Are You Becoming Addicted? Early Signs of Addiction

While it may seem hard to believe, most addicts who find themselves at rock bottom started by only occasionally abusing drugs.

In what may have felt like the blink of an eye, their drug habits turned into an impulse that they could no longer control. You may think that this can’t happen to you, but as an addiction rehab in Boca Raton, we have plenty of patients who thought the same thing.

The First Signs of A Drug Addiction

The best way to combat a drug addiction is to catch it early. The longer you wait, the more dependent your body becomes on the drugs, and the harder it is to stop. For those people who wait until they hit rock bottom to get help, a medically monitored detox becomes necessary to manage the dangerous withdrawal symptoms. Instead of letting your drug habit reach this point, learn to recognize the early signs of drug addiction so you have a much easier time overcoming the problem.

1. You take more than you previously did to experience the same effects.

One of the first signs of dependence and addiction is when your body builds up a tolerance to the drug. When this occurs, you will find that you need to start taking more in order to still feel the drug’s effects. When you have to increase how much you take, it is a good indicator of dependence. Especially if you are taking a prescription drug at a higher dosage than your doctor recommends, this is a red flag.

2. You’ve slipped up on your responsibilities.

Many addicts will start to neglect their regular responsibilities in favor of getting high. In extreme cases, this neglect may result in getting fired, losing your custody rights, or the deterioration of your home. For someone who is just starting to fall to addiction, this could appear as playing hooky from work, missing a child’s event, or skipping your regular cleaning day a few times in a row so that you can get high instead. These may all seem harmless, but they could be a sign of addiction as you start to prioritize the drug over your responsibilities.

3. You’ve experienced some withdrawal symptoms when you are sober.

While a full-blown addiction can lead to serious withdrawal effects that may require medical attention, even the beginning of a substance abuse problem can leave someone experiencing some uncomfortable withdrawal effects. If you try to detox from cocaine on your own and find yourself feeling restless or depressed and you experience chills or muscle aches, it can be a sign that your body has started to become dependent on the drug.

4. You tell yourself you are not going to get high, but you cave and do it anyway.

One of the early signs of drug addiction is the inability to control your drug use. For early addiction, this may be that you decide to go out and tell yourself ahead of time that you will not do cocaine, but the night comes, and you wind up doing it anyway. While you may not be concerned because at this point you are not using the drug all of the time, being unable to follow through with these boundaries is a good indicator that you may be developing an addiction. It may seem minor for now, but this loss of control can become much worse over time and cause other serious problems.

If these warning signs of drug addiction sound like you or someone you know, get help now and not when matters get worse.

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Call 888-280-4763 and take the first step to recovery. At Banyan Boca, we will be there to walk you and your loved ones through the whole process.