Legal Drugs can be Harmful

It is easy to justify staying away from illegal drugs, like marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Many people understand that the addictive nature and damaging effects of these narcotics. So, legal and prescription drugs, like painkillers, are often viewed as being a safe and acceptable alternative. This is wrong. Just because something is legal does not mean that it can’t be just as harmful, if abused.

Many prescription drugs, like painkillers, can be highly addictive if taken in excessive and over a long period of time. Pills, like Vicodin, Percocet or Oxycontin are often prescribed when someone suffers an injury or has surgery. These pills are not designed to be taken for extended periods of time, but patients will often become immune to their effects at lower doses and will increase their intake. This can quickly lead to addiction, due to their euphoric effects, even after the pain begins to subside.

Since these types of drugs are legal and not too difficult to get, many people do not see themselves as addicts. It is almost impossible to measure the amount of pain that someone is feeling, so doctors will often over-prescribe painkillers and patients will exhaust their supply before they are allowed to get a refill. This is an early sign of addiction. Patients are so used to the numb feeling associated with the pills that any amount of pain will cause them to take a pill. Most painkillers are supposed to be taken at lower doses as time goes on, but often time patients will do the opposite and increase their dosage.

The legal status of a drug does not determine how dangerous it can be. It is just as easy to harm yourself or become addicted to a legal drug, like painkillers, as it is with illegal drugs. Doctors prescribe painkillers for limited use for most patients, but the addictive nature of the pills can quickly become a problem if someone is not careful.

Filed Under: Addiction, Drugs Tagged With: , ,

Never Forget Where You Came From

You have been sober for years.  Congratulations.  You have taken on the challenge of helping others get to the place you are now.  You have decided to join the ranks of counselor for a detox program.  This is a rewarding career.  You get to help people go from desolate drug addicts who feel they have nowhere to turn, nowhere to go, no use for living, to fully functioning healthy sober individuals, with a new lease on life.  That is an amazing way to spend your work days.  While there is training  that you will undergo, you have already conquered the most important part of the training, you have been there.  There is nothing more valuable in a teaching or counseling position than to be able to say, “I know exactly what you are feeling, I have been there.”

For the addict who desperately wants sobriety, it may take just knowing that someone else has actually survived the detox, has come through it and has been able to get up and function again.  This may be the turning point for them.  There is a lot of despair in detox.  It took a long time to become an addict, becoming a sober person is not going to happen overnight.  But for the desperate addict, sick and questioning whether this sobriety is such a good idea, your presence is extremely important.  You know what is going to happen next, you know this road, and you can walk along with someone to help smooth out the bumps.

You are also keenly aware that by doing this, you are aiding in your own sobriety.  Watching other people struggle with addiction may be just what you need to see day after day to keep you from slipping, keep you working your sobriety.  Never forget where you came from, it has everything to do with where you are going.

Filed Under: Addiction, Drugs Tagged With:

Substance Abuse

Your commitment to your loved one is the most important thing in your life. There is nothing that is more important than making sure they are happy and healthy. When you find out that the person you love is being overcome by drugs and alcohol, it can be a very difficult experience. The effects of their addiction can not only damage their own life, but rattle your world.

It’s important to let them know you are aware of the problem. Many times an addict will live in his own world and convince himself he is alone with his disease. It’s important that you let him know just how much you care and that you are willing to do whatever it takes in order to see him get the help he needs. The most important thing you can help an addict do is help himself. Finding treatment for addicts will be the best way to end their struggles with substance abuse. If the addict is a dependent, like a child or a spouse, then help may be easy to find.

Contact your insurance company. In most cases the insurance will be for both in-patient and out-patient counseling. There are rehab facilities that they can connect you with. In many cases, insurances have an out-of-pocket maximum. This means they will cover up to a certain daily allotment. If you are without insurance, take the time to get the insurance you need. There are plenty of companies out there. It would be best to compare the different online insurance quote prices you get and find out which one fits best within your budget. The cost of going out of pocket to treat addiction can be incredible. Make your best effort to obtain insurance before resorting to that measure, even if it is necessary. Substance abuse is no laughing matter, and treating it immediately is vital to beating the disease.

Filed Under: Addiction, Drugs Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Vitamins and Detox

It is no secret that the body is severely abused during addiction, no matter what the substance.  Continued alcohol abuse dehydrates the addict, as well as due to lack of proper nutrition during long binges of drinking, there are very little nutrients being put in the body at this time.  If the addiction is a substance, pills or something injected or snorted, again the addict is not in the best physical condition.  The beginnings of detox, those first few days, are rigorous and taxing on the body.  The addict is physically sick for days to weeks, also making the intake of proper nutrition not as likely.

