Addiction Side Effects
With most drugs there are short term effect, long term effects and
addiction side effects which would actually be long term effects resulting from abusive use of
illegal drugs and
addiction to
prescription drugs that can occur even at what is commonly considered ‘safe’ levels. Anti-depressants are a case in point.
Many of these legal medications have serious side effects including increased violent behavior as well as suicidal ideation when taken at prescribed levels, especially in youth.
Add in the fact that many of these drugs are taken at abusive non-prescribed levels as well as mixed with other
prescription drugs and illegal street drugs. With the current trends in
abuse and addiction inpatient medically supervised withdrawal is vital in most cases of addiction treatment.
Drug Rehab Information By State
Generally speaking a clinic is a medical facility (usually out-patient) which specializes in a particular condition or area of medicine.
A drug
rehab clinic would be a medical facility that more often than not offers services directed at the cessation of drug or alcohol use. This is an important part of
addiction recovery but is far from the entire story.
Many drug
rehab clinics use other drugs and medications in an attempt to handle the drug the individual is having problems with i.e. methadone clinics, etc.
While it is sometimes medically necessary to wean a person off of their drugs of
addiction or alcohol with the use of medication it is the minority of cases.
This of course would need to be decided by competent medical professionals and professional medical advice should be heeded. Long term use of replacement drugs or medications is not the answer to creating drug free productive lives.
Drug side effects are becoming more and more of an issue for
addiction professionals.
This is especially true in light of the epidemic rise in the
abuse of and
addiction to prescription painkillers, anti-depressants, and anti-psychotics. These often have life threatening side effects when taken as prescribed, let alone at abusive or addictive levels. More and more individuals seeking drug
treatment for addiction to some sort of street drug are also reporting abusive and addictive use of
prescription drugs at the same time.
This is an explosive and potentially deadly combination.
In this culture, at this time, one should always suspect more substances are being used than what is being reported.
Drugs are used in an attempt to handle pain, be it emotional or physical or both.
The person decides to use a drug or alcohol to reduce discomfort derived from the problem or pain and finds only limited relief but now assigns value to the drug.
Thus he returns to the drug or alcohol for more and more use. At best the drugs simply mask the symptoms of emotional or physical pain. As time goes on the drug or alcohol is used more and more and tolerance for the drug increased the quantity needed to achieve the same results.
Often before the person is really aware of it he now addicted and craves this relief all the time and will do whatever is necessary to obtain the drug or alcohol.
The debilitating effects of the drugs can and do create more and more mental and physical problems and pains which often leads to the use of other addictive drugs in an endless downward spiral.
The
12 step program has been around in various forms since the 1920’s.
It basically involves 12 different steps done by the addict or
alcoholic in an attempt to gain control over the
addiction or alcoholism.
There are thousands of local meetings throughout the world whose membership uses the 12 steps as their basic approach.
Many of the short term
drug rehabs also use the 12 step approach to solving
addiction or alcoholism.
There is absolutely no doubt that this approach works for some and works well. However, overall success rates tend to be dismally low. For instance AA reports a meager 5-7% retention rate for those attending these meetings. All is not hopeless for you or a loved one who has found a
12 step program not fully handling addiction or alcoholism. There are more non-traditional alternatives available with significantly higher success rates; Narconon Arrowhead is one of these.
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