Overcoming addiction and being sober is a big step towards tolerating addictive behavior. However, addiction itself is a sensitive and challenging topic to everyone. This applies especially to people who are still lacking an understanding of addiction. Explaining addiction in the most educative and sensitive manner is something that people are still lacking. The challenge now is how we can tell everyone about the diversity of addiction? How addiction is considered as a personal behavior, and what are the truths about addiction. In this article, we will be learning how to explain addiction to a non-addict? Let’s learn more.

How to Explain Addiction to a Non-Addict
How to Explain Addiction to a Non-Addict

Understanding Addiction as Tolerative Behavior

Addiction is a sensitive topic to other people. It takes in-depth understanding in order for someone to convince that addiction is a cooperative behavior. A tolerating behavior, in the sense that you can treat addiction through different rehabilitative programs. Aside from that, most of the people around us still lack addiction education, making it the reason why addiction is still rampant and, at the same time, a sensitive issue for everyone.

1. Cause of Addiction

There is what we call three-step towards addiction

  • Craving towards addiction
  • Loss of control
  • Impulsive behavior.

These three steps are clear indicators an individual becomes an addict without considering its consequences.

Experts believe that alcohol and powerful drugs are common causes of addiction. The pleasure principle is what scientists believe towards the root cause of addiction. It is a natural reaction of our brain to react to certain pleasures. When not used properly and taken impulsively, like drugs and alcohol, it can lead to addiction.

We are given an idea of how addiction is caused. Meaning to say, addiction itself is tolerable. Considering treatment, rehabilitative programs, a prospective patient can tolerate its addictive behaviors.

Now, the challenge is how to explain addiction to a non-addict or even a sober addict.

Explaining Addiction to the World

As a sober addict, there will always be people who lack an understanding of addiction. To give an idea on the question, how to explain addiction to a non-addict, we will know different ways of explaining addiction.

  • Addiction Is Not A Sign of Weakness – addiction will never measure an individual’s strength. Through that, they have the opportunity to tell that its addiction is not its weakness but something that has become part of its life and overcomes it.
  • Opportunity to Educate on Addiction – your primary goal is how you are going to explain your addiction towards a non-addict. Now, grab the opportunity for you to educate your addiction. Tell a story on how you can overcome it, and how it changes your life and perspectives towards everything.
  • Advocating for addiction – aside from educating it, you encourage people towards the negative effects of addiction. Take this a big step towards overcoming your addiction, embracing and advocating for it. You are not just telling a story, but you are advocating for addiction education.
  • Understand People Who Will Never Understand Addiction – the ugly truth comes like this: there will always be people who will never understand addiction whatever you do. That is why you need to rebuild yourself and improve your health because your goal now is to advocate and educate.
  • Use Your Influence At All Cost – navigate and illuminate your story. Never be ashamed to advocate your addiction, for this is not a sign of being ignorant but educative. The addiction itself is tolerable, but this is not a measure of becoming less of a person.

The addiction itself is not a life sentence. Grab every opportunity for you to advocate and educate about your addiction. As long as you stay faithful towards recovery, you still have the chance to change yourself and tell a story.

Explaining Addiction to the World
Explaining Addiction to the World

The Truth About Addiction in Perspectives

Now that you already have an idea of how to explain addiction to non-addict, we will know the truths about it this time. There are definite reasons why addiction is still a sensitive and less-tackled issue in our society.

  • Addiction can hit anyone. Regardless of age, sex, race, and culture, anyone can get addicted. Due to this phenomenon, people are still reluctant to address this issue since it is tagged as mental illness rather than tolerable illness.
  • Addiction is not fun at all. Why advocate when in the first place, it is no longer considered as something worth advocating. That is the reason why our society continues to turn a blind eye to this issue. It may sound like something not worth addressing, but proper education and advocacy is still worth the try.
  • Relapsing can still happen. This is the ugly truth about addiction. When an in-program addict neglects its responsibilities towards treatment, relapse is still possible. The dimensions and complexity of addiction are still wide. However, if we take one step towards advocating and educating each and everyone, we can make ignorant minds into educative ones.
  • Addicts can’t quit on their own. Aside from relapsing, some addicts can’t quit on their own. We should maximize our available opportunities to educate, advocate and inspire addicts and non-addict individuals for addiction. Through this, we support and help addicts overcome addiction and encourage people never to take addiction lightly.
  • Addiction is difficult to understand. That is the truth about addiction. There will always be addicts who can’t fully understand the situation. However, it will not stop there. Our collective efforts towards advocating it can be powerful towards putting a light on addiction education.

Thoughts to Ponder

Non-addicts understand addiction requires a leap of faith and courage and process. However, there will always be people who will never understand the situation unless they experience it first hand.

How to explain addiction towards non-addict? Advocate and educate. These two words are powerful enough to shed light on this sensitive topic. Giving a chance to advocate for controlling addiction, and at the same time, encourage addicts to get the chance to treat themselves towards their addiction finally.

If we still allow the opportunity to understand, advocate, and educate for addiction, there are more stories to hear and more stories to tell to the world towards addiction.

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