The Canyon

Drug addiction recovery isn’t perfect.  It’s not a straight line that gradually and steadily goes upward over time.  There are lots of bumps in the road, and sometimes a complete wipe out with addiction relapse.  Drug treatment professionals know this and are ready to help you whether it’s your first time or you have been through drug treatment before.

Drug Treatment Often Starts Because Of Dramatic Consequence

Often, a drug addict or alcoholic begins going to drug treatment because something shocks their system.  There’s a death, an accident, a big legal charge - something that makes them really stop and see what has happened to them.  For a while, that is often enough to keep them on the path of drug rehab and outpatient drug treatment.  They don’t want to go through that hell ever again.

For humans, time usually rubs some of the hard edges off our experiences.  Some memories can remain as strong as the day that the event happened.  Other activities seem to blend together with few distinct qualities.  It’s not just the mental recollection of a shocking event that matters.  It’s the impact and the effort it takes to keep the lesson in the present moment. 

Do You Need A New Or Better Reason To Stay Sober

A near-miss car accident can have a hold on you for a while, but what about a few years later?  Do you still have that strong commitment to stay sober because you might not get so lucky