AHS Views

Kelly Osbourne said in a recent interview that she regrets having put her parents, Sharon and Ozzie, through ‘drug hell.’ Kelly was addicted to prescription painkillers for five years and went through three stints in drug rehab before she finally got the addiction help she needed and sorted herself out.

Now she’s looking back with remorse, realizing how difficult things were for her parents while she was on drugs. It makes you wonder why, if kids care so much about their parents and feel so bad about putting them through all that, why didn’t they think of that before they got into such trouble?

In the case of Kelly, and Sharon and Ozzie, I don’t know them other than their public persona. But I do know that a lot of teens and young adults don’t seem to be too aware that their parents are actually people – parents go through the same emotions as their kids. Maybe not about the same things, but that doesn’t mean they hurt any less.

Instead, kids seem to think of their parents as the people who pay for things, make sure there’s food in the house, and provide drives to school and extra-curricular or social activities.

They’re also the people who have to give permission to do just about anything other than the daily routine.

So how are you supposed to influence your kids so they either don’t get into drugs in the first place or, if they do experiment and get into trouble, talk to you about it so you can help them get into drug rehab or otherwise get through the problem quickly?

Believe it or not, one of the first steps is treating your kids the way you would like to be treated. Realizing that most parents have the same problems recognizing that their kids have the same emotions they do. Just the same, but the situation is reversed.

When you realize that about your kids, when you start listening to them and stop treating them as if what they think and feel doesn’t really matter, then they will also start listening to you. And you can educate them about drugs, etc.

It’s all about communication. And good communication starts with recognizing that what someone else thinks and feels and wants to do is important to them – even if you don’t agree with those things. The same goes for kids; they might not understand why it’s important for you to do some of the things you do either, but they should still respect it – as you should respect them.

That is the beginning of making sure your kids don’t get into trouble and, if they do, it doesn’t get serious – they have you to turn to and to talk to.

In the last 10 years, the number of people trying to get into a Kentucky drug rehab facility has increased by 900 percent. In 2010 alone, nearly 26,000 people were admitted to addiction help centers. But so many more people need help – 26,000 is just a drop in the bucket.

Kentucky has one of the worst drug addiction problems in the U.S. Prescription drug addiction is especially bad. OxyContin addiction, for example, really took off there as so many people were suffering from chronic pain. They got prescriptions from their doctor, now they’re addicted, and they need OxyContin rehab.

A lot of these people are also out of work. True, the area is depressed economically, but there are also a lot of jobs around. The problem is that employers are having trouble finding people who qualify for the jobs because of their drug use.

Getting a job isn’t the only problem the drug use is causing. A recent report also said that most of the children in the state who die or almost die from abuse or neglect are from homes that are coping with alcohol or drug abuse. Very, very sad.

The good news for them is that Medicaid is soon to cover the cost of addiction help, and as many of the people who need it are out of a job, they will qualify for government assistance.

The Kentucky governor proposed to add $11.6 million in Medicaid specifically to help with the addiction problem in the area. That will treat another 4,500 people. Plus, they’re going to increase that budget to $14.9 million next year, which will bring the number of people they can get through drug rehab up to nearly 5,000.

Hopefully, that will also make thousands of people eligible for employment, which means they’ll have a chance to turn their lives around.

Also, when the government starts helping people get the alcohol or drug addiction treatment they need, they’re first going to focus on parents with young children.

If you’re living in Kentucky and need addiction help, or know someone who does, make sure you check with the government. The extra money for Medicaid isn’t fully approved yet, but should be soon. Give the governor’s office a call and they’ll give you more information.

The lead medical examiner in Brevard County, Florida recently said that when he is called out to investigate a death that does not involve a shooting, stabbing or motor vehicle accident, there’s a good chance that drugs are involved. But he’s not referring to street drugs like heroin, cocaine, or meth – he’s talking about oxycodone (trade name OxyContin.) In fact, he said that it’s so common, “You can almost guess when you go to the scene” that oxycodone was a factor. Prescription drug addiction help could have prevented many of these deaths.

In the last few years, hundreds of deaths in his county have been directly attributed to OxyContin, and hundreds more have involved OxyContin although the drug was not listed as the cause of death.

And that’s just one of Florida’s 67 counties, and not necessarily the worst one.

Here we are, spending $ billions on the War on Drugs – with the focus on illegal drug manufacture, transport, sales, etc. etc. – and the worst enemy we have is turning out to be the drugs made legally and prescribed for literally millions of people every day.

In fact, these drugs present a far more dangerous situation than illegal drugs ever have – especially because people consider that, since they are prescribed by doctors, they are safe. And people are not properly warned of just how addictive these drugs are.

