AHS Views

It’s the day after Christmas. I’ll bet there are millions of people in the U.S. – and around the world – who wish they’d made sure that someone in their family had gotten addiction help before the holidays. Well, it’s not too late, and it’s never too early, to make it happen.

I remember many Christmases from my young years. Although the mornings were great – basically a happy family having breakfast, opening presents and so on – as the day wore on and the drinking started, the spirit was kind of ruined for some of us. Either someone in the household or someone who was visiting got nasty or way too melancholy – sometimes to the point of crying over everything they regret or how nice people were being to them and they didn’t deserve it – or there were fights, upsets, and so on.

This wasn’t just my family – it was also the families of many of my friends in our middle class neighborhood.

And then there was me when I was older. Showing up at my parent’s place stoned on one drug or another, or leaving early because I couldn’t stand going without drugs any longer.

Sometimes there were no drugs on Christmas day but, since my mother didn’t see me that often in those bad times, she wanted to talk about it. She was so happy to see me straight – but, at the same time, you could see the sadness behind her smile, she knew things were ‘normal’ just for the day.

It broke her heart. And worried her to no end.

Fortunately, I got off drugs shortly thereafter and that was followed by decades of a very good relationship. I never got into trouble after that, never gave her anything to worry about. It was my mother who first took the initiative to get me into drug rehab for the addiction help I needed. And once I got off drugs, I never went back. The treatment program was excellent, very successful, and deserves a lot of the credit for my never relapsing. And that’s why it’s important to choose the right drug rehab program.

But several years were wasted. Frankly, I was lucky to have lived through those drugs days. Many of my friends and acquaintances didn’t. And many of those who did were never able to re-establish their family and other relationship – they’d burned their bridges.

Do you want to save your kids? Your spouse? Your family? Your marriage? Your relationships?

Call Addiction Help Services – our experienced counselors have helped thousands of people from all walks of life and with all different types of alcohol and drug problems. They will help you find the right alcohol and drug addiction treatment program for your situation. And do it now, don’t delay as you probably have so many times in the past. Things aren’t going to change, except to get worse, unless something is done.

Do it now, and next year’s holidays will be what you really want them to be.

New designer drugs are scary – and there aren’t too many more frightening than Crocodile, a designer drug taking Russia by storm. If Crocodile doesn’t kill you, you may be seriously impaired for the rest of your life. Will Crocodile make it to the U.S. and other countries? If it does, or if you or someone you know already has a drug problem and may be tempted to try Crocodile, it’s time to get addiction help – FAST.

People who take Crocodile regularly don’t usually live more than two or three years. Even those who manage to live through it and then get off the drug can suffer serious damage.

In the case of Pavlova, who recently entered a drug rehab program in a small village in Russia, the damage was something you would never expect. According to Andrei Yatsenko, the house manager of the drug program, Pavlova had “developed a speech impediment, and her pale blue eyes have something of a lobotomy patient’s vacant gaze, her motor skills are shot from the brain damage. She’ll try to walk forward and instead jolts back into something.”

The drug is nicknamed Crocodile because the skin turns greenish and scaly at the injection sites – anywhere from the feet to the forehead. The blood vessels burst and surrounding tissue dies. Bone tissue is destroyed by the drug’s acidity. This combination often results in gangrene or amputation. Pavlova went into rehab when, after a two-week binge, she started to develop gangrene in her groin, where she was injecting, and had blood poisoning. She was rushed to the emergency room where, fortunately, a representative of the drug rehab invited her to get addiction help.

Medical experts consider it somewhat of a miracle that she is still alive.

Pavlova is 27 years old; she started using drugs many years ago. First with a tar-like substance cooked from poppy seeds, a form of opium, then with heroin. But Crocodile costs 1/3 the price of heroin and is easy to make.

Crocodile is considered the ‘dirty cousin’ of morphine, but the active ingredient is codeine. The real problem is what it’s mixed with – things like gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine and red phosphorous which, believe it or not, is scraped from the striking pads on matchboxes. Can you imagine that concoction being injected into your veins?

As of last year, estimates say that up to a million people in Russia may be doing just that.

One of the worst problems with drugs is that someone who is high, or already addicted to something – as Pavlova was to heroin – or even just feeling like they want to experiment, will take just about anything. And they are usually not told what’s in it, or what it could do.

That is one very important reason to get anyone who is already taking drugs – even if they’re not addicted – through a good drug rehab program as soon as possible. And those who want to experiment should be educated so they know what they could be getting into.

Methadone is commonly given to heroin addicts (as well as morphine and other opioid users) to “treat” their dependence and withdrawal symptoms. It is prescribed to addicts every day, all over the US. It’s considered a way of helping people to get past their addiction and dependence to illegal street drugs.

The unfortunate thing about methadone is that it’s just as addicting, if not more so, than the heroin that they were shooting up, snorting or smoking. Once patients are given methadone, they just keep getting prescribed. This can go on for years and years – it’s called methadone maintenance.

What’s really fascinating to me is that it takes about a week to get through heroin detox. And, it can be done with other means, like vitamins, healthy diet, other alternative drugs that are less addicting and much easier to wean off of (in some cases), and the patient can fully rid their body of the powerful drug.

My question is, why on earth would you want to move to a different addictive drug, to become a slave to and dependent on, instead of a week of heroin detox? It has also been proven that methadone detox can be worse for patients than that of heroin. Would you really want to go stand in line for your methadone every day for years and years?

If I really take a look at this problem, it would appear that most people make the switch from the illegal drugs to methadone because it’s offered as “help” to addicts from the government. And, while I believe that the intentions are not horrible, the solution that has been put in place certainly is.

What if, and this is a big what if, the government used the resources that pay for methadone, to actually provide detox and addiction help facilities for addicts instead of drugging them? If you want to stop taking heroin, you go to treatment and properly go through the steps of drug detox and then drug rehab. What a concept, right? To actually get people fully off of drugs…

If you’ve ever found yourself looking for detox or rehab services, especially state funded programs, I’m sure you’ve experienced trouble locating an open bed. I personally hear the heartbreaking stories of families who don’t have enough money for private pay rehab, who have no options, on a daily basis. What’s available to the opioid addicts? Currently the answer is more drugs.

I’m reading an autobiography that takes place largely in Mumbai, known at the time as Bombay, India. It strikes me as similar to recent descriptions of Broward County, Florida, the new painkiller capitol of the U.S., where thousands of pills are handed out to local residents every day and thousands more are sold to people travelling to Florida specifically to get pills they can then take home to other states to sell in their part of the country. So-called pain clinics protected by armed guards openly and legally dealing narcotics like OxyContin have probably already killed thousands of people and ruined the lives of millions. Only the lucky ones make it to a drug rehab program where they can get help.

Fortunately, Florida has finally approved the electronic prescription drug monitoring system to track these prescriptions and one day soon we hope that many of these guys – they’re actually M.D.s – will be out of business.

But it’s going to leave some people in desparate circumstances. There will still be doctors around they can get painkillers from if they legitimately need them, but those who don’t are going to be facing very serious withdrawal symptoms or they’re going to switch to street drugs – like heroin – to continue their addiction.

Thousands of people will need drug addiction help as they can no longer get their drugs. If you know someone in this position, call Addiction Help Services. We can help you find a suitable facility to get them off drugs safely and end their addiction.   

I know people who are haunted by how they treated their kids. This is especially true for alcoholics and drug addicts. Their guilt is despairingly deep - it all comes out when they finally get some addiction help.

The ironic thing about it is that their guilt over drinking or taking drugs is one of the reasons they keep doing it. The harm they do while they’re high, and the guilt they feel because of that harm, becomes one more thing they use alcohol to escape. It’s added to the list of whatever their reasons are for addiction in the first place.

You would think that guilt over the pain they’ve caused to others – like their kids – would be enough to make them stop. But, it’s not. It may increase their desire to stop, but it doesn’t make them actually able to do it. It’s an amazing phenomena that most people will actually do more of what they feel guilty about in order to pacify their guilt for doing it in the first place.

Fortunately, kids are pretty resiliant. Most are willing to forgive just about anything.  But that doesn’t necessarily reverse the damage done. Statistics show, for example, that kids who’s parent drink are four times more likely than the kids of sober parents to drink themselves.

Check out the review of The Sky Isn’t Visible from Here: Scenes from a Life – the gruesome memoir of Felicia C. Sullivan, the daughter of an addict.  It’s an extreme case, but even less extreme situations create a similar effect.

Felicia finally cut all ties with her mother – she couldn’t take it any more. But she turned into an addict despite everything she’d seen. Her first blackout from alcohol happened at 17, years later the same happened with cocaine.

There are millions of stories like hers out there. Kids with horrible childhoods, their vows to ‘never be like my parents’, but turning into mirror images nevertheless.

Addiction help services can change all that. Check it out.

I’ve heard a lot of bad-mouthing about drug rehab. While it’s true that some rehab facilities don’t get down to the bottom of why the person is taking drugs, there are also many that do. And if the person is in a good facility and is determined to do it, they can do it. Even people who’ve gotten to the point where drugs landed them in prison can make it – and they have a lot more to face up to than most.

How do you choose a good facility? You have to screen them well and you should see if they do follow up and have info about how many of the people who did their program actually stayed off drugs. Addiction Help Services can give you more information and help you find the treatment program and facility that’s right for your situation.

But no matter what treatment you opt for, it’s basically going to be up to the addict who goes there to stick it out – withdrawal can be tough, and changing your life isn’t easy either. It takes guts and determination.

I’ve heard from people who say they’ve done rehab seven times and they still didn’t get off drugs. Okay – so maybe they went to short-term clinics when they needed something that lasted for months, or maybe they just couldn’t face up to doing their part of it. Maybe they thought there would be a miracle cure. Something painless that barely required their participation.

That’s not going to happen. I got off heroin and know many, many others who’ve done the same. And it’s one of the hardest drugs to kick. But I really wanted to. I had really decided that I didn’t want drugs in my life. And I worked hard at it. I had to examine myself, my life, my associations, my goals, my weaknesses, and I had to really face up to the damage I’d done to myself and others. And then I had to create a new life for myself.

