AHS Views

Some people, including parents, students and doctors, don’t think of Adderall, or other drugs for the symptoms associated with ADD or ADHD, as addictive. But that is far from the case. Students often wind up needing addiction help to get off them.

Here’s the story of one young lady:

At 16 years old, she was diagnosed with ADHD. Her doctor prescribed Adderall. She liked it – a lot. Said it gave her a kind of euphoric feeling, which is what a lot of drugs do, and one of the major reasons people take them. She also said did better in school and her grades improved – for a while.

Then she noticed that when she took the drug it didn’t do the same thing as it did in the beginning – her body was building up a tolerance for it, so she needed to take more to get the same effect. Which she did.

The she stopped being able to sleep – which is logical because these types of drugs increase the activity in the central nervous system and the peripheral nerves. Like methamphetamine or cocaine (Ritalin is known as ‘legal cocaine’ by the way), they speed everything up.

And then she started to hallucinate.

All in all, this went on for three years. She became very addicted to Adderall, and she is now in a drug rehab facility getting the addiction help she needs.

So you might be wondering why the drug apparently helped at the beginning.

Basically, it seemed to help because of the effect created on the central nervous system. The body goes on alert, is more awake, has better endurance, can even be physically stronger. These drugs make you feel ‘up’ in a number of ways, which is why they’re nicknamed ‘uppers.’

But she hasn’t really been helped. In fact, no one even found out what was wrong with her. ADD and ADHD aren’t diseases – they’re sets of symptoms. Those symptoms are caused by something. No one ever figured out what was causing her symptoms. Instead, she was given a drug to try to control the symptoms, and that set her off on a horrible path – far worse than the symptoms she was experiencing.

The result – instead of spending her teens enjoying school, learning, having a good social life and growing into womanhood, she spent that time as a drug addict.

If you have kids who are exhibiting the symptoms known as ADD or ADHD, consider going to a doctor who is familiar with all the reasons why a person could have those symptoms and will do thorough investigation and testing to get down to the bottom of things. Most likely, that would happen with a healthcare practitioner who is oriented towards natural or alternative medicine. Fortunately, there are many such doctors around.

And if you already have a child on Adderall or some other drug for ADD or ADHD, consider getting them the help they need to get off them (that would be through a drug rehab facility), and find out what is really causing their symptoms.

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.

To me, there is nothing sadder than a baby born addicted to drugs. Having taken just about every kind of drug myself – in the distant past – and knowing the type of physical, mental and emotional experiences you can have, I just can’t imagine the agony and confusion a baby goes through: incapable of making sense of what’s going on, and without a clue how to stop it or even that it will ever stop. Really, teens and young adults who engage in sexual activity AT ALL should get addiction help just in case they get pregnant.

Really, it must be hell. Being a baby is hard enough – can’t walk, can’t talk, can’t feed yourself, and so on. Imagine also going through withdrawal symptoms, or just being ‘high’ (not always a pleasant experience) or, on prescription drugs, having some of those ghastly side effects and not even being able to tell anyone about it so you can get help!

I recently read some shocking statistics about babies who are born addicted:

• In the U.S., one baby addicted to prescription painkillers is born every hour.
• 16.2 percent – one in six – of pregnant teens are taking illegal drugs.
• 7.4 percent of pregnant women aged 18 through 25 are also abusing drugs.
• In the year 2000, U.S. hospitals spent $190 million taking care of addicted newborns. By 2009, that number had soared to $720 million.

In the article that had the statistics, the author said the problem was that communities are not educating teens and adults about the dangers of prescription drug abuse.

Sure, that’s true. But it is far from the bottom line. To start with, kids have to be educated on the dangers of prescription drug use – you don’t even have to abuse prescription drugs to get addicted. Especially when it comes to painkillers. You can get hooked on them just taking them as the doctor ordered.

Next, as the parents of those teens and young people, if we stop using drugs as a solution to our own problems (unless it’s truly a life-threatening situation) then we’re no longer setting that example for our kids.

While it’s true that kids are influenced by other kids, it is proven that if their parents are educating them about the dangers of drugs – including prescription drugs – then the chances of them taking drugs themselves are decreased by 50 percent.

Don’t underestimate the influence you have on your kids. Educating them yourself, and setting a good example, could save your kids AND your grandchildren from the horrible misery of addiction.

And remember to tell your kids that it is very dangerous, and difficult, if not impossible, for both mother and baby to go through drug rehab when mom is already pregnant. It’s important to get clean and stay clean so they don’t have to take that risk.

