugs there is. Alcohol abuse (which some call “alcoholism”) is a devastating form of addiction.
Marijuana / Cannabis
Increasingly legal, marijuana is considered a “softer” drug…but it’s still capable of disrupting your life every bit as much as the other drugs on this list can.
Cocaine
This powerful, illegal stimulant has been used as a party drug for decades despite being highly addictive. Crack is a crystallized and smokable version of cocaine.
Methamphetamine
Meth is an extremely powerful stimulant that can cause you to lose contact with reality.
Fentanyl
One of the most dangerous drugs there is, fentanyl is a very potent synthetic opioid that often contaminates other drug stashes. It’s also the drug that is largely responsible for the overdose epidemic.
Prescription Drugs
Prescription drugs can allow a person to live a normal life when used correctly…but they can be devastating when abused. Prescription drugs are a large family of drugs that include ADHD medications, benzodiazepines and opioid pain relievers.
Heroin
A powerful opioid drug, heroin has trapped people in addiction for decades and is infamous for the withdrawal effects it causes.
Synthetic Drugs
Often used as club drugs, drugs like MDMA, GHB, K2/spice and more can be highly unpredictable and dangerous.
What Is Substance Use Disorder?
Substance use disorder, or SUD for short, is a mental health condition that involves engaging in substance use despite the problems it causes. Over time, substance use can create serious health, safety, and legal problems for people, which begs the question of why people keep using substances. Surprisingly, it’s not always a person’s choice to continue using drugs and alcohol.
That’s because addictive substances rewire the brain. Drugs work by causing the body to release dopamine. Dopamine is a powerful neurotransmitter used in the body’s reward system. This dopamine release is why drugs feel so good…and why people are compelled to keep using them.
Worse, when a person stops using drugs, the body goes into shock as it tries to rebalance itself. This causes withdrawal symptoms, which can be extremely difficult to get through without professional help.
What Are the Symptoms of Substance Use Disorder?
Although everybody experiences substance use disorder differently, there are some common symptoms. Here are some signs you may be struggling with substance use:
Developing tolerance, meaning you need to take larger amounts of drugs to feel the same effects
Feeling powerful urges to continue using drugs
Giving up social and recreational activities in favor of drug use
Trying to keep using drugs without success
Continuing to use substances even when you experience negative results, like damaged relationships and legal issues
Having problems fulfilling your responsibilities at school, work or at home
Using drugs despite being in risky situations
Using drugs despite having a physical or mental issue that drugs make worse
Feeling withdrawal symptoms when you’re not using drugs
What Causes Substance Use Disorder?
How substance use disorder develops isn’t fully understood. Research has shown that drugs do have a physical effect on the brain…but there are other factors in play, too.
Peer pressure
We tend to be influenced by the behaviors we see, especially if they’re from our friends, parents or a group we want to be a part of.
Long-term use
It’s possible to build up a tolerance to the effects of drugs and alcohol, meaning a person must take more and more of a drug to feel the same effects. This is a major contributor to developing a SUD.
Self-medication
This is an extremely common pathway into addiction. Many people self-medicate with drugs to treat stress, depression or pain. Others use medications like ADHD drugs to perform better on tests.
Am I at Risk of Developing a Substance Use Disorder?
Certain conditions and experiences can put you at a higher risk of SUD:
Having a parent or close relative with a SUD
Having easy access to drugs and alcohol
Having a co-occurring mental health issue
Being a survivor of trauma, particularly childhood trauma
Being genetically susceptible to drugs and alcohol
How Is Substance Use Disorder Treated?
At Discovery Addiction Centers, we use proven, evidence-based care to treat addiction and co-occurring disorders. We make extensive use of counseling, talk therapy and other forms of treatment to help our patients what to learn from their relapses.
We also do something unique: measurement-based care for behavioral health. We carefully analyze 27 distinct wellness indicators in each of our patients. This helps us carefully measure their progress and create individualized, effective treatment programs that help us meet their needs at every stage of their treatment. We believe that what gets measured gets better.
Finally, there’s Discovery365™, our groundbreaking recovery support platform. It uses cutting-edge AI proprietary technology to help you know when to reach out, avoid relapses and more.
With Discovery Addiction Centers, nothing is more important than the rest of your life. We’ll be your guides on your recovery journey. Best of all, you can start today.
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