As you start looking for Tennessee addiction rehab options, you come across many new terms. You know what addiction includes because you or someone you love live through it every day. But how does addiction differ from drug dependence? Do you suffer dependence, tolerance, or addiction? What do these conditions include and how do they affect your chances of lasting recovery?
Sometimes you see the terms dependence and addiction used interchangeably. This makes knowing the difference between the two very difficult. You may even see your struggle with drugs or alcohol called “substance use disorder (SUD).” Although many doctors and therapists prefer SUD for diagnosis of addiction, they still refer to your problems as addiction, dependence, and tolerance.
Below is some help in understanding these conditions and how they affect your life. Often, people get stuck focusing on the terms. However, what’s important is being able to recognize that you or a loved one needs help. After all, your true problem is the struggle you face each day with drugs or alcohol and the mess those make in your life.
Simplest Ways to Understand Drug Dependence vs. Addiction
Drug dependence refers to your body’s attachment to the drugs or alcohol you abuse. This includes your physical need for your substances. Dependence also includes the ill feelings you suffer in withdrawal once you stop using your drugs.
You know you suffer drug dependence when you feel withdrawal or “dope sickness” after not using for awhile. Identifying your condition of dependence is truly that simple.
Where things get confusing is regarding dependence vs. addiction. You can suffer drug dependence without suffering addiction. However, you do not suffer addiction without dependence, and dependence tends to lead to addiction.
Dependence means your body needs the drug to feel normal. If you take prescription medication, for example, maybe you experience dependence on that drug for normal functioning. But you can stop using the medication and get through your withdrawal symptoms, never to pick up the drug again. That ability to simply stop using marks dependence. But with addiction, it’s more psychological, and you cannot walk away.
Problems of Addiction and Dependence
Addiction changes every aspect of your life. You change how you behave. Obtaining and using your drugs or alcohol becomes the sole focus of daily life. Even though you know drugs hurt you and those you love, you do not stop using them.
You also change in ways you cannot see. Your brain chemistry changes to make you need your substances on a regular, ongoing basis. You no longer experience a choice in substance abuse with cravings and withdrawal symptoms always waiting to affect you.
In addiction, you suffer mental and physical dependence on your substances. You experience triggers that push you toward using. Your triggers likely include people, places, events, or other stimuli that make you reach for your drugs or alcohol.
Rehab provides the only way out of addiction. Without rehab, you do not gain treatment for the causes of your condition. As a result, your disease relapses even after you become clean of your substances. For lasting recovery, you must deal with the factors that led to your addiction.
Rehab, Where True Recovery Begins
Recovery never comes easily with addiction. You need a wide variety of treatments, therapies, support, and education to regain a healthy, drug-free life. At Memphis Recovery Center in Memphis, TN, you gain that help in residential rehab, IOP treatment, PHP programs, and aftercare.
Adults and adolescents seeking addiction recovery in Tennessee need the treatments and services provided by Memphis Recovery Center. Our programs include:
- Individual addiction therapy
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Art and music therapy
- Trauma and PTSD therapies
- Dual diagnosis treatment
- Group and family therapies
Through these programs, you stand a real chance of lasting recovery. You end your mental attachment and physical dependence on your drugs or alcohol, paving the way for an addiction-free life.
Call Memphis Recovery Center now at 901-272-7751 to learn about available programs. You can rebuild your life. You just need the right therapies and support. Call Memphis Recovery and rid yourself of your drug dependence for good.
