Couples

Addiction is a very complex, chronic medical disease, but it is also treatable. Addiction involves interactions between your brain circuits, your genes, your environment, and your experiences as an individual. 

Addiction is often described as a relapsing disorder, which is true for other chronic diseases. That doesn’t mean that relapse is inevitable or treatment isn’t possible, but just that you may need to make changes in your treatment plan at times.

Other emotional and mental health problems often come before addiction, but people can and do recover from addiction, often with professional treatment.

With addiction, the disease is characterized by compulsive drug or alcohol use even though it’s causing known negative consequences. The disease of addiction involves changes to brain circuits playing a role in self-control, stress, and also reward. The changes to the brain can be long-lasting even after you stop using drugs or alcohol.

Many biological factors are thought to be part of the development of an initial addiction to drugs. For example, gene expression might make up 40-60 percent of someone’s addiction risk. Having a mental health disorder like depression, bipolar disorder, or anxiety may also put a person at a greater risk of addiction.

Along with genes, the environment can be a big part of the risk factors for addiction, including not only your experiences during childhood but the people who influence you later in life. If you already had an addiction, this might have led you to seek out a partner who used drugs or alcohol as well. One partner might also have an addiction, and their use during the relationship could eventually encourage use in the other person.

At Atlanta Recovery Place, we offer couples drug rehab in Georgia. Our couples addiction treatment program in Georgia includes varying levels of intensity, offered on an outpatient basis. We also offer dual diagnosis treatment for co-occurring mental health disorders.