Posts Tagged ‘drug addiction’

Over the past decade the abuse of prescription drugs has become a greater topic of conversation and research. This has become a real problem with adults and the kids who find drugs in the household medicine cabinet. Prescription drugs is the second most abused category behind marijuana. There is research that estimates that about 20 percent of the people in America are using prescription drugs for non medical use. The doctor may have good intentions but it looks like some of these drugs are addictive. Some of the ones you may have heard of lately include Oxycontin, Vicodin, Xanax, Valium, Dexedrine, Adderall and Ritalin. Steroids have also become an addictive drug.

Prescription pill addictions account for over forty percent of hospital emergency admission because of overdoses. This is happening because prescription drugs are so much easier to obtain these days. Getting an online pharmacy to fill prescriptions without a script is really easy to do. The sad thing is that even minors are able to get drugs this way. There is also the twisted belief that because it came from a doctor means it is safer to take. It is only safer if taken for the prescribed time and for the prescribe reason. Problems happen in the home because old drugs are not discarded even when they are not needed for intended reasons any longer. This keeps the access easy and the trips to the hospital high.

There doesn’t seem to be any difference between men and women misusing prescription drugs. There are, however, differences in what type of drug they will use. Women are more likely to use psycho therapeutic drugs, narcotic pain relievers as well as tranquilizers.

The use of many prescriptions drugs for many real ailments can lead into abuse as well. It becomes easier to take drugs for non medical reasons because one is so used to taking so many things already. This can be really dangerous to self prescribe medications when one is already taking so many for things like heart conditions or blood pressure issues. This leads to mixing the wrong combination of drugs together and having bad, even fatal, consequences.

No matter what kind of drug one takes or where it comes from, drug addiction alters how the brain functions. It is a pathological, biological process which is the essence of addition. At some point, it is easy for someone to go from a non addict to an addict without even knowing it is happening.

Alcohol and drug abuse will permeate every organ and cell of the body, the physical effects of chronic drug and alcohol abuse are complex and wide-reaching. Big doses of drugs, alcohol, or both invade the body’s fluids and interfere with every cells metabolism. Alcohol damages the liver, the gastrointestinal tract, the central nervous system and the heart. Depending on which drug is abuses, the brain and the central nervous system are greatly effected.

In recovery from drugs and alcohol abuse, before the body can begin to heal, the use of alcohol and drugs needs to be completely stopped. In order to heal the damage done by years of drug or alcohol abuse, an after-care program is a necessity and should not only involve ways to keep sober, but to keep the body functioning at its optimum levels. The recovering addict must focus on nutrition and eating right at all times. There have been recent studies showing that the correct intake of calories, nutrients and vitamins, not only helps with making the body recover and heal, but also helps with staving off craving for the abused substance; with the right diet, cravings will go away.

Drinking water, keeping the body hydrated, helps maintain a body’s temperature, helps with proper waste elimination and keeps the body emotionally balanced. The healing nature of water is a well-known fact in the medical field. During the drug and alcohol abuse, the body was kept barely hydrated, which creates a hostile environment in the body, making it virtually impossible for the body’s own healing and restorative functions to do their jobs. Once the body is properly hydrated, it can again resume with what it does best, keeping all the organs running smoothly. If damage is already done, for instance, damage to the liver, besides taking medications to stop further damage, water helps the healthy cells of the liver to continue to function properly.

An exercise routine is highly recommended in order to regain a healthy body. Start with simple exercises, like walking around the neighborhood, use stairways instead of elevators, or ride a bike to the store. Once the body’s muscles have come back on-line, it is necessary to begin a regular workout routine, 3-times a week at the minimum. A physically fit body will heal and recover faster than a sedentary body.

With the body beginning to heal, don’t push it into extremes, such as running in a marathon; the body will need time to heal, probably as much time as the abuse of drugs and alcohol lasted. But, it will heal, so be patient.

The history of addiction treatment is as long and varied as the history of human beings using substances to induce intoxication. In earlier times, the citizens who were drunk and disorderly, or made crazy by other chemicals, were often treated as outcasts, and punished with prison, physical abuse, or time in the mental ward. The asylum near the Guinness plant in Dublin is often the subject of jokes, as the detoxing drunks were treated to the smell of their favorite stout all day and night. It’s only in the contemporary era, however, that there appears to be a concentrated effort to understand and treat addiction as a disease. This is why this generation has become the inheritors, in a sense, of the disease model, and it informs much of the current understanding of what addiction is.

