Detox Recovery

Posts Tagged ‘help for addiction’

Facing the fact that someone you love is not only suffering from drug addiction, but now must receive help to overcome the addiction, is difficult for anyone. Where should you start? Who do you turn to? What questions do you need to ask about drug treatment programs? Perhaps, you may have been at this point before, and you now feel a sense of hopelessness in finding a residential treatment center that will work this time around. Maybe, though, this is the first time you’ve had to take these steps to help someone you love. The process can feel overwhelming.

Ultimately, you want your loved one back. You want that person you love free from drugs. You want that person to live a healthy and productive life. By asking the right question on each of the following areas when choosing a residential drug treatment center, your chances of making this happen for your loved one will increase.

1.Success Rate –
What is the success rate of the residential drug treatment center? Obviously, the higher the success rate, the more likely your loved one will succeed. Ask to speak with graduates of the drug rehab facility or their families. Get real opinions from real people.

2.Methods –
What method does the drug treatment center use? Ask yourself if they are addressing all aspects of your loved one’s addiction, including what led them to drugs in the first place. Methods that only deal with one aspect of addiction are more likely to fail. Remember addiction results from a combination of many factors, including a lessening of morality and integrity and an increasing burden of guilt and shame. The life of an addict includes bad habits, poor health and difficulty facing problems. After speaking with the facility, ask yourself if they are handling not just the psychological aspects, but also the physical and mental aspects of addiction as well. Are they providing practical skills that will help your loved one succeed once the drug rehabilitation program is completed?

3.Services –
What services does the residential drug treatment center offer? This is not only for your loved one, but for you as well. Will they help with legal issues? Will they assist in an intervention? In other words, to what length will they go to make certain your loved one gets the drug treatment they need?

4.Staff –
Who are the staff members at the residential drug treatment center? The best trained staff will have had experience with drug addiction. They will not have learned about it in a book. Are they qualified for their positions? What real-life knowledge do they have with drug addiction? What is their reason for working in this field?

5.Follow-up Program –
What type of follow-up program does the residential drug treatment center offer? This is important. Sending a newly rehabilitated drug addict back into the world without any follow-up can be disastrous. Make sure that there is a program of this type in place. Good programs keep in touch over the phone regularly after one leaves the program.

6.Location –
Where is the residential drug treatment center located? A residential drug treatment center should be protected. Ask how easy it would be for your loved one to leave. Many addicts when first coming off drugs want to leave. Ensuring that this is difficult, while not seeming like a prison, increases the chances that the person will stay to finish.

7.Length –
How long does the residential drug treatment center take? Although the standard program is 28 days, if the residential drug treatment center offers a longer program, it is more likely your loved one will succeed. However, if the residential drug treatment center allows your loved one to work at his or her own pace, without imposing time constraints, your loved one has an even greater chance of overcoming drug addiction.

8.Price –
How much does the residential drug treatment center cost? Before eliminating any program because of its price, ask yourself this: What are they offering? Look back at the points above and determine what the drug rehab is truly giving to the one you love. Yes, the more it offers, the more likely the price will be higher. However, your loved one will have a greater chance at becoming a healthy productive member of society. How much is that person worth to you?
Choosing a residential drug treatment center can be difficult. Dealing with a loved one suffering from drug addiction is devastating. By breaking the process down into what is important and finding out the answers to the questions above, you will be able to make an informed choice as to which residential drug treatment program can best help you and your loved one. Drug addiction can be dealt with and overcome.
By John Frank

Relapse is not a four-letter word. That said, there is a lot of trepidation and many questions over the possibility of relapse – will it happen to me, what can I do to prevent it, will it happen again, does it mean I’m a failure, and so on. Addiction treatment professionals counsel that the best way to get past these fears is through education and skills training. Simply put, you need to learn as much as possible about relapse and coping mechanisms to help you prevent it.

Beyond what you learn in treatment, once you’re back in the real world, it may seem tough at times to remember what it is you’re supposed to do to remain clean and sober. Here are some tips that may help.

1. Have a Plan – for Every Day – You wouldn’t set off on a cross-country journey without a map and an itinerary for how to get there and what to do along the way. The same principle holds true for how you plan to live the next few years of your life in recovery. Hey, it’s a whole new world for you now. The old habits and routines simply won’t cut it anymore. Not only are they dangerous and can quickly land you back in trouble, but it’s just foolhardy not to have a plan. If you have been tardy in drawing up your plan, now’s the time to get going on it.

