1. Replacement Addictions and Your Substance
Abuse Program
January 21, 2013
| Last Updated on Tuesday, 07 May, 2013 14:14
Often times when a person leaves behind the hell of addiction, they are left with a void in their life.
Regardless of their drug of choice, most people will try to find something to fill that void. Some turn
to spirituality, others to religion. Some unfortunately fall into the trap of a replacement addiction.
“This can be anything; gambling, weed, food, exercise, adrenaline, sex, etc.”
Replacing Addiction
Replacement addictions can seem harmless or even helpful, but they still serve the same purpose as the
addiction they are replacing. They take you away from reality and let you escape from whatever is
going on. They take you outside of yourself and make you feel better. A popular saying is “When you
put down the spoon, you pick up the fork.” This refers to the way many recovering opiate users will
use food to replace their drug of choice in sobriety. I have personal experience with this and can verify
that it is a common practice and it can be just as debilitating and harmful as heroin addiction.
Adrenaline Addicts
High risk behavior is another common replacement addiction. When people are new in sobriety, they
are excited about it. They want to go out and experience all the things in life that they missed when
they were using. This can lead to them doing things in order to feel as good as they did when they
were using. I personally used to go bridge jumping. This is the practice of going to a bridge and
jumping off it into a body of water.
The rush you get from this kind of behavior can become a new kind of addiction that the person sees as
okay because they aren’t using any kind of substance to achieve it. An extreme sport is a big draw for
many people in recovery. Bridge jumping, reckless driving, sky diving, base jumping, all of these
things are fine, but it’s when they cross that line and become an obsession that you have to be careful.
Hobby or Addiction
Even positive routines can become replacement addictions. Reading, exercising, shopping, gaming, all
of these can become replacement addictions as well. Most people on this planet have at least one
addiction, whether they recognize it and admit it or not. Not all addictions are physically unhealthy or
harmful, but even they carry the risk causing some form of mental instability. We’ve all heard the
stories of people whose routines are disrupted and they suffer some kind of psychotic episode and
injure the people around them. Addiction to routine can just as dangerous as any other addiction.