The idea of alcoholism and drug addiction as a disease, and not simply a maladjustment of the mind, was introduced in George Washington’s army by the Surgeon General George Rush. About a decade earlier, there was an effort on the part of Native American groups to begin mutual aid societies to help its members to refrain from drinking. These two events are intimately connected to how we think of addiction and treatment today.

Mutual aid societies eventually developed all over the nation, as the Washingtonians evolved into the Oxford Group, which eventually influenced the founders of A.A.

For most histories, the disease model wasn’t introduced until the 20th century, when Dr. Silkworth presented his findings in a letter that would be reprinted in every edition of the famous Big Book of A.A., called “Alcoholics Anonymous.” This was in 1939, and this famous organization was already beginning to make some headway into communities in Ohio and New York. This would help move treatment from a concept that formerly focused on the physical withdrawal from the toxins into a more holistic approach that took the whole person into account.

Later findings in the 1960s, along with the admission on the part of the American Medical Association that endorsed the idea that addiction was a chronic illness, would further help the cause to promote ideas of addiction treatment that are common today. There are debates as to whether a 12-step program based on spiritual principles is as effective as a treatment program where physical sobriety is emphasized with behavior modification, but it’s still a result of the same breakthrough, that the addict is someone who is suffering from a disorder, and should be treated as a sick person, not a bad person.

Drug abuse has continued to be a real problem in this country for decades now. In the eighties, drug use was a little higher. In the nineties, it fell a little bit. Today it may be down from the seventies but it is still happening often. It is hard to find information on 2009 statistics but, in 2005 forty-five percent of people from the age of 12 and older, had used an illicit drug or prescription drug for non medical use. Forty percent of that same age group used marijuana or Hashish for non medical use. Cigarettes may be legal but are still considered a drug, because of the nicotine. They are smoked by over sixty-four percent of people twelve years and older as of 2005. There are many people who are using over the counter or prescribed drugs for non medical use as well.

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in studies of drug use in female teens. It turns out that just because you’re a girl doesn’t mean you don’t party like the guys. Yes, nine percent of young females, ages 12 to 17, report the use of illicit drugs and ten percent of their male peers report use. It looks like age 16 and 17 has the highest reporting of drug use in that age group. Fewer use with the younger ages. When asked to report on how easy it was to get drugs the young replied that LSD, cocaine, heroin and crack were fairly easy or very easy to get. Same goes for marijuana. That was also an easy drug to get. Drugs and alcohol use is one of the main reasons that teens are involved with accidents that involve injury or death. The top causes of death among people between 10 and 24 years old are motor vehicle crashes, homicide, suicide and unintentional accidents. Drug and or alcohol use can lead anyone, including teens, into behaviors that have tragic outcomes.

There are over 12 million households in this country that are using illicit drugs with children around today. There are more than one million children who show up as victims of child abuse due to drug and alcohol abuse each year. Every day there are at least three children who die from abuse and neglect because of substance abuse. Substance abuse is one of the top reasons for major problems in families today. This comes from 81 percent of a 100 polled during reported cases with states child welfare records. There is a direct connection between drug and alcohol abuse and child abuse. Forty percent of confirmed child abuse cases involved drugs or alcohol.

Since the prehistoric period, hallucinogens have been used in cultures everywhere throughout the world, from the mild effects of the pure but strong tobacco passed around in the Plains American Indians ceremonies to the psychedelic outcome cults in Ancient Greece produced from building temples near the fumes of volcanoes.  But in these instances, the rights were purely for a religious or spiritual reason and to produce visions and images to help the cultures they were made in.

Throughout most of history, the availability of the plants with hallucinogenic properties has been tempered by whatever soil and climate conditions were available.  The reason for their popularity is due to the way in which it affects the brain’s chemistry, interrupting how the serotonin system functions.  However, with the industrialization of many businesses, the drug business has also increased ever since.  Along with an increase in drugs, there has been an increase in the number of centers for the treatment of drug addiction.

During the sixties, LSD became the hallucinogen of choice because of the fact that it could be produced anywhere due to its synthetic nature.  In spite of the history of the hallucinogenic for ritual purposes often considered respectable by their respective countries, LSD continues to remain illegal in the USA, unlike marijuana, which has been used in medical cases, in particular cancer.

Drug and alcohol abuse intervention provide many facts about the qualities of the drug.   In its most popular form, LSD takes the shape of what is named blotter acid: tiny paper sheets drenched with LSD that come in whitish colors or just plain clear.  Those sheets show in those colors are LSD in its most pure and undiluted self.  Lower quality colors include black and tan.

Drug rehab that specializes in LSD treatment often requires the patient to take part of a program that lasts for six months with 24 hour care.  Because LSD users often have a history of heavy drug abuse, this long of a treatment plan usually works best for them.