I am one of the many who has been affected by a loved one who suffered from substance abuse disorder, and like most people around people who abuse substances, I was blissfully unaware for a very long time. I learned of it in the most horrible way possible – he had overdosed, and the entire event was followed by months of him in detox and rehabilitation, none of us being able to see him because, at the time, we had been too young. When we asked him, years later, what had driven him to it, his answer was a simple: “It was too much, my life. I was used to too much. And then all of a sudden, it was not enough. So I tried taking too much, and you know what happened.”

Billions of people are affected by substance abuse disorder all over the world – not all of them may be the ones abusing the substances, but having loved ones who suffer from substance abuse disorder would most certainly hit them in the ensuing crossfire. More often than not, it is the people who love them that bear the brunt of a substance abuser’s violent mood swings. It is they who are affected by the financial woes that are caused by the mis-allocated funds caused by their need to feed their addiction. They are the ones who would have to deal with the news of their loved one being arrested for one reason or another, all ultimately drug-related. And, if they were less lucky than I, they would be the ones who would be burying a beloved father or mother, child or relative, friend or lover.

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“Rehab is for quitters”. I saw it on a t-shirt the other day. A clever little play on words that pokes fun at addiction. I don’t think it’s funny, but then I’m here on the front lines.

What is rehab anyway? What does it mean to go to rehab? What is it like there? What happens? Who needs it? Nowadays most people have heard of, or seen the television show Celebrity Rehab. I admit I have never watched a whole episode, just a few minutes here and there, as that was all I could take. In the clip I saw, a counsellor had locked herself in her office crying, while a man having obvious trouble with his facial muscles and his ego (he wanted his mp3 player), yelled at her through the locked door. Chaos and drama abounding, what the addict loves.

On the other end of the spectrum is the government run ’spin dry’. The justice system often offers a choice of jail or rehab. Government funded treatment centers are filled with people not really interested in getting clean and sober, and drug use abounds there. British Columbia’s choice to move to the Harm Reduction Model means that if you use or drink while in government rehab, you don’t have to leave. Imagine the chaos and drama. The person who really wants to be free of his or her addiction has a lot of competition for attention.

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Everybody comes home from a long day and thinks about sitting on the couch while cracking open an ice-cold beer. After all, that is the reason it was created, to be a refreshing and relaxing drink enjoyed after a hard day’s work. Nobody could have possibly guessed that it would become such an addicting and dangerous substance. On the other hand, if consumed responsibly and drank on occasion, it is very unlikely that a person will become reliant on it. However, this is not always the case in everyone’s life.

Unfortunately, there are people out there that choose excessive drinking every day, and sometime multiple times a day, and these people end up becoming an alcoholic. Alcoholics usually end up causing a lot of damage due to their addiction. For instance, alcohol can severely damage your liver, ruin relationships with loved ones, get you in trouble with the law, and strain a person’s financial funding.

When people finally see that they have a problem, there are actions that can be taken to help alcoholics find their way back. Society has come up with alcohol rehab centers that help alcoholics get sober.

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Alcohol is often the only thing that offers an individual some respite from a hectic, stressful life that has few pleasures in store. Though associated with relaxation, fun and celebration, the “high” that it provides, makes anyone have more and more quantities of it each time he or she wishes to escape from tension or depression. The “high” becomes elusive, as the body needs more and more alcohol to reach that level. The consequence is what we often hear as alcoholism. The alcoholic is prone to hide his problem, but it manifests itself in his mood swings, his craving, improper behavior, violent reactions and his attitude contrasts under the effect of alcohol and when sober.

All these convince family members that some form of intervention has to be initiated. They might take on the tough task upon themselves to convince the individual first that he has a drinking problem and that he needs help to get out of it. This is generally the toughest problem faced in alcohol intervention. The alcoholic’s acceptance of his addiction and the need to use external assistance to shake it off can be a daunting task for anyone. Even after that, he might try to get back to his drinking because the body used to a certain level of alcohol, cries for some more. Only the strongest of individuals can resist the temptation and bear the withdrawal symptoms. He has to also muster enough strength to refuse invitations of his drinking buddies, who would do everything to get him back.

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I know for sure that prescription drug abuse is on the rise around the world especially so in the United States.

One of these drugs happens to be hydrocodone and the leaders which contain this drug names are Vicodin, Lorcet, Lortab, and Norco. Addiction to these drugs is beginning to be seen as much as alcoholism.

This is frightening to say the least. Beating any type of drug addiction is hard but beating an opiate addiction is I think even harder.

First thing you will have to do is tell dispose of all your drugs and cut your ties to all your connections this means deleting their phone numbers from your cell phone.