A treatment facility recently published an article about why alcoholics don’t want to do alcohol rehab – specifically the 12-step program. According to the article, the 12-step program makes the addict feel that getting addiction help won’t do them any good – that they are doomed to failure. Do they have a point?

Although there are many good things about 12-step program, there are two elements of the program that could stop a person from getting better and make them feel like they’re going to fail.

1. The belief that relapse is part of recovery. As the article states, this makes a person feel that they are going to relapse – which, if you started the program to quit drinking, is, basically, a failure. It’s true that many people do relapse in certain programs – and that’s obviously true of the 12-step program or it wouldn’t be considered normal for them – but in a long-term residential alcohol or drug rehab the chances of relapsing are far less. In other programs, the person does not expect to relapse and, really, has no excuse.

I’m not sure what the point of ‘relapse is part of recovery’ is. It could be that so many people have relapsed on the program, and that those who run the program have been unsuccessful in changing the relapse rate, that someone finally decided that it must just be normal.

They might also say it so that a person who does relapse thinks that, in fact, he hasn’t failed. So, he still has hope that if he continues with the program he will one day no longer relapse.

2. The second element that might make someone feel they are doomed to failure is the idea that ‘once an addict, always an addict.’ Really, who would want to enter a treatment program that believes they will never actually get better?

Personally, I feel that belief in your ability to change yourself and the world around you is key to improving any aspect of your life. Whether you’re trying to improve a medical condition like cancer, trying to get a better job, trying to improve your relationships or make a marriage work, accomplish something that really means a lot to you, successfully follow your bliss, or overcome addiction – it all starts with believing it can be done.

And believing you can do it.

That said, 12-step programs do help a lot of people and there are aspects of it that are very valuable. Making up the damage done in the past, for example, is invaluable to restoring a person’s self-esteem and repairing relationships is vital, and a brilliant way to bring the person into a new life.

I’d like to know what other people think. Any comments?

Now that more people in Kentucky are dying from prescription drug abuse and addiction than from car wrecks, lawmakers and a lot of other people are desperate to find ways to get the situation under control. Having more addiction help facilities and treatment programs available is one very good thing, but there’s a lot more to be done.

For example, one of the major problems we have to get a handle on is helping doctors figure out who is getting prescriptions from them just to get high or to sell the drugs to others. It will also tell them about patients who have a legitimate reason for being on a drug, but have been now taking it for far too long. They need to stop either because they’re already addicted, or they will become addicted very soon. A good example of this is people who started taking OxyContin and other painkillers after surgery, an injury, etc. They get hooked on the drug and are still taking it despite the fact that they no longer really need it for that injury. In other words, they are now dealing with OxyContin addiction.

To help in this, a bill was just passed requiring that all doctors use the prescription drug monitoring system – an electronic database hooked up to other doctors, pharmacies, hospitals, out-patient clinics and anywhere else a person could get prescription drugs legally. When the doctors check this database, they can see which patients have been getting which drugs from whom and how often. Along with examining and speaking with the patient, they can use this info to determine whether or not the patient really needs the drug for medical reasons – other than addiction.

Part of the bill also put this database into the hands of the attorney-generals office so they could also use it to monitor doctors who are over-prescribing. Hard to believe, but it’s true, that unethical doctors are one of the big problems leading to prescription drug addiction.

That part of the bill was not passed, however, maybe just the fact that the unethical doctors are in this database and that other doctors, as well as pharmacists, hospital staff, nurses, and so on, are going to be digging into the database as they treat patients, will be enough to make them back off a little.

In any case, at least using the prescription drug monitoring system will help some.

This might not seem like great news for those who are hooked on prescription drugs but, in fact, it is. With people dying from these drugs left, right and center, anything that can help get you off them
is good.

There’s a new book out with the unlikely title of: “Kasher in the Rye: The True Tale of a White Boy from Oakland Who Became a Drug Addict, Criminal, Mental Patient and Then Turned 16”. The book is just what it sounds like – the story of a boy who, by age 16, had been through more negative things than most people go through in a lifetime, only to end up getting addiction help while still a teen.

In a recent interview, author Moshe Kasher discusses what spurred this whole cycle into action.

“When I was growing up, I had a whole set of circumstances that made me feel like there was something fundamentally flawed about me. I went to therapy at age four, I had two deaf parents with a religious identity crisis, there were very few white kids at the school I went to, so there were a lot of things that made me feel different. When I got to middle school I felt even more different, but then I found the fuck-ups at the school and started doing drugs and I forgot that I felt different. That was part of the great seductiveness of drugs at that age – it was not recreational, it was therapeutic.”

