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Silver Pines and Steps to Recovery have provided addiction recovery programs in Pennsylvania for over a decade with detox, residential, outpatient, and sober living services. Last year, we expanded our services to include robust mental health services, new locations, and specialized services for our nation’s veterans with more to come this year! We are visually recognizing our growth with a unified look that better reflects who we are today and the passion we have for helping everyone with their addiction and mental health recovery journeys.

Psychological Dependence on Drugs

Psychological Dependence on
Drugs

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Dependence on Drugs
There’s a common misconception that physical dependence to drugs or alcohol is the main source of the problem. In reality, having a psychological dependence on drugs or alcohol is the primary reason why people can’t stop. Moreover, due to this misconception, people don’t believe they need to go through addiction treatment in order to recover. This issue leads to many people experiencing countless relapses and losing hope in their recovery.
A man struggling with a psychological dependence.

What is a Psychological Dependence on Drugs?

A physical dependence on drugs or alcohol means that your body can’t function without the substance in your system. Therefore, once you quit, you can experience a wide range of symptoms of withdrawal. After withdrawal is over, your mind still doesn’t know how to cope with living life without these substances. This is because the brain is set up in a habit loop that makes you crave substances when you experience different triggers.
For example, the habit loop consists of the following:
  • Trigger
  • Behavior
  • Reward
The brain is set up like this to help you remember to find food or water when you’re hungry or thirsty. However, the problem is that you’ve trained your brain to believe that it needs drugs or alcohol to deal with various triggers. Your triggers may consist of sadness, stress, loneliness, boredom, anger, and other daily issues. In order to truly recover from your addiction, you must retrain your brain, and this comes in the form of addiction treatment services.

Overcoming Psychological Dependence

To experience long-term recovery from psychological dependence on drugs, it’s important to go to a drug and alcohol treatment center and work with professionals. Moreover, trained therapists use an evidence-based practice called behavioral therapy, which will help to rewire your brain. The first step is meeting with a therapist to discover the root causes of your addiction and triggers. This is also beneficial because some of your triggers may be the result of an underlying mental illness like anxiety or depression.

From here, a therapist is able to help you identify your triggers and replace your old behaviors with new ones. For example, one of the most common forms of this therapy is CBT. Addiction treatment gives you a safe place to begin putting these methods to good use whenever you experience triggers. Over time, you’ll begin to see your cravings begin to decrease as you discover this new way of living.

Support Helps with Psychological Dependence on Drugs

Another benefit of treatment is that you’ll have the opportunity to be with others who are overcoming addiction as well. Additionally, this can also change your behaviors because you’ll begin to see the rewards of relying on support. For example, you’ll learn that part of long-term recovery is having the ability to turn to others when you’re struggling. Some of the bonds and friendships that you build in treatment will last for many years after you discharge.

Silver Pines Treatment Center is here to help you overcome your psychological dependence on drugs through various forms of therapy. We have a friendly staff who has the ultimate goal of helping you begin a new life that you deserve. Furthermore, we offer different levels of care that range from a safe, medical detox to residential treatment. You’ll discover that a better way of life is waiting for you through programs such as:

If you’d like to learn more about how Silver Pines can help you with this new way of living, call us today at 267.209.7313. To overcome a psychological dependence on drugs, we’ll give you the comfort and support you deserve.

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