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Addiction is an obsession or a compulsion towards anything. It can be a physical dependence or a psychological dependence such as in the case of drug addictions of alcohol, drugs etc. The medical terminology states that addiction is the sate in which the body becomes dependent on something such as drugs for functioning normally and develops a physical dependence on it. It is generally associated with increased drug tolerance with time. And if it becomes unavailable or is removed suddenly from the body there shoots a set of signs and symptoms of withdrawal and anxiety. There can also be a physiological addiction as it may not be any illicit drug which the person is addictive to but the abuse of some prescription drug which has become an addiction with time. Another case of addiction can be psychological dependence. It is an addiction, but is not generally recognized as a problem of addiction by doctors for e.g.: compulsive overeating.

Physical dependence is induced by the sudden discontinuation of the drugs as opiates, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, alcohol or nicotine. Other no recognizable similar additives are beta-blockers, antidepressants etc. Such dependency is the main reason for the continuation and primary motivator of such drugs. It is mainly the ability to induce pleasure that makes the person so addictive initially. And later on the reason changes from attaining pleasure to reduce anxiety caused by its absence. This way it becomes compulsive to use all such additives. Nicotine found loosely in the form of tobacco is one of the major addictive substances ever discovered.

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As a writer and also a sort of addiction-ologist I cannot help but observe and reflect on the division of our nation as it pertains to Michael Jackson. The overarching question seems to be should we revere him or should we condemn him? Was he a Semi-God, or a monster? And the whole climate of confusion, as well as the depth of mourning, harks me back to the age of 9 and the death of Elvis Presley. I can remember foggily asking in those sad days…How could this be?

And I can see that it is a question we are all asking again.

And if you expanded this question it might sound something like this… “How could someone so talented, so gifted, so powerfully able to touch human beings have come to this?” And the very way that we were touched by Elvis Presley and later by Michael Jackson seems to indicate a depth of humanity in both that is starkly contradicted by their behavior.

So how do we reconcile this seeming contradiction? We look here and we look there. We split up and take sides. Demi-God-ers face off with Monster-ites. We argue amongst ourselves. Those who want to deny and forget the monstrosities condemn those who want to deny and forget the greatness of The King of Pop. And the same also happens in reverse.

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Drug addiction is a serious problem. The medical community now views addiction as a disease or illness because it has both mental and physical effects on the abuser. Detoxification and rehabilitation are often necessary methods for treating the problem, though it depends on the nature of the abuse. If the problem is severe, long term drug treatment is often required to help someone recover and remain drug free.

Long term programs can be very helpful to someone that can’t quit on their own and can reset to both a residential setting as well as an outpatient ongoing environment that provides counseling and support. They are comprehensive programs that include several elements. At a rehab facility, each program is customized to meet the needs of the individual addict and contain both group therapy and individual meetings with staff. There are also people that have succeeded in overcoming their drug problem by attending narcotics anonymous meetings and regularly attending in order to not slip back into old patterns of abuse.

Individual psychotherapy is also responsible for some people being able to remain consistent in staying drug free. Some say that long term drug treatment outpatient care is the foundation of any successful program. The recovering addict receives a broad range of testing and medical attention. Drug abuses causes a lot of damage to the body and regular checks are necessary to ensure that serious issues are caught, treated, and monitored as soon as possible. Outpatient programs also include any medications that may be needed and monitoring their levels and use.

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When someone is passing through a process of recovery from a certain addiction, their dreams are vivid and intense. This happens because their function is always protective. All dream messages try to protect the human conscience of the dreamer from their wild and primitive side, besides trying to cure them from mental illnesses already provoked by the invasion of the wild anti-conscience into their conscious mind.

We see dreams because we need protection and guidance. The unconscious mind that produces our dreams is a natural psychologist and psychiatrist who knows exactly what is happening inside our brain and psyche and gives precise directions to our human conscience, in order to save it from the absurdity contained in the biggest part of our brain, which didn’t pass through the same process of development of our human side.

This is why all dream messages contain very important information for the human side of our conscience. This is something that we can verify in practice by translating our dreams according to the scientific method discovered by Carl Jung, which I simplified very much, after continuing his research.

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Opiate addiction is an insidious problem that has plagued society for centuries, but perhaps never more so than today. A two-edged sword, opiates can heal or destroy.

An opiate is any drug derived from the opium poppy plant. The main opiates are morphine, heroin, and codeine.

Thebaine and papaverine are also opiates. More commonly we see opiates in their synthetic forms: oxycodone (OxyContin, Percodan), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and hydromorphone (Dilaudid). Darvon, Demerol, and Methadone are other synthetic opiates. The majority of these drugs are used medically for pain management.

Opiates are particularly effective in suppressing pain and reducing anxiety. In sufficiently high doses, they can produce a euphoric state. For this reason, they are often used as recreational drugs. Psychological and physical dependence leading to addiction is common in frequent opiate users. The body quickly adjusts to the use of opiates such that increasingly larger doses are needed to produce the same euphoric effect. Overdosing, sometimes resulting in fatal respiratory failure, occurs when addicts take more than their body can handle.

Most opiates can be swallowed, snorted, smoked, or injected. Intravenous injection is the preferred method of longtime addicts as this method produces the quickest, most intense high. It is also a method accompanied by increased risk of infectious disease.

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