It may provide a temporary escape from such realities as a violent home or impotence. It may supply a peer group in which the outcast finds acceptance or a lifestyle that makes the thrill-seeker feel alive. Initially, the user perceives these benefits as outweighing the negative consequences drug use brings. And because they do serve, those who are addicted remain blind to the escalating costs of their habit, excusing away the problems it causes. After all, she supplied the drugs, not him.
Denial is very powerful.
At some point for people like Daryl, physical addiction augments psychological dependence. This happens at different rates for different individuals and with different substances, but eventually the addicted individual experiences overwhelming, involuntary cravings for drugs. Yet even as dependence deepens, the protective bubble of drug-induced oblivion or euphoria begins to leak more rapidly. The balance between the pleasure and personal benefits of drug use and its painfully destructive consequences shifts. As it does, the possibility of recovery emerges.