Different Types of Drug Addiction

March 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Most people think that drug addiction is confined only to the socio economic groups and mostly it refers to the usage of the illegal drugs. Drug abuse can happen to any people and no one is immune to this illness. Here are different types of drug addiction problems.

First well-known addiction problem is the alcohol addiction. Alcohol is a legal substance for the adults to consume and most of the adults become addictive. Alcohol has serious health consequences and also has drastic effect on mental health as well as personal relationship. Some of the serious health effects are liver damage, cirrhosis, and brain damage. Nicotine addiction is another big problem and the most addictive substance found on the world. Nicotine is linked with smoking and quitting this habit is very difficult. Some of the health consequences of nicotine usage are heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Heroin is also called as brown sugar, exists in various colors and forms. The heroin users soon become physically dependent on this drug soon after its usage. Opiate addiction is another common drug addiction. People with opiate addiction often loss their ability of decision-making and also often run into the risk of having HIV/AIDS because of injecting by means of needles. Methadone is a drug used to treat heroin, but the user become addicted to this drug when used for a prolonged period. Marijuana is an illegal drug and more and more people are becoming marijuana addicts.

Caffeine addiction is very common and some people tend to have coffee most of the time. Withdrawal symptoms of caffeine addiction are also high when the user tries to cut off chocolate or caffeinated drinks. Steroid addiction is very common in body builders and athletes as they use this drug to build their muscles. Steroid addiction is very difficult to recognize and causes numerous health problems.

Filed Under: Drug Addiction, Drugs Tagged With: , ,

Withdrawal Symptoms of Drug Addiction

February 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

People addicted to drugs normally suffer from the withdrawal symptoms. The withdrawal symptoms are due to the adverse effects of lack of drug in the body and this even affects the brain. The brain and body become addicted to the drugs and if it is not used, many adverse reactions could happen. Withdrawal symptoms can occur by using certain drugs such as marijuana addiction, cocaine addiction, opiate addiction, heroin addiction, and crystal meth addiction.

People who are affected to narcotics normally suffer from the withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms can occur during the drug addiction or even during the initial stages of the detoxification program where the drug addicts always search for the drugs dosage. The symptoms can affect women and men as well as children and elder people. However, how the people deal with the withdrawal symptoms is often decided by physical condition, mental state, and genetic makeup. Also, all the withdrawal symptoms never look alike and it should be properly treated under the care of medical profession.

Withdrawal symptoms can happen in two forms: physical and emotional. Some of the most common emotional withdrawal symptoms are anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and depression for prolonged period, mood swings often, and nervousness. Some of the most common physical withdrawal symptoms are frequent sweating, chills, sleeplessness, vomiting, nausea, fever, running nose, muscle aches, and cramps.

Each type of addiction requires different treatment and also the length of treating the withdrawal symptoms also differs according to the drugs. Most of the people who are into detoxification always suffer from the withdrawal symptoms for at least three to five days. People who are suffering from severe drug addiction, the symptoms may last for more than a week. Some of the withdrawal symptoms might be life threatening and some causes some kind of discomfort.

Filed Under: Alcoholism, Drug Addiction Tagged With: , ,

Alcohol Addiction Recovery and Treatment

February 16, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Stopping alcohol addiction can be very difficult, but not an impossible task. If a person is willing to stop alcohol consumption and ready to take help from the support, then the cravings for alcohol can be easily curbed. Recovery and treatment process always start with the patient accepting the fact that they have this problem. There are many rehabilitation centers to stop alcohol and a person can even curb this illness by themselves by following certain steps. Here are few steps to recover from the alcohol usage.

First important step is to make commitment to stop the habit of drinking. This problem cannot be stopped overnight and it involves a lot of process and determination. The early stages in the recovery and treatment are very important and the main obstacle in these stages is the denial. If a person is not able to accept or stop drinking, then it is better to evaluate the loss they have incurred due to the habit of drinking.

Next important step is to make some realistic goals and get ready to change. A person should first start with cutting back the drinking and gradually reduce the alcohol consumption. They can even set a date to start with their goal to stop alcohol consumption. This can be achieved only if the person stops their temptation to drink, understand their mistakes, announce their goal to family members and friends, avoiding bad influences, and finally following the new limitations.

