Addiction Cycle
The process of addiction is progressive. How quickly a person becomes addicted depends upon the person’s mental, emotional, and physical state, as well as the substance being abused. Some drugs such as Oxycontin are highly addictive, and within a short period, the addict will find an intense need to increase the intake of the drug or suffer from withdrawal. There are several stages of addiction that a person may go through from guilt, shame, cessation of use, to obsessing over the substance or behavior leading to loss of control. In other words, a person suffering from an addiction may stop using the substance or doing the behavior for a time only to return to using again and beginning the cycle anew. The cycle intensifies each time the addict stops and starts again. The desire to use continues to grow. Once an addict stops using a drug or behavior and starts up again, he or she will start from the last place in the cycle. In other words, the addict picks up where he or she left off. The addiction cycle will not stop. Interventions and treatment are generally required to ensure that the substance abuse or the destructive behavior does not start again.
