Boston Substance Abuse Treatment

Help for substance abuse and dependency

Substance abuse sometimes begins with an injury that requires the use of prescription pain medication, but it can also start with recreational experimentation. Either way, dependency on a substance can be unsuspected until its manipulation of your desires escalates and makes it difficult for you to stay in control. Substance abuse in Boston is a growing concern for individuals and their families. If you or a loved one is struggling with drug addiction, getting help is important.

Addiction is formed in response to the involuntary physical and emotional demands placed on the body by the drug. Addiction creates significant changes in your brain that can cause a constant desire to re-use your drug of choice. Substance abuse treatment becomes necessary as the addiction gains greater and greater levels of control. If you are struggling with substance abuse in Boston, help is available. To speak with an addiction specialist, call us at (866) 270-0780.

What causes addiction?

Your brain controls the amount of pleasure that you experience on a regular basis by releasing dopamine. This pleasure hormone is connected to healthy choices, such as eating and exercise. When you use a drug, it produces a rush of euphoria, or a high, that is caused by an increase of dopamine in your brain. The brain then begins to produce less dopamine in response to the sudden increase. Tolerance to the substance is created as the brain decreases the amount of dopamine that it produces in response to the drug. Additional amounts of the drug are subsequently needed to achieve the same level of euphoria or high.

Pleasure is a need that we all have, and when your body holds back the normal production of dopamine, the things that once brought you pleasure do not get the same response. You may feel emotionally down, and your body will begin to crave that increase in dopamine that the substance provides. This cycle of substance use and euphoria followed by lowered levels of dopamine causes an even greater appetite for the drug. The growing intensity of cravings makes it difficult to break away from the cycle of demand and use.

If this sounds like you, professional assistance is available, and we can help you find it. Call (866) 270-0780 to speak to an addiction specialist and find the treatment that you need.

Addiction and dependency

Addiction causes dependency to a substance. This dependency includes characteristics such as intense physical or psychological demands to use the substance, withdrawal symptoms when you aren’t using it and a tolerance that requires greater amounts of the substance to satisfy the desire. Physical and psychological symptoms may occur if the drug isn’t taken.