An addict’s self-justifications to keep using.
“A drink after work is normal”, “A line isn’t using” … There are many phrases used as self-deception by addicts to a substance, whether legal drugs (alcohol, tobacco) or illegal (cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines…). And the longer you have been using, the harder it will be to eliminate these self-deceptions. Therefore, it is important to stay alert to identify these self-justifications and try to challenge them.
Some self-deceptions could be:
- When I want to, I use, and when I don’t want to, I don’t use. Indicating a false sense of control over use.
- I have a high tolerance for alcohol; I need more for it to affect me. This is not an effect of immunity to alcoholism, as it is generally called, but rather self-deception. And, furthermore, the social environment often stimulates and applauds consumption.
- I’m not addicted to drugs; those are the people on the street who beg to use. I’m not in that situation, so I don’t have a drug problem. Dependence problems are associated with labels of socially rejected users, denying having a problem.
- I’m not an alcoholic; I can stop whenever I want. I’m not harming myself, and I’m not harming anyone else. This allows an emotional disconnection of the addict from themselves and from other people.
- I don’t have problems; the people I go out with use the same as me and don’t have problems. Normally, a person doesn’t start using alone but does so with others. That’s why when they start having addiction problems, they deny it and justify it by others. If those they started using with are fine, then they are too.
These situations usually occur gradually. To eliminate these self-deceptions, one option is for the affected person’s close ones not to deceive themselves as well, and to work together to get through the problem.