I would like to know what percentage of people he thinks are taking drugs simply for recreation, with no therapeutic aspect to it whatsoever.

I think there is always a therapeutic element. After all, even boredom – which is probably what someone would say is their reason for taking drugs for recreational purposes only, boredom, something to do, etc. – is a state of mind.

Life is full of interesting things to be and do, to strive for, to improve, to enjoy. So how does a person get bored? Again, it’s a state of mind. Which means that if one takes drugs for that reason, there is a therapeutic reason for it; to change the person’s state of mind.

But one of the other major points here is the fact that he felt ‘different.’ It’s amazing how important it is for someone to feel they belong.

Feeling like one is part of something is a basic and very strong drive. Most people, especially kids, will gravitate towards whatever group they feel they can be part of.

If they are not provided with an opportunity to get involved in groups that are involved in beneficial activities, then there’s a good chance they’ll wind up with some other kind of group – which could well be the kids in school whose lives center around drugs.

To help keep your kids off drugs, help them find and get involved in activities that interest them. It’s not a guarantee, by any stretch of the imagination, but the longer you can keep your kids from getting into drugs and alcohol, the less chance there is of them ever needing a drug rehab program.

I recently read an article about ‘enabling’ people who do drugs. According to the article, family members are most likely to actually keep someone they care about addicted instead of getting them the addiction help they need. Why, because the addicts play on their emotions. And, as the author of the article pointed out, addicts are very good at doing that.

An interventionist who grew up in a family of alcoholics was featured in the article. The family had a TV in every room and the mother was an avid reader. They used TV and reading to escape uncomfortable situations – as long as they were watching TV or reading, they didn’t have to interact with others.

Computers and other digital tools can, and do, serve the same purpose.

As a teenager, the interventionist found that lying, deflecting blame, postponing his schoolwork and avoiding his chores also helped him not have to face up to the discomfort, but by his mid-teens he was following in his family’s footsteps even more aggressively – he took his first drink when he was 15 and within two weeks had also smoked marijuana and taken LSD. Needless to say, this interventionist is also a recovering addict.

In his experience, he found that family members often feel too sympathetic and guilty to really help the person. They can’t face up to the emotions that unravel when they try to get the person to stop, if they try at all.

In fact, they can’t even confront getting the help of an interventionist. For example, only one in ten of the families who can afford intervention actually get it – despite the fact that intervention has a 90% success rate.

Oddly enough, the unwillingness or inability to face up to uncomfortable situations is also what makes intervention so successful: “An addict goes into treatment for one reason, and one reason only,” said the article. “Because at that moment, going into treatment is less uncomfortable than not.”

I know what it’s like to live with addiction and, believe me, in the end it’s a lot more difficult than insisting – even if it has to be done by intervention – that the person gets into drug rehab. Making sure they get the addiction help they need is temporarily uncomfortable, but it does get them off drugs! They will thank you for it, and you will not regret it. You may even save their life.

If you need help getting someone you care about to get off drugs, call Addiction Help Services. Our experienced counselors will help you get them to get the help they need.

It’s amazing to hear stories of recovery, even more amazing to hear about a former addict’s background. It’s often nothing like you would expect. Fortunately, addiction help can really turn lives around.

One recent story is about a woman who came from an even better than normal childhood. She was a member of the student council, and getting ready for college when she started using alcohol and marijuana. That was in her early teens.

By the time she was further on in high school, she started with cocaine and prescription drugs. Then, while in college, ended up on heroin.

It’s not unusual for people who have taken prescription drugs – especially painkillers – to wind up on heroin. An OxyContin addiction, for example, can be extremely expensive. The pills can cost up to $60 each, and it’s common to take a few every day. Obviously, most college kids can’t afford that. Heroin, on the other hand, can be purchased for $5 a hit. Most heroin addicts have two or three hits a day, sometimes more.

So .. it’s a lot less expensive, but even $30 or $45 a day is still more than most people can afford to spend on drugs. Thank heaven for small blessings.

For this girl, who called herself Jamie, not her real name, it was too expensive. She was caught stealing at work – she supported her habit with theft – lost her job, and wound up going before a judge in drug court. Fortunately, she was given the opportunity to go to drug rehab rather than going to prison.

Jamie is now drug free, has a new job, is reunited with her family, and life is back to normal.

Do you have a son, daughter, spouse or good friend with a drug problem?

Don’t wait for them to wind up in court, get them into an addiction help program now.

