Addiction is complicated in so many ways- there are genetic vulnerabilities, brain changes related to trauma, exposure levels, cultural expectations, life experience, cultural differences that control behavior patterns, now we're even learning more about physiological factors related to various medication exposures, nutrition and more.
The substances and behavior patterns that form a person's 'active' disease phase vary widely as well. Alcohol is not opiates is not cocaine is not compulsion-satisfaction-released endorphins, and every person who struggles with addictive disease will have a different mix of substances and patterns to learn about and develop and practice recovery strategies for.
We're now also recognizing that addictive disease often co-occurs with other chronic brain disorders such as depression, anxiety, bipolar, various types of trauma, personality disorders, etc. And that the physiological and metabolic effects of long-term addictive disease can contribute to, appear as, and/or increase vulnerability to a whole raft of other chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, cancer, etc., and those will change how the disease and recovery process plays out in an individual.
The extent of each individual's commitment to learning about their disease, the quality of information and treatment resources available to them, the opportunities to build knowledge and tools for the lifelong behavioral changes that recovery requires will also vary.
And finally, the ongoing support available, presence of relapse triggers, challenges to recovery, etc. will vary for each individual.
It's impossible to identify any ONE factor that controls why one individual achieves long-term stable recovery at a particular point, and another person has to keep trying, dealing with relapse, etc.
informatively,
Bright
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