Another factor creating this problem is the drug culture that has been created by the medical establishment. It’s an unfortunate fact that drugs have become the solution to many problems that could be – and should be – addressed successfully without drugs.

The “Just Say No’ campaign focuses on street drugs. You’re supposed to just say no when someone approaches you in the schoolyard or at a party or on the street. But what about just saying no to your doctor? What about demanding that your doctor come up with a less dangerous solution to your problems?

Really, there are so many people who are dealing with OxyContin addiction, and addiction to other prescription painkillers as well as other prescription drugs, that it could make a huge difference if we just said no when our doctors suggest drugs as the only solution.

It would also create a huge, and positive, effect on kids if they didn’t watch their parents taking drugs as solutions to pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, stress, tension, and so on. What if those parents were teaching kids to find the root cause of and deal with their problems? What if parents set that kind of example and, at the same time, educated their kids on why drugs shouldn’t be a solution.

It’s a proven fact that kids whose parents educate them like this are 50 percent less likely to get involved in drugs themselves.

It’s time to broaden the “Just Say No” concept. Start with yourself. Start with your doctor. If we demand better solutions, doctors will be forced to find them, and to refer us to health practitioners who can really help. We can then start turning around the prescription drug addiction epidemic.

If someone in your family already had a problem with prescription drugs, get them into drug rehab before they become one of the statistics.

Officials in Tennessee are predicting a surge in heroin addiction. Why? Is there a bumper crop of poppies in Afghanistan? Have the Mexican drug cartels pumped up their marketing efforts or lowered their heroin prices? No. It’s because there are so many people suffering from OxyContin addiction and addiction to other painkillers and prescription drugs, and those drugs are SO expensive, that the addicts are switching to heroin.

Why aren’t they just getting addiction help to overcome their problem? Well, that’s the nature of addiction; people don’t just walk into a drug addiction treatment center because they can no longer afford to support their addiction. They find ways to get the money – usually illegal and dangerous – or they find cheaper drugs.

Are we talking about druggies shooting up in alleys? No. We’re talking about the middle class – white collar workers and high school and college students coming from nice homes.

They tend to snort or smoke heroin instead of injecting it – that makes it more socially acceptable AND they have the false idea that if you don’t inject it, it’s less addictive – and dealers will even deliver to their homes, offices and dorm rooms.

It’s a regular gourmet take-out and delivery.

And instead of paying $30 to $80 per pill for OxyContin, hydrocodone or other prescription drugs, they only pay $10.

Prescription drug addiction is more common than you might think. It’s epidemic all over the U.S., and there’s a good chance that someone you are close to has a prescription drug addiction or abuse problem – your kids, some of their friends, your nieces or nephews, even your spouse.

If you need addiction help for prescription drugs – for yourself or anyone else – contact Addiction Help Services. Don’t let your family and friends turn into heroin addicts. Now is the time to help them change their lives.

Everyone who’s ever looked into the drug problem at all has heard about ‘crack babies’ – babies born to mothers who used crack cocaine while they were pregnant. It was, and is, a huge problem. Now, the same thing is happening with prescription drugs. It’s a very good reason for women who could become pregnant to get addiction help as soon as possible. But there is one thing that experts overlook – they say that the problem is with mothers who ‘abuse’ prescription drugs, prescription drug addicts. But does that mean that children of mothers who take their prescription drugs as directed are safe?

Hardly. In fact, many of the people taking prescription drugs – as directed by their doctor – are actually addicts. They’re not ‘abusing’ the drugs, but if they tried to stop taking them they would realize that they are in big trouble.

They would go through the withdrawal symptoms for that drug – feeling depressed or anxious, heart rate up, blood pressure up, they would feel nauseous, achey and flu-like – the list of symptoms is long. And some of them are actually medically dangerous.

Many people don’t realize they’re addicted to a prescription drug until they try to get off them. They also often misread the symptoms – they think that because it makes them feel bad to stop taking the drug, they actually need them. Often, they don’t. It’s just withdrawal.

If you’re taking prescription drugs as directed by your doctor, and those drugs are not medically necessary for a life-threatening condition – e.g. if you’re taking painkillers, sedatives, tranquilizers, and that sort of thing – and if there’s a chance you could become pregnant, it is possible that a doctor would say it is fine to stop taking those drugs. If so, you could look into the possibility of getting some addiction help to ensure your baby is safe and born healthy.

A good drug rehab facility will have you checked out by a doctor to make sure it’s okay to come off the drugs, and then help you through it.