Drinking addiction: Psychological or physical?

Betty had told him that he was lucky that he could not remember what had happened during their growing up years. His father, an architect, was alternately successful and unemployed because of recurrent bouts of severe depression. As a boy, Dick had resented his father because his father was not like his friends’ fathers.

• The information we provide is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
• At some point then, with further losses, and concrete proof that he was the cause of all the trouble, he would have gotten sober (hopefully) and spent his time focused on the symptom of his distress, not the cause of it.
• He now remembered the mornings after his cat had given birth that he came into his kitchen to find that his father murdered one of his kittens and left the body lying in the bowl of milk the father had drowned it in.
• I began seeing Dick once a week for an extended evaluation.

These physical withdrawal symptoms vary depending on the drug. Some physical withdrawal symptoms are more mild, such as nausea and vomiting, while others, like seizures or irregular heartbeat, can be life-threatening. Those who have a physical dependence on a substance will likely be put into a medically supervised drug and alcohol detox process at the beginning of their treatment program, which will help alleviate their withdrawal symptoms.

Understanding alcohol use disorders and their treatment

Dick had apparently been depressed after he left home for college. He searched for an addiction to help him get away from his feelings of anger about his own abuse and neglect, and survivor guilt about the incest of his sister and the murders of the two boys he knew. After trying out alcohol abuse and gambling, and being punished by flunking out of college, he found his work addiction a compromise between his high ideals and his profound guilt. Some addiction therapists believe psychological dependence is tougher to quit and requires more extensive aftercare. Once the substances are out of the body, and the body begins to heal, the person may continue to suffer from the psychological consequences.

• Psychological dependence is often an early sign of addiction, as it can lead to a strong emotional attachment to the substance or activity.
• Given that alcoholism is a chronic relapsing disease, many alcohol-dependent people invariably experience multiple bouts of heavy drinking interspersed with periods of abstinence (i.e., withdrawal) of varying duration.
• The antidepressant was discontinued without any recurrence of depressive symptoms.
• We all find some things intolerable, and the information at the family meeting that the mother had tolerated her husband’s physical abuse of Dick, and constant incest between her husband and Betty, was simply refused.

I have no reason to doubt what I was told by Dick, his comments all rang true in the context of our relationship, but there was no way to test his statement. I will conclude this section by saying that I think Dick is telling the truth. Because his psychoanalysis helped him to bear the anxiety of feeling his aggression consciously, he had no need to return to his former compulsive symptom. His anger at his father for his constant degradation, and at his mother for not caring, was interpreted as they appeared as the introjects of his parents hiding in me, over and over and over. Now the interpretations made sense to Dick and had an effect. At Christmas he exploded with feeling about his workaholism, that he had lived his life like Scrooge in Dickens’s story, and that his life was passing him by.

Tramadol Addiction: Is It Possible?

Clinical experiences have demonstrated that when morphine is used to control pain in cancer patients, psychological dependence is not a major concern. Psychological dependence is a behavioral and psychological syndrome characterized by loss of control over drug use and compulsive, continuous use despite damage caused to oneself and others. Because a person may experience one or more relapses and return to problem drinking, it can be crucial to have a trusted psychologist or other health professional with whom that person can discuss and learn from these events. If the drinker is unable to resolve alcohol problems fully, a psychologist can help with reducing alcohol use and minimizing problems.

• If you or a loved one is struggling with psychological dependence, remember that 7 Summit Pathways is here to help.
• His relationship with his mother was revealed to be with a woman who was both self-centered and capable of primitive thinking.
• This behaviour usually responds to escalation of the opioid dose, resulting in adequate analgesia.

People who suffer from addiction will typically experience both physical and psychological dependence. However, it is possible to become physically dependent on a substance without becoming psychologically addicted. Since addiction is such a complex disease, many people get confused about the difference between physical and psychological dependence. Substance abuse and mental health treatment helps you learn the reasons behind your addiction so that you can begin to heal from those challenges.

The Signs of Psychological Dependence

The Severity of Alcohol Dependence Questionnaire (SAD-Q) is a more specific twenty-item inventory for assessing the presence and severity of alcohol dependence. Crystal Raypole has previously worked psychological dependence on alcohol as a writer and editor for GoodTherapy. Her fields of interest include Asian languages and literature, Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health.

If you find that you need to use the thing more and more frequently, or in larger amounts to get the desired effect, then you may be psychologically dependent on it. Other signs of psychological dependence include feeling like you need the thing to deal with your problems, or using it even when it is harmful to you. It can be difficult to know if you have a psychological dependence on drugs or alcohol.

As a result, he was emotionally flat and had compulsions; first working, and later drinking. Dick met the DSM-IV criteria for Alcohol Abuse, “A maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by one or more of the following occurring within a 12-month period. (1) Recurrent substance abuse resulting in a failure to fulfill major role obligations at work, school, or home (e.g., repeated absences or poor work performance related to substance use…).” Dick had one drunk driving conviction at 18. He met the DSM-IV criteria for Alcohol Abuse, and not for Alcohol Dependence.

Psychoanalysts do not trust themselves to know everything that is going on in a treatment. There is a constant question running through our minds, “What might be going on that I’m not aware of? At the time I was meeting with my mentor Ralph Engle M.D., a senior analyst, every other week as I did for 8 years. I was sticking with the quiet psychoanalytic stance which I felt would be most helpful. Dick was asked to leave his company 4 months after his analysis had begun.

By the fourth hour, I told him I thought his most important and damaging addiction was to work, and that the alcoholism was his second addiction. In fact, during the first year in college, he seemed to be searching for an addiction (as described by Wurmser, 1974). He tried drinking, he tried gambling, but workaholism seemed to fit into his life in the smoothest way. In the fifth hour I suggested that in all his relationships, he was in charge, he was the nurturant one, and no one seemed to take care of him.

• Millions of people volunteer their time to help themselves, but also to help the millions of people with addictions to alcohol and other drugs.
• I had tried masochism; he needed to suffer in order to be in relationships.
• On the morning of one of those big days, you lose track of time and miss your chance to pick up a can on your way to the office.
• Alcohol use disorder is a medical condition involving frequent or heavy alcohol use.