In order for the detox to work, the body must be purged of all the toxins it has taken in, and this is only the first step.  Once the poison is out of the body, the body needs to heal.  The human body, being the wonderful self sufficient machine that it is, will do most of the work itself, as long as the addict can stay clean and sober.  This is such a difficult time in detox because the addict does not feel well.  His body is craving the drug or alcohol and the physical illness is overwhelming.

If you have committed to turning this addiction into lifelong sobriety, you can help your body in the process.  Feed your body what it needs, and do not feed your body what it does not need.  While you will be on a serious emotional program, lots of meetings and counseling, make sure you take care of your body.  Take the vitamins offered.  High doses of vitamins are used in the detox process to help the body find its way back to health.  Putting your body on the plus side health wise will make you feel better, and help you cope with the long fight ahead.

Filed Under: Drugs Tagged With:

Don’t Give Up – Even If You Fall

The pull of a drug addiction is so strong that very few addicts stay sober the first time they try.  After going through a rigorous detox, being as sick as sick can be, going through countless sessions of counseling, reconciling differences with family and loved ones, sobriety is within reach.  Going back out into the “real world” where there are no locked rooms and bag searches, is a huge, important and sometimes not so successful step.  You are free of drugs and it feels great.  You have a lot of support and that is so important.  You feel you have a program set up that will keep you on the straight and narrow.

You meet up with someone who is not sober.  This is a huge problem for addicts.  You may not be strong enough, or far enough into your recovery to say no.  You may even actually feel, even though you know better, that just getting high one more time won’t compromise what you have worked so hard for.  All of these lies are a way for the drugs to suck you back in, and you fall.

You certainly do not want to go back to rehab or detox.  That sucked.  You were so sick, there were so many rules, people asking you how you felt all the time.  This is much better.  Stay high, no worries.  Then you remember all the people who love you, all the reasons you wanted to be sober in the first place.  You still want to be sober.  You just messed up.

Run, do not walk, to the nearest detox center or hospital.  You can start all over again.  You may have to be sick again, and be in locked rooms with no privileges.  You may not see your loved ones for a while.  You will never be turned away.  This may just be your time for success.

Filed Under: Addiction, Drugs Tagged With:

Did I Do That To My Baby?

If you are addicted to drugs you are not thinking clearly.  Your body has gone into a cycle of needing drugs, however you need to get them.  The cravings are overwhelming and you will think of nothing else.  You may even want desperately to stop, but the cravings are so strong, you feel as though you have to give into them.  Full blown addiction will do that every time.  Addiction does not discriminate.  People of every age become addicts, from young teens to the elderly.  People of every walk of life, rich and poor, working and unemployed.  Addiction is the epitome of equal opportunity.  No ethnic group, religious group, or financial group is spared.   The truth is that every addict walked into the addiction willingly.  They may have been coaxed in some way, but most addicts are not forced to drugs over and over again.  It is a choice.

The only group who did not have a choice are the unborn babies of pregnant drug addicts.  This unfortunate, unsuspecting group of drug addicts are born into hospitals every day.  Babies who actually need to be given drugs to keep their heart rates from dropping, as their tiny bodies crave whatever drug their mother has been feeding them for the past nine months.  They are helpless against their addiction and sometimes cannot fight it.  Some babies of addicts are born too early and too sick, and cannot survive.

While every mother wants to protect her baby, addicts who find that they are pregnant need to get help as soon as possible.  There is help.  There are ways to safely get you off the drugs so that your baby has a better chance.  No mother wants to watch her baby suffer.  If you feel there is no hope for your, then hope for your baby.  Make a sacrifice for your child.  You may just find that your baby will save you as well.

Filed Under: Drugs Tagged With:

Making The Most Of The Down Time

Detox is intense.  You are being watched constantly.  You have counseling sessions several times a day.  Everything you put in your mouth is carefully chosen and handed to you.  There are many activities to keep you busy throughout the day, every day.  In the beginning, you just want the day to be over.  You body needs to get rid of the toxins that it has been subjected to for perhaps a very long time.  This is a process.  It is slow and it is painful.  Always remember that there is another side to this.  You will come through it.  On the other side is a sober life, a life without drugs, without lies, without causing constant pain to the people you love the most.  Once you fight the monster of addiction, you have something to be proud of.  It is something you have done.

Detox can be a long process.  You are not going to be able to go from addict to sober in a day or two.  It can take weeks, even months to even begin to think of a life without drugs.  During that time it is obviously a good idea to be somewhere that can keep you on a short leash, an inpatient facility.  After the initial intensity of detox, little by little you will have more free time.  Eventually you do have to go back out into the world, the world that wants to suck you back into the drug world.

Make the most of your free time, find people to be with who are sober, stay away from anyone or anything that could compromise your sobriety.  You know that sobriety is a lifelong commitment, and one that not everyone can stay with.  Surrounding yourself with the right people and the right activities will help you reclaim that life you so desperately want.  It is totally up to you.

