AHS Views

A woman’s life has come crashing down, thanks to drug addiction. Kristin Parker, a scrub tech in Colorado who fell prey to an addiction to painkillers (and heroin for a short time) wound up contracting Hepatitis C. But, that’s not the worst of it. She worked as a nurse for two different hospitals, where she had access to needles and prescription drugs that were administered by injection.

I don’t believe that the hospitals would have hired her if they knew that she was a drug user, but they definitely were aware that she had Hepatitis C. And, they put her into an area of the hospital where people were being operated on and given injections. Doesn’t seem very safe!

As time went on, Parker’s addiction continued, and she decided to start using syringes full of prescription painkillers and then replaced the medication with saline. Then, the same needles were used on patients at the hospital. As it turns out, she put the lives of as many as 6000 patients at risk, and gave the incurable disease to 3 dozen people.

So, just to recap: she used drugs that had to be injected, she got Hepatitis C and she gave 3 dozen people an incurable disease (maybe more). All of this because she was addicted to drugs!

Do you really think that no one knew about her problem? Did she really think she could just fly under the radar and continue this behavior? She’s only 27 years old and is now facing 30 years in prison. And there are 36 people out there dealing with a horrible disease from an unfortunate hospital stay. Absolutely heartbreaking!

I wonder how her life would have turned out if she had gotten the addiction help she needed. I have a strong feeling if she had gotten help finding a drug detox and drug rehab program that could address her addiction then all of these tragedies could have been avoided and she’d be living a normal life as well as her victims and this horrible mess wouldn’t exist.

While not everyone hits this low of a rock-bottom when they do drugs, this just goes to show that addiction is a powerful force that must be dealt with – before it’s too late.

Have you ever thought about whether you could be an “alcoholic”? Like when you hear about people who drive drunk or the neighbor down the street who had a few too many at the BBQ last weekend… Has it ever made you question your own habits with regard to alcohol consumption?

There are a several problems that can come from the consumption of alcohol. Take Binge Drinking, for example. People who binge drink have a purpose. They intend to get intoxicated and drink several drinks in a short period of time in order to get drunk. This is practiced by many, many people ranging from younger kids to older adults. In can be done once a week or once a month but is still a drinking problem.

Then, there is alcohol abuse. This can basically be defined as the use of alcohol interfering with a person’s life. Perhaps a mother is waking up in the morning and immediately getting intoxicated before she even gets her children out to the school bus. This would “interfere” with her life. This would also create problems, most likely, for the lives of her family members.

Alcohol abuse can lead to dependency. Alcohol dependency is not only a mental need to drink, but actually a physical one as well. An individual who is dependent on alcohol will actually experience physical withdrawal symptoms like feeling shaky, jumpy or nervous, depression, fatigue and irritability if they don’t drink. An alcohol detox program will most likely be needed to help a person through the withdrawal process.

Alcoholism is any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, despite health problems that someone might encounter, as well as negative social consequences.
If you, a friend or a family member fit into any of these scenarios, there may be a need for addiction help through alcohol detox and a good alcohol rehab program. It could save a life!

Have you ever heard that “relapse is part of recovery”? As much as people believe this to be true, it is not, plain and simple. If someone relapses after they receive their treatment, then a basic element of the recovery process was missed or omitted and the addiction help they received was incomplete.

A good percentage of the time, there will be indications that a person may relapse or be relapsing. Adam Goldstein, a.k.a. DJ AM was sober after getting addiction help for four years. He relapsed and was found dead last August in his New York apartment from an overdose. He died from a combination of cocaine, Oxycodone, Vicodin, Ativan, Klonopin, Xanax, Benadryl and Levamisole (a drug used to cut cocaine).

While an addiction to crack cocaine and/or prescription drugs isn’t easy to overcome, if a drug rehab program is thoroughly done, there is absolutely no reason that relapse has to be a threat. If done right, drug rehab is the solution to a drug free life!

On February 4th, the news of how Brittany Murphy died was released. It was ruled “accidental”, but drugs were involved and partly to blame. The bright, young Hollywood star was ill with pneumonia and anemia and was self medicating with a combination of prescription and over the counter medications, which caused her death on December 20, 2009. According to the coroner, if she had gone to the doctor rather than trying to treat herself, she most likely would still be alive today.

It seems all too common, not only in Hollywood, but all over the world for people to be taking medications that either aren’t prescribed to them or that are prescribed by multiple doctors who have no idea that the patient is receiving medications elsewhere. This is a practice known as “doctor shopping”.

Although doctor shopping may not be the case in Brittany’s untimely death, there were prescriptions found in her room that weren’t prescribed to her. And, as it turns out, she chose a lethal combination of prescription drugs.

What’s really heartbreaking about this whole story is that Brittany would most likely still be alive today if she had not taken those drugs and gone to the doctor to receive proper treatment for her illnesses.

While pneumonia and anemia are serious issues, they can almost always be treated by a medical professional.

Hopefully this can be a learning experience and a wake up call to those individuals out there who decide to take it upon themselves to diagnose and treat their own illnesses with other people’s prescription drugs. It’s not smart, it’s not safe and you could wind up losing your life or a loved one. If you have a prescription drug problem get addiction help now.