Imagine a college campus with students rushing from one class to the next. The school has laid out a series of sidewalks, but those sidewalks do not always take the shortest routes between point A and B. Sometimes they meander, encouraging walkers to enjoy nature or the campus architecture. Sometimes they are arranged to meet at right angles—even if it would be much more efficient to lay them out another way.
Meanwhile, students are just trying to get where they need to go as quickly as they can. After all, professors can be grumpy about folks who show up late. So those hustling students cut across the grass—over and over again. Eventually, all those collegiate feet wear a new path in the ground. Once this new path is visible, more and more people take advantage of it. For all intents and purposes, the new path has become just as legitimate a route as any of the sidewalks the school has so carefully positioned across campus (though the campus groundskeepers almost certainly will not think so).
Now, think about your brain. When we repeat a behavior over and over, we wear a path in our brain. When that repeated behavior involves substance abuse, the pathway we create is linked to feelings of pleasure or the reduction of anxiety. That pathway reinforces itself over time and makes it more difficult for us to take a different route—one that does not involve drugs or alcohol.
But all is not lost. Our brains have a characteristic known as neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity means we can change the pathways in our brains so that we arrive at better destinations. The process of detox, rehab, and recovery can help facilitate the creation of these new pathways.
Wait. It’s Called Neuro…What Now?
Neuroplasticity is a fancy name for an easy concept. Our brains have the capability to make new connections and to form new pathways that can take the place of a path created by habitual substance use. We can replace “neuro” with “brain” and “plasticity” with “moldability” to end up with the idea of brain moldability, which captures the concept nicely.
Under Construction – Expect Delays
Let’s return to the university for a moment and imagine that it decides to build a new sidewalk. That construction project would take some time—as all construction projects do.
We could think of that sidewalk project as divided into three major parts: Getting the ground graded and smoothed out; laying the concrete and letting it set; and doing some final landscaping to help the new sidewalk blend into the overall environment.
Those three steps are arguably similar to three parts of addressing a substance use disorder. We could think of detoxification, treatment, and recovery as three interrelated parts of the construction project that will ultimately create a new route through the brain. That new route will lead to a new mental neighborhood of long-term sobriety.
The process takes time and may be frustrating, but in the end—like a new construction project that eases traffic problems when it is completed—the effort is well worth it.
Dealing with the Relapse Detour
Ideally, once the new pathway is in place, you won’t ever return to the darker path forged while you were in the grip of your substance use disorder. But relapse is a common experience—and it can, of course, be terribly disheartening. You have put in the work to change your brain, and suddenly you feel like that work accomplished nothing.
It might be helpful to think of a relapse as a wrong turn. Relapse can be serious, but it’s not the end. You can get back on the new path you have forged for yourself. By returning to treatment, you can get things sorted out, strengthen your resolve, and tweak your treatment plan to reinforce your new path and increase the likelihood of long-term success. It’s thanks to neuroplasticity—brain moldability—that you can stay on a better path for the long haul.
We Can Help You Get Headed in the Right Direction
Writing for Psychology Today, Dr. Constance Scharff said this about neuroplasticity: “With intensive psychotherapy and other holistic interventions, we strengthen the new ‘recovery’ loop within the brain. The brain then learns to enjoy recovery, those things that give us pleasure in our sober lives—family, work, interpersonal interactions. We retrain the brain and thus change our lives.”
Willingway has the expertise to provide the therapy and interventions that will strengthen your personal recovery loop. If you have found yourself stuck on a path defined by a substance use disorder, we can help you create a new path.