AHS Views

I came across an article today about a 14 year old girl from Utah who is fighting to get an addiction help program implemented in her school. The forum was held to figure out solutions to the rising epidemic of opiate addiction in younger people in the area. She would like support for families, as well as addiction help for addicts. She was there because she has a family member who’s addicted.

It’s not unusual for family members to have to step up to the plate to another person in their family. But having to do that at 14 years old is quite a burden.

However, it’s the most usual way for an addict to get help: it’s not done by the government, or the schools – who is going to do it other than family members?

If you or someone you care about is addicted to drugs or alcohol, step up to the plate and get them the addiction help services they need. It’s not likely that the addict will do it for themselves so, really, it’s up to those who care about them. And it could save their life.

A recent article reported that 11.4 million people in the U.S. are abusing prescription drugs. I read an article the other day that put that number at 22 million. The difference may be accounted for by the definition of ‘abuse’ – if you have a prescription, the use of the drugs is legit, no prescription is ‘abuse.’ However, prescription drugs are so dangerous that you don’t have to be ‘abusing’ them to become dependent or addicted. And that’s probably what we really should be more concerned about – a drugged society that needs addiction help – but it’s all okay because they have a prescription.
 
The article announced a prescription drug abuse forum – Generations RX: Children in the Medicine Cabinet. The focus of the forum is young adults abusing prescription drugs.

Anything that educates the public on the dangers of prescription drugs is a good thing. But we aren’t going to get very far if we focus on the kids taking drugs from medicine cabinets but don’t pay equal attention to the parents who are putting them there.

How are kids supposed to believe that drugs are not a solution to life’s problems when their parents are teaching them otherwise?

If someone you know is using prescription drugs for something other than preventing a life-threatening situation, get them the addiction help services they need. It’s the best thing you can do for them, and their children.

I don’t know of many drug addicts who want to get arrested, but I came across a story about NASCAR driver Aaron Fike who reportedly told a judge that he was thankful for an arrest that got him the addiction help he needed to handle his problem with heroin.
 
According to the article, Fike was arrested while shooting up in an amusement park parking lot and was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of heroin. After four days in jail, Fike was admitted into a drug addiction treatment program where he spent four months.

Fike had struggled with addiction for many years. It started with him taking prescription painkillers to handle a physical injury. He got hooked on them very quickly, then graduated to OxyContin, and then started shooting heroin.

After his arrest he was thankful for the opportunity to get addiction treatment help to handle his substance abuse issues. Today, although he still may face some sentencing for his arrest, Fike is trying to deliver drug education to schools, racetracks and other community venues in order to reduce his charges.

His personal story shows what can happen when a person gets the addiction help services they need.

A $2.3 million grant has just been given to the University of Houston, Texas, to study the effects of drug abuse on older Latinos. Personally, I don’t see the point. There’s nothing about Latinos, or the fact that they’re older, that would make the effects any different from anyone else, and they’ll still need the same drug addiction help anyone abusing drugs needs.

What else could that money be used for? Well, $2.3 million could get an awful lot of those older Latinos actually through drug rehab so they can be free of drugs. Seems a much better use of the money than studying them to see if there’s anything different about Latino drug addicts than addicts within other ethnic groups.

If you know someone who’s abusing drugs, contact a good drug rehab program counselor who can help you find the addiction help services they need. Latino or not, I can guarantee it’s going to be drug rehab. 

I’ve heard of many different types of drug rehab, but never before have I seen people trying to get addiction help being filmed throughout their drug rehab and the films being released on TV – which is what the new reality TV show Celebrity Rehab is all about.
 
The show began filming in September and will feature Jessica Sierra and, possibly, other celebs who were at the drug rehab center at the time. Although the others are not confirmed, they could include Daniel Baldwin, pro-wrestler Chyna, and even a porn star.

God knows what effect this will have on the viewpoint of the public regarding drug rehab.

If you or someone you care about is on drugs, realize that this is not reality TV – it’s the real thing, and it’s dangerous. Contact a drug rehab program counselor to find out how you can get the addiction help services you need.