Where should you begin? Start with today. What are your goals for today? What do you want to achieve? It could be as simple as being on time for all your appointments, your job, seeing that you get all your errands done, make dinner for the family, work on your homework or hobby, whatever. The point is to put it down on paper. Jot everything down you can think of and then start prioritizing according to what’s most important to get done and what would be nice to get done. Go all the way through the list until you’ve assigned a priority to each item.

Next, map out your plan for tomorrow, and then the rest of the week. Don’t worry if you can’t think of everything to put down all at once. This will get easier the more you do it. And you can add items as you think of them. Also, remember to cross things off your list as you complete them. This is important as it builds your self-esteem and self-confidence as you reach your goals, however minor or major.

Now, get to work on doing the things on your list. Time management experts advise that it’s tempting to go for the easiest items, leaving the tougher ones for last. That may work for some people, but most of us waste our time doing the small stuff and never get to the big jobs. Even though we’re talking about recovery here, the point is valid. Try to balance doing easy tasks – cleaning your desk, picking up supplies – with the more challenging ones – assembling materials for tax returns, painting the garage, etc.

2. Acknowledge Relapse Could Happen – There’s no sense hiding behind a wall of denial. You can’t avoid a relapse by refusing to recognize that the potential is there, and it’s real. Experts recommend that you acknowledge that you could falter, give in to a craving or fall in with the wrong crowd again. Just acknowledge that relapse could happen despite your best intentions. Just because you say it aloud (or think it) does not mean that it will happen. Just the contrary. By stating that you know the potential is there gives you the power to be more in control over your actions. Remember, it isn’t the thought that causes relapse, but the action that follows. By expressing the truth – relapse could happen – you deprive the thought of the power to haunt you and make you feel as if you can’t do anything about it. You can, and you will, be able to deal with the pitfalls of relapse.

3. Don’t Dwell on It – After you’ve acknowledged that relapse could happen, don’t dwell on the thought. You need to get on with your life and the business of daily activities. The more you are actively involved in something productive – whether it’s with your hands or your mind – the less likely you are to get caught up in the quagmire of wondering what if, how long, why, and what can I do thinking. A good practice to follow – and this holds true whenever the ugly thought of relapse pops into your head – is to get out and take a walk. Physically get up and go out of the house or office and walk around the block, or parking lot, or on a trail, in the mall, wherever, just walk. The act of walking and breathing fresh air will deflate the blockage of nasty thoughts. It may be a diversion, but it’s a healthy one, and one that will produce a dramatic change of mood.

4. Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive Ones – Here’s another easy and effective strategy. When something bad occurs to you, a negative thought or series of thoughts that plague you and keep you from your tasks, or sleeping, eating, or enjoying any activity, make a conscious effort to replace the negative thought with a positive one. Let’s take an example. Say you begin thinking about all the fun you’re missing by not being with your drinking friends, or you long to be with your buddies smoking a joint and knocking back beer. Turn that negative into a positive by thinking instead about how happy your son or daughter is when you give them a big hug or the joy you feel when something you say or do makes your wife smile. What you’re doing, in effect, is transforming a negative emotion into a positive one. Once you’re in the positive mode, it’s pretty hard to slip back into the negative. You have to really try hard to do that – and who wants to be negative, anyway? So, the next time negative thoughts threaten to derail your sobriety, veer your thinking toward something uplifting, positive, loving and promising. And this time, do allow the positive thinking to remain with you.

5. Find an Outlet – Let’s face it. We all need something we can turn to that occupies our time, and our concentration. You need to find an outlet, something you enjoy or think you may enjoy. It doesn’t matter what it is, either. It could be that you’ve always wanted to learn how to snowboard or parasail or take up golf. Maybe you hanker to create jewelry or paint in oils or water colors. Fancy conquering a foreign language? Becoming a pastry or gourmet chef? Working with your hands in carpentry, woodworking, sculpture, or ceramics? For some in recovery, going back to school is high on their list of priorities. Completing or beginning a degree program, learning a trade, or just taking some classes is certainly well within reach. You don’t have to go full-time. There are part-time, weekend, and evening classes that may work out for you. This applies to learning anything new. If you have the will, there will be a way. Look into what you can work into your schedule and, yes, put this on your list of things to do.

6. Seek Support – No one expects you to be able to figure everything out on your own all the time. You’d have to be superhuman to be able to do that, and none of us is that perfect. In fact, we’re all human beings, and, as such, we need the help of others from time to time. This is not a sign of weakness, but strength. You will find that if you seek the support of others when you encounter a rough patch, or stress builds up and you feel that you are at a breaking point, or you just need someone to talk to that understands, being with others in your support group can make all the difference in the world. In fact, it may very well be the single most important part of your recovery, the needed bit of assistance that allows you to remain clean and sober.
Your support network could be members of your immediate family – your spouse, children, and other adult family members – or your trusted friends, co-workers, member of the clergy, therapist or other counselor. For many in recovery, their support network includes their 12-step group sponsor and members. The beauty of your 12-step alliance is that it is always available to you. Your group asks nothing of you except your uncompromising desire to be clean and sober, and to help others with your support as you are able. Besides, these people have all been in situations like yours. Each of them has struggled with the cravings and urges. Many have relapsed and gotten back on track with the support and encouragement of fellow members.

