AHS Views

One of the most common questions I’ve heard from the many families I’ve helped find drug rehab programs is whether drug rehab can really help figure out why the addiction started in the first place. The answer is a resounding yes, and it’s vitally important that it does. In fact, a drug rehab that doesn’t address those issues is not likely to be successful.

I can’t stress this aspect of drug rehab enough. Many programs gloss over the past and, instead, focus on more recent events in the user’s life. This is a real disservice: if the reasons a person started using drugs are not fully addressed they will resurface later and cause the same problems all over again.

This is one of the major reasons so many of the shorter term 30-day programs don’t work. During such a short stay in treatment it is impossible to fully address those issues. Not many families can afford to get their loved one through treatment over and over again, but that’s exactly what you’re likely to be up against if you don’t choose a treatment program that gets down to the bottom of things. If someone you love is at the point of needing drug rehab, there is no question that their past has led them to this point. Get them into a successful drug rehab program that addresses these issues the first time, and you’re much less likely to have the problem recur.

Although not true of all drugs, the withdrawal process for some is so severe, and potentially dangerous, that medically-supervised detox is vital as a first step to drug rehab. Heroin, methadone, alcohol and benzodiazepines such as Xanex, are good examples - about one in four people coming off these drugs are at risk of seizure or other medical complications. To avoid life-threatening situations, and help with the extreme pain one can sometimes encounter during withdrawal, I usually recommend medical detox. Some drug rehab programs offer detox as part of the treatment, but others may require patients to attend an outside medical detox facility before admission. It’s important when trying to locate a detox that you give complete information about the drugs being used so they can determine exactly what will be needed. High dosages of methadone are especially difficult to handle. However, once the detox is done, full drug rehab that gets down to the bottom of why the person started drugs in the first place can begin.

If you or someone you know needs treatment and you’re not sure if drug detox will be needed as the first step, call Addiction Help Services at 1-877-554-7308. We’ll help you determine whether detox is needed, and help you find a safe medical detox, and a successful drug rehab program.

Drug rehab is more successful when other drugs aren’t substituted

I was recently doing research on alcohol abuse and came across some startling information – the current trend in alcohol and drug rehab programs is to get the person off drugs or alcohol by putting them on another drug. In other words, they simply substitute one drug for another and send the ‘former’ alcoholic or addict on their way – allegedly cured. This is called ‘medication therapy’ and, believe it or not, is actually considered valid ‘treatment’. However, successful drug rehab programs offer a drug-free approach.

Let me clarify the role of drugs in stopping addiction: When an alcoholic or drug addict wants to quit the habit, they first have to go through withdrawal. How painful an experience that will be depends on how much they’ve been drinking for how long, or what drugs they’ve been taking, and how much, for how long. Withdrawal can be severely painful and sometimes dangerous, even life-threatening. In fact, fear of withdrawal symptoms is often enough to deter any efforts to get clean.

To get through withdrawal safely and relatively comfortably, many people choose to do a medically-supervised drug or alcohol detox. This process often involves the use of drugs to lessen the withdrawal symptoms. However, the drugs are given for a very short time – sometimes just a few days – not enough to cause addiction. By the time the person has completed the detox and goes back out into the world, they are no longer taking drugs – not the drug they walked in on, and not the drug that helped them through withdrawal. Having come through withdrawal safely and relatively comfortably, the person can now get into full drug rehab, as needed, to address the reasons they turned to drugs or alcohol in the first place so they can fully handle their addiction. This bears no resemblance to ‘medication therapy’, and you should not confuse the two.

I’ve worked with many families and friends of addicts over the years and most are looking for programs that don’t require a person to be drugged up on pharmaceuticals when they leave treatment. The fact that so many places are now promoting the use of these substitutes for any type of addiction was shocking to me, especially in light of the fact that none of the drug rehabs using this type of treatment have a decent success rate. How could they? They’re not addressing the problem in any way, shape or form.

To the average person looking for help this may seem like the way to go. Personally, I would much rather not have to wake up every morning and take a pill just to get through the day. There are plenty of successful drug rehabs out there that don’t use ‘medication therapy, it’s just a matter of finding one that is the right fit for the user. If you’re looking for help for yourself or someone you love, my advice would be to ask for a drug-free drug rehab program.

Now that OxyContin has formally been acknowledged by its manufacturers Purdue Pharm as having a high risk factor for abuse and addiction, what will be done for those who have suffered damage from the drug and may well need drug rehab?