If you know someone who’s been to rehab and failed, don’t blame drug rehab. Addiction help works, as long as they’re in the right program and are really participating. Get them into a long-term facility that will really help them face up to the hold drugs have on them, get to the bottom of why they’re taking them, and help them change their lives.

Merry Christmas!!! Time to visit friends and family, have some good meals, wrap and unwrap presents – overall a great time. But many people’s Christmas is marred by family members who drink or take drugs. If they’re drinkers, they’ll probably drink even more during Christmas because whatever pressures they feel that drive them to drinking in the first place are intensified by the holiday season. And the fact that others around them are usually also drinking doesn’t help.

For those who have a problem with drugs, whether or not they’ll take them on Christmas depends on how serious that problem is. As with alcohol, someone who really needs addiction help probably won’t be able to stop themselves for Christmas any more than they can during the rest of the year. So, if you’re expecting your son or daughter to show up drug-free, realize that the problem may be out of their control and don’t expect too much.

Am I bringing you down? Had you hoped to have a wonderful Christmas where you didn’t have to think about those problems? Sorry about that. But I’m not the one bringing you down – what’s weighing on you is not my words, it’s the fact that your son, daughter, husband, wife, other relative or friend, has an alcohol or drug problem that’s not being taken care of.

It’s not going to go away, even if I don’t talk about it.

However, you will feel better if you resolve to do something about it and actually take steps in that direction.

If you don’t want another Christmas like this one, like those you’ve had in the past, get that person addiction help services they need. Call us over Christmas and we’ll arrange something. Think what it would be like to not have this problem and be able to get back to living normally without that constant worry and frustration.

According to a new study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), about 5 million people in the U.S. are currently attending alcohol and drug addiction self-help groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and so on. About 45% of the participants said they had been clean for the month prior to the study, and about 33% said they’d attended a drug rehab facility of some sort prior to going to the self-help groups.

I would think that those who attended the alcohol or drug rehab facility first would be more likely to also be the people who are staying clean.

There are several advantages to getting addiction help services in a residential treatment center before attending this type of meeting.

A good center helps you get through withdrawal and would also include some kind of nutritional and exercise program that would start to repair some of the physical damage.

It would also offer counselling as to why you got into drinking and taking drugs in the first place, and a program that would help you change the aspects of your life that need changing so you’re not tempted to get back into it.

The next step is always support of some sort when you leave. Especially if you’re going back into an environment where people drink and take drugs – you’ve got to find some people who don’t. That’s where AA, NA and similar groups come in.

Addiction Help Services can help you find a drug rehab facility or other treatment center that’s suitable for your needs, as well as a support group to help you afterwards.

Here’s an unusual addiction help treatment being used in Australia – surfing. LJ’s Surf Clinic was set up by a former drug addict who just couldn’t find anything he was more interested in than drugs. Surfing, he discovered, was a challenge that motivated him to stay alert and in good physical shape, which means being clean and sober. He’s now 53 years old and helps others get off alcohol and drugs by learning to surf.

There’s a lot to be said for getting involved in sports, or anything else you’re passionate about, to stay off drugs. But I wonder what happens to people when they go home after their nine-month stay at the surf clinic.

If they can surf at home, that’s great. But most people don’t live in an area where they have rolling ocean waves nearby. Also, how are they going to make a living? They’re going to have to do something other than surf, unless they’re pros, to pay the rent.

For some, it may be enough. Being out in the elements and presented with physical challenge has a tendency to make us think differently – to look at life with a new perspective, get a boost in self-esteem and a new respect for the body. Some will also examine what’s going on their lives, who they’re hanging out with, whether not they’re really happy with their career and so on. And that may enable them to make the changes in their lives that need to be made to stay sober when they get back home.

But others will get back home, be faced with the same old problems that drove them to alcohol or drugs in the first place, and they’ll relapse.

Now – if the surf club also included a mandatory examination of one’s life and helped lay out a plan that included more than surfing, we might have a combination of addiction help services that really turns people’s lives around.

Most people probably don’t think of drug addicts as loving, responsible fathers. But being an addict isn’t something that only happens to free-wheeling singles who spend their nights on the town. Check out this story about Benjamin Rodriguez. A father who died recently after a 20 year battle with drugs – who is sorely missed by his wife and kids. I have no idea what kind of addiction help Benjamin got, if any, but if he’d had good treatment there’s a very good chance he’d be alive today. And happy and healthy.

Addiction is devastating for a family. Whether the problem is drugs or alcohol, the wife or husband and children suffer immeasurably. They often lose everything they have – homes, cars, savings. Families often break up over it leaving single moms trying to raise three kids on their own or the kids living with relatives or in the care of social services. Fathers in prison, or homeless. It’s a mess.

If someone in your family needs addiction help, you’ll save a lot of lives from a lot of misery if you make sure they get that help. Prescription drug addiction is making the situation even worse – people from all walks of life are becoming drug addicts. And more and more lives are being ruined by it. Competent addiction help services can turn it all around. Don’t wait another day.