Deadly D’s: What keeps you stuck in the disease?

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” 
Søren Kierkegaard

Few years back I decided to publish my research work, for that I was interviewing people with one or more substance dependence. Few of them were undergoing the treatment for almost for fourth or fifth time. However the liver reports or health condition is clearly showing the evidences of physical deterioration & unmanageability in important areas of life; many of them were still bend upon an irrational thought that they are not addicts. 

I was thinking about only one question

What is that keep addict stuck in the disease?

I started reading & collecting the information which can help me to solve this puzzle. I got the answer when I was studying about the self deception tendencies of addicts. 

We all want to defence ourselves from various physical or emotional threats. some of  us feels offense is the best defence, some of us feels prevention is better than cure; likewise an addict also wanted to protect himself by using the self defence techniques. 

Some may use rational techniques to protect the self image & some may use irrational as well. 

Some of the defensive techniques don’t help the addict to come out of the problem but it just gave a temporary relief from the threats he perceived. 

It’s hard for human being to accept & admit the defence. Once the addict starts experiencing the damages then this unhealthy defence mechanism comes in play to rescue. Addicts will eventually face harmful consequences & realities of disease.  This defence mechanism stopped working. An addict reaches to the following phases.

   Denial

   Detour

   Delay

   Dilemma

   Defeat

   Dry/Die

   Decision

I would like to discuss each one of them separately in this series of articles. I would like to discuss some of the relevant cases.  

Till then think on the pointsJ