It is a better idea to ask for help from the support groups, rehabilitation programs, self-help programs, self treatment, or taking therapies. Trying the treatment alone is not good and having loving people around will always provide some encouragement, guidance, and comfort. The treatment is always based on how much a person are drinking, how long they are drinking, and other health problems. Finally, it is very important to avoid cravings and triggers.

Filed Under: Alcoholism, Drug Addiction Tagged With: , ,

Signs and Symptoms of Alcoholism

February 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment
Most significant possible long-term effects of...

Image via Wikipedia

Alcoholism is a severe illness and identifying the symptoms of it is the first step in treating the illness. People with this illness often cannot control the cravings for drinking alcohol, even if they are suffering severe alcoholic problems related to health, family, or mental state. The main causes of alcoholism are not clearly known and according to many research alcoholism can occur due to genetic, social, psychological factors. This drug dependence often shows psychological and physical symptoms.

Any person can become alcoholic without the discretion of profession, social class, age, and ethnic group. Accepting and understanding the situation is very important for the treatment and complete recovery. Alcoholism should be treated in the very early stages for best results. Some of the symptoms of alcohol are consuming alcohol excessively, finding out any excuse to drink alcohol, drinking alcohol in the morning to prevent hangover, not accepting the problems of drinking, not having any control over drinking, high tolerance to the alcoholic effects, hiding or keeping alcohol secretly, feeling irritated when someone criticizes about drinking, loneliness and losing interest in the social activities, mood swings violently, aggressive behavior, neglecting the physical appearance, not concentrating on work, solitary drinking, memory loss, and sometimes paranoia along with the urge to suicide.

Other symptoms include irritability, depression, confused, difficulty in thinking, anxiety, and vomiting, abdominal pain, sleeping disorders, nausea, feeling numb in the leg and arms, and red or puffy eyes. Other than this, alcohol even has drastic effects on other parts of the body and mainly it affects liver. Damage to liver affects detoxification an alcohol consumption during pregnancy causes fetal alcohol syndrome. Large consumption of alcohol leads to heart problems and increased blood pressure.

Other health related problems are pancreatic disease, clotting disorders, cardiovascular disease, weak immunity, neurological disorders, high fat content, and low blood sugar. These symptoms differ from one person to another and physical examination should be made to identify the symptoms and treat them with the specific medical treatment. Alcohol is just an illness and it can be completely cured with the help and support of the loved ones.

Filed Under: Alcoholism, Awareness Tagged With: , ,

Causes of Drug Addiction

February 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Drugs are normally taken for medicinal purposes as well as for the recreation or party purposes. For example, pain medications are normally taken for the immediate relief from the stressed or injured area. People tend to crave for more drugs and the prolonged use of drugs can bring disastrous result to the mental health or normal health. Drug not only alter the functionality of the brain cells, but also brings the physical changes in the brain cells. There are many factors that trigger drug addiction and the major triggering factors are personality, genetic makeup, and peer pressure.

The most known triggering factor is the inherited. If the parents have drug addiction problems, then their children also have these problems. This is the main reason for drug addiction in many families. The causes of this addiction are transmitted from one generation to another. Besides these inherited factors, there are also other factors such as personality types. Some people possess certain personality often tends to become the drug addict. People who are very curious to try drug, people who always look to relax and enjoy, people who want to feel happy instantly, and people with stress, anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and attention deficient disorder becomes drug addicts easily.

Social pressure can be another reason for drug addiction. During the teenage years, peer pressure and social pressure are more and makes them to take drugs as relief. Kids start taking drug as a social action and gradually get addicted to drugs. Another great reason for drug addiction is the easy availability and access to the drugs. Sadly, children have easy access to illegal drugs. Loneliness and depression are another big reason for the drugs usage. Sometimes, people who are in pain try to curb the pain immediately and as a result they seek help from drugs.

People should understand that drugs can stop or numb the pain for few minutes, but this is not the permanent solution. Some people have difficult times to deal with their problems in the life and they take drug as the solution for all their problems.

