Drug and Alcohol Blog

Drug abuse and drug addiction have been plaguing our society for decades and the most disturbing trend was the rapid and deadly spread methamphetamine from the mid-west throughout the country. But more recently, even the heavily methamphetamine saturated states throughout the west and mid-west have been struggling with an addiction monster no one saw coming. Prescription opiate pain killers have become the most abused drugs, second only to marijuana.
According to an article I recently read, Montana is having an especially difficult time with the abuse of prescription pain killers like Vicodin, OxyContin, Fentanyl, Percocet, Methadone, Morphine, and Norco. The inundation of pain killer addiction and the crime and health problems it brings to small communities like those found in Montana has taken a toll far worse than just addiction. Emergency rooms have reported 9 nine deaths from prescription opiate overdose in the first half of 2008 as compared to 6 deaths over the 2007 year. Many addicts steal and commit prescription fraud to obtain opiates for abuse, although there is another problem aiding in the spread of prescription opiate abuse and it comes down from a higher, more inconspicuous place. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, there were 40 million opiate prescriptions written in 1991 as compared to 180 million in 2007, which represents a 350% increase in opiate prescriptions written for a 19% increase in population. I find this to be amazingly disturbing, pointing a suspicious finger toward medical professionals who will write opiate prescriptions at the word of a patient.
Along with prescription fraud and doctors who maybe a little too “trusting” of their patients, younger addicts find their fix much closer to home in their parents’ unlocked and unmonitored medicine cabinets. This kind of addictive behavior is especially dangerous because with younger people, the only interest is getting high without any knowledge of dosing instructions or possible health risks, increasing the chances of fatal overdoses.
Unfortunately, states like Montana without a large market for drug treatment centers, addicts have an especially difficult time finding help to get sober once they have fallen victim to addiction. Geographically,  Florida and California are home to over half of the addiction treatment centers in the country leaving states like Montana with virtually no market for quality drug treatment. This leaves addicts with state and county funded treatment, which typically carries long waiting lists and substandard care that may not include medical detox and others that can barely get addicts far beyond the detox phase.  Most state funding towards addiction treatment is grossly underfunded and seriously overcrowded.  It is most unfortunate that many addicts cannot get the help they really need because of the high costs associated with private treatment centers and the long waiting lists and inferior care associated with publicly funded treatment centers.
It’s to bad that with the growing population of addicts in our society, that more funds are not dedicated to helping addicts in need of treatment. Instead of help, addicts are faced with incarceration to sweat out the horrors of detox alone and figure out how to stay sober on their own. Hopefully, this new epidemic will be enough for extra funding to help addicts get better instead of locking them up and forgetting about the opiate addiction problem gripping so much of our nation.

A recent article discussed the society of Iran and it’s addiction to opium, heroin, and other opium based drugs. Although opium is a very commonly used pain killer and is also used socially in Iran, addiction that has turned users to heroin and other opium based drugs has plagued the nation and the government has leaped into action to combat the growing addiction problem.
The government now funds 600 drug rehab centers as well as an additional 1,250 centers that give away free, clean needles and treat addicts with methadone. Aside from the addiction itself, another growing problem in Iran is the spread of HIV/AIDS. Many of the 1,250 centers funded by the government also offer help in the form of food and care for those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
Despite the preexisting presence of opium in social and medical settings in Iran, the nation has experienced a dramatic increase in opium imports ever since America has occupied Afghanistan. America has been widely blamed for overlooking the regrowth of the opium exports to the point where now, Afghanistan is the source of 93% of all illicit opium worldwide.

A recent article covered a rather disturbing story out of the middle east. The story reported that as many as 1 in 7 Iranians are addicted to opium or heroin, all coming from the poppy fields of Afghanistan. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 93% of the world’s illicit opium market comes from Afghanistan. This recent increase in opium addiction has set the government into action, financing hundreds of addiction treatment centers and an additional 1,250 centers that offer addicts methadone, clean needles, and help for the hungry and those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
According to Iranian officials, the goal is not to combat the addicts, but rather fight the addiction by offering help however they can. Instead of jailing addicts, Iran focuses on trying to offer rehabilitation for the drug addiction - a method that has proven very successful in drug rehabilitation efforts against a worldwide society addicted to drugs.

According to current diagnostic guides, alcohol use disorders are split into two categories: alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence, or alcoholism. But recently, an argument has been made for adding a third category classified as hazardous drinking. Hazardous drinking has been defined as drinking more than the recommended amount.
So, what is the difference between alcohol abuse and hazardous drinking and do we really need a third classification on the road to alcoholism?
Finnish studies have shown 5.8% of the population to engage in hazardous drinking. According to the study, men are defined as hazardous drinker if they consume 24 or more alcoholic drinks in a week’s time and for women, the number is 16 or more drinks in a week.  These numbers seem to be high for one person’s consumption in a week and may imply a drinking problem that needs attention, but yet they are classified as hazardous drinking numbers, not alcohol abuse numbers.
If there is a line between alcohol abuse and hazardous drinking, it seems to me that it’s mighty thin and perhaps we’re just better off calling a spade a spade. If a man is regularly drinking what averages to just over 3 alcoholic beverages every day, that’s indicative of a problem, as is a woman consuming just over 2 alcoholic beverages every day.
Micro-analyzing alcoholism is pointless when alcohol abuse, hazardous drinking, and alcohol dependence are all problems that require attention and change. The degree of intensity of attention depends on the severity of the problem, no matter what researchers want to call it or how they chose to classify it.

Everyone probably knows someone who knows someone or heard of someone who is an alcoholic and down on his or her luck, but alcoholism effects many more people that we may know. It’s not the bums on the corner and those who have literally lost everything who have problems with alcohol, but also those who drink every single day without fail, those who have racked up DUI charges, those who don’t know when to stop drinking at a sitting and end up drunk every time, and these are everyday people. We all know them. Perhaps some of us have been them. Generally, I like to classify addiction as the condition which causes life to become unmanageable, but just because someone may drink everyday does not make his or her life unmanageable, right? Surely, this person could skip a day of drinking, but could they skip an entire week of consuming alcohol? What about a month? Even if this person never gets drunk from drinking everyday, it’s still a dependency forming habit and my guess would be that after a year of drinking on a daily basis, it would be virtually impossible for an individual to stop drinking for more than a few days. Does this make him a raging alcoholic? No, this makes him a functioning alcoholic and sometimes, functioning alcoholics are more dangerous than than those who are obvious with their alcoholism. No matter how it manifests itself, alcoholism is a deadly disease and kills from the inside out causing liver failure, organ shutdown and host of other serious health issues. For subtle alcoholism, the signs are hardly noticeable, and the alcoholic seems to have everything in order at home, at work, in his or her relationships, and generally gives no signs of trouble.

There is no science as to why some people are able to remain functioning alcoholics for long periods of time and others cannot hide their alcoholism, and seem to be screaming that there is a problem from the beginning. No matter what kind of alcoholic an individual may be, alcoholism is alcoholism and it’s danger is the same from one individual to the next. Regardless of how functional an alcoholic may be, there are always signs. This is why it is so important to know the warning signs, because to someone akin to these signs, even the most functional alcoholic cannot hide his problems.

Addiction is characterized as uncontrollable compulsive behavior, often that results in life becoming unmanageable and needing change. Most commonly, drug and alcohol addictions are treated through attending a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program. Proven to be highly successful and powerful tools in the struggle to find recovery from addiction, these programs have helped countless drug and alcohol addicts throughout the years.
Along with drug and alcohol addiction, society has also felt the devastating effects of other addictions such as sexual addiction, gambling addiction, internet addiction, sexual addiction, and gaming addiction. Unfortunately, these kinds of addictions, while very real, do not receive the same amount of attention, research and treatment as do drug and alcohol addictions. far fewer addiction treatment centers address the problems associated with these kinds of addictions than drug and alcohol. Generally, people believe that sexual, gambling, gaming, and shopping addictions are not life threatening since there is no chemical substance involved. The truth is that an addiction is an addiction and it is not controllable. People affected by these more obscure addictions will resort to some of the same immoral and uncharacteristic behaviors to continue in their addiction as do those addicted to drugs and alcohol. These kinds of behaviors can prove to be very dangerous and destructive.
No matter what the addiction, individuals struggling with this dangerous, compulsive disease are at a great risk of not only losing everything they hold dear in their lives, but also their own personal health and safety. It is unfortunate that there has not been more research into gambling addiction, sexual addiction, shopping addiction, and gaming addiction, but many of the mainstream addiction treatment centers will do all they can to address these problems although their primary focus is drug and alcohol addiction.

Detox is probably the most dreaded part of drug and alcohol rehab. Detox is the physical withdrawal of the substance from the human body and for certain substances, can be very dangerous and requires medical monitoring.
Depending on the substance of abuse, detox symptoms can range from excessive sleep for numerous days to seizures, blackouts, and severe fever. Often for stimulant drugs such as cocaine, crack, methamphetamines and certain ADHD prescriptions, detox is generally not dangerous and consists mainly of extreme agitation, excessive sleep, moodiness, and fatigue. These symptoms can last up to a week and do not typically cause any permanent damage to the brain or body.
For drugs falling the opiate classification, detox can be much more jarring, including symptoms of nausea, diarrhea, muscle aches, vomiting, runny nose, high fever, and muscle spasms of the arms and legs. Opiate detox often requires medical monitoring because of the severe symptoms and extreme discomfort of the individual experiencing them. While opiate detox does not generally cause death or any permanent damage to the brain or body, it is a painful process that usually peaks around 72 hours after the last opiate dosage and can last for up to 10 days before subsiding.
For drugs in the benzodiazepine group such as Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin, and Valium, detox can be quite dangerous and does require medical monitoring. The symptoms of benzodiazepine detox mimic the very symptoms they are indicated to treat - seizures and severe anxiety. Accompanying these detox symptoms are also high blood pressure and increased heart rate, symptoms also commonly treated with benzodiazepines. A person who has suddenly ceased use of a benzodiazepine can experience mild to very severe symptoms and because of the dangerous risk of cardiac arrest and other complications from seizures and increase heart rate and blood pressure, medical staff and equipment are highly recommended for the detox.
Detox from alcohol can also a very dangerous process as the detox symptoms range from mild to severe delirium tremors (DTs), seizures, cold sweats, high blood pressure, nausea, and vomiting. Detox from alcohol can be dangerous and a physician should be consulted before attempting to undergo alcohol detox alone.

In general detox is a very unpleasant experience for any addict, but required to receive drug and alcohol rehab. In many cases of addiction, it is the detox symptoms (withdrawal) that motivates addicts to continue use. They simply cannot handle the discomfort and pain of detox symptoms on their own. always consult a physician before attempting to detox yourself from any substance.

With the persistent growth of drug and alcohol addiction in our society, methodologies, philosophies and opinions on drug and alcohol rehab have grown exponentially. This blog has been designed to serve as a public forum open to all with questions, opinions, and experiences relating to drug and alcohol rehab.

Often, the search for drug and alcohol rehabilitation is daunting and can result in poor, uneducated decision making due to lack of knowledge of various kinds of drug rehab and the specific conditions requiring specialized treatment. Getting a handle on this information can require a great deal of time consuming research and we constantly strive to make the search for drug and alcohol rehab less daunting and more informational through comprehensive websites, free assessments, blogs, and interactive drug and alcohol program directories.

We encourage open contribution to this blog regarding drug and alcohol rehab news and developments, experiences within or from substance abuse rehabilitation problems and resources, as well as any and all questions regarding recovery from drug and alcohol addiction.