Of course, there has been a flurry of reactions in the media to Whitney Houston’s death. Some journalists are talking about ‘enablers,’ specifically those who bent over backwards to get Whitney whatever drugs or alcohol she wanted, whenever she wanted them, and despite the fact that she was obviously out of control and needed addiction help.

Another interesting article was on alcohol taxes. This subject came up because some reports say Whitney died from a combination of alcohol and Xanax. Despite Whitney’s alcohol-related death, and that of Amy Winehouse and many, many others, no one’s really talking about raising the tax on alcohol specifically to reduce the number of people who die or get very ill because of alcohol. A New York Times article notes how little public alarm and government reaction there is against alcohol abuse as compared to tobacco and other agents harmful to health. Good question. Why IS alcohol so acceptable?

But one of the most appropriate reactions, in my opinion, was that of Bill O’Reilly. He commented that the press don’t know how to cover Whitney’s death. Why?

Primarily because alcohol and drug abuse is now considered a ‘disease.’ He remembers the days of Nancy Regan, when she encouraged people to ‘reject narcotics,’ and says that doing such a thing these days would be ‘uncool.’ Now that it’s a ‘disease,’ saying people should ‘reject narcotics’ is like making fun of someone who’s physically or mentally handicapped and indicating that it’s their fault that they have a problem.

But when it comes to alcohol and drugs, it’s usually true. There are some exceptions, of course – people who are on addictive prescription drugs for a legitimate life-threatening reason or children who, without their consent, are given drugs by their parents – but for the most part, people make the decision to drink or take drugs, or not.

As O’Reilly points out, “Houston, however, was an adult who made a decision to embrace the drug life. Once a person decides to dabble in cocaine, or opiates such as heroin and OxyContin, they are putting themselves at grave risk. And they know it.”

It’s a decision made by each individual. You can’t go through years of living and still think that alcohol or drugs are harmless, innocent and fun – you know you’re taking a risk. And if you embrace the life of alcohol and drug abuse, there’s a very good chance that the consequences could be dire.

One very good thing about his viewpoint is that it recognizes that, unlike REAL diseases, alcohol and drug problems are under the control of the individual. And with the help of a good drug rehab program, he can get his life back.

A blog I read recently talked about how parents feel helpless when it comes to their kids drinking or taking drugs. They feel they can’t control it at all. The author’s solution was to start having dinner together. And, believe it or not, actual studies have shown that kids in families who have dinner together are significantly less likely to abuse alcohol, take drugs, and wind up needing addiction help.

Why is having dinner together so effective? Because you are doing something as a family – hopefully, it’s something you all enjoy – and you can have fun, laugh, talk about your day, and so on.

Doing that opens the door to deeper conversations about the important things in life, and to real parenting. Unfortunately our hectic lives leave little time for parenting. Sure, there’s lots of talk and interaction in good homes, but it’s mostly rushed – on the way to one thing or another, trying to get your kids to get ready faster, dropping them off at school or social and extra-curricular activities, , and so on.

But there’s generally not much actual communication: Not much in the way of sit-down discussions where parents and kids are talking about things that matter. Where parents are finding out how their kids feel about certain things, what’s really going on in their lives, who they’re hanging out with, who and what they like and dislike and why, what their goals and aspirations are.

These talks should include discussions about things that can get kids into trouble – including alcohol and drugs – and what will help them succeed in life.

Talks about drugs should include their exposure to drugs – do they know kids who take drugs or drink, have they been offered drugs or alcohol, and so on – and how they feel about them and what they know about them.

Parents are responsible for learning about drugs and educating their kids – not lecturing them, but educating with facts. Facts about the perils of drugs and alcohol are easy to come by, and are dramatic enough to be pretty convincing and have an effect. Gradually teach them more and more, and occasionally, when you see news stories about something bad happening from alcohol or drugs – especially to someone the kids might admire like a sports figure or musician – let them know about it.

When do you start having these discussions? Really, it’s never too early. Kids are exposed to drugs and alcohol by the time they’re 9 or 10 years old. There are 13-year-old addicts. And don’t wait until there is trouble. Statistics show that kids are involved in drugs for about two years before parents find out about it.

The other important thing to remember is that the earlier kids get involved in drugs or alcohol, the greater the chances are that they’ll become addicts and eventually need a drug rehab program. So, as I said, it’s never really too soon to educate them. And the more they know, the more able they’ll be to make an informed decision about drugs when they’re exposed to them. And they will be – no matter what kind of home, school or environment they grow up in.

So, start with dinner. If you’re not already having dinner together, make it a household rule. And take it from there.