Addiction or Substance Use disorder has been steadily on the rise, with each year bringing to the table a new set of drugs and substances that are coming into the streets and markets. It is a debilitating illness which affects one’s psychological, emotional, social, interpersonal, professional as well as personal areas of life. Drug or Alcohol addiction in India has now started affecting teenagers and many school students come into treatment for addiction to marijuana or any of the other substances. However, a small percentage of addicts make it into treatment of any kind. And apart from a lack of resources, the main issue is that many addicts to drugs or alcohol remain in denial about their illness.
Denial is a very common defense mechanism that many of us engage in. In fact all of us may be in denial about some or the other aspects of our personalities at some point in our lives. People may deny that they are stubborn, impatient, that they may be aggressive or engage in anxious overthinking. Denial can be about any of our emotional, behavioral or thought patterns. Denial serves to protect our own self image that we have of ourselves, from threat, from something that may tarnish our self image. And to admit to an issue, specially a mental health issue deeply affects this self image and makes us feel very negatively about ourselves. The societal taboo about mental health problems is immense and even more so for problems such as drug or alcohol addiction. This taboo makes the denial stronger. No-one wants to be labelled an addict. Also, to admit it means, one has to work on removing drugs or alcohol from one’s life which is unacceptable to the addict, by definition of their illness. It also means, having to work hard on controlling cravings, running the risk of being ostracized from their society and judged by family or those around them. Hence, denial comes due to the interaction of protective defense mechanisms as well as societal, cultural factors which make life for an addict more difficult.
Identifying denial is a very important step in beginning recovery for any person suffering from addiction. Breaking that denial allows one to come face to face with the complexities of their issues, and it is only by accepting them and being motivated to change them, can recovery transpire. Let’s look at some of the common ways that denial manifests:
1. Normalization
“Everyone drinks these days!” is a very common line of thought in denial for addiction. Comparing yourself to others who drink or use drugs and normalizing your unhealthy substance abuse patterns is what constitutes normalization. The addict believes that their level of consumption is the norm and justifies that they don’t have a problem. This kind of denial is hard to break as there are many people who drink or use drugs recreationally and the lone between social or recreational use and abuse is very thin.
2. Minimization
Minimization is making the problem of addiction or the consequences of addiction seem minimal or trivial. This type of denial may be active when an addict says things like, “it’s not a big deal!” They make make light of their issue, or minimize the behaviors that follow drinking or using. For example, someone may become aggressive after drinking, but the next day say that it wasn’t that bad. Minimization is blatant denial of the impact of the problem on oneself, one’s work, one’s emotions and relationships.
3. Scapegoating
An addict’s denial may come up as blaming other situations or people for their drinking or using. They may believe that their drinking is due to fights with family, loss in business or because of work stress. While it is true that external factors play a role in development of addiction, they are only catalysts or triggers, the ammo for the problem is within the addict, regardless of external triggers. Many addicts remain stuck in this blame game, and even in recovery they may believe that if that external factor is taken away they may remain sober. But this denial keeps one trapped, as long as the blame is there, inner work on facing that trigger without substance abuse, doesn’t begin.
4. Claim Uniqueness
Many addicts understand what addiction is, what it’s consequences are, but they believe that their situation is different and that the diagnoses or treatment of addiction doesn’t apply to them. “I’m not like other addicts!” “My situation is different, no-one understands me.” “I’m not an addict, it’s just something I do to relax.” These kind of statements are made by someone who claims uniqueness, believeing that they don’t fit into any of these labels or ideas and hence they don’t need to change.
5. Mental Filtering
Mental filtering is a type of denial in which a person only remembers the highs, the good times related to their substance and overlooks the lows and unpleasant consequences due to their substance use. They filter out the negatives and only look at the perceived positives. They may not look at the hangovers, the fights, the impact on work or relationships, the embarrassing moments; and focus on the feeling of being high, enjoying, relaxing or finding relief from stress and other negative emotions. The mind hasn’t forgotten the lows but tends to have a biased view of their substance use.
There are many other ways in which denial can manifest which may differ from individual to individual. We at ZorbaCare Rehabilitation Center for Drug and Alcohol Addiction, receive a lot of calls from family and friends of addicts who struggle with breaking their denial of illness. But overcoming denial takes time and is an internal journey that comes through reflection on one’s life and behavior. As a part of our treatment process, we offer ‘Prehab’ which is counselling and psychological interventions which help bring an addict into treatment by motivating them and challenging their denial. But denial breaking even extends into addiction treatment as denial can still remain or pop up during and after treatment. In fact, for the first year of recovery and for some even manu years into recovery, denial keeps coming up in various ways. Our mind loves to create illusions to go back to its comfort zone, this is a long term process. Breaking our own illusions is the beginning of meeting life at life’s terms and being aligned with our reality.