Filed Under: Drugs Tagged With:

Learning About our Drinking Habits

Drinking patterns are hard to pin down, but scientists have discovered certain factors that affect how much or how little we drink (or if we even choose to drink at all). A thousand different factors can affect if we’ll drink on a given day, how much we’ll drink, and how fast we’ll drink.

A recently published study of Californian young men followed over 350 white males at age 20 and interviewed them every five years for 30 years. 25 percent of these men went on to develop a severe drinking problem by age thirty. In studying the family histories of these men, the researchers found that other drinking problems within the family were a significant factor in developing a drinking problem later in life. Men who either were divorced earlier than most men or received a lower level of education were also more likely to develop serious drinking problems.

Women tend to see alcohol as a better stress reliever than men do. Women generally believe that alcohol will reduce their stress levels (and women are more prone to feeling the effects of stress than men). Women also believe drinking tends to improve upon social situations and relieve tension or awkwardness in a given situation. Whereas women drink to further enjoy their social interactions, men tend to prefer solitary drinking. Another recent study examined women’s relationships with their mothers in terms of developing a drinking problem later in life. Women who said they had a poorer relationship with their mother were more likely to develop an alcohol dependence.

Other studies have discovered that a drinking environment affects the way we drink. People who drink alone at a bar drink the most, but stay the shortest time. Other studies have showed that music with rhythms closest to a person’s heart beat while resting produces the fastest drinking, while fast music slows our drinking down.

Filed Under: Drugs Tagged With: ,

Newfound Alcohol Statistics

In trying to develop plausible solutions for alcoholism treatments, Psychology Today published an article delivering some interesting facts regarding alcohol addiction. The figures showed how gender, sexual orientation, and nationality affects who drinks the most in the world.

First, the article stated that men drink more than women by 11 percent. This is true all over the globe, regardless of trouble. While percentages of drinking amounts vary by country (Iceland drinks more than Israel, for example), men drink more than women in every country studied in the world.

Interestingly enough, Sharon Wilsnack, a neuroscience professor at the University of North Dakota, has found that homosexuality reverses this trait. In her extensive research on alcohol-related behaviors (particularly regarding gender), Wilsnack has found that lesbians drink more than gay men. Other studies confirm her findings.

Overall, however, homosexuals tend to drink more than heterosexuals by 16 percent. This could be because throughout history, the only place where gay individuals could really socialize freely with other homosexuals was in designated gay bars. And what does one do at a bar? Drink. Some researchers believe that this could help explain why so many studies have found that homosexuals outdrink straights. Other potential explanations include the massive stress that the homosexual population face every day as a result of being a minority group that is still frequently discriminated upon.

In addition to finding that rich individuals drink more than the poor by 27 percent and that since 2006 the number of pregnant Americans who binge drink during their first trimester has almost doubled, the study also found that Ugandans drink more than anyone else in the world. Uganda holds the world record for massive drinking by a wide, wide margin. Most African countries have significant drinking problems that don’t help Africa’s struggles with job training, government building, and skill building. Unfortunately, Africa has so many other problems that drinking isn’t likely to take the spotlight any time soon.

Filed Under: Drugs Tagged With:

New Vaccine Prevents Cocaine High in Mice

Cocaine addiction has long frustrated doctors and researchers since it is one of the main addictions that have no viable medical treatment or therapy options. A study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse may have changed all that. They’ve published findings in a recent online Molecular Therapy edition that show they’ve discovered an effective anti-cocaine vaccine in mice. Researchers created the vaccine by attaching a particle that acts like cocaine to the common cold virus. The body fights the cold and sequesters the cocaine particles before they reach the brain to cause a “high.” Researchers believe this breakthrough vaccine could prove effective in other drug addictions such as heroin, opiates, and nicotine.

The vaccine lasts for at least 13 weeks, which is when the researchers stopped recording results. Addiction experts and researchers are excited about the vaccine, especially because it can quickly and cost-effectively move into human trials. In short, it’s a feasible solution. By linking the cocaine to the common cold virus, the body’s immune system is trained to recognize cocaine as a foreign dangerous element that should be destroyed. Antibodies recognize, tag, and destroy the cocaine particles before the cocaine has a chance to reach the brain and cause the cocaine high. The human body does not naturally tag cocaine or other drugs because it doesn’t recognize the substance as a threat.

The scientists involved in the study were leading researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, and Scripps Research Institute. To make the vaccine, these researchers separated the parts that make human sick from the common cold virus. They left only the part that triggers antibodies to attack the virus. They then attached a cocaine analog to the separated part of the virus. The team used a cocaine analog because while it mimics cocaine, it’s a more stable substance than cocaine.

Filed Under: Drugs Tagged With: ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »