A drug and alcohol intervention is a process of overcoming the barriers, getting across to the addicts and making them realize where they stand and what can be done to come out of the spell of substance addiction.

Intervention for drug abuse is a wake up call for someone who is going off the deep end. It is an attempt to put a safety net under the person whose life is spiraling downwards out of control. Successful interventions are behavioral interrupters. They address the problem, set boundaries, and offer solutions. They penetrate the addict’s denial system and are a turning point their life and ideally result in the individual going into a drug and alcohol rehab program.

A drug and alcohol intervention is an honest, heartfelt, communication. Intervention is an opportunity for family, friends and co-workers to say, “Hey, we’re watching you die, Man. It’s tearing our hearts out. What you do effects us too! We want you to get some help!” An intervention of truth, piercing the protective armor of denial, is an incredible gift of love. It is opportunity of hope for a new life, for both the addict and his family.

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If children are performing well in school, and do not show symptoms of eye problems, such as squinting, or frequent eye rubbing it is usually assumed that they have normal eyesight. However, when children have reading problems, teachers first suspect vision problems. Some schools have routine vision checks for all students but many do not.

There are three types of eye problems that are common both in children and adults.

A child may have hyperopia or far sightedness which means that their distance vision is normal but their close vision is poor. Children with hyperopia will have problems reading and will encounter eyestrain. This might result in headaches, eye pain, fatigue or nausea. These children will also start to tend to avoid and dislike reading. Signs that children have hyperopia are holding the reading material close to the nose and squinting. In moderate to severe cases, these children will need glasses for reading and close tasks. However, they will not have to wear glasses on the playground. (more…)

Many children, as well as adults, suffer from asthma. Asthma is a lung disease that causes the smaller air passages, called bronchioles, to constrict. When this happens, there is moderate to severe difficulty in breathing accompanied by wheezing. Although the wheezing isn’t always audible it is always present. Although adults may not, children do experience some anxiety during an attack.

The attack is sometimes accompanied by an infection in the respiratory tract. If an infection is present there will also be fever. When fever is present, a physician must be consulted, as antibiotics may be needed in addition to the regular asthma medicine. (more…)

There are so many negative results of drug abuse that it is a wonder that the problem persists in society. Drug abuse can refer to any type of substance abuse. Some substances are legally obtainable, others are available only on prescription and many are completely illegal.

You may be worried that a friend or family member may be abusing drugs but you are not sure what to look for. Do not ignore your hunch. If you perceive changes in the person’s health or behavior that the person themselves is reluctant to explain then you have good enough reason to suspect drug abuse.

One of the first results of drug abuse is the appearance of drug paraphernalia in or around the person’s possession. Look out for needles, glasses and mirrors used for snorting, cigarette papers, blackened spoons used for heating substances, empty solvent canisters etc. These items can often be found in the trash.

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Introduction

Substance abuse among nurses has not been fully documented, but it is estimated that about 10% of the current nursing population is addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, with about 6-8% of those having a serious enough problem that it interferes with job performance.

Specifically, nurses as a population seem to be prone to addiction to prescription medications more than to alcohol or illicit drugs, as compared to the rest of the population. This may be due to the fact that they have easier access to prescription medications than does the general population. It’s also heartening to note that once in treatment, nurses are much more likely to remain sober and to avoid relapse or return to abuse than the general population is.

What causes substance abuse among nurses?

As a population, nurses tend to be highly caring individuals who have chosen to devote their lives to others in a caretaking role. Unfortunately, however, nurses who abuse drugs and/or alcohol seem to come from families that have had significant emotional turmoil, resulting in low self-esteem, and a struggle to “make things better” by becoming an overachiever and falling into unhealthy caretaking roles of other troubled family members (such as “taking care of” alcoholic parents, as one example). As an illustration of this, one study has shown that up to 80% of nurses come from families with at least one alcoholic member.

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There are many different types of addiction treatment or detox centers and each of them will

have a different function and role in the detox process. There will usually be a medical

doctor present for each detox procedure that takes place in the detox center. A medial

staff is there to assist the addict in rapidly detoxing from the substance of abuse and to

make the process as pain free as possible. When a person enters a detox center they are

usually doing so under the advice of their doctor. Most detox centers will only take a

patient that has been referred by a medical doctor.

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This article will give you information on the problems of using drugs and their effects on health and work. The amount of medicinal information available is inadequate. Most people understand that medicines are not good, but they do not always think about how the consequences of medicine uses can affect their work.

This is not a replacement for substance mistreatment. If a person is having problems related to the misuse of medicines, he or she should be referred to a qualified substance abuse expert. This guidance is only designed as an educational program for employment seekers. The medicines that will be discussed in this topic are alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, and illicit (marijuana, cocaine, heroine, LSD, etc.) medicines as complete group.

Begin the lesson by discussing medicine tests at work. Inform trainees that employers have the right to test for illegal medicine use. More than 70 per cent of illegal medicine users are employed. Of people who called a drugs help line, 70 per cent indicated they used cocaine while working, 60 per cent reported that medicines unfavorably affected their job performance, and 15-18 per cent had stolen from employers to support their medicine habit. Medicine using employees at General Motors average 30-40 sick days per year compared to 4-5 sick days for non users. Researches found that substance abuse is the number one health problem in the country.

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Substance abuse or drug abuse is one of the worst cases of injury that one could inflict on his or her own body. The reasons for getting afflicted with this disease are many. It could be that the person was under some kind of pressure. It could also be that the person just wanted to prove himself to his peers and others so self proclaimed mandarins.

Whatever the reason might be, the end result is that the individual finds himself getting caught up in a bottomless pit that only becomes more and more painful and taxing as the time progresses. People who realize that they are in trouble in the early stages are the luckiest as that is the first step towards recovery. The very acknowledgement of the fact that the person is suffering from a symptom that is taking a lot of toll on his body and life is the first most positive step on the path to recovery.

The second step would be to hold the hands of the people who are the most experienced in dealing with such situations. There are many drugs detox centers that offer the most comprehensive and the most well researched drug detox programs that can help the people suffering from this malaise.

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Drug and substance abuse among teenagers, is substantial. According to a national survey, amongst youth age 12 to 17, about 1.1 million meet the diagnostic criteria for dependence on drugs in the United States. Different substances/drugs lend themselves to different groups of symptoms. The most glaring symptom in all cases is a change, sometimes a radical one, in behavior.

10 Things:

1. If you wish to identify a potential drug abuser in your home, the first area that you should look for is sudden personality change that includes abrupt changes in work or school attendance, quality of work, work output, grades, discipline etc.
2. Unusual flare-ups or outbreaks of temper, sudden jitteriness, nervousness, or aggression are a major denotation of drug addiction or abuse.
3. Persistent drug abuse may also lead to withdrawal from responsibility & loss of interest in what were once favorite hobbies and pursuits. This may come packaged with an unusual laziness.
4. Changes in friends and reluctance to have friends visit or talk about them and/or association with known substance abusers should also be taken seriously.
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A disturbing fact sheet…

Pain relievers are medicines that reduce or relieve headaches, sore muscles, arthritis or related aches and pains. There are many different pain reliever drugs. While some of them are prescription drugs, yet many of these are available over-the-counter (OTC) e.g. aspirin, naproxen (Aleve) & ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) etc. Many such non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs are available only at prescribed doses. Some of the most powerful pain relievers come under the category of narcotics.

In the United States, data generated by some recent surveys on drug abuse is quite disturbing. Data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that almost 3 million adolescents and about 7 million young adults from ages 18 to 25 had used prescription drugs for non-medical purposes at least once in their lives.

Today teenagers are not using as much cocaine, crack, LSD, and ecstasy as the teenagers of the 1960’s. Nowadays, kids have found other ways and means to get that high; painkillers & other prescription drugs are being abused at record levels as is aptly indicated in NSDUH data. This up coming generation of prescription drug abusers has been given the name “Generation Rx!”

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