The Canyon

Every intervention ends with one thing: an ultimatum. The person addicted to drugs and/ or alcohol is offered the opportunity to drive to go to drug and alcohol rehab like The Canyon or else ….

That “or” can be a huge and weighty decision for family members. It must show that you are serious, that you are not going to put up with the bad behavior brought on by drug and/ or alcohol addiction any longer. And it must also be something that you are willing to follow up on. Whichever choice the addict in your life makes, your life is about to change as drastically as his or hers.

If Your Loved One Chooses Drug Rehab After an Intervention

We’ll start with the hoped-for outcome: choosing drug rehab at The Canyon. The intervention is over and your loved one is on his or her way to The Canyon in southern California. If you choose an inpatient drug addiction treatment program, there will likely be a blackout period, which means that you will not be allowed to contact your loved one by phone, email or letter and they will not be able to contact you. This is necessary so that they can focus on physical detox if necessary and begin to settle into treatment. Soon, though, when they are able, you may even be invited to participate in family therapy sessions and group meetings as well as family visitation days so that you can see the progress your loved one is making in treatment.

If Your Loved One Doesn’t Choose Drug Rehab After an Intervention

If they chose not to get help for their drug addiction, then you will most likely be experiencing an odd mix of depression and relief. It’s hard to let a loved one go but when that person is hurting you and your family, it is a necessary step. You may feel like a load has been lifted and, in a way, it has. Stand strong behind your determination and know that you are making the right choice for everyone in your family. There is still a chance that your loved one will choose to get help and if that happens, it will be due in part to you and your strength.

Posted in Drug and Alcohol Intervention, Friends and Family
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Drug addiction does anything but create a balanced lifestyle.  It gets you to focus solely on your addiction.  You spend most of your waking hours either using the drug, getting the drug, hiding your drug use, lying about your drugs, and being with other drug users.  Drug rehab helps to change the balance of your time and energy.  Let’s take a look at how some key areas of your life can change after drug rehab.

Balancing Act - Life After Drug Rehab

After Drug Rehab - Balance Work and Leisure

Drug addiction develops an all-or-nothing pattern into a person’s life.  Drug addicts and alcoholics can sometimes be workaholics.  They become so used to staying overly busy that they shut out nearly everything and everyone else.   On the other hand, too much leisure time leaves a lot of time for drug use and shows their lack of life purpose.

Doing good purposeful work is in an important use of someone’s time.  This could be dependable home care chores, volunteer time, paid work - anything that requires effort and has goals to achieve.  Leisure is just as important because it allows for everything else in a person’s life - creativity, social time, significant relationships, quiet alone time, etc.  Creating a balanced approach to work and leisure allows for a healthy pattern of effort and rejuvenation.  It also breaks up the all-or-nothing patterns established by the addiction.

After Drug Rehab - Balanced Diet

A healthy balanced diet is a big part of a healthy lifestyle.  Does it have to be all organic or vegetarian or low carb to be healthy?  Not necessarily.  However, many people with addictions do have a lack of nutrition.    Some drugs cause a person to lose their appetite, which can result in a general lack of nutrient and calorie intake.  Alcoholics often have a lot of extra calories taken in from their drinks, which can add body weight and replace calorie intake from healthy food.

Having a healthy diet isn’t just a fad or something to do if you want to lose a few pounds.  Your body won’t work properly if you don’t get a good balance of nutritious foods.  Getting vegetables, fruits, whole grains, dairy, and leaner meats is just the start.  Knowing the amount of food you need from each food group helps you keep your body happy.  Drug rehabs often do solid nutritional counseling to teach drug addicts about changing their eating habits.  Eating nutritious food also helps a drug addicted body heal from all the damage caused by the drugs.  It allows them to have long-lasting energy and a stronger immune system.

Drug Rehab Can Help With A Balanced Lifestyle

Getting a balanced lifestyle isn’t just a fix-it-once approach.  Life changes constantly, so it’s important to understand the basic elements of a balanced life.  Then when changes come, you can adjust your behaviors and choices to keep things in check.  Come back next time to see a few more ideas about keeping a balanced lifestyle after drug rehab.

Posted in Alcohol Rehab, Drug Addiction Treatment
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Whether or not Michael Jackson was struggling with prescription drug addiction before he died, the preliminary observations at his autopsy point toward prescription drug overdose as a potential cause of death, according to Fox News. Specifically, the article states:

“Jackson appeared to be stronger than they expected. There were bruises on his chest, which indicated someone had performed CPR on him, but there was no sign of a heart attack, which is when arteries are blocked, leading to cardiac arrest.”

Cardiac arrest was initially reported as the cause of death, but the preliminary autopsy results seem to conclude that that was not the case. The article goes on to state that “drugs may have indeed played a role in stopping Jackson’s heart and/or lungs.”

Other reports state that Jackson’s doctor was with him when he died, or at least that’s what was intimated by the 911 caller. TMZ.com reports: The person who makes the call says Jackson was not breathing and unconscious. Jackson was not responding to CPR. The caller says the doctor on scene – Dr. Conrad Murray – was the only witness – “The doctor has been the only one here.”

You can listen to a recording of the 911 call made from Michael Jackson’s Encino, California home here.

Still other reports claim that Jackson had doctors coming to the house around the clock, that one doctor lived in the house with him, and that the day of his death, Jackson was receiving a shot of Demerol from his doctor, something that happened regularly.

There are those that think that if the Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, had called paramedics immediately, that there might have been a chance to save Jackson’s life. Some of these people conjecture that the doctor was protecting himself by waiting, or that perhaps he thought, as a doctor, he had as good a chance of saving Jackson’s life as anyone. Of course, there’s always the possibility that the doctor didn’t find him until after he stopped breathing and that this piece of information got convoluted or lost when others came on the scene… though the caller sounds a little stressed but hardly blinded by chaos. However, Dr. Murray is apparently nowhere to be found, so these questions will go unanswered for some time.

Whether or not doctors and hangers-on push celebrities to abuse prescription drugs, unless they are outright drugging them so that they are unaware of what they are taking, I believe each individual must take responsibility for his or her own actions. You have to recognize at some point that you are not living the life you want and that, like the rest of us, you are the only one who can create the change that you’re hoping for. Maybe that’s easier said than done. Certainly, most of us don’t have someone there with a shot full of Demerol or a handful of pills at the ready every time we get frustrated about something. Perhaps if we did, the need to get clean probably wouldn’t be so urgent. What do you think?

Posted in News, Prescription Drug Addiction, Society and Addiction
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