Drug Addiction Treatment – When One More Drug Is Too Many
Drug addiction treatment has only one goal: to help addicts attain a life free of drug use. It achieves this goal in a variety of ways, but all of them are focused on helping addicts modify their existing destructive behaviors into healthier ones.
Many drug addiction treatment centers regard the uses of drugs in treatment to be counterproductive; so their patients must detoxify without assistance from either sedatives or pain relievers. The one obvious, if uncomfortable, benefit to this approach is that the recovering addict will remember the pain of withdrawal and perhaps be dissuaded from returning to drug abuse.
Relapse Prevention
Relapse prevention is a form of drug addiction treatment in which the addicts are taught self-control. Exposed to the kinds of situations in which they would previously have succumbed to their drug cravings, they learn ways to anticipate and avoid the situations. Becoming skilled at this type of avoidance will be one way addicts can deal with temptation away from the security of the treatment facility.
Studies have shown that those skills stay with recovering addicts who completed their relapse prevention treatment. One research study indicated that the majority of the addicts on whom follow-up information was gathered were successfully avoiding dangerous situations all through the year following their treatment.
Alcohol and the Aging Senior
It is New Year’s Eve. You have one drink, then another, then a third. You used to be able to chug down 6 drinks without consequences. But lately, you’ve noticed that things are a bit different. Before dinner is over, you are wobbly; your speech slurs. Before the night is over, you are spread out on the floor.
You’ve only had 3 drinks. What happened?
Research shows alcohol has a much stronger effect in the senior population than in younger people. As you age, you absorb alcohol more readily. So what used to be standard twentysomething fare is way too much for you now.
Addiction Treatment Prescription Medication Abuse by Parents and Their Children
Although drugs such as heroin, cocaine, crack or ecstasy seem to get all the attention, the rate of prescription drug abuse among teens has grown at a higher rate than illegal drugs.
In 2003, 2.3 million kids between the ages of 12 and 17 admitted to abusing prescription medication according to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. It is reported that 83.4 percent abused opiates such as Oxycontin, Vicodin, Dilaudid, 24.6 percent tranquilizers such as Valium, Xanax, 5.6 percent sedatives such as Seconal and 25.1 percent stimulants such as Adderall or Ritalin.
An additional statistic reported is that teens who abuse prescription medication are twice as likely to abuse alcohol, five times more likely to abuse marijuana, 12 times more likely to abuse heroin and 15 times more likely to abuse ecstasy.
With all of these statistics comes an awakening of sorts, as it is relatively simple for children of all ages to gain access to prescription medication. Medicine cabinets or dresser drawers where parents generally store their medications are easily accessed. Prescription medications are also readily available on the internet. In 2004, CASA found hundreds of web sites selling prescription medication and only 6 percent of them even required a prescription. In 2005 opiates were being made available on a higher percentage of sites than 2004 and 95 percent of the sites that sell steroids, did so without a prescription.