Whatever your support network consists of, don’t be afraid to use it. Sometimes you just need someone to listen, not talk. The shoe may very well be on the other foot later on in your recovery. At that time, you will be in the position to be able to give back to another in need of assistance. For now, make good use of your support system. It’s one of the best things you can do to conquer your fear of relapse.

7. Be Prepared – The old adage that “The best defense is a good offense” is especially true when it comes to recovery. Another is, “Be prepared for any eventuality.” What do these two sayings have in common? They both involve careful preparation. Here we are talking about the preparedness or readiness list you should have in place just in case you are tempted to relapse.
What does such a list entail? First of all, it should include a list of names and telephone numbers of people whom you trust that you can call for help. If you find yourself tempted to go into a bar or are already there and feel you may not be able to stop yourself from drinking, call your sponsor or friend and have them talk you through it or come get you – whatever it takes, whatever you need. It could also be a series of things that you will do to prevent you from giving in to your cravings. Again, this will be unique to you, and only you know what may work or not. You could discuss this with your therapist or 12-step sponsor or group members, but in the end, it is your personal preparedness list. In fact, when some people find they’re at the end of their rope and are about to pick up a drink or get back into drugs, they head right off to a 12-step meeting. That alone may be enough to sidetrack the temptation and keep them clean and sober.

8. Don’t Beat Yourself Up – It’s important to keep things in perspective when it comes to your recovery. Some days will be up days. Some will be down. That’s not only the nature of being in recovery. It’s the fabric of life. We all have our ups and downs. Being in recovery tends to make us think our lives are more difficult or different than everyone else’s, but that’s only true to the degree that we believe it to be so. It isn’t really that our lives are so unique or that our challenges are any more or less formidable than the next person’s.

Where this sense of perspective is important applies to days when it seems to us as if we’re not accomplishing our goals fast enough, or that we have failed to get where we believe we should be at this time. Again, this is not unlike your neighbor down the street or the guy at work or the student you attend class with. Each of those individuals has times when he or she feels disheartened about progress or lack thereof. Instead of harping on our failures, the better strategy is to look forward to the rest of today and tomorrow, and to devising new and more creative ways of realizing our dreams, coming to grips with our problems, and overcoming our obstacles. Beating yourself up over your shortcomings – real or perceived – won’t accomplish anything other than to make you feel worse than you should. Life in recovery, like life for everyone else, is a series of incremental steps. Not all steps are in a straight line forward. Some are lateral first and then forward. Some backtrack and then move forward. The point is that the journey continues. Keep the horizon in view and take the steps necessary to move forward.

9. Get Back on Track – Okay, some of us will relapse. We’ve acknowledged right at the outset that it could happen. So, if it does happen, then what? You get right back on track, that’s what. Addiction treatment professionals say that the worst mistake those in recovery can make is to give up, to feel that they are failures and are doomed to a life of downhill spiral. If you falter, take a drink, smoke a joint, pop too many pills, you need to resume your regimen of 12-step meetings, counseling, seeking support and redouble your resolve to live clean and sober. It’s as simple as that. You just get back on the schedule that worked for you before. In fact, figure out what worked best to keep you from relapsing and then do more of that. Your support network (sponsor, counselor, therapist, spouse, etc.) may have other suggestions that you can try.

10. Learn From Your Missteps – If you do have a relapse, and many in early recovery do, the best thing you can do for your future is to learn from what went wrong. This goes beyond tips and techniques to keep you from caving in to your cravings and urges. It also applies to your overall strategy, possibly your goals. Perhaps you have been thinking too short-term. Lacking a long-term goal, many in recovery become disillusioned and disheartened when things don’t turn out the way they want or planned in the short haul. You need something to work toward that is far enough off that it requires a series of steps, or mini-goals, to achieve. In other words, you need something of value to work towards. This should involve a meaningful goal, perhaps for you, but also for your family. It could be providing for your child’s or children’s college, or buying your first or new home. It could be finally becoming financially independent, or again being financially stable after a period of debts due to your addiction.