When singer Amy Winehouse overdosed a few months ago, she went into drug rehab almost immediately. Through a series of events, including having her addict husband threaten to take his own life, Amy left rehab after just a few days and got right back into drugs. However, her husband has now been in prison for a couple of months and, being clean, is pleading with Amy to get treatment. Getting off drugs is almost impossible when you’re surrounded with other addicts, as Amy has been, but her husband cleaning up could be the exact motivation Amy needs to get the addiction help she needs.

Sometimes an addict is in an environment with other people who drink and use drugs, although their situations might not be severe. After going through a successful drug rehab program, the former addict should be able to resist drinking or using drugs despite the fact that they’re around.

But getting off drugs, or even agreeing to in that environment is almost impossible.

If you want to help someone get the treatment they need, it would really help to stop drinking or taking any drugs yourself. If the addict is in a clean environment, he is much more likely to be willing to get the addiction help services he needs.

I was on the phone with a man several weeks ago who was looking for an addiction treatment program for his son. After speaking with him for a few moments I realized that his effort to help his son get treatment was fueled by an argument with his wife. The man didn’t actually want his son to get addiction help but, as he told me, thought he should “rot in jail.”

It is not uncommon for parents to want to punish their children when they have done terrible things because of drug addiction. But rotting in jail won’t actually handle the problem. If you want someone to change, you have to address the problem.

In some cases, even when parents don’t realize that addiction help is better than jail, the courts do – they’ll sentence offenders to addiction treatment instead of prison. In fact, I just read an article about a man who escaped a prison sentence for a drug-fueled assault and was given 6 months in an addiction treatment program instead.

If the program he was sentenced to is successful, it will not only get this guy off drugs, he’ll also be out of the justice system permanently.

I hope the man I spoke to about his son will, at some point, realize that you can’t overcome addiction by sending someone to prison. The only thing that will handle the situation is the addiction help services he needs.

When you’ve struggled with drug addiction for years, as I have, Thanksgiving takes on a special meaning. Drug rehab is one of the major things I have to be thankful for – without the addiction help I received, I might not be here today.
 
When you’re addicted to drugs, it seems like it will never be over but, as a fully recovered addict, I want to tell you that addiction really can be overcome if you get the right treatment.

Millions of others have been through what I went through, and those who were lucky enough to get into a drug rehab program are having dinner today with friends and family.

If someone you care about is addicted to drugs or alcohol, contact a drug rehab counselor to figure out how to get them the addiction help services they need. Although they may not be with you this Thanksgiving, next year they could be fully recovered and sitting beside you at your dinner table.

I read an article today about drug addiction in Washington, D.C. – it’s a messy scene. According to the article, only 7,000 of the 60,000 who needed treatment last year were treated. An additional $10 million in federal funding is being made available over the next three years – adding to the $6 million they already have – and that’s supposed to get another 8,000 people the drug addiction help they need.

The way the war on drugs is going, there will probably be even more drug addicts by that time. It seems like a losing battle.

The prisons in D.C. are also loaded with drug addicts. Seven out of 10 prisoners are on drugs, and only one in nine get treatment. So, they come out of prison, back into the same environment with the same drug problem they had when they went in. And the drug problem may have had a lot to do with why they were in prison in the first place.

Cleaning up America’s drug problem is obviously going to take a lot more than money. What’s it going to take? You. That’s right, you.

According to government statistics, there are 22 million people in the U.S. with alcohol or drug addiction problems. That means that if about 10 people chipped in to get one drug addict or alcoholic on the straight and narrow, we’d have one big part of the problem solved.

And if the addiction help services they get includes an excellent drug rehab, the people who are helped should be able to make sure others don’t follow in their footsteps. A desperate solution for an even more desperate problem. But sometimes you’ve just got to step out of your comfort zone to get something done.

I was reading an article today about a memorial scholarship fund to help drug addicts get treatment. Individuals donate money, and it’s matched by the fund. Over the years I’ve spoken with hundreds of people trying to get a family member the addiction help they need, and the number one barrier is always the money.

When an addict asks for help, he needs it now. If you send him off to wait for weeks or months until a bed is ready in a state funded facility, it’s more than likely you’ll never see him again.

Scholarship programs in drug addiction treatment centers are a brilliant solution. I’m sure that others who’ve been helped through these programs would want to donate money to help others – and, for some, it may be the only thing that allows them to get the addiction help services they need.