Drug Addiction and the Family

Some couples click because they like the same movies or the same foods, the same music or the same hangouts. Any common connection combined with mutual attraction can spark the kind of whirlwind romance that sweeps you off your feet. The one thing we all have in common is that inner longing for true intimacy: knowing someone as well as you know yourself, and trusting another person with your most vulnerable feelings. When one or both of you are addicted to drugs or alcohol, real intimacy is an impossibility.

Drugs and Alcohol Function as Security Blankets

Some couples rely on getting high or getting drunk in order to connect with each other. The anxiety, fear, and shame that shrouds them as individuals is too much to bear, even for themselves. Just the thought of opening up and exposing those wounds to someone else is a tortuous experience. When we allow the inner parts of ourselves to be seen, we risk rejection. The fear of being hurt by another person can become so overwhelming we feel as if we need to kill the pain to get past it. Drugs and alcohol become our shields, our emotional body guards that protect us from outside dangers.

Disconnecting is Not a Way Of Connecting

When a relationship is focused around drug or alcohol use rather than real human experiences, problems, and needs, we ignore the aspects of ourselves and our partners that are most in need of love and attention. Each partner begins to withdraw because their needs are not being met. Dependency on drugs and alcohol increases to cover up the pain of an inadequate relationship, and the dysfunctional cycle continues.

Detox and Drug Rehab Brings Couples Closer

Learning to live with yourself and love yourself in spite of past mistakes can pave the way for meaningful, intimate relationships with other people. If both partners recognize the need for change and commit to the process of detox and rehab, the common connection in the relationship evolves into offering support and motivation for staying clean, learning to work constructively on problems, and communicating effectively so that everyone’s needs are satisfied.

If the promise of a healthy relationship isn’t quite enough to convince you it’s time to get help, consider the possibility that at any time there could be an announcement of a new addition to the family. Do you really want to continue your drug habit with your pregnant wife? What kind of an example will you set for your kids if you keep drinking? If you’ve already kicked the habit by the time baby comes along, you’ll be ready to focus on your little one and provide for their needs while still paying attention to your own.

Tell Us: If your partner was more supportive of you getting clean, would it motivate you to get help?

You’ve been doing this for years – shooting up or drinking, or even both. Day after day you escape the reality of what goes on around you. But why? How did this start? What’s the real reason?

Dual Diagnosis Addiction with Mental Illness

If you take a look back, way back, do you recall a lot of depression or anxiety? Or did you always seem to be going up and down, mood swings coming with the change of the breeze? If so, you may have a mental illness along with your addiction, also called a dual diagnosis.

Although it is not completely known which comes first, the latest research suggests that in most cases the mental illness comes first. That means you have very likely turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with the mental stress and emotional pain of your depression, anxiety, bipolar, or even schizophrenia.

Turn to Drugs and Alcohol to Cope With Trauma

You may have had a tough life as a child – abuse, neglect, divorce, frequent moves, parents with multiple boyfriends or girlfriends. Or you might have experienced a traumatic event or situation like a car accident, death of someone close, natural disaster, or another life threatening experience.

The emotional burden of going through these kinds of situations can feel too big to bear. The loss or fear can feel overwhelming, drugs and alcohol may provide the escape you desperately want. These events can even trigger an episode of depression or anxiety, which would add to the load.

Feelings of Self Doubt and Insecurity Get the Addiction Ball Rolling

You can be the life of the party when you are out drinking or partying with your friends. But sober, you feel like you don’t have much to say or you doubt how much others like you. You want to be sure you are “on” at the party, plus you drown out your otherwise constant stream of self-critical thoughts.

At first, your alcohol and drug use may have felt like a solution to a problem. However, if you are already at risk for an addiction in some way (addictive personality type, depression or anxiety, high tolerance, low self-worth), this “party use” can push you over the edge into addiction.

Why Does it Matter Why You Get High

There are many ways of getting a high feeling – getting immersed in an activity you love, watching an exciting sporting event, recalling special fun moments from the past, watching your kids enjoy their activities, taking a brisk walk in a beautiful location, coming across a little good luck in your day. All of these can come naturally and enhance your life experiences.

When you have a great deal of emptiness and you chase an impossible high, you may in fact chase down an addiction. You get hooked on the sensation, becoming dependent on it to just do normal things. Before long, you might lose sight of how it started in the first place.

Getting on the Road to Addiction Recovery

It’s so important to uncover the original issues that started your drug use. You may have picked up a few more problems along the way, but you need to understand what triggered it. It’s likely you still have that problem, too. Understanding these problems are the key to making your recovery healthy and long lasting. The better your self awareness, the better chance you have of holding off addiction relapse.

Know why you get high – you may even have more than one reason by now. Don’t wait – you can have a healthier life by starting drug rehab today.

Family Support After Drug Rehab

The uneasy waiting that descends upon a family when a loved one is in drug rehab can be both a welcome relief and an agonizing experience. Drug addiction brings chaos into the home: unpredictable outbursts, guilt, manipulation, lies, thievery, and violence. It’s an ugly time that requires a momentous change in attitude before drugs and alcohol are viewed by the addict as the source of their problems.

Learning to Stay Sober with Support and Patience

Drug addiction changes a person — physically, mentally, and emotionally. Essential chemistries have been altered, neural pathways have been damaged, and life seems difficult, dull, and boring beyond compare. It’s frustrating and uncomfortable, and an addict in recovery can be easily agitated, at times bringing back all those memories of what life was like with drugs around. In a sense, they still are. While detox rids the body of the toxin, the effects are usually permanent.

Emotional Wounds Heal Faster with Love

Choices are choices, and people are people, but people are not their choices. Mistakes made in the past may be haunting memories that surface whenever the person is thought of, and the pain from those memories may cloud our judgment and reactions to that person, but it doesn’t necessarily reflect the choices they will make today. Every day is a new chance for forgiveness.

Breaking the Silence of Shame

It can be a heartbreaking revelation for a person to finally understand the hurt and suffering they have brought to those who love them. Guilt for the things they have done, and shame for the person they have become may be unbearable obstacles during the process of drug addiction recovery. Learning how to accept one’s self and be at peace with who we are is an ongoing struggle for most people, even without the pain of addiction.

While our challenges may be unique and from our own original perspectives, the simple act of talking about out struggles opens us to the possibility of deeper understanding of our own selves and others. And it doesn’t have to be after we’ve conquered our struggles, either. Vulnerability is what we all have in common, sharing our suffering through words (not actions) brings us closer than we ever thought possible.

Continued therapy (for both addict and family) can ease the anguish and provide an outlet for expressing fears and concerns in a safe, secure environment. Social networking with other people who have been where you’ve been can be of tremendous help, too. Volunteering or charity work can help keep you focused, and new hobbies and interests will bring back the zeal you once knew for a life lived beautiful. The work of recovery is never done, and there might be incidents of relapse. But knowing what you know now about addiction and recovery, chances are good you’ll be back on track in no time.

Tell Us: Who has been your biggest source of support during the process of rehab and recovery?

Stay At Home Moms & Drug Addiction

On the outside it may be unthinkable for a mother to abuse drugs or alcohol while caring for her children. The view from the inside, however, can be quite different. Raising children is the biggest, most important commitment you can ever make. Frequently, this task falls on the mother’s shoulders – or rather, her breasts, as breastfeeding is typically the main focus for an infant’s first three to six months of life. The father’s task, then, is to provide for the mother and child until they are both able to fend for themselves.

Quick Switch in Roles Leaves Women Feeling Lonely and Depressed

What may have been a modern, progressive living situation prior to baby’s arrival, reverts (quite literally) overnight into the ancient male/female, provider/nurturer roles. In a culture founded on equal rights and doctrines of non-discrimination, such an immense shift in personal values may leave Mom and Dad wondering where they went wrong.

Added to that sense of secret shame is a newfound, neverending workload of diapers, laundry, and dishes, endless nights without adequate sleep, constant pressure and performance anxiety, all rewarded generously with extra helpings of baby poop, vomit, and breastmilk covering every piece of clothing you own. Weight gain, fluctuations in hormones, enormous eating habits, and total lack of any free time whatsoever leaves Mom completely frazzled and exhausted. And that’s just on day three.

Depression Leads to Drug and Alcohol Abuse as A Way of Coping

Who wouldn’t love a quick reminiscence of “normal life,” a much needed break from waiting on everyone else hand and foot? When you’re bogged down in teething toys and dirty diapers, and you haven’t had a real conversation with another adult in days, it’s tempting to reach for the one thing you know will bring you instant relaxation.

If you already struggle with depression, mental illness, or drug addiction, being off your meds during pregnancy can invoke enough anxiety that you either withdraw or act out in unpredictable ways. Depression, and the general stress of motherhood, increases the likelihood of consuming drugs or alcohol as a way of controlling the chaos of your new life.

Quality Relationships Help Recharge Mom’s Batteries and Fend Off Depression

Questioning your own competence at being a new mother is perfectly reasonable, considering the skills needed to provide constant care to a child are ones that many people don’t have until they’ve been thrust into the limelight. Instinct (knowing you need to do something) is part of it, but experience (knowing what to do) carries much more weight.

Connecting with other moms who are going through the same crazy scenarios as you can provide a genuine sense of relief, not to mention support, encouragement, and valuable tips and tricks for making your everyday life a little easier. Alone time is also a must, so Mom can have the opportunity to indulge in something she enjoys and a chance to connect with her personal needs that otherwise would never be met.

Tell Us: What’s your favorite way to relax and stay connected to the things in life that bring you joy?

Football players can recover from addiction

Jason Peter had it all in the 1990′s – success in a storied college football program and a career in the NFL. So what’s one thing that could bring this inspiring story to an end? A devastating drug addiction. He used to be a football god – now he’s a humble human being with a new life after drug addiction.

A Football Hero Stumbles Into Drug Addiction

Jason Peter’s entry into the world of drugs is not uncommon in amateur and professional sports. Pain management is key for a successful sports program. When your star players are injured, they need to get back to their game as quickly as possible.

Jason had back issues which were managed by narcotic prescription drugs starting in his days playing for the Nebraska football team. He states that he didn’t become addicted when he first began using the medication. But slowly, he found himself unable to feel pain-free without them. Before long, he apparently had a long list of doctors and dentists who readily gave prescription drugs for him when he played for the Carolina Panthers. He eventually added cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, and many other drugs to his list.

Jason Peter Battles Drug Addiction and Finds Help

For Jason, there was nothing that could match the exhilarating feeling of hitting when he played. When injuries ended his NFL career after just a few years, he only had emptiness and his drugs. His book Hero Of The Underground is certainly not appropriate for children. He goes into detail about some of his drug lifestyle activities before he sought out drug rehab. His emotional turmoil brought him to the point of suicide at one point. His family was there for him and helped him get to drug rehab.

He had more than one effort at a California drug rehab before establishing a lasting period of sobriety. This is not uncommon for drug and alcohol addiction because. Relapse is something that most addicts go through at least once during their recovery. He found the right combination of philosophy, staff, and treatment approach for him and has stayed sober for a few years now.

Your Life Purpose After Drug Addiction

Jason has used his football knowledge for radio announcing for the Huskers and writing his book. His hope was to share his story with brutal honesty in order to help anyone touched by drug addiction. He’s made Nebraska his home again and stayed connected with those who stuck by him through his addiction.

Of course, Jason Peter is a person who gained levels of fame and success that most people don’t. It might seem at first that he is hard to relate to because of the “sports glory” setting. But think about it this way for a second. He had significant losses (career, life purpose, unmet expectations), used drugs to fill in the emptiness, found his way to sobriety, and learned to re-purpose and discover his genuine gifts to create a new drug-free life. Doesn’t that sound like the journey anyone in addiction recovery might take?

Drug Rehab Gives Hope For Anyone With Addiction

At the end of the day, Jason Peter is a person with frailties like everyone. Whether you are a blue collar worker, a single parent, a high profile business person, or homeless, no human is immune to the failings that make us all human. Addiction can be one of them. If you have an addiction, don’t give up. Give yourself a chance with drug rehab.

Ninja Drug and Alcohol Interventions

As with most attempts at communication, the message you intend to send can be easily garbled if the receiver has an entirely different interpretation. The original meaning can be so obscured that it appears completely different from what you were actually trying to say.

The case of the “Intervention Ninjas” from Clifton, New Jersey is one such example. Realizing that drugs were creeping into the lives of their friends, two courageous 20 year olds decided to do what friends do best: intervene and hope for the best. Except in this case, the lads decided to go dressed as ninjas – complete with swords, throwing knives and stars, nunchucks, masks, and homemade smoke bombs – delivering anonymous letters in the middle of the night to the homes of known drug abusers and dealers. That was the plan, anyway. Caught in the act by local law enforcement officers, the dysfunctional duo were apprehended running swiftly into the night soon after delivering the first letter.

Keep Drug and Alcohol Interventions Safe, Simple and Legal

Clearly, intention is not everything. These guys could have been killed if a homeowner happened to see them sneaking around the premises. Admittedly, though, the chance to personify your favorite superhero for a legitimate cause is almost too good to pass up. But the time these guys invested in dreaming up this plan and drafting threatening letters written in Shinobi-style prose to deliver under the cover of darkness could have been better spent reaching out to parents, peers, and teachers for help.

The Right Backup is Everything at A Drug or Alcohol Intervention

The best way to get the attention of someone who is in the grip of alcoholim or drug addiction is to approach them openly and honestly, gently and with an overflow of compassion. Focus on their good qualities, seek to understand the source of their suffering, offer hope through continued friendship and help through a commitment to rehab. Come prepared for emotional turmoil, and accept what happens. Insist that your needs in the relationship be valued and respected. Speak from the heart, and know that what you ask is both rational and reasonable.

Get your ducks in a row before the actual intervention. Know who will be there, who will say what, what you will do if the person accepts or rejects an offer for drug addiction treatment. If it seems like too much, lift the burden from your shoulders and hire a professional interventionist to take care of the organizing, delegating, and moderating of the process from start to finish. You’ll be free to focus on what matters most – how much you care about the dangerous situation your friend is involved in.

Tell Us: Have you ever taken part in an intervention? Put one together? Been the one intervened upon? Any pointers you want to share? Anything you wish you had known ahead of time?

Drug Rehab in Prison

Trying to figure out whether drugs lead people to prison or being in prison introduces them to drugs is an endless riddle, much like “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” But trying to untangle the mystery and decide where it starts is fruitless; if you’re involved with one, chances are you’ll eventually encounter the other. Determining how or where drug addiction began isn’t nearly as important as figuring out how best to make it stop.

Prisoners Volunteer for Drug and Alcohol Rehab Treatment

On the far side of the globe in New Zealand, Waikato is now the sixth prison gearing up to open a new drug and alcohol rehab wing. This new addition will now make it possible for 500 inmates to receive intensive inpatient treatment every year. “The re-conviction rate for prisoners who have been through this drug treatment program is 13 percent lower than for untreated prisoners,” says Corrections Minister Phil Goff in a recent NZPA article.

“The course is not an easy option,” Goff adds. “To be eligible, prisoners must be motivated to confront their addiction and accept the need to do something about it.” And like all aspects of life behind bars, the rules are extremely strict. “Once they have entered the unit, they must adhere to the contract they signed. They must complete the required number of program hours and agree to attend other activities and work education programs.”

Drug and Alcohol Rehab Where It’s Needed Most

An idea like this seems almost radical here in the United States. Serve your time and get rehabilitation for the problems that put you there? What an amazing concept! Especially considering more than 17 percent of prisoners in the United States are arrested for committing crimes specifically with the intention of getting money to buy drugs. Additionally, roughly 60 percent of inmates were under the influence of drugs or alcohol while they engaged in criminal activity. Can you think of a better way to use the time and resources at your disposal than to concentrate on how to change your behavior so you don’t make the same mistakes again?

So what do you think? It’s clear that the government’s War on Drugs has done little more than turned the prisons and jails into overcrowded networking grounds where older criminals train the younger ones in the art of hustles and heists. There are rehab programs, therapy options and AA and NA meetings—although limited—and in some cases, they help. What else can be done to help those doing crimes related to drug addiction to turn it around so they can stay out of jail?