You may also find that you need to cultivate a new group of friends. If part of what went wrong is that you wound up hanging out with friends that use drugs and/or alcohol, you know that you need to stop being around others who will only tempt you back into your old habits. You simply cannot afford to be around alcohol, drugs, or other addictive behaviors. Period.

Bottom line: Relapse does happen. It isn’t the end of the world. With the support of your loved ones, trusted friends, 12-step sponsor, members, counselor or therapist, you will be able to get through it and past it and resume your recovery. So, rather than worry and be afraid of the what if and why and how could this happen, concentrate more on the business of charting your plan for your future. Then go out and make it happen.

Source: Drug Addiction Treatment

A dual diagnosis is when a person has been diagnosed with two or “dual” conditions: an alcohol, drug or other substance addiction coupled with a mental health disorder. Many patients that are in addiction treatment are found to have a dual diagnosis. Of the two million people in the United States that suffer from mental illness, about 50% of them also are an alcohol, drug or other type of substance abuser. For an alcoholic, whether they have a dual diagnosis or not, they need to enter an alcohol addiction treatment program. For others that have substance abuse and addiction, a dual diagnosis, addiction treatment is not only warranted but desperately needed. Not every addiction treatment center is equipped to help this illness. It’s vitally important that a center with professional staff prepared to work with patients with a dual diagnosis is chosen.

Probably the most challenging area for health care providers is diagnosing patients who truly have a dual diagnosis. The reason a dual diagnosis is so difficult to determine is because more cases than not, a mental illness is coupled with a substance abuse and addiction situation. It is for this reason that many of these patients are placed in addiction treatment homes or centers only to discover that they are in fact dealing with a dual diagnosis. The problem is that substance dependence can masquerade as a psychiatric disorder, so many times the mental illness is not discovered or revealed until much later than at the initial evaluation.

It can be a very difficult situation to identify a patient with dual diagnosis. Most times they are in denial about their substance abuse so when the addiction is discovered, they overlook the fact that the mental illness is still exacerbating the substance problem and vice-versa. Therefore only one of the two issues is identified. And with teens it is even more difficult. With kids going through puberty and all of the emotional fluctuations that accompany that, how can you be sure that this young man or woman are actually suffering from a bi-polar disorder or even depression? For that very reason it is imperative that when seeking an addiction treatment center you find one that has an acute awareness of this dual disease. It is only then that you can truly have hope for a full recovery.

by Groshan Fabiola

Not long after attending my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous I began to hear people using the phrase Higher Power and even talking about God.  This was one of the things that kept me skeptical about AA.  I had always had a hard time relating to God and I was petrified that I couldn’t stay off drugs and alcohol because of my aversion to organized religion.  Luckily I obtained a temporary sponsor at my very first meeting and after a few months of going to AA meetings regularly I finally told her about my dilemma.  It was explained to me that Alcoholics Anonymous was not a religious program and that I did not have to believe in anyone else’s concept of God.  That put me at ease for a while but I kept hearing people sharing in meetings about their Higher Power and I was still confused and apprehensive. 

When the time came that I began to go through the twelve steps I had been clean and sober for over three months and still felt disconnected from God.  The first step was to admit that I was powerless over drugs and alcohol and that my life had become unmanageable, which was easy for me.  However the second step was no easy feat, “We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.”  I went over and over the words in my head and tried to think what it meant to me and how I could relate to this concept of a power greater than myself.  My sponsor told me that she had a similar experience when she was a newcomer and that all that I needed at that time was to believe that there was something in the universe that was more powerful than me.  I had heard of people using the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous as their Higher Power because they felt that the group was more powerful than they were alone.  That idea made sense to me and for the time being it would suffice.  I was hopeful that in time my relationship to God would blossom and develop as was the experience of others in AA.

What causes drug abuse and addiction?

What makes one person abuse drugs to the point of losing their home, their family and their job, while another does not? There is no one simple reason. Drug abuse and addiction is due to many factors. A powerful force in addiction is the inability to self- soothe or get relief from untreated mental or physical pain. Without the self-resilience and support to handle stress, loneliness or depression, drugs can be a tempting way to deal with the situation. Unfortunately, due to the changes drugs make to the brain, it can only take a few times or even one time to be on the road to addiction. Some other risk factors include:

• Family history of addiction. While the interplay between genetics and environment is not entirely clear, if you have a family history of addiction, you are at higher risk for abusing drugs.
• History of mental illness. Drug abuse can worsen mental illness or even create new symptoms. See dual diagnosis for more information on mental illness and drug abuse.
• Untreated physical pain. Without medical supervision, pain medications or illegal drugs like heroin can rapidly become addictive.
• Peer pressure. If people around you are doing drugs, it can be difficult to resist the pressure to try them, especially if you are a teenager.

