Recovery’s Hidden Challenge: The Rise of Transfer Addiction
7 in 10 adults struggling with substance addiction report being in recovery. Recovering from a substance use disorder can be challenging and requires one to overcome several obstacles. Preventing relapse and maintaining long-term sobriety is, without a doubt, the most common challenge when it comes to overcoming your addiction. However, another common but less talked about challenge during addiction recovery is transfer addiction. Keep reading to learn more about the transfer addiction meaning, and how you can work towards preventing transfer addiction in your recovery journey.
At Arista Recovery, we are helping patients and their families who are struggling with substance use get the help they need to maintain long-term sobriety. We offer a wide range of drug addiction treatment options to help as many patients as possible on their road to recovery.
Ready to start your recovery journey? Contact us today!
What is Transfer Addiction?
What is transfer addiction? And how can transfer addiction hurt your recovery journey?
Transfer addiction, otherwise referred to as an addiction substitution, occurs when someone in addiction recovery replaces their current addiction/ addictive behavior for another addiction. Transfer addiction can vary depending on the individual and can mean either abusing another type of addictive substance or practicing a new addictive behavior.
This includes transferring your current addiction with another addictive behavior, including:
- Nicotine
- Gambling
- Shopping
- Alcohol
- Benzos
Therefore, transfer addiction is essentially switching from one addictive substance/ behavior to another, which can be detrimental to your recovery journey. This is because even though you may have stopped your first addiction, you’ve then replaced it with another unhealthy addiction, which inevitably halts your recovery journey.
Tips to Prevent and Overcome Transfer Addiction
Now that you know more about the transfer addiction meaning, let’s explore ways in which you can prevent and overcome transfer addiction.
Seek Professional Treatment
Overcoming addiction is difficult, especially if you are trying to overcome addiction all on your own. Therefore, if you are currently struggling with addiction, it’s important to consider seeking professional treatment from an addiction recovery center. Here, you’ll learn healthy coping strategies to best overcome your current addiction, as well as prevent you from turning to other addictive behaviors to replace your current addiction.
Recognizing Trading One Addiction For Another Is Unhealthy
Next, simply understanding the dangers of transfer addiction can go a long way in preventing transfer addiction. For example, if you replace your nicotine addiction with consuming a lot of sugary foods, although your health may seem to improve by quitting nicotine, long-term, you’ll likely develop other negative health effects as a result of developing a sugar addiction.
Practice Healthy Lifestyle Changes
Practicing other healthy lifestyle changes, like maintaining a consistent diet and exercise routine, can significantly help lower your risk of developing a transfer addiction. Eating healthy foods and working out will not only improve your mood, health, and overall quality of life, but these healthy lifestyle changes will help prevent you from engaging in other addictive behaviors.
Be Self-Aware Of Your Day-to-Day Activities
Sometimes, it can be difficult to spot if you are developing a transfer addiction. For example, if you’ve quit abusing drugs but find you are frequently gambling almost daily, this may be a cause for concern, especially if the frequent gambling is negatively impacting your daily life. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of your day-to-day activities as you may start to develop a transfer addiction without even realizing it!
Leading Midwest Recovery Center
Transfer addiction is more common than you may think. Just because you quit your original addiction doesn’t mean replacing it with another addiction equals progressing along your recovery journey! If you are currently struggling with addiction, it’s essential you seek professional help and support to safely and effectively recover and take back control of your life for good.
Our team at Arista Recovery is here to help you every step of the way on your road to recovery. We offer a range of different addiction treatment programs and various levels of care so patients can receive the exact support they need to best overcome their addiction. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you take back your life!