Filed Under: Alcoholism, Drug Addiction Tagged With: , ,

Effects of Different Drugs on Brain

February 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The brain is organized into many regions to do specified functions. Drug use causes drastic effects on brain. Here are summary of effects of some drugs on the brain. Some of the illegal drugs are heroin, marijuana, alcohol, cocaine, inhalants, ecstasy, LSD, steroids, tobacco, methamphetamine, and Ritalin. The highest addictive drug is the heroin and brain cells become highly affected by using this drug. The users get highly addicted and they often want this to use it frequently on a daily basis.

Marijuana affects different parts of the brain, especially the parts that controls memory, emotions, and judgment. Marijuana smoking often causes short-term memory loss and often blocks the information from being the long-term memory. It is also found that it shortens the ability of problem solving. Alcohol has same bad effects as that of drugs. The main effects are memory lapses and loss of judgment. Other than this, alcohol leads to vision distortion, blackouts, coordination problem, and brain damages disturb functions of other organs in the body.

Cocaine is an addictive stimulant and it is used either in the crack or powder form. This drug addict normally loses interests in their life that includes sports, school, friends, and family. Use of this cocaine always leads to anxiety problems and paranoia. The cocaine’s physical effect attacks the receptors of the brain. Inhalants are the main drug abuse and the inhalants normally used are paint thinner, gasoline, glue, and hair spray. The effects are also immediate on the brain. Some of the inhalants leave the addicts quickly, while some remains in the body for long hours.

The fatty tissues that completely protect the nerve cells surrounding the brain are completely destroyed by inhalants. This even stops the neural transmissions and this also diminishes the ability to remember, solve, and learn. The use of ecstasy causes difficulty in focusing and it also disturbs certain functions of brain cells. LSD can cause confusion, panic attacks, paranoia, and anxiety. Use of steroids can permanently curb the memory ability and even impair learning ability. use of Ritalin causes anxiety, delusions, headaches, and paranoia.

Filed Under: Alcoholism, Drugs Tagged With: , ,

How to Overcome Drug Addiction

February 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Facing drug addiction takes a lot of strength and courage. At first, curbing drug addiction seems to be an impossible task, but a person must clearly understand that recovery is possible and it can be reached with determination. The support and right treatment always make the change possible. This also actually requires some lifestyle changes to curb the root cause of the addiction. There are many ways to deal with the recovery of the drug addiction and examining the problem with necessary changes always help the drug addicts to curb the illness. Here are few drug addiction recovery methods.

First the drug user must decide to do a change, and this may be the toughest and biggest step towards the recovery. Drug addicts often feel not to give up the drug, and even they know that it causes trouble in their life. Changes include what a person does in their free time, the method to deal with the depression and stress, people close to them, and most importantly how they think about themselves. This requires motivation, time, support, and commitment.

Then a person can possibly think of different treatment options available. Before choosing the treatment, a person should understand certain things such as there is no single treatment available to curb the illness and there is no magic treatment to curb the craving, the chosen treatment should address all the problems of the patient, the main key in the recovery process is the follow up and high commitment, and most importantly a person should understand there are many helps centers such as rehab center, support groups, and information center available to help them.

Next important step is contact the rehab center or support groups for help and can even ask help from family members and friends in the process. Recovery process can be very stressful and one should learn to deal with the stress in a very healthy manner. There are so many ways to cope with the drugs such as meditation, exercises, simple breathing exercises, and having good friends around. Finally, a person should keep a check on cravings and triggers.

Filed Under: Awareness, Drug Addiction Tagged With: , ,

Signs of a Heroin Addiction

January 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Heroin is a very common illegal street drug that those that have drug addictions like to abuse. It was estimated that over 3.8 million people in the United States suffer from some type of heroin addiction. While many drugs and alcohol addictions can be suffered in silence, heroin is one of the few drug addictions that has multiple physical signs that allow those around the addict to notice that the person is suffering from an addiction. Here is a look at some of the physical signs that a person may have a heroin addiction.

 

Needle Marks. Heroin is commonly administered through injections. Since heroin is so highly addictive the addict will be using needles regularly. This means that there will be needle marks or track marks all up and down the addicts arm. Sometimes these needle marks can become infected or inflamed because the addict used unclean needles.

 

Respiratory Problems.  Heroin causes many problems to the muscles and surrounding body of the addict. It is not uncommon for the addict to suffer a period of brief shallow breathing right after administering the drug. Other respiratory problems include constant upper respiratory infections and pneumonia as the addict’s body has a suppressed immune system.

 

Eyes. Heroin causes the addicts eyes to become as tiny as pin points. Heroin addict’s eye movements are also rapid and irregular. The longer a heroin addict uses the longer the dilated eyes last.

 

Hot and Cold. Heroin addicts will experience intense feelings of cold or intense feelings of hot. Many addicts will go through cold and hot spells. This is because the heroin speeds the heart rate up and the body reacts to it either by being hot or cold. Each time the users uses heroin the experience is different so one time they may be cold, another they may be hot.

 

Filed Under: Drug Addiction Tagged With:

Situations That May Cause a Relape

January 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Part of being a recovering addict is the threat of relapsing. Studies have shown that former drug and alcohol addicts are likely to relapse when certain conditions are present. That is why it is recommended to come up with a survival schedule that will prevent these emotions and conditions from arising. Here is a look at the times when relapse are likely to occur. Knowing these times will help you prevent a relapse from happening.

Hunger. The body reacts to low blood sugar in an instinctive way. Low blood sugar is known to cause addictive behavior and cause impulsive decisions. The impulsive decisions and addictive behavior make it an ideal situation for people to turn to drugs and alcohol. It is recommended to make sure that you eat regular, healthy meals to avoid relapse.

Angry. The emotion of anger is a normal human emotion. However, addicts will sometimes turn to drugs and alcohol when they are angry because anger makes you do impulsive things. This is why it is recommended that recovering addicts learn what makes them angry and ways to handle that anger in a healthy way.

Lonely. A lot of drug and alcohol addicts had a social circle that involved the addictive behavior. If a person decides to sever those ties with those people they can often feel isolated and alone. This will cause them to turn to their drugs and alcohol. It is recommended if you are recovering from an addiction that you connect with others, try new hobbies and try to make new friends. This will eliminate the desire to use drugs or alcohol again.

Tired. When people get tired they make poor decisions. For a recovering addict that poor decision might be to drink or use drugs. To prevent a relapse it is recommended that you get the recommended daily allowance of sleep to prevent yourself from being put into a situation where you may make bad decisions.

Filed Under: Hospital Tagged With:

Addiction and Intervention on TV

January 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For the last 4 seasons, Dr. Drew Pinsky, an internist who is board certified in addiction medicine, has been helping well known-addicts try to kick their addictions once and for all. While he first gained fame as a night time love doctor on the nationally syndicated Loveline, he has since helped to create VH1’s celebrity rehab. A reality TV show that takes the viewer into rehab with the addictby documenting the tumultuous times that one must go through on the road to recovery.

Originally the doctor approached VH1 to create a show that would counterbalance the media portrayal of celebrity indulgences and especially celebrity addiction. He believed that the show could be a media intervention of sorts with regards to rehab. Celebrity Rehab is a platform allowing him to create more awareness about the realities of drug, alcohol and chemical dependency without glorifying it. Countless celebrities are shown or have been reported to overindulge in substances and alcohol, yet no ramifications seem to ever be reported. Celebrity Rehab is not another reality show. It deals with addiction and rehab honestly and tries to show the positive steps that the addicts need to take to effectively complete treatment. It tries to authenticate addiction and the process by which someone goes about beating or managing one. The doctor and the counselors try to focus the patients on what triggers them to fall into their negative patterns and how they can try to remedy their triggers to see tangible results within their recovery.

While most of us wouldn’t want to take this journey in the spotlight, there are many places in Southern California that can help addicts achieve positive results with more discretion. Places like alcohol rehab orange county offer solutions that can turn a life around one step at a time. With the right attitude, knowledgeable and patient staff members anyone can find recovery if they are willing to take the first step.

Filed Under: Drug Addiction, Drugs Tagged With: , ,
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »