Addiction Treatment Centers » Diagnosing Drug Dependence and Full Blown Addiction

Diagnosing Drug Dependence and Full Blown Addiction

Believe it or not, it’s not always clear how to tell if what you’re experiencing is drug dependence or full blown addiction. Sometimes addiction can creep up on us, especially when we least suspect it. Keep in mind that virtually any person has the potential to develop an addiction. No one is immune to potentially becoming an addict–it happens to the young, the old, the sick, the healthy, and so on.

The truly cunning thing about addiction is that we can become physically and psychologically dependent on a substance, and then use our own mind and logic to convince ourselves that we are choosing to use the substance, instead of being controlled by it. This is called denial, of course, and through this mechanism we can fool ourselves into thinking that we are actually in control.

drug dependence
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The fact of the matter is that most addicts suspect that they are truly hooked long before they will openly admitted it to themselves and others. Fear holds us back from making the diagnosis and proceeding towards a healthy change. Fear is what holds us back from facing our addiction.

Dependence Versus Addiction

Let’s clarify the difference between dependence and addiction. For a little background, you might first want to check this out about whether alcoholism and addiction is a disease or not.

Physical dependence refers to the state of your body when it becomes physically dependent on a substance. This is characterized mostly by withdrawal symptoms when the substance is taken away. For example, someone who is using Valium as a sleeping pill every single night for several years may find it very difficult to sleep without the medication (by the way, Valium is a terrible sleep aid, as it does not produce deeply restorative sleep). In the same way, someone using strong pain medications on a regular basis over a period of time may experience withdrawal symptoms when abruptly stopping the medication.

This is physical dependence. It is not the same as full blown addiction. Anyone engaging in a pattern that produces dependence must also have other environmental and genetic factors involved that will lead them into full blown addiction.

At this point in time, all our medical knowledge does not have predictive power when judging personality and guessing who will become drug addicts and alcoholics and who will not. It’s not practical to look at a person and warn them that they might become an addict someday, or that they are predisposed to addictive tendencies, because we have proven to ourselves that we do not have the ability to accurately make these predictions.

Perhaps you or someone you know is hovering on the line between physical dependence and drug addiction. For example, maybe you are taking pain medications, and you are taking greater and greater amounts each day, buying it from multiple sources (perhaps illegally), and you can’t really see yourself stopping the medication without some serious help. Does this qualify as physical dependence or full blown drug addiction? Where is the line between the two, and when has a person crossed it?

drug dependence
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Getting Past the Stereotypes

Some of us have a preconceived notion of what a typical drug addict is like. Most of us probably think that such an individual is beneath us, and that this stereotype could not possibly apply to our situation. We might picture someone who is truly out of control, dangerous, living in the gutters, and going to certain extremes with drug use that we ourselves have not yet experienced.

Stereotyping addicts can be a large factor in our own denial. We might justify our own drug use because “it’s not that bad,” as we compare ourselves to this idea of a hopeless junkie living in the streets.

The truth of the matter is that there are all sorts of modern day drug addicts, many of whom are still working and holding things together by the skin of their teeth. These are the people who have become physically dependent on either drugs or alcohol, and are slowly making the transition into full blown addiction. Their lives may not yet be in shambles, but chances are good that they have started to experience some consequences. However, consequences don’t always tell the whole story.

Using Consequences to Measure Addiction Isn’t Accurate

It’s easy to look at a person’s life and judge them by the consequences that they have brought upon themselves. For example, people who have racked up several drunk drivings and lost their license. There are also people who have lost their jobs or gotten into all sorts of trouble because of alcohol or drug use. But these consequences are actually a poor measure of a person’s level of addiction. The problem is that many people merely abuse drugs and alcohol, find themselves getting into trouble, and promptly make a change in their life–consequently “straightening out.”

On the other hand, there are serious drug addicts and alcoholics who remain fairly “lucky” for several years, experiencing very little in the way of consequences. My personal story reflects this exactly, as I had very few legal consequences and basically managed to hold a job through most of it.

So while consequences might be a strong indicator, they are not the final authority on diagnosing addiction, because there are so many exceptions. So how can we accurately diagnosis addiction?

drug dependence
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Self Diagnosis is Always Accurate

We might look at an individual who appears to be out of control and facing major life consequences because of their drinking or drug use, yet continues to abuse drugs. Surely this person is a drug addict, we think. But this might not be the case. Many people go through stages of heavy drinking or drug use in their lives without becoming full-blown addicts.

Therefore, the only truly accurate method is through self-diagnosis. For physical dependence:

* Increase in tolerance - when it takes more and more of the drug to produce the same effect
* Withdrawal symptoms - when you stop taking the drug abruptly

And to diagnose the psychological element found with full-blown addiction:

* Preoccupied with the substance - thinking about it all the time, planning future uses, etc.
* Loss of choice - using drugs or alcohol when you had previously decided you would not
* Loss of control - using more than you had planned on
* Loss of time - using so much or so often that you sacrifice all of your extra time to the drug.

The line between physical dependence and full blown addiction is not always clear. Another experiment you might want to try is controlled using, as outlined in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. Set a limit for yourself that is very low and stick with it for six months, taking only one drink per day, for example. It should quickly become clear to you if you are truly an addict or not. If you resent the fact that you have to control your chemical use, and if it proves to be difficult and uncomfortable, then that is a pretty good indication. If the only way you can have fun is to cut loose and remove all limits, then that is a pretty good indicator as well.

Remember that denial will always scoff at these experiments as being unnecessary.

Your peace of mind and contentedness should not rest on drugs or alcohol. That is a sign of preoccupation and obsession. If you feel relief when you obtain your drug of choice, that is another strong indicator.

If you are reading this because you think someone you know might be addicted, be sure to read this about how to help an addict.

Comments

2 Responses to “Diagnosing Drug Dependence and Full Blown Addiction”

Pat on August 7th, 2008 12:10 pm

Hi, My son has been dealing with an alcoholic wife for many years. The last two have been awful. His wife had been in and out of rehab, ran up huge credit card bills, wrecked her car, fell and cut her head open and refused to go to the hospital,etc, He loves her,or the person she was,and just does not know what to do. He is unable to work some days because he is afraic to let her alone. Her family has disowned her. Is there nothing he can do? She does not want to stop drinking. The last time she was in rehab she came home and started drinking the same day. She needs help, she needs to be put in a safe place and kept there until she can function without booxe. My son needs to be able to live his life. He need to get away from her but is scared to leave her.
Any help at all. Already know about alanon and all the other self help groups.
Patrick on August 7th, 2008 7:22 pm

Hi there Pat (we have the same name!)

Sorry to hear about your son and his wife and their situation. It sounds like it is pretty desperate. You can’t force someone to get help.

What you might consider is a formal intervention. You can organize this yourself with the help of friends and family, or you can pay a professional to help you with it. They are not necessarily a magic bullet and might even be detrimental in some cases, but it might be worth a shot if you are truly desperate.

My family did a formal, paid intervention on me and I went to treatment, then got out and drank for another year. Then I got sober and have been sober for 7+ years now. Perhaps that intervention was a necessary step in the right direction, even though it didn’t “work” at the time.

Good luck to you and God bless.

P.S. learn more about interventions right here.