Addiction – The Disease
What is Addiction?
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.
Prevention efforts and treatment approaches for addiction are generally as successful as those for other chronic diseases.
Addiction and the Brain
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It regulates basic functions, enables us to interpret and respond to experiences, and generates our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Alcohol and drug use can affect important areas of the brain that control motivation, impulse control, reaction to stress, memory, and decision-making, and can eventually lead to the compulsive substance-seeking and use that is central to the experience of substance use disorders (SUDs). In the early 1990s, scientists began to understand how repeated substance use affects the brain. Brain scans showed that, as is the case with other brain disorders, SUD affects tissue function in two main parts of the brain: the limbic system and the cortex.How does a substance use disorder develop?
While the initial decision to use alcohol or drugs tends to be voluntary, no one chooses to become addicted. Many people start using substances to feel good, to feel better, to do better, or out of curiosity (because “everyone else is doing it”). However, as a SUD develops and progresses, it affects brain function, and a person’s ability to control their use diminishes. What was once a decision to use turns into a compulsion. This is why engaging with treatment as soon as possible is so important. Stressful life events such as the death of a loved one, severe illness, exposure to violence or trauma, and extreme stress can prompt people to use substances in risky ways, often as an attempt to cope, which can spiral into the development of a SUD. SUDs can develop at any age, but people who start using substances as adolescents have a much higher risk of developing a SUD later in life.Resources
Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Division of Public Health
American Society of Addiction Medicine
Families Supporting a Loved One, SAMHSA
Medication and Counseling Treatment
Road to Recovery
According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), addiction is a treatable, chronic medical disease involving complex interactions among brain circuits, genetics, the environment, and an
individual’s life experiences. People with addiction use substances or engage in behaviors that become compulsive and often continue despite harmful consequences.
Addiction is characterized by behaviors that include:
- Impaired control over drug use
- Compulsive use
- Continued use despite harm
- Cravings
Detox is the medical process focused on treating the physical effects of withdrawal from substance use and comfortably achieving metabolic stabilization; a prelude to longer-term treatment and recovery. Withdrawal can be managed by a medical professional in an inpatient or outpatient setting depending on severity.
Homer Medical Center MAT Program
Ninilchik Traditional Council Community Clinic
The intake process for addiction treatment programs is designed to make this first step in recovery as smooth as possible.
Most treatment facilities will arrange for intake to take place as soon as possible after a person seeks out or agrees to treatment. The process can take several hours, and it is typically fairly involved, including multiple interviews, questionnaires, and assessments.
The information provided through this process will help the treatment team determine the best plan of action moving forward.
Cook Inlet Counseling (CICADA)
Ideal Option
Ninilchik Traditional Council Community Clinic
Set Free Alaska
South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services “The Center”
SVT Health and Wellness
A professionally delivered substance use disorder treatment modality that requires daily to weekly attendance at a clinic or facility, allowing the patient to return home or to other living arrangements during non-treatment hours.
Cook Inlet Counseling (CICADA)
Ninilchik Traditional Council Community Clinic
Set Free Alaska
South Peninsula Behavioral Health Services “The Center”
A model of care for substance use disorder that houses affected individuals with others suffering from the same conditions to provide longer-term rehabilitative therapy in a therapeutic socially supportive milieu. Also known sometimes as in-patient treatment, although more technically, is medically managed or monitored whereas residential treatment does not have to be.
Residential Treatment
No residential treatment options on the Southern Kenai Peninsula at this time
Freedom House
Set Free Alaska
Recovery-oriented care and recovery support systems help people manage their conditions successfully. These may include 12-step groups, peer or recovery support groups.
Recovery Residences: An alcohol- and drug-free living facility for individuals recovering from alcohol or other drug use disorders that often serves as an interim living environment between detoxification experiences or residential treatment and mainstream society. Also known as Sober Houses, Sober Living Houses (SLHs), Sober Living Homes, or Sober Living Environments.
24 Hour Mental Health Crisis Management: 911
Recovery Residences, there are currently no sober living homes in the Southern Kenai Peninsula.
Detailed Homer Area 12 Step & Support Group Pamphlet
Recovery Services
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – Anchor Point
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – Living in the Solution Women’s AA Meeting
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – Ninilchik
Co-Dependents Anonymous
Freedom House
Homer End of the Road Group
Homer Unity Group
National Recovery Month
Parent-to-Parent Support Group
SMART Recovery
Step Into Freedom Narcotics Anonymous Meeting