Substance Use (Gently Overcoming It)

Hey guys it's Reuben here and so I've been working in substance use for around 18 years and it's all about this relief.

The relief becomes the thing you need relief from.

What do I mean by that?

By the time someone needs support,

By the time someone needs a service in terms of their substance use,

What's happening is that they've moved from feeling good about taking the substance and it's changed from that to escaping how they feel to use the substance.

So they're using the substance to escape certain feelings.

People can think that they're weak,

That there's something wrong with them but this is ingrained within us and the older mechanisms of the brain are very strong and this means that in those moments when we want some kind of relief the brain is just going to go for what works right?

You didn't choose to have a problem with your substance but you can change it.

In other words it's not your fault.

It's not your fault that you are having a problem with your substance but it can be your responsibility and this is one massive insight because again going back to the brain and how it's wired and the narrative that our mind gives us and what other people will say to us or the judgments that they may have is that,

You know,

Well you chose this,

This is your problem right?

But what's happened is over time and time again because yes sure you chose it to feel better before like years ago right but now the brain has kind of got this stamped it's like this is what gives me connection,

This is what helps me escape and I can do it again and it's that stamp stamp stamp stamp that's so ingrained that it literally takes over.

So in those moments when you actually want a meaningful day and you don't want to use your substance the brain is coming in knowing that actually we could just do it today,

We could just do this,

We could just do that and this is a process that's that's known as reason giving.

It's very common because it's a little trick that the brain does to give us really good reasons,

Really good excuses actually just to do it again,

Just to do it one more time,

Just to do it on the weekend or whatever.

But anyway coming back to this I hope this little video has been helpful for whoever's listening whether you're going through something right now or it's someone you know it's not your fault that this has happened you didn't choose to have a problem with your substance but it is your responsibility if you choose to do it and in terms of how the brain grows and adapts to accommodate for whatever it's doing this means that when you start to let go of the urges and cravings for your substance and you choose to do something else you are training your body your nervous system your brain everything you're basically saying I can do this I can do this every pause is new wiring and rewiring of those neural templates in our brain so it's not like oh this is just it this is how it's gonna be like I often hear the phrase once an addict always an addict from people coming into the service that I work with they've heard it so much and it's just not true so I hope this video can help you and I hope you find some of the resources here on Insight Timer that can pave the way for you as you go about your journey