Signs and symptoms of drug abuse & addiction

How can I tell if a loved one has a problem with drugs?

Although different drugs may have different effects on overall physical and mental health, the basic pattern is the same. Getting and using the drug becomes more and more important than anything else, including job, friends and family. The physical and emotional consequences of drug abuse and addiction also make it difficult to function, often impairing judgment to a dangerous level.

Physical signs of abuse and addiction

Drug abuse affects the brain and body directly. While high, the drug affects the entire body, from blood pressure to heart rate. Stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine “amp up” the body, increasing blood pressure, metabolism and reducing the ability to sleep. Drugs like opiates and barbiturates slow down the body, reducing blood pressure, breathing and alertness sometimes to dangerous levels. Some physical signs of abuse and addiction include:

• Cycles of increased energy, restlessness, and inability to sleep (often seen in stimulants)
• Abnormally slow movements, speech or reaction time, confusion and disorientation (often seen in opiates, benzodiazepines and barbiturates)
• Sudden weight loss or weight gain
• Cycles of excessive sleep
• Unexpected changes in clothing,  such as constantly wearing long sleeved shirts, to hide scarring at injection sites
• Suspected drug paraphernalia such as unexplained pipes, roach clips or syringes
• For snorted drugs, chronic troubles with sinusitis or nosebleeds
• For smoked drugs, a persistent cough or bronchitis, leading to coughing up excessive mucus or blood.
• Progressive severe dental problems (especially with methamphetamine)

Mental and emotional signs of abuse and addiction

Abuse and addiction also affect mood, as drugs are abused for the temporary good feelings they provide. These feelings can vary depending on the drug used. Some mental and emotional signs include:

• Cycles of being unusually talkative, “up” and cheerful, with seemingly boundless energy.
• Increased irritability, agitation and anger
• Unusual calmness, unresponsiveness or looking “spaced out”
• Apathy and depression
• Paranoia, delusions
• Temporary psychosis, hallucinations
• Lowered threshold for violence

The effects of drug addiction are far reaching and go way beyond just affecting the life of the addict. Drug addiction has an effect on families, companies, schools, and friendships. It also has an effect on the body of the addict and could possibly affect the health of those around the addict.

People who use drugs experience a wide array of physical effects other than those expected. The excitement of a cocaine high, for instance, is followed by a “crash”: a period of anxiety, fatigue, depression, and an acute desire for more cocaine to alleviate the feelings of the crash. Marijuana and alcohol interfere with motor control and are factors in many automobile accidents. Users of marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs may experience flashbacks, unwanted recurrences of the drug’s effects weeks or months after use.

Sharing hypodermic needles leads to an increased risk of HIV and some forms of hepatitis. That, along with increased sexual activity among drug addicts can greatly increase the incidence of people becoming infected with AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.

There are over 10,000 deaths directly attributable to drug use in the United States every year; the substances most frequently involved are cocaine, heroin, and morphine, often combined with alcohol or other drugs. Many drug users engage in criminal activity, such as burglary and prostitution, to raise the money to buy drugs, and some drugs, especially alcohol, are associated with violent behavior.

The user’s preoccupation with the substance, plus its effects on mood and performance, can lead to marital problems and poor work performance or dismissal. Drug use can disrupt family life and create destructive patterns of codependency, that is, the spouse or whole family, out of love or fear of consequences, inadvertently enables the user to continue using drugs by covering up, supplying money, or denying there is a problem.

Pregnant drug users, because of the drugs themselves or poor self-care in general, bear a much higher rate of low birth-weight babies than the average. Many drugs (e.g., crack and heroin) cross the placental barrier, resulting in addicted babies who go through withdrawal soon after birth, and fetal alcohol syndrome can affect children of mothers who consume alcohol during pregnancy. Pregnant women who acquire the AIDS virus through intravenous drug use pass the virus to their infant.

Drug abuse affects society in many ways. In the workplace it is costly in terms of lost work time and inefficiency. Drug users are more likely than nonusers to have occupational accidents, endangering themselves and those around them. Over half of the highway deaths in the United States involve alcohol.

Drug-related crime can disrupt neighborhoods due to violence among drug dealers, threats to residents, and the crimes of the addicts themselves. In some neighborhoods, younger children are recruited as lookouts and helpers because of the lighter sentences given to juvenile offenders, and guns have become commonplace among children and adolescents. The great majority of homeless people have either a drug or alcohol problem or a mental illness-many have all three.

Drug addiction has an effect on all parts of life for the drug user, the family, and society as a whole. The time to get help for an addiction is NOW before its effects become so far-reaching, they cannot be recovered.

by Alden Robinson