This was started in another thread and instead of threadjacking I thought this would be a better place for this debate......
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Originally Posted by MooseMan3000
Originally Posted by MooseMan3000
Say what you will, but in my experience, ALL addictions are mental addictions. I'm not saying that people CHOOSE to be addicted. However, in every single case I've seen that someone has overcome either a "mental" or a "physical" addiction, the key factor is that the person DECIDED to get better. Until the addict makes the conscious effort to get beyond it, nothing else will help. That is why I consider all addictions "mental," and hence, they are all the same.
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This is not necessarily true, and one of the biggest misconceptions in the addiction field.
Take heroin, alcohol and benzodiazapine addictions for example. Those are the 3 worst physical addictions. The body literally NEEDS those stimuli put into them or the body may DIE.
Psychologically, these people are more worried about the physical pain then the mental and therefore they need to be treated differently than a 100% mental addiction such as gambling, gaming, etc.
I work in a detox, I know when I found recovery, my body did not react as theirs does. There were no physical pains that could even be ccompared to what they go through. (Yes, I may have had some psychosomatic pains, maybe, such as a headache and fatigue but that was because I had been up 72 straight hours at a poker table). BUT, my mental pain was far far worse than theirs.... I had years of guilt and sorrow and things I had buried that came to surface far far faster than the physical addicts ever will. Therefore, my psychological pain needed treatment right away or I would have relapsed within a week..... (and almost every mental addict I have worked with is the same).
Yes, I agree, the addict has to truly want the help, but I can tell you right now from experience, once the physical pain is gone they have a better chance of recovery than a 100% mental addict.
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Of course there are subtle differences. But that doesn't make a lick of difference as to how you treat it.
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Yes, there are MAJOR differences in how you treat mental and physical addictions......
primarily as a counselor you have to totally delve into the psychological pain the mental addict is covering, this is the only way to get a full recovery.
with physical, you can have the alcoholic who never wants to drink again and he changes his life almost right away and then in time go into the psychological pains.
With mental addictions, you don't have that luxury, you have to delve right away and focus on the psyche.
This is why places like Algamus and "The Track" in Brecksville's VA hospital have far better recovery rates for gamblers than Betty Ford, Glenbeigh or Hazelden. Algamus and "The Track" work the psyche and educate one on how to deal positively with pressure, they focus on mental addictions as a seperate and different form of addiction than the physical.... whereas the others mentioned above are still lost in treating all addictions the same.
There was a report out not long ago that showed the differences between addictions.
It's very, very old school to believe and treat every addiction the same and by doing so your recovery rates will suffer. And the whole purpose of helping is to have a decent recovery rate.
I think the fact the statistics show that only 2% of mental addicts ever truly recover and that the suicide rates are far higher than physical addictions proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that treatment has to be different.