The Canyon

A sure sign that someone has a serious drinking problem is when they lose control of their drinking behaviors. They frequently say one thing then do another, leaving the concerned friend or relative really wondering. If you are watching out for someone who seems to lose control of their drinking on a regular basis, you may very well need to talk with them about getting alcohol treatment. But first, take a look at the following examples to see if you need to take action.

Alcohol Use More Than Intended

Your roommate says he’s just going to have one or two beers over at a friend’s place. You drop by about an hour later and find that he’s finished a six pack and is heading into a new one. A woman tells her husband she’s going to have a drink after supper. Two hours later, her husband has noticed her refilling at least four times.

Maybe it’s part of the denial, but the two people described above both said one thing and did another. They each indicated they were having a fairly small amount to drink, but in reality they had at least three times as much. Did they really think they were only having one or two? Or did they just say that outloud to someone else to make it seem OK? It could certainly be both.

Use Drugs For Longer Period Than Planned

A husband tells his wife he’s just going to watch the game and drink a few beers at a friend’s house, then he’ll come home and they’ll go out for dinner. However, he doesn’t come home in time for dinner, and his wife can’t reach him. He and his friends had gotten drunk during the game and went down to the bars for a few hours.

Once a person with alcoholism gets rolling, it can be hard to stop. Drinking almost always takes longer than they say because they have little ability to control the amount they have. They can become oblivious to the passage of time or other obligations. The goal of their drinking is not to have a mild buzz once in a while. It is to get intoxicated, even when they don’t say so.

Not Being Able to Keep Track of Alcohol Amounts

If you ask an alcoholic how much they had, you will invariably get some strange answers. Some will swear they only had four or five, when a blood alcohol count from a DUI will show almost twice the legal limit. Or, they may simply say, “I don’t know,” which is probably the most accurate.

Alcoholics almost always underestimate their amount. They aren’t keeping track in the first place because again, their drinking is not done in a socially responsible manner. They are drinking in an out of control manner because they are using the alcohol as a coping mechanism. Getting drunk is what they have done for so long they may not know or remember how to monitor themselves accurately.

Stop Out of Control Drinking With Alcohol Rehab

Check back here for another post describing more ways alcoholics lose control of their drinking. Unfortunately, there’s just too much to put in one post. Alcohol treatment is the best way to truly stop drinking that has gone out of control. Sometimes a short stay at a residential alcohol treatment center is the best thing. A person taken out of their environment can get a real fresh start, especially when the problem has been chronic and serious.

When you’re consumed by any addiction including crystal meth addiction or methamphetamine addiction, it’s hard to see beyond yourself. Drug addiction in general is characterized by a high degree of self focus and self absorption. Your primary concern is your drug of choice and getting more of it, keeping withdrawal symptoms at bay and when you’re going to get your next drink or shot or pill. Recognizing that our drug addiction affects everyone around us, even those outside of our immediate friends and family, may be helpful in getting to a place where the blinders fall off and allow room for the realization that crystal meth addiction treatment is necessary.

Meth Addiction and One Woman in Wyoming

A case of someone deeply and adversely affected by crystal meth addiction is one Licia Henderson, a woman who bought a home in Wyoming that had previously been a meth lab. Other people affected by one person’s desire to feed the crystal meth addiction in the community? The three people who Henderson is suing for nondisclosure of the history of the house and a fourth person who performed tests on the house after the police busted the meth lab.

Henderson found her home, once in the headlines for the fact that its former inhabitants were a couple who cooked crystal meth with children in the home, through a realtor when she moved from Albuquerque, New Mexico, about 700 miles away. She had no way of knowing that it was previously a meth lab, and so when a storm hit and she was had to close up the windows and turn on the furnace, she was surprised by the onset of chest pains and other symptoms. It is for the damages she suffered through physical illness brought on by the chemical residue left in the home that she is suing.

How Does One Woman’s Story Affect Crystal Meth Addicts?

On a personal level, it doesn’t. But like the effects of drug trafficking on the countries where drugs like heroin and cocaine are cultivated in the form of the coca plant and poppies, so too does the creation of crystal meth hurt people right here in our home. This pain and suffering occurs for just one purpose: to provide the drug that so many are addicted to. Remove the addiction, there is no longer the need for meth labs. And how do you remove the addiction? You treat one person addicted to crystal meth at a time and slowly lower the demand.

Crystal Meth Addiction Treatment

Unlike other drugs of addiction like heroin and prescription painkillers, there are not as many physical symptoms of withdrawal when someone tries to quit taking crystal meth. Few realize the depth and breadth of the emotional symptoms that accompany crystal meth detox. If you are struggling with crystal meth addiction, seek help from a professional source like The Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains just outside of Beverly Hills.

Percocet, Oxycontin, Darvocet – these drug names are becoming more and more recognizable. Unfortunately, it’s not because more people are using them safely. It’s because teens are trafficking them, using them, getting addicted to them in a disturbing new trend. Drug rehab is the only reliable way to escape the grip of these powerful drugs.

Why To Teens Experiment With Drugs

First, think about why teens use drugs in the first place. There is a lot to deal with as a teenager in this age. Intense rushes of hormones, quick mood changes, high expectations, transition between childhood and adulthood, discovering an identity – you name it! They push against their parents, pull back into themselves, and spend lots of time bonding with friends as opposed to hanging with their parents.

Teens are also just beginning to feel comfortable using their brain in more abstract ways, leading to a great deal of idealism and naivete. They are excited and curious, but have little wisdom and a mixed ability to accurately predict outcomes. Add social influences, impulsively, curiosity, pressures to achieve, expectations from adults, and you have teens who might turn to drug experimentation.

Drugs Calm Emotions Provide Dangerous Instant Fix

Drugs provide a near instant relief from their emotional burdens. For all the things teens have to deal with, their brains are not fully matured until well into their twenties. No wonder they change their mood and direction like the breeze.

The more entrepreneurial ones may also get into drug selling, trading, and distribution. This goes way beyond personal emotional relief into sharing the dangers of drugs with others. The difficult thing about prescription medication is that it is relatively easy to get. It is not an illegal substance in and of itself. So unlike cocaine or marijuana, prescription drugs may be sitting in the bathroom cabinet at home or at a relative’s house. They might even attempt to use illegal prescriptions or steal the drugs to get them.

Prescription drugs are opiates, especially dangerous because of their highly addictive nature. A teen may try alcohol or marijuana on a strictly experimental level and not get addicted. Problems may still happen, but they might still get by without addiction. A person doesn’t have to use prescription drugs very long to develop cravings and a strong psychological attachment.

Teens With Addiction Need Drug Rehab

For a teen who’s developed an addiction to prescription drugs, professional drug rehab is a must. There’s no question that opiates are very difficult to withdraw from safely and comfortably, even with help. This is no time for a home remedy because the relapse risk is too high.

A person addicted to drugs will move heaven and earth to get what they need. This might include running away, stealing money, damaging property or worse. A teen with addiction is much safer and more likely to get clean at a drug treatment center.

If you have a drug addition, you already know the most uncomfortable part – withdrawal. Not every drug has physical withdrawal symptoms, but practically every addictive drug has a psychological addiction. Much of the power of addiction is it’s affect on your thoughts and beliefs. When you face an ugly withdrawal period, you could go to a drug treatment center that provides medically supervised drug detox, or go cold turkey on your own. Let’s look honestly at both sides.

Privacy

Cold Turkey – Certainly this option would provide a lot of privacy. You could choose to isolate yourself completely and you would have no interruptions. You could ask a friend to check in on your after a couple of days. However, it pays to look at the rest of the list to see if being totally alone is really the safest idea.

Drug Treatment Center – Doing a drug detox at a private drug treatment center gives you about as much privacy as you could get with some important benefits. No one from outside the drug rehab will know you are even there unless you give express permission to release information. Most importantly, you can be assured a safe medically-assisted detox experience.

Discomfort

Cold Turkey – The pain and physical discomfort of the withdrawal experience often draws people back into their addiction. Depending on the drug you are withdrawing from, those hours and days can be anywhere from miserable and annoying to unbearable and dangerous. Many people simply go back to the drugs because they can’t handle the withdrawal symptoms and can’t see the end in sight.

Drug Treatment Center- Going the professional route doesn’t guarantee a pain-free experience. But for some drug withdrawals, a doctor can prescribe medications to ease the physical cravings and lessen the overall discomfort. This is most commonly done with opiates due to their highly physically addictive nature.

Emotional Support

Cold Turkey – You may feel like your willpower and desire to be done with drugs will be enough to get you through. But keep in mind how emotionally fragile you are from being on drugs in the first place. What happens when it gets really tough? Can you count to your friends who are on drugs and understand the experience? Can you turn to friends and family who are sober and want you to come through it, but may not know how to help you?

Drug Treatment Center – Professionals at a drug treatment center have helped many people in your situation. They won’t get rattled by the emotional things you say or do. These folks are also trained to help you stay encouraged, listen to you, and give you accurate information on your progress to give you hope. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Something Going Wrong

Cold Turkey – Most people are not at risk of dying from attempting a cold turkey detox at home (although it might feel like it). It can be extremely uncomfortable, but it rarely becomes fatal. However, if you have untreated medical problems and you try detox on your own, you could be putting your life at risk.

Drug Treatment Center- The advantage of going to a drug treatment center is knowing that your health is being carefully watched. If anything should get difficult, you can be transferred to a nearby hospital until you are out of danger.

Continuing our discussion of sex addiction that we started by discussing Susan Cheever’s new book on the subject, Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction, it seems that there are more than a handful of players in Hollywood who have ‘come out’ recently about their own struggles with the condition.

Recent News About Celebrities and Sex Addiction

The star of the TV show, Californication, and Golden Globe award winning actor David Duchovny recently checked himself into a rehab clinic to receive treatment for sex addiction. He is not the first celebrity to see treatment for sex addiction, but certainly the latest, and he says: “I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family.” His family is actress Tea Leoni, to whom he has been married for 11 years and his two children. Certainly there is no better reason to get the help that you need.

Celebrities and Sex Addiction

There are a number of Hollywood actors who have received treatment for sex addiction, including actor Michael Douglas, actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton, and standup comedian Russell Brand. Those who are addicted to sex may spend incredible sums of money on call girls and prostitutes, and certainly few of Hollywood’s stars are lacking the funds to fuel their addiction.

Who Among Us Is a Sex Addict?

Certainly sex addiction is not limited to Hollywood, but how do you know if you or someone you love is struggling with sex addiction? A relatively new condition, sex addiction is still being defined by the medical community and new treatment approaches to address it in a rehab setting are being developed all the time. As yet, there is little research on the number of those who struggle with sex addiction or even how many people per year seek treatment for the condition. It is believed that most sex addicts are men because the behavior is often more visible (i.e., spending money on prostitutes or inordinate amounts of time looking at porn online or on TV), but some say that as many as 1 in 3 women are sex addicts, as well.

Characteristics of Sex Addiction

Any addiction is defined by one certain parameter: the existence of behaviors centered on the object of addiction that are compulsive in nature and destructive to yourself and those around you. Sex addiction is no different. A high libido that does not interfere with your health, your relationships at home and work or your life in general is not a sex addiction. But when your actions put you at risk for sexually transmitted diseases, threaten your relationships with friends and family, or even take precedence over work and social commitments, it is likely that sex addiction is the culprit.

If you need help with sex addiction, it’s not hard to find. There are programs and support groups where you can get the treatment you need. The Canyon is one of those places, providing a sanctuary fit for a celebrity as well as a treatment plan utilizing a number of therapy options that is customized to suit your needs. Contact us for more information.

You probably never thought you’d end up like this – strung out, confused about your life direction, depressed, losing everything around you. Drug addiction has taken you down a path of pain and deception. Mental illness complicates your problems tenfold. Sound like it’s all over for you? Drug rehab can give you a second chance.

History of Mental Illness Risk Factor For Addiction

Let’s say you already have a history of depression. You’ve experienced it in your teens, as a young adult, and briefly when each of your children were born. You also did some pretty heavy drinking in college when your depression kicked in for a couple of years. Although you’ve managed to stay away from alcohol for several years, your stress over the economy and your job has been mounting.

Already you’ve gone to the bar two and three nights a week the past two weeks, getting that old feeling and the temptation to just drown your life in the bottle. Your spouse knows where you’ve been and it feels like you’re walking on eggshells at home, trying to offer empty excuses and avoid a fight and more stress. It’s all starting to swirl in a dark pit together – the drinking and the depression.

The thought of going to a drug and alcohol treatment center has crossed your mind a few times. But how can you just drop your life for two or three months?? The cost, the time away from anything you know, and you don’t even want to ask if it would be OK to be gone from work that long. You’re not sure it’s worth all the hassle – it’s just going to come back again anyway, right?

Depression and Addiction

Depression and addiction will make even normal stresses too much to bear. Right now, if you are feeling a pinch from the economy or your job security, depression and addiction can really get out of control. Mental health experts agree that many times addiction gets its start from a painful emotional pathway such as anxiety, depression, or trauma.

When the person’s coping skills get overtaxed by mental illness, they might look for a “quick fix” relief like drugs or alcohol. The excuses get rolling about all your drinking, and pretty soon you have a full blown addiction. The shame, the guilt, the sadness, all made worse by what you hoped would help you make it all go away.

The situation described above can be turned around. However, the thought patterns and emotions experienced in addiction and depression can extinguish the flicker of hope quickly. Like an alien possession, your mind starts to turn on you. It comes up with all sorts of negative thoughts, beliefs, and reasons for why you’ll life will only get worse. This is no time to go it alone.

Drug And Alcohol Rehab Gives a Chance at a Healthy Life

Drug and alcohol rehab isn’t a perfect cure. It does involve your willingness to let go and take a good hnoest look at yourself. But it does work and it can make your life better than it is now. Would you rather take a chance on drug rehab, or take a chance that you might have an impulse to kill yourself? Take a look at drug rehab and get a fresh start.

The idea of sex addiction, what it is and what it means for those who are struggling with it, is quite vague for most people. Here to help you define not only the nature of the condition but also whether or not your behavior or that of someone you love could be classified as a sex addiction. The book is “Desire: Where Sex Meets Addiction” (Simon & Schuster) by Susan Cheever and it’s both a memoir and an exploration into what exactly it means to be a sex addict.

An Example of Sex Addiction

Cheever notes that there’s a lot of embarrassment and shame around sex addiction that may keep those who are struggling with it from seeking the help that they need. But what’s an example of sexual behavior that can be defined as an addiction? Says Cheever:

“Whenever there was a situation in which I was terrified or panicky, I would often find myself sleeping with somebody who appeared to have power over that situation. When my mother was diagnosed with cancer, I needed to feel better. I needed to feel less helpless. I thought I was going to achieve, you know, my mother’s good health by sleeping with the oncologist and getting special treatment for her, and knowledge for me.”

The Definition of Sex Addiction

Cheever’s definition of sex addiction—even addiction, in general—is that it’s hard to define because it is so personal to the individual, a concept which falls in line with treatment perspectives like you would find at The Canyon that allow for a highly customized treatment plan. Cheever says:

“Well, I think what makes anyone an addict of any kind – sex addict, alcoholic, cocaine addict – is really up to them. Addiction starts with a broken promise. In other words, when you say to yourself, ‘I am not gonna sleep with him, I am not gonna see him tonight,’ and you find that you are doing it anyway, you’ve entered the land of addiction.”

I would add that when you are taking dangerous risks with your health, your relationships and even jeopardizing your career in order to indulge in your need for alcohol/drugs/sex, then it is likely that you are an addict. A lack of regard for the consequences of your behavior is a key sign that you should look into getting help before you lose your life, your marriage, your friendships or your job.

How Do You Define Sex Addiction?

Some people say that there’s no such thing as sex addiction. Others define addiction so tightly that few actually fall outside the parameters. Where do you stand?