Drug And Alcohol Abuse – A Symptom Of Something Deeper
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 22.8 million Americans need help for drug or alcohol abuse. Of those people only a small percent completed rehab successfully. Students took the same survey and of those students, 2.3 million ages 12-17 reported they needed help for drugs or alcohol. Only 8.2% actually got help from a rehab center. Whatever your choice of addiction is, they have one thing in common, low self esteem.
According to Selfesteeminternational.org, recovering addicts and alcoholics indicate that low self esteem is the biggest problem in their lives. They feel alcohol is only a symptom to the alcoholic’s real disease, alcohol or drugs act as a mask. Low self esteem causes and contributes to anxiety, neurosis, defensiveness and ultimately drug and alcohol abuse
Selfesteeminternational.org surveyed some 18 year olds who reported using drugs or alcohol heavily. They reported using when they were as young as seven. They indicated feeling alienated by their families, not good enough, anxious, unhappy and overly impulsive. 66% of high school seniors surveyed reported using drugs or alcohol heavily in order to fit in and fill a personal void.
Sometimes the pain of low self esteem is so difficult to deal with that people turn to destructive behaviors such as drugs and alcohol. They self medicate in hopes that the pain will go away. Addicts use their addictions to help them work through to pain of self hate, or so they think. By drinking or using drugs a vicious cycle of more self hatred starts and before you know it, your life is completely out of control. One drink turns into two, two turns in to three and before you know it your life is all about drinking. You family doesn’t want you around, you have spent all your money and lost your job. Your actions only lead to more self hate and disappointment in yourself.
People have low self esteem for many reasons. However, low self esteem isn’t caused from one isolated incident but by repetitive criticism over many years. The criticism can come from anyone, a parent, a sibling, instructor or society in general. It is difficult to estimate how many people are experiencing low self esteem, but it is safe to say many people suffer from at least one of the symptoms. Maybe you are happy to see someone fail, overly aggressive, don’t recognize your own good qualities, or try to please others because you do not know how to say no.
One of the most important factors in recovery is acceptance of the disease and being able to identify why you select to be an addict in the first place. Often it is difficult to address years of low self esteem in a twelve week program. That is why follow up counseling and treatment is recommended. One new treatment that’s being suggested is hypnosis. Hypnosis works with the subconscious mind to identify painful memories causing the low self esteem and help the patient work through the memory and develop new self confidence. Hypnosis is done in a safe environment and is chemical free which appeals to many recovering addicts.
Some people feel therapy and counseling is the best and only treatment needed to help recovering addicts. Unfortunately, if this were true all rehab facilities would offer a 100% cure rate. Most can not even offer a 70% cure rate. It is important to have a treatment plan that’ll help to identify why you started abusing drugs or alcohol in the first place, and this is difficult to do with a counselor. Often addicts have tiny trust in counselors and are more censored when speaking until they get to know the counselor. Since hypnosis works with the subconscious mind, it grants the addict to think and talk openly about low self esteem issues.
Drug and alcohol abuse is a very serious problem, but what’s more concerning is the underlying behavior of self hate. Until that issue is dealt with, the thought of alcohol and drug abuse is always there for the addict. There are several ways to help improve self esteem but why not do it in a safe environment and begin dealing with the real problem today.
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