Addiction Treatment: How The Belief in Free Will Paves the Way Toward Recovery

If you or a loved one are struggling with drug addiction but looking towards recovery, then you want to know the best ways to ensure a successful and lasting recovery! Your mindset during the whole journey plays a big role in sustaining and achieving your recovery goals, so it is important to keep yourself in check mentally throughout the process.

Do You Believe in Free Will?

A question that is important to ask yourself in the event of an addiction, is whether or not you believe in free will. A study reported by NCBI encourages that addicts sustain a belief in free will, as this promotes the idea of holding themselves accountable for their own actions.

An article by NIDA shows the difficulty of understanding how much or how little free choice an individual really has in an addiction.

Free will is believing you can take the steps necessary to recover from addiction.

In most situations, an individual will choose of their own free will to try a drug for the first time, and choose to put themselves in situations where this temptation will be present. However, once addiction takes place, it is a very serious illness that one often doesn’t have control over.

After their brain has been chemically altered by addiction, they will not have a choice about what they feel or how their brain has changed. At this point, free will is limited to the choice to acknowledge the issue and seek treatment, which can be a difficult but important step for many addicts.

The belief in free will at this point is necessary for them to realize how far the addiction has come, and that it is only them who can take the step towards recovery and take responsibility for what has happened.

What is Wrong with Disbelief?

Just as belief in free will has positive effects on your recovery, disbelief can have negative implications! It’s not just that you won’t receive the positive boost of belief in free will, but you will also experience negative effects of disbelief, as studies have shown that disbelief in free will leads to aggression and reduced helpfulness.

This can create serious social and relational problems, and instead of improving your situation and taking control, you will only sink further into addiction if you believe you have no say in the matter. If you or a loved one are currently in this situation, call 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to speak with a specialist about the options available to help you find a path of recovery suitable for you.

Is Fear Preventing You From Getting Sober?

What is the Truth?

Beliefs and disbeliefs aside, what is the real truth about free will and addiction? Many have debated this issue, but both NCBI and NIDA agree that this more than a simple yes or no answer, but rather a blend of the two. One primary point to understand is that there is self-control, which is a form of free will, but it is limited.

There are social and genetic factors that play in to a person’s cravings or tendencies, but in the end it is their choice to give in. So while one may argue that free will is limited, and it is indeed limited in many cases, this doesn’t mean it is nonexistent altogether. You still have the option to seek treatment, or to resist cravings and find other ways to cope. It may be difficult, but it is not impossible.

If you or a loved one are struggling with addiction, just call 800-781-0748 (Who Answers?) to speak with a specialist about any of your questions or concerns.