Supporting Addict Who Wants to Quit : The Reasons

To quit a hardship is a decision made in haste in the majority of cases. A moment of weakness and doubt. Doubt in the treatment, doubt in future, doubt in themselves. A human being is a comfort creature, through and through, so no wonder that when subjected to some hardship, the majority turns to two possible mentalities – fight or flight.

Instincts

We are all animals at the end of the day. Billion years of evolution has taught us a great many things, how to survive above all. The instinct to flee in face of overwhelming odds is probably the oldest one of them all. Just as old, however, is the instinct to rise up and fight. Sadly, this behavior is secondary to running, as that has a greater chance of survivability in most cases.

Fast forward to the twenty-first century again and these ancient instincts sometimes get in the way of progress. Even though we fully understand, that there is no real danger to our health or well-being, the exact opposite, in fact, we still react in the same base animal kind of way as we used to when we climbed down from the trees to explore horticulture, domestication of animals and fire.

Overcoming these instincts is no easy task. Especially for someone who is already fighting a mental battle, resisting urges his very cells are screaming at him. Those who learn to keep both sides of this equilibrium in balance have a chance at clean and fulfilling life. Chance? Why only chance? Because there is more to having ideas of quitting addiction recovery, than the factor of fear, doubt and inability to deal with hardship.

AMA

The technical term for someone leaving any kind of care facilities, be it a rehab, a mental institution or a hospital, is leaving Against Medical Advice or AMA for short. It has been confirmed, that AMA situations arise most often in facilities of rehabilitation nature, a place where hardship has to be endured to complete the course. Statistically, most quitters are alcoholic males in their thirties.

There are many reasons unrelated to hardship, that can also have an impact on the addict’s decision to leave against medical advice. Let us have a look at few of them.

Emergency

There are many situations that fall into this category as it is so broad. The understanding of any situations emergency is in the eyes of the beholder, only the patient knows what is and what is not an emergency for him. It could be that the patients stay in the rehab is putting his work and livelihood aside and is at risk of losing their business or job.

Family

Most of these could also fall in the emergency category, yet family reasons are abundant enough to be featured on its own. It may be difficult for an addict to remain in treatment and focus on their goals towards recovery if they keep thinking about being with their family in times of childbirth or even death in the family.

Financial

As one of the most prolific reasons for a lot of addicts to AMA is because of their financial situation. It may be, that that the addict wishes to leave because he must return to work in order to support his family at home, or perhaps his insurance coverage ran out and is unable to continue the funding of his treatment.

Quitting is never the answer

There are as many reasons why an addict wishes to leave as there are different addicts with different levels of confidence, strength, and perseverance. They may simply crack for no other reason than to just stop the hardship and be allowed to leave so they can use again, bury themselves under a haze of drug abuse or drunken stupor of alcoholism. It is after all always easier to do nothing.

Sadly people and their innate procrastination is what causes so many hopeful addict cases go well beyond turning back. While there is never a bad time to turn your life around and act on your weaknesses, the longer addiction has had free reign of the addict’s body and will, the longer and harder will be the battle to set things right again. Don’t waste time, find help for yourself or your loved ones as soon as possible.