Drug addiction and alcoholism aren’t the sort of things you add to your day planner. You don’t wake up one day and say “hey, I think I’ll become an addict today.” It’s something that happens gradually, something that spirals out of control over time. The path to addiction begins with the first act of experimenting with drugs or alcohol. That first act does not affect everyone equally, either. There is some luck and some genetics involved. Some people can take drugs or drink repeatedly and just walk away with no compulsion to ever do so again. Others are nowhere near so lucky.

Over time, you need more and more to drink, or more and more of the drug to get the same effect. Your need becomes compulsive, more and more so as drug use rewires your brain. That’s really what happens, drug or alcohol use reshapes the chemical pathways in your brain and your brain is literally reconstructed around your addiction. Drugs or alcohol are no longer a casual choice for you, they have become a compelling need.

If you have a drug abuse problem or have developed alcoholism, you probably can’t beat your problem by yourself. Maybe you’ve hit that point where you have bottomed out, or maybe you have been fortunate enough to have received tough love in the form of a drug intervention or alcohol intervention. Either way, you need treatment.

You have many options for treatment, but most likely you will need to attend a treatment program or check into a treatment facility. There are many drug and alcohol treatment facilities in Arkansas, and some of them are very good. Addiction treatment centers give you many advantages in helping you overcome your disease, such as working with others who understand your pain and your needs, and access to health professionals.