By Matthew D. Federici, MA, LMHC
5 Minute Read
What is the Opposite of Addiction?
It’s not sobriety. Granted, healthy recovery includes sobriety, but the analogy is not that streamlined. Examine the value of community, companionship, goals, and overall connectedness to such as protective factors for sustained abstinence in recovery and sober living.
Many individuals enter treatment with the mindset of “I want to get sober,” however, and unfortunately, it is not that simple. These individuals are correct in that sobriety is a good thing to pursue when endorsing active addiction, but as many will say in recovery, recovery is not about simply ceasing use of a drug of choice. There are many facets that complete the battery of overall recovery processes, and there are some incredibly simple notions that are often overlooked.
Lifestyle and Its Relationship to Addiction
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, researchers in Canada were attempting to understand drug addiction, with the specific hypothesis that drugs do not cause addiction, but lifestyle and associated behaviors cause addiction (1979; 1981). In their experiment, researchers gave both the control group and experimental group a choice between regular drinking water and water laced with morphine. The researchers gave the experimental group toys, novelty food such as cheese, and other fun things rats would enjoy. The control group had nothing but their morphine water.
In the control group, many of the rats would drink the morphine water, overdose, and die. In the experimental group, the rats rarely consumed the morphine laced water and opted to play amongst themselves, enjoy the fun toys, and novel food items that one would expect rats to enjoy (1981).
This experiment only concerned rats, but the implications on the human condition, and human addictive behaviors, was profound. These rats, essentially, had better things to do, and better companionship, eventually yielding generally less desire to use mood or mind-altering substances.
We Must Find Better Things to Do
We can apply the same notion to humans in recovery. Do we have better things to do? Better people to be with? Better companionship? Are we expecting to just stop using our drug of choice without these things? The research would show that recovery is nearly impossible without them (1985; 1987).
Many individuals in early recovery wonder why recovery programs encourage sponsorship, recovery meetings, and generally more healthy behaviors, and not simply “stop using drugs.” Let’s be honest, if “Just say ‘No’,” was more accurate, Nancy Reagan would be revered more for her “War on Drugs,” in which any mental health professional can easily say was a lost cause. The reason why “just say no” doesn’t work is because when we remove some behavior, experience, or otherwise mood or mind-altering substance, or experience, there is a void that needs to be filled. What does one do with that time? Time previously used getting drunk and high, and all of the processes associated with acquiring, and using such, is now free.
What many individuals in recovery do not realize is that, when that time remains void and empty, it becomes incredibly easy to fall back into old ways. After all, what else do addicts know how to do besides use substances? Probably not much, but whether we never had much to do, or we had a lot to do, and lost it all due to active use, does not matter – we can train our brains, cognitively and behaviorally to reuse that time-space.
Replacing Using with a Healthier Lifestyle
Consider the scenario of an alcoholic in recovery, or a heroin addict in recovery, or an individual of any drug of choice in recovery. If we have better things to do, we don’t have time to recover from a hangover, we don’t have time to be dope sick, we don’t have time to search for the drugs, and we surely don’t have the time to conspire regarding acquiring funds for such. What if we had to work the next morning, take our final exam before our graduation ceremony, attend our child’s birthday, attend other responsibilities, or perhaps a different fun obligation to attend such as a friend’s reunion or family reunion? When these things exist, we don’t have the time to seek, use, and rebound from substance use. When we don’t have the time, and we want the recovery-oriented aspects and activities more, there is simply no time to use.
In Relation to Long-Term Goals
The same can be said for future goals, long term planning, and other dreams in recovery.
I can’t get that advanced degree if I’m still using. What college professors would be able to tolerate my observably intoxicated behavior and associated educational discrepancy?
I can’t meet the love of my life, and maybe get married, if I’m in a bad neighborhood every night trying to acquire my drug of choice.
What healthy person would want to be with someone that lives such a dangerous lifestyle?
I can’t become a fitness-oriented person if I’m always hungover when it’s time to go to the gym. Who can get fit when they’re always so sick?
I can’t write and record my own music if I’m too broke from using to book some studio time. What manager or label would want to fund me if I can’t even get my own start with my own finances?
I can’t start my own business if I’m too broke to put the initial funding into the establishment and marketing of such business. What investors would be interested in a partnership like that?
It simply doesn’t work – it’s like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
Healthier Lifestyle = Healthier Environment
Furthermore, these things typically yield to good community and good companionship. These are people that provide company, yes, but they also provide accountability. We can’t go intoxicated to the aforementioned things, or be hungover at those aforementioned things, because, ideally, someone that cares about us would acknowledge this, and hold us accountable. It may sound insincere at first, this whole notion that “getting caught” can hold us accountable, but this isn’t meant to be an excuse for complacent behavior. This is a temporary solution that can work into permanency through association – I associate with sober people, and sober behaviors, therefore it will bolster my ability to do so over time.
What is the opposite of addiction? Of course, it includes sobriety, but attempting to attain a healthy, quality life actually worth living is so much more than simply ceasing our drug of choice. Through community, companionship, appropriate goal-driven behavior, and simply having better things to do, addiction can hopefully be surmounted, and the proper seeds of recovery can be sewed. The opposite of addiction is not sobriety, the opposite of addiction is connectedness.
References
Alexander, B.K., Beyerstein, B.L., Hadaway, P.F., and Coambs, R.B. (1981). Effect of early and later colony housing on oral ingestion of morphine in rats. Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior, Vol 15, 4:571–576. PMID 7291261.
Alexander, B.K. (1985). Drug use, dependence, and addiction at a British Columbia university: Good news and bad news. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 15, 77–91.
Alexander, B.K. (1987). The disease and adaptive models of addiction: A framework evaluation. Journal of Drug Issues, 17, pp. 47–66.
Hadaway, P.F., Alexander, B.K., Coambs, R.B., and Beyerstein, B. (1979). The effect of housing and gender on preference for morphine-sucrose solutions in rats. Psychopharmacology, Vol 66, 1:87-91.
