addiction and rehab

When a family is reaching out for help to save the life of someone they love, they're usually ready to take action if the right solution is presented. Usually something has just happened to cause concern: an arrest, an argument, even an overdose - a wake up call to the family. But sometimes the family has known there's a problem before that major event has occurred, and sometimes they've already started looking for drug rehab or some other kind of help, but because that major event hasn't happened yet, they lack the urgency to act. This is a big mistake.

Family members often assume, and hope, that the problem will go away, or they may believe the addict is simply not going to be ready to go to drug rehab or accept any type of help until the ramifications of his problem begin to surface. Whatever the family's reason for delaying getting help, it's a dangerous and unnecessary risk to wait. Someone with a drug addiction should get into drug rehab fast - the major event that finally spurs the family into action could be fatal.

Once addiction takes hold, it's all but guaranteed that a major event is on the way. And the addict's chances of getting help once they've been arrested or overdosed are far less than if you'd done something about it beforehand. In fact, a prison term usually strengthens their addiction - some prisoners say drugs are almost as easy to get in prison as in the street - and only the lucky few survive an overdose.

The only way to guarantee someone will get the help they need is to make sure something is done about it today. With drug addiction, you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. Once you begin to see signs of addiction, do something aggressive about it. The fact that such person has not been arrested yet, or has taken an overdose, does not mean you need to get quick help, and that does not mean they are not ready.

Sometimes you may need the help of a professional interventionist - a counselor who can help a family understand what the addict is going through and either coach the family on how to get the addict to agree to get help, or speak with the addict directly to bring them him up to being able to understand what's going on with him and agree to go to drug rehab.

If the intervention is done correctly, most addicts will agree to get help before the inevitable major event destroys their life. If you see the signs of addiction in a family member and if, for any reason, the person is unwilling to get help, or if you are unable to convince them to do so or just don't know what to say or do, contact a drug rehab program counselor who can help you. Waiting for the major event to occur could be a major disaster. Get them into drug rehab now.

Gloria is a freelance writer who contributes articles on health
contact: info@novusdetox.com

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addiction and rehab

There are some things that any addict or alcoholic might want to know about drug rehabs or addiction treatment centers before they commit to checking in to one. First of all you will probably go through a medically supervised area in which you will detox, and this may last for the first couple of days of your stay there. Usually, depending on what drug or alcohol detoxification from you, you will be saved in detoxification under the supervision of medical staff for about three to five days. Of course these are just averages and some people will be in detox a bit longer and other people might not need detox at all.

Next you will likely go into residential treatment for about a week or two. This is where you attend groups, therapy, lectures, watch videos, and talk with counselors. You will also probably attend 12 step meetings at most rehabs, though some places might have other forms of treatment other than the 12 step program. You will probably meet with a lot of peers who are in the same basic situation that you are in. They will all be trying to get clean and sober just like you are in fact.

Usually you will be assigned a therapist to work with you and that therapist will come up with a plan for when you leave treatment. They might recommend outpatient treatment, meetings, or even long term care for you when you leave. Most people who manage to stay clean and sober have followed these aftercare recommendations and done the necessary footwork that was suggested to them.

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addiction and rehab

Some parents who dabbled in drugs when they were in their teens or early twenties may hear of their own kids smoking marijuana and not be too worried about it. After all, you lived through it and it seemed relatively harmless. What you may not know is that marijuana today is far more potent than it was in the 60's and 70's - some of it packs five to 10 times the wallop it did back then. Have a look at how you felt back in the 60's when you smoked marijuana and imagine feeling five to 10 times the impact and you can see why even 'harmless' marijuana is now more addictive and is sending people to a drug rehab.

Why is marijuana so much stronger and more dangerous today? Some growers have specifically cultivated the plants that way: The percentage of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the ingredient that gives marijuana its kick, commonly known as THC, varies widely - from about 0.1% to 10%. The 0.1% variety is grown largely as hemp, the plant fibers used for clothing and other goods, while marijuana used as drugs is usually in the 1 to 2% range. However, if growers separate the male from the female plants, the energy usually used to develop the fertilized seed in female plants is redirected to the flower and resin where the THC concentration is about 10%. The flower and resin are then harvested. This is just one of the techniques growers have employed to make the marijuana on the streets stronger than it used to be, and one of the major reasons why kids these days may need drug rehab even if they're only smoking marijuana.

The second reason why it's more dangerous is because the drug culture has changed. Back in the '60s, for example, it was difficult to find a high school - especially in the suburbs - where anyone at all smoked marijuana and, even then, it was probably just one or two of the hundreds of kids going to the school.

In our schools today, kids are not only smoking marijuana, they are also using heroin, prescription drugs like OxyContin, and just about everything else you can think of. This increases the exposure: no matter what school your kids are going to, you can pretty much guarantee that they know someone who is taking drugs of one sort or another and those drugs will be offered to them. They are also likely to know at least one person whose drug addiction or abuse problem is serious enough to require drug rehab.

Why the big change? High schools, colleges, and even elementary schools are no doubt a reflection of the overall drug culture now prevalent in the U.S. Back in the '60s, kids weren't given Ritalin if they were having trouble in school, parents weren't on tranquilizers, anti-depressants, and so on - not that no one was taking them, but the numbers were relatively small compared to the 22 million needing alcohol or drug rehab today.

Our television programs were not peppered with drug ads, patients weren't requesting those drugs from their doctors - as they are often instructed to do by the ads - and doctors didn't readily prescribe them. In those days, the prescription pad was largely reserved for patients whose problems were physical - antibiotics, blood pressure or heart medications and so on - not mind-altering drugs to which people became addicted and which they need drug detox or drug rehab to quit.

If you want your kids to stay off drugs, if you don't want your kids to look at drugs as the solution to life's problems, don't compromise - even with marijuana. Also, kids whose parents educate them on the dangers of drugs are 50% less likely to take them. If you already have a child who is in any kind of drugs, a good drug rehab program so you can quickly read and hear about the dangerous consequences you can avert the news every day is thrown into.

Gloria MacTaggart is a freelance writer that contributes articles on health.

info@drugrehabreferral.com

addiction and rehab