"Administration of a drug to an addict will cause re-establishment of chemical dependence upon the addictive substance."
Sometimes, you’ll read that it takes a certain number of attempts before the average user succeeds in breaking free.
But why? What lesson is eventually learned? And why can’t that lesson be learned before their first attempt ever? It can.
It’s called the Law of Addiction.[1] It’s that lapse causes relapse, that one equals all, that one nicotine fix would be too many, while thousands won’t be enough.[2]
While most who attempt cheating when quitting walk away feeling like they’ve gotten away with it, we can’t cheat our compromised brain’s design.
Brain scan studies teach us that just one puff and up to 50% of dopamine pathway receptors become occupied by nicotine.[3] It isn't long before the cheater finds their brain wanting, plotting to obtain, or even begging for more.
See cheating as failure
Why play games? Treating a true addiction as though some nasty little habit that we can someday learn how to modify, manipulate or control is a recipe for relapse.
There is no such thing as just once. Recovery is all or nothing. It’s one of the few things in life where being 99% successful results in 100% defeat.
The tease of "just one" or "just once" is a lie. Why torment yourself? You're smarter than that.
On lifetime probation, once free, our brain will always remain grooved and wired for relapse. Just one new super-use memory waking up all the others and the addict is back.
The only remaining question is, on which side of dependency's bars will we spend the balance of life?
References:
2. Garvey AJ et al, Predictors of smoking relapse among self-quitters: a report from the Normative Aging Study, Addictive Behaviors, 1992, Volume 17(4), Pages 367-377; and Brandon, TH et al, Postcessation cigarette use: the process of relapse, Addictive Behaviors, 1990; 15(2), pages 105-114.
3. Brody AL et al, Cigarette smoking saturates brain alpha 4 beta 2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, Archives of General Psychiatry, August 2006, Volume 63(8), Pages 907-915.
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Publication date: May 4, 2021