By Matthew D. Federici, MA, LMHC
7 Minute Read
Many times in recovery, individuals will substitute addictions without even realizing it. The propensity to engage in poor food choices, including sugar, caffeine, propensity to use nicotine, as well as addictive experiences such as shopping, leisure, and sexuality are often overlooked in recovery. Are these behaviors present in your recovery? What are the implications of this, why does this happen, and ultimately, how do we make our recovery as wholesome as possible?
We’ve all seen it – the line for coffee at your local support group is probably long and full of impatient and possibly angry people waiting to get their coffee. What gives? I thought we were attending these meetings because we’re surrendering to a power greater than ourselves? Something more powerful than our addiction? We’ve come to realize our powerlessness over mood or mind-altering substances – right? Are we surrendering to coffee or our higher power? If something about that coffee line sounds counterintuitive to recovery processes, you’re probably on the right track.
It’s not just the coffee line. What about the chain-smoking? You’ve seen it – it’s going on before, after, and sometimes (depending on the meeting) during the meeting. Coffee and cigarettes go hand-in-hand it seems. What about candy and sweets? Look in any meeting or any treatment center, and you’ll find someone popping life-savers or some other candy. What’s going on here? I thought we were in recovery to free ourselves from the ties that bind? How clean can I be if I need my coffee, cigarettes, and candy just to sit through the meeting that’s supposed to relinquish me from addict behaviors?
Addictive Behaviors
We need to start with the definition of “addict behaviors”. Many professionals and individuals with personal experience with substance use recovery will know the phrase “mind or mood-altering substance.” Looking at that phrase, shouldn’t coffee, cigarettes, and candy count? Sure, these substances don’t have the extent of the psychotropic effect that many are used to with their drugs of choice, but there is a psychotropic effect nonetheless. What about experiences? People can also abuse practices such as leisure, shopping, and sexuality.
Legal Substances
By this philosophy, it’s more appropriate to alter the prior phrase to “mind or mood-altering substance, or experience.” These are what we can call “substitute addictions.” One of the most common ones may see includes substituting an illegal, or controlled narcotic for something like alcohol, or depending on the legality of the state, marijuana. The philosophy of the individual usually is, “well, it’s legal, I can do this instead.” Or, if an individual is substituting alcohol, they may opt for simply using marijuana, or even abuse coffee, cigarettes, or candy. In these situations, the issue arises in that, if we’re seeking recovery to relinquish ourselves of the hooks of addiction, why are we using these other substances in the same degree of dysfunction?
People know what it’s like to “get caffeinated,” people know the sugar rush from an energy drink or some candy, and I have clients that will flaunt how they managed to “get a ‘nic-buzz’ (rush of nicotine) this morning,” from smoking their first cigarette of the day too fast. The issue arises in that if individuals in recovery are endorsing enjoyment out of these practices, how is our “recovery” doing? By this philosophy, and given the usage described, we could categorize caffeine, nicotine, and sugar as substances of abuse. These are substances that we are using, and we are endorsing enjoyment from their mood-altering effect. One could argue that these substances are being taken to feel different because drugs of choice are no longer present.
Experiences
It’s not just about actual substances, though – what about processes that could be addictive? A process could be considered any set of behaviors or ritual-like experience that leaves some net effect of neurotransmitters in our brain.
Some of these could include shopping, love/romanticism, pornography, sexual behaviors, videogames, and even fitness. Consider a client in a treatment center for polysubstance use. They are abstinent, following their psychiatrist’s recommendations, and getting proper therapy from their counselor – if these are allegedly being followed and used properly in the interest of substance use treatment, why are they getting packages from Amazon delivered to the residence every day?
We’ve seen these people outside of substance use treatment centers as well. The people that open a credit card in every major store, gain satisfaction from copious amounts of material items, and sometimes even return them because they can’t actually afford them, only to restart the process over again. They’re lucky if they end up returning the belongings because many of these people will max out all said credit cards. People do this regardless of the risk because of the rush – even though there are no physical substances taking place, there is a net effect on neurotransmitters in the brain that simply feel really good to said individual. This creates an addictive experience in which individuals, and particularly individuals in recovery are at extreme risk of engaging in. They substitute these negative behaviors instead of using a physical drug of choice because that drug of choice.
Dating Apps
Consider the individual who is a fiend for dating apps. They have six of them on their phone, and they have flagged matches daily. The weekends are a crowded mess of superficial, sexually charged encounters with little to no long term commitment. There is a huge rush of neurotransmitters going on in the brain during every face of the courting, dating, and intimate aspects included in the general experience with dating apps. The same idea could be applied to pornography. These sexually charged experiences feel good to humans because it’s evolutionarily proactive. The same could be said about fitness behaviors being abused. Because of such, those with addictive potential may begin to abuse this process and are at high risk for substituting with such when initially ceasing their drug of choice.
Gambling
Consider the individual who is fond of gambling, whether it be a lottery, sports betting, or traditional casino games. There is a huge rush of neurotransmitters going on in the brain in this situation as well due to the risky behavior, and the chance of benefit associated with such. Individuals, as well as individuals in recovery, can easily become addicted to this process. However, with individuals in recovery, this risk is particularly problematic, much like sexuality and shopping, due to the likelihood of substitution from the drug of choice.
Wrap Up
These individuals generally aren’t substituting intentionally, or in a manipulative manner which is designed to weaken their recovery. Most people aren’t aware of this risk. Of all the process addictions named, and all of the non-narcotic or alcoholic substances named, people generally don’t plan to substitute. Someone doesn’t intentionally say “I used to drink, now I’ll just get my fix with shopping, gambling, and sex,” because it simply doesn’t work that way. People are looking to fill a void that their drug of choice once filled, and things that feel good, whether it be coffee or a process like the ones described, can easily slip their way in. To the untrained, or unaware individual, this can happen in spite of ourselves, perhaps even seemingly unconsciously.
If this is happening to an individual in recovery, one must ask, how sound is your recovery? Are we really turning over our desire for mood or mind-altering substances or experiences to our higher power? Or are we just substituting with something else?
