Posts Tagged ‘drug abuse’

Not All Serious Addictions End In Heartbreak – Just Look At John

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

The first time I spoke with John he was leaving treatment. He said his life was much better on heroin, and he had no interest going to meetings or working with a sponsor. John was adamant about not seeing a therapist because it never worked in the past, and his main goal was to finish his time in the sober house he felt forced to live in and get a job to move in with his girlfriend, who was supposedly sober at the time.

While he stayed in a sober house his family had enrolled him in the Recovery Assistance Program (RAP), hoping he might come around with a little push and the creation of some boundaries. Though this was the hope, it took a while for reality to catch up.

I was his caseworker, responsible for helping him in his recovery, providing support and acting as liaison for his concerned family. Every check-in for a few months John wanted nothing to do with recovery, and two months after leaving treatment he was kicked out of his sober house for denying a drug test – he admitted he would test positive for heroin and marijuana. (more…)

Tags: addiction recovery, drug abuse, drug addiction, drug overdose, heroin addiction, heroine addiction, recovery support
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New Drug Initiative Unveiled Featuring Emphasis on Prevention and Treatment

Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

The newest initiative in tackling the US’s drug problem offers a more educated perspective on the issue which has been at the forefront of American politics since the 1960s, even becoming a motto-worthy cause in the 1980s and has still never really fought with success.

Hoping to take a step back from what Harold Pollack’s article from the NPR website says are “operations against drug suppliers which have little demonstrated value,” this new approach will consider the more underfunded yet key areas of prevention and treatment, rather than focusing all efforts on dealers, border control and crop eradication.  A step in the right direction, to lessen the demand and therefore lessening the supply.

The new health care bill has begun to address the serious issue of drug addiction by increasing and improving diagnosis of addiction, and in 2014 will help the at-risk communities find the help they need both with the addictions they already may have and the long-term health effects that come with addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Things like psychiatric care and access to treatment for not only addictions, but mental health issues will also help these communities better deal with the problems already afflicting them. Hopefully access to continuing care programs like AiR’s RAP will also be included in Medicaid coverage, helping those who receive assistance in their recoveries stay clean, sober and healthy for a lifetime, rather than just trying, failing and resuming the destructive behavior without hope.

Unfortunately, as the article points out, if the prevention and direct improvements to treatment are still underfunded the initiative will be crippled before it even really begins, a better outlook may lead the way, but without the punch in funding and vocal support from those in power like VP Biden, the approach might fail just like all the other past attempts.

Tags: drug abuse, drug addiction, drug treatment expansion
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Interventions Initiate Recovery; It Takes Diligence To Complete It

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Sometimes interventions don’t go the way we initially envision. What with all the visual aids on TV regarding how they’re done, how they look and the reactions they incite, our minds are generally inhabited by a vision of the event before it happens. So, naturally, when the time, place and reactions are a bit different than expected, we feel it’s ‘gone wrong’ and didn’t work.

The most important thing to remember about interventions is to not expect immediacy. Chances are the intervention will not suddenly make the intervened see the light, become sober and turn back into the person you once knew and loved.  Interventions are done to establish boundaries rather than incite immediate actions. The person will likely have to acclimate to the new rules and ways by which he or she has chosen to live without treatment, continuing in the self-destruction completely on one’s own.

Most times this proves impossible and he or she accepts help, beginning the real process. A prime example of this kind of outcome for an intervention had a family come together hoping to finally help Susie – a daughter, sister and friend – recover from her now crippling addiction to crack cocaine.

As the family assembled the interventionist reiterated how the event would go – the family members had each prepared something to say explaining how they care for her, how the drug addiction was affecting both her and the family around her and the means by which they would free themselves of helping her sustain this disease. After the ground plans were understood everyone headed over to Susie’s apartment.

Refusing to come out from behind her chained door the family managed to coax her out onto her balcony – an intervention under circumstances unforeseen. After relaying their good memories of the girl lost behind the crack-induced facade, how her addiction had consumed their lives with fear, concern, sadness and debt, and telling her calmly they would no longer support her in any way other than assisting her in receipt of recovery, Susie walked back inside her apartment, leaving a stunned and hopeless family behind.

While it may have seemed to the family a completely wasted attempt, failed and fruitless, this intervention was a complete success. Results are rarely immediately observed, and by putting forth their new plan to regain their own lives they’d already won half the battle.

Addiction truly is a family disease, by helping those affected receive the counseling they need and regain their own life directions half the disease can be conquered. Additionally, without assistance from others rarely addicts manage to survive on their own and do eventually ask for the help offered, if only for a comfortable place to sleep, good food and a warm home.

In this case, Susie did call her family a week later, apologetic for her reaction at the intervention and requesting the help and support offered. Susie’s now been in recovery for nearly five years, went back to school and found the strength in both herself and her family to lead a healthy lifestyle.

The full, detailed story is laid out in more elaborate and eloquent terms in the AiR book It’s Not Okay to be a Cannibal: How to Keep Addiction from Eating Your Family Alive, written by AiR founder Andrew Wainwright and friend, Hazelden’s Robert Poznanovich.

Tags: drug abuse, drug addiction, drug intervention, drug treatment, drugs
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Signs and Symptoms of Drug Abuse and Addiction

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

How do you know when your loved-one has surpassed the point of casual drug use and ventured into the dark territory of abuse and addiction?

Determining whether someone you care about has become addicted to drugs is difficult for many, not simply because the signs aren’t obvious, but because many times it’s difficult to admit someone so close can have gone so far.

Because of its difficulty, many times those standing by continue to not only allow the addiction and abuse to continue, but in their attempts to either help the situation themselves or pretend it doesn’t exist, they “enable” the user – inadvertently help them continue this lifestyle. Enabling endangers everyone affected, and drains the love and happiness from families.

Those addicted to or abusing drugs may exhibit different physical signs, as different drugs have different effects, but the symptoms of addiction remain generally the same, regardless of the substance.

When diagnosing issues of addiction, we look at whether someone is abusing substances or has moved into dependence.  Some of the symptoms of abuse are:

• Regularly neglecting your responsibilities at school, work, or home (e.g. flunking classes, being chronically late for work, neglecting your children) because of use.
• Taking risks while using, such as driving while on drugs, using dirty needles, or having unprotected sex.
• The use is causing legal trouble, such as arrests for driving under the influence, drunk and disorderly conduct or stealing or dealing to support a drug habit.
• The use in general is causing problems in relationships, partner or employer.

Common signs and symptoms of drug or alcohol dependence include:

• Tolerance. This is the need to use or drink more to get any effect.
• Withdrawal symptoms.  Experiences symptoms such as nausea, restlessness, insomnia, depression, sweating, shaking, and anxiety from a lack of use.  People with this problem often times can’t go 3-4 days without using something to feel better.
• Loss of Control. When someone can no longer make choices about how, when or how much they use, even though they told themselves they wouldn’t.
• The addict spends a lot of time using and thinking about drugs or alcohol, figuring out how and when they can get their substance, and recovering from it’s effects.
• When someone is abusing substances, we are concerned that they are neglecting their roles and responsibilities.  In dependence, people are more likely to abandon activities they used to enjoy, such as hobbies, sports, and socializing.
• Continued use despite knowing it’s causing major problems in one’s life—blackouts, infections, mood swings, depression, paranoia—but they continue to use anyway.

The more drugs and alcohol begin to affect your decisions and judgment the more they control your life.  While people may go through a stage where they are abusing and can walk away, once addiction takes control it can be hard to break away without some form of help. Unfortunately, when you’re in the middle of it, the denial that you or your loved one may be experiencing can cloud one’s ability to look at the problem subjectively.  That is why many people are “forced” into treatment by family, employers or the legal system.

The earlier someone recognizes the symptoms of addiction, the more likely they are to avoid some of the major consequences that often go hand in hand with addiction.

Post written by Jim Stoltz, Clinical Director for Assistance in Recovery and Licensed Independent Clinical Social worker who has spent almost 20 years working with addicts and alcoholics to achieve long-term recovery.

Tags: addiction recovery, assistance in recovery, drug abuse, drug addiction, prescription drug abuse, prescription drug overdose, recovery assistance, Recovery Assistance Program
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AiR's discussion on CNN, Oct 1st

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

16 states across the nation, more people die from drug-related incidents than die in traffic accidents. AiR’s founder and CEO, Andrew Wainwright discussing why drug deaths might be on the rise ““ the CDC points to the increase in abuse of prescription medication.

Aired October 1, 2009 – 07:00 ET

CNN AMERICAN MORNING HOST JOHN ROBERTS: Some shocking new statistics coming your way from the Centers for Disease Control. In 16 states across the nation, more people die from drug-related incidents than die in traffic accidents. So what could be done about it? We’ll find out. 38 and a half minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Startling new statistics as we said from the Centers for Disease Control. In 16 states and counting, drugs now kill more people than car accidents. While traffic accidents remain the biggest injury- related cause of death across the country, drug overdoses are on the rise. Why is this happening?

Andrew Wainwright is the president and CEO of Assistance in Recovery Incorporated and kicked his own addiction a decade ago. He joins us from Minneapolis this morning.

So Andrew, according to the Centers for Disease Control, drug- related deaths in the United States have doubled from the late 1990s to 2006. Why the rise?

ANDREW WAINWRIGHT, PRESIDENT & CEO, ASSISTANCE IN RECOVERY, INC.: Well, I think two important factors, John. One, in the mid 1990s, a mandate came down from Jaco and others saying we were under prescribing for pain medically, across the board. And we needed to write more prescriptions for pain. So that began and docs began to do that. We saw a rise in the writing of prescriptions.

At the same time, we saw the big pharmaceutical companies begin the kickoff primarily in January of 1996. (INAUDIBLE) Pharma kicked off OxyContin. So we saw the rise of the selling of pharmaceutical drugs, heavy narcotics both to the consumers and to the docs. So I think the combination of those two factors – in the mid ’90s, exactly where we are, the swing of the pendulum where we have unintended overdoses. And this is interesting, in hospital and on the street today.

ROBERTS: Is it just because of the availability of drugs? Or is it also a public perception issue? I ask you that because Margaret Warner, an epidemiologist for the Centers of Disease Control talked about this yesterday. And here’s what she said. She said, “People see a car accident as something that might happen to them. But as far as drug overdoses go,” she says, “maybe they see it as something that’s not going to happen to them.”

You know, you get in a car. You know you’re going out there in the flow of traffic. You have a license, you have insurance. You know that it’s possible that you could get into a car accident. When taking drugs, do people say, I might overdose? I better be careful here or better still, I’m not going to do it at all?

WAINWRIGHT: Well, I think we also have, let’s say 40 good years of education without car accidents. If you remember back there was a time when nobody wore seat belts. And then we saw the rise of air bags and all kinds of other safety insurance to make sure that we got safer. We’re raised with years of commercials and high school showings of drunk driving and all those things what happens to people.

I don’t know if we’ve seen that piece of education for the general public around drug addiction from prescription drugs. We certainly see it in the DARE program and others for narcotics that you find in the street but prescription drugs, they sort of see it safe. They come from your doctor. They’re prescribed. They come in a clean bottle. They’re sold to you from a clean environment. You take them home to your house where you take them. And it doesn’t seem there’s a lot of danger there.

It’s very far removed from what you see in the evening news, the drug wars in Mexico. It doesn’t seem that it’s the same thing as the narcotics that I’m taking at my house. So it shouldn’t have the same result. And so the study comes out like the ones that we’re seeing from the CDC and we’re really surprised that people, us, our kids, our friends and neighbors are overdosing. We can’t really put the two together.

So I think we’re talking about a missing educational component that this is serious narcotics that’s being probably today, over prescribed or made overly readily available or the ones that we have in our homes aren’t being destroyed quickly enough as they are being diverted to the street. All of the things I think we’re beginning to get educated about.

So I think we should be happy on some level that A, the CDC did the study; B, CNN wants to talk about it; and C, it’s going out to America saying this is a real problem and we need to get more education and understand what’s going on so that we can stop it.

ROBERTS: Well, we here at CNN always want to talk about the important topics. You know, Centers for Disease Control in terms of this idea for prescribing, its report said that one in five adults now is prescribed an opiate every year. And you talk about education, there is one new area where we seem to be getting it as a nation, and that is the danger of our children getting a hold of prescription drugs that were prescribed for adults. Let’s take a look at this PSA, I think, that many are familiar with now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The yellow one – this is for my postpartum depression. This one, sciatica – whatever that is. I got these after my hysterectomy – or my prostatectomy – some “ectomy.”

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: And are PSAs like that helping to illuminate the problem, at least, of young people getting drugs out of their parents’ medicine cabinet?

WAINWRIGHT: I can only say I hope so. But I think that education is key at all areas of – of going to war against, you know, what’s becoming an epidemic for us culturally. I think it’s going to be a lot of education, needs to be a lot of time, because this has become, really, a cultural issue. I think it’s -

Well, you can look at pharm parties for high school kids. I think it’s culturally part of what we do is we have heavy narcotics in our home. We’re not loathe to share them with our friends and family if they are in pain. It’s sort of, you know, we carry these in our purse, we carry them on the plane, it’s part of who we are culturally. I think a big piece of that needs to change, and so I think, yes, the PSA is going to help. It’s going to take a lot of them, and I think it’s going to take a lot more of you and I and folks like us talking about this, making it important for everybody.

ROBERTS: All right. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that the (ph) decline of road fatalities, which is one reason why drug deaths in some states have surpassed traffic fatalities is because of advances that were made in reducing traffic fatalities, but the safety administration says that it’s – it’s one of the great public health triumphs over the last few decades, to lower the number of deaths on the roadways. What can be done to make similar strides in drug abuse?

WAINWRIGHT: Well, you’re talking – you know, I’m a “change the world” guy, so I would – you know, I think it’s great that we lowered it 1 percent or 2 percent or whatever it was for traffic fatalities. You know, I’m all for making big changes. So I think that the pendulum began to swing in one direction in 1995 when we had these two major incidents happen around overprescribing of heavy narcotics. I think what – the CD (ph) study is great because it gets us talking about it, so we’re hoping that the pendulum is going to swing as far as this can go in this direction and we’re going to push it back the other way.

So let’s pick a mean, let’s say 1996, 1997, 1998 – that somewhere in there we’re going to say that’s the gold mean where we’re prescribing enough to manage and treat the pain that America is presenting with but we’re not overprescribing and allowing drugs to be (INAUDIBLE) in the street. And then we’re going to culturally change how we understand and think about the use of these kinds of prescribed drugs.

ROBERTS: Andrew Wainwright – a “change the world” kind of guy. You managed to change your world. You changed many other people’s. See if we can keep going from here. Thanks for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

WAINWRIGHT: Thanks, John.

ROBERTS: Forty-seven and a half minutes now after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Learn more about:

Drug Addiction
Alcoholism
Eating Disorders
Sex Addictions
Gambling Addictions

Tags: america, american morning, andrew wainwright, cnn, drug abuse, drug use, prescription drug abuse
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