International Research Compendium - Drug Free Australia

This craving may inevitably lead addicts to increasingly intense activity to acquire
more of the drug.
The motivation to use drugs, which addicts perceive as drug craving, emanates from
the very same neural structures that give rise to the motivation to seek food, which
everyone perceives as hunger.
The adverse physical consequences of withdrawing from some drugs are viewed as
a key motivational determinant of sustained drug taking through negative
reinforcement mechanisms.
It is possible to have dependence without withdrawal and withdrawal without
dependence.
A person may have cocaine or alcohol dependence, but not to experience withdrawal
symptoms between episodes of use.
The addictive personality as a consequence of drug addiction
The addictive personality consists of 2 different elements:
The Self, which represents the “normal”, human side of the addicted person.
The Addict, which represents the human side that is consumed and transformed by
the addiction.
This personality does not exist prior to the illness of addiction, nor it does represent a
predisposition to addiction. Rather, it emerges from the addictive process, in which
the Addict becomes the dominant personality.
The Addict side within does not care about family and friends. The Addict side
doesn’t care about the Self either. What it cares about is acting out and achieving the
trance.
There is an almost constant conflict between the Self and the Addict when facing the
choice of acting out ( the search for drugs and/or take drugs ) or not. This great
internal tension can go on for hours, days or weeks at a time, and is a large part of
the suffering caused by addiction. But in the end of this struggle, the Addict invariably
wins.
The Self and Addict continue to fight for control: The Self regularly fights and argues
with the Addict, but loses. The Self makes promises to control the Addict, uses
willpower to control the Addict, but loses. We see how the gradual loss of the Self
occurs in addiction, and how the Addict slowly gains more and more control. The Self
witnesses the addictive ritual and is often sickened by what it is forced to participate
in, but it is held captive by the power of the disease of addiction. To fight and struggle
against something that has more power than oneself drains one’s energy. For each
defeat there is some loss of self-esteem.
The Addict develops its own way of feeling
Addiction often creates the sense and sensations of power.
The amphetamine addict who has just shot up feels as if he’s accessed all the
knowledge of the universe. “It made me feel able to do everything.”
The crack addict gets this feeling of power every time he lights up, and the trance
produced is enormously addictive. A cocaine addict testifies: “A coke shot: It’s like…
injectable sex, an orgasm in every cell.”
For the power-centered, drug addicted person, everything flows from the premise of
being right, which gives the illusion of control and bolsters self-confidence, but not
self-esteem. Dedication to power produces a narcissistic and paranoid lifestyle that
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