Addiction Recovery

Posts Tagged ‘addiction recovery’

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.

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A week later John went to jail for shooting up heroin in a bus stop. He was released and had to spend the night in a shelter. Afterward he went to stay with a friend. I worked with his family, urging them to stick to the recovery plan, not pick him up and let him experience the streets he will call home if he continues his drug use – “raising the bottom” so to speak, while being there for and leading the family we created accountability and allowed him to experience the real world he chose by refusing help

A couple weeks later John overdosed on heroin twice and ended up in the hospital. The family and I worked with the court system to make sure they made him go to treatment. The day he appeared in court for shooting up heroin in the bus stop was the day his life began to turn around.

He was ordered by the judge to retry treatment. John went to an in-patient rehabilitation center for 90 days and came out a completely different person, committed to recovery and finding himself as the caring, bright guy he had once been and discovered he could be again.

John has been sober for over a year now. He has a sponsor and sponsors four other recovering young men. He attends meetings every day and remains very involved in the sober community, even bringing meetings to treatment centers. He took care of all his court appearances, probation and consequential volunteer work from previous arrests. John’s life has turned around; he now has a full time job and still shows up for aftercare at the treatment center a year later.

Tags: addiction recovery, drug abuse, drug addiction, drug overdose, heroin addiction, heroine addiction, recovery support
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New Breakthrough in Addiction Treatment Focuses on Disease's Effect on Brain

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Who would have guessed some of the newest options for treating the brain in one’s addiction would be medications already in use for things like narcolepsy or antidepressants? An article published by the Associated Press explains how drugs already in use might affect the brain’s addiction to certain substances, from cocaine to methamphetamines.

Through the use of drugs already in use for things like depression, alcoholism (did you know there’s already a shot out there that eases the difficulty in overcoming this addiction?) can block the effects of other drugs on the brain, effectively cutting out the need to use. Although these are trial tests to see if it really works, this step forward offers hope for millions struggling with addictions, the families caught in the crossfire and the economy stuck helping those whose use takes a toll on their health.

The article made an interesting analogy for the new discovery and addiction, saying “Think of it as if the brain were an orchestra, its circuits the violins and the piano and the brass section, all smoothly starting and stopping their parts on cue.”

The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Dr. Nora Volkow went on to explain: “That orchestration is disrupted in psychiatric illness,”. “There’s not a psychiatric disease that owns one particular circuit.” This is one of the most promising breakthroughs in the search for what has been thought of as a mythical goal: a cure for addiction.

This being said, most will have to wait for these drugs to be prescribed in addiction treatment. Until this clinical trial becomes active in the public, the best we can do is to work the steps, use the help available and seek aftercare to help in the motivation and direction of managing recovery on one’s own.

Tags: addiction, addiction recovery, addiction treatment, cocaine addiction, methamphetamine
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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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Michael Douglas and the Addiction of a Child

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Like father, like son?

Michael Douglas’ 31 year old son Cameron was sentenced to five years behind bars this week for heroin possession and intent to deal methamphetamines and cocaine in New York.

After his son’s sentencing, the world-famous actor commented on both his son’s incarceration and his addiction, saying on the Today Show “”I think the court recognized his drug addiction as well as the crime that he committed. It’s an adequate amount of time…to spend in jail, and the best part of it is he will be able to start his life afresh.”

Cameron has been an addict since age 13, and after failed attempts at recovery, remains slave to this disease. Cameron’s addiction is not the first among those in his family, as E! Online reports, “I was in rehab 20 years ago…” Michael Douglas explained, saying part of Cameron’s addiction lies in a genetic predisposition, “I lost a brother with an overdose four years ago. I have another brother who has been on the program for years. My ex-wife’s family has alcoholism running in it.” Genetic or not, decades’ long addictions aren’t lost causes, and though it often acts as a catalyst, jail is not the only option for lasting recovery.

In Cameron’s case, it appears the whole family would benefit from addiction education regarding how to support recovery while refusing to enable the addiction. Five years in jail should certainly help in the process by taking him out of the situation, but upon release, serious thought to initiating formal recovery in a lasting way could possibly lead to not only sobriety, but also improved family relations.

Aftercare programs like RAP offer families and people like Cameron the structure necessary to truly commit to sobriety. With this help, everyone involved learns to adequately react to and deal with the problems addiction brings and, in this case, has brought for nearly two decades. For people who have not dealt with accountability for actions done in the name of addiction, aftercare offers a continuing call to realization – with programs like this, addicts understand the whole spectrum of the effects of their disease on the wider community and how to overcome.

Having a child addicted to anything is never easy; having a child addicted in the public spotlight and feeling partially at fault can overwhelm. Recovery for the whole family is necessary to truly heal this pain and reunite what, from the outside, appears to be a fractured family.

Tags: addiction recovery, cocaine, drug addiction, heroin addiction, methamphetamine, teen addiction
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Sober House Season Over, So What's Next For Cast Recovery?

Friday, May 7th, 2010

VH1 TV Shows | Music Videos | Celebrity Photos | News & Gossip

Now that this season of VH1’s Sober House has concluded we wonder what will become of the “cast members” we’ve grown to love over the course of their two show series. From the touching goodbyes and the optimism pervasive in most everyone leaving, it appears these troubled people in the public eye might actually make it sober.

The show’s commentary did a great job cutting down the misleading music to ensure viewers these people’s struggle was far from over, concluding that many plan to continue in their active recovery with ongoing and after care.

So, what does that mean? What care goes beyond living with people advocating their respective recoveries?

For cast member Mike Star, continuing recovery would mean going to the Aurora Las Encinas Hospital near Pasadena, California. Dr. Drew pushed this idea to plenty of resistance by Mike, but, as the dramatic music and flashbacks showed viewers, his recovery is anything but complete. Las Encinas’ programs have both inpatient (living on site) and outpatient (living on one’s own with program structure) options, so Mike’s recovery would have the attention and the structure he needs.

Many of the other cast members would benefit from programs like AiR’s Recovery Assistance Program, which gives the recovering addict a person to talk to, guide them and hold them responsible for their recovery – much like the people helping them in Sober House. Programs like this also help the families of the recovering addicts learn how to navigate and help the progress to ensure lasting recovery.

Tags: addiction recovery, celebrity addiction, celebrity drug addiction, dr. drew, sober house
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