Many people start taking OxyContin when it’s prescribed by doctor as a pain reliever. However, getting off the drug on your own is almost impossible. Withdrawal symptoms can be severe – the restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes, goose bumps, and involuntary leg movements may cause many to choose to stay on the drug despite the fact that they are no longer suffering from the pain for which it was initially prescribed. This then leads to prolonged use, during which time you build up a tolerance and, consequently, require higher doses to create the desired effect, and to avoid the symptoms of withdrawal. Taken long enough, you can become addicted.

That’s the legitimate route. The illicit route is another story – but the result is the same, if not worse. On the street the tablets are often crushed, then snorted, eaten, or injected to get a bigger rush. Along with the high, abusers can experience side effects like nausea, dizziness, vomiting, headaches, sweating and difficulty breathing. In fact, in the first few years of its release, over 30,000 people went emergency because of the side effects and overdose, and some of them died.

Drug rehab and treatment centers are already seeing an astounding number of admissions for OxyContin abuse and addiction – some as high as 90 percent of those who come to them for help.

Hopefully, part of the nearly $700 million fine levied on Purdue Pharma, or, possibly fines from the many law suits that are sure to come in the near future now that the cat’s out of the bag, will be used to get OxyContin victims into a successful drug rehab program before it’s too late.

Imagine what it must be like for a kid whose parents are usually stoned or drunk. One person I helped grew up in an environment full of alcoholics. She was the oldest child – about 10 years older than the next oldest – and, even at that age, was the designated babysitter and caregiver. In fact, she raised her siblings. She took them to daycare before she went to school in the morning, picked them up afterwards while other kids her age were staying at school playing team sports and doing other extracurricular activities, she made them dinner while her parents hit the bars after work, and kept her bedroom door closed against the noise of her parents and their friends partying while she tried to do her homework at night. It went on like that for years, until she finally moved out at the ripe old age of fifteen. If someone had taken the time to get her parents into a successful alcohol or drug rehab program, it would have changed her life.

As bad as that sounds, it’s nothing compared to some of the situations I’ve seen. But it was, nevertheless, enough to get her started along the same road – not an unusual situation, many children of drug addicts and alcoholics follow in their parents’ footsteps. Even those who vow that they will never be like their parents.

However, a good alcohol or drug rehab program can turn the parents around, change their lives, save the family, and save the children. If you know a parent who is abusing drugs or alcohol, get them into a successful drug rehab program fast. It will not only help the addict, it will give the children an opportunity for a good future they might otherwise never have.

Now that OxyContin has formally been acknowledged by its manufacturers Purdue Pharm as having a high risk factor for abuse and addiction, what will be done for those who have suffered damage from the drug and may well need drug rehab?

Many people start taking OxyContin when it’s prescribed by doctor as a pain reliever. However, getting off the drug on your own is almost impossible. Withdrawal symptoms can be severe – the restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes, goose bumps, and involuntary leg movements may cause many to choose to stay on the drug despite the fact that they are no longer suffering from the pain for which it was initially prescribed. This then leads to prolonged use, during which time you build up a tolerance and, consequently, require higher doses to create the desired effect, and to avoid the symptoms of withdrawal. Taken long enough, you can become addicted.

That’s the legitimate route. The illicit route is another story – but the result is the same, if not worse. On the street the tablets are often crushed, then snorted, eaten, or injected to get a bigger rush. Along with the high, abusers can experience side effects like nausea, dizziness, vomiting, headaches, sweating and difficulty breathing. In fact, in the first few years of its release, over 30,000 people went emergency because of the side effects and overdose, and some of them died.

Drug rehab and treatment centers are already seeing an astounding number of admissions for OxyContin abuse and addiction – some as high as 90 percent of those who come to them for help.

Hopefully, part of the nearly $700 million fine levied on Purdue Pharma, or, possibly fines from the many law suits that are sure to come in the near future now that the cat’s out of the bag, will be used to get OxyContin victims into a successful drug rehab program before it’s too late.

I’ve worked with many treatment centers over the years, and have attended a few as well, some faith-based, some secular, and some that appear to be secular but are, in fact, religious - traditional 12 step-based programs, for example, promote themselves as secular, but most of the meetings I attended pushed a Christian viewpoint as the only acceptable higher power. While in drug rehab, a person can be very vulnerable, making it harder to resist any religion that is pushed and, while faith is important, those circumstances are probably not ideal for making that kind of decision. The programs I’ve worked with that don’t have a religious bias seem to get much higher success rates and, at the same time, are able to help more people since they don’t alienate anyone based on their religious beliefs. It would seem then that drug rehab programs that are not faith-based are a better option.

I think all drug rehab programs have a spiritual aspect to them, and that they should. Again, faith is important for most people. But it seems that a religion should be something a person comes to on their own rather than having it dictated to them as part of their treatment. Also, although many of the Christian-based drug rehabs advertise high success rates, their retention rates are not that great. One nation-wide program that runs an average of 8 to 12 months claims a high success rate but also has a very high number of drop-outs, which lowers the actually success rate significantly.

One of the best drug rehabs I’ve worked with is a longer term program that admits people of any religious background. When it comes to spirituality, the program simply has the clients take a look at what that means for them and what role it plays in their life. I found this very refreshing - there is no religious undertone because no specific religion is promoted. It creates an inclusive environment where a person can truly find out who they are which, to me, is the most important element of a successful drug rehab program.

God can play a big role in a person’s life, but when it comes to putting down the crack pipe, it’s the individual who has to do it. God may be able to offer direction, but He can’t take the pipe out of their hand. I think for a drug rehab to be successful a secular option is the best way to go.

I recently helped a woman whose son was addicted to heroin. He had been using cocaine since he was in high school and was now 26. He claimed to have attempted to quit on his own, but was never successful. His mother couldn’t convince him to get help, so she called me to find out what she could do to get him to agree to go into drug rehab.

We talked about interventions - what they are, how they work, and the importance of having a successful drug rehab lined up so that once the intervention was complete, he could get straight into treatment with no delays. I helped her select a program that would be able to handle his addiction once and for all, and then got her in touch with a professional interventionist. He put her at ease and she finally felt that her son was going to get the help he so desperately needed.

She hired the interventionist and the next day he flew to her home to help her son realize why treatment is so important and necessary to his recovery. She called me the next day to let me know that the interventionist was successful, and her son had agreed to go. It was set up for the interventionist to accompany her son to the facility and, in fact, they were already en route to the program I had helped her choose.

She was so thankful and couldn’t believe that after all her personal efforts in the past had failed, getting her to agree to go to drug rehab could be accomplished so quickly by a professional with an objective viewpoint. He is now getting the help he needs in a successful drug rehab program. All it took was a little help from a professional to get him there. If you’re having trouble convincing someone you love to get help, call me.

It seems that the average drug treatment program is getting shorter and shorter. This is largely dictated by what insurance companies will pay, but a simple comparison of success rates and program lengths shows that the most successful drug rehab programs fall into the 90-180 day range.

I have worked with thousands of individuals and families over the years and I am always hearing about previous failed drug rehab attempts. In almost all of these cases, the programs lasted around 30 days. That isn’t even enough time to allow the body to repair itself and get the person feeling better, let alone address the reasons the person started taking drugs.

Addiction doesn’t happen overnight. For drug rehab to be effective, the program must allow enough time to fix the body and handle the issues that got the person there in the first place. It seems simple enough, yet many people look for the quick fix. Sometimes they don’t want to be away from home for that long, or they’re afraid they’ll lose their job - there’s wide variety of reasons. However, regardless of the treatment model used, success rates are almost always higher with longer term treatments. Some of the best advice I could ever give to those looking for help is to ensure that the drug rehab they select is 90 days or longer. Why risk having to do it again? Do it right the first time.

I have been hearing from quite a few people lately who have tried treatment programs that use substitute medications. The problem with them, quite frankly, is that they just don’t work. One family I counseled not long ago had a son who had been to three such programs trying to handle his heroin addiction. Each program prescribed a medication to supposedly handle the cravings - he’d tried methadone, suboxone and buprinorphine – and each time he was unsuccessful at staying clean. I suggested that this time around he find a drug rehab that uses a different approach.

The unfortunate truth is that many hospital-based drug rehab or treatment programs are very quick to put a person on these types of medications as a “solution” to the problem. Sadly, it’s basically trading one drug for another, which makes no sense and doesn’t lead to long term success. In fact, what most people don’t realize is that it can take far longer to fully withdraw from drugs like methadone than the street drugs they are supposed to replace, and the process can be far more painful. But finding a drug-free treatment approach can be very difficult.

Luckily for this young man, I was able to help his family find a successful drug rehab program that didn’t use substitute drugs. He enrolled about a month ago - the treatment is working and he couldn’t be happier. His family called me the other day to thank me again for helping them. Like many families in similar situations, they wished they could have found this drug rehab program sooner so he wouldn’t have had to go through all the failures with other treatment approaches, and the agony of continued addiction. They’re very happy that he’s finally enrolled in a program that will help him.

It’s clear to me that substitute medications hurt more than they help. Finding a successful drug rehab program that doesn’t use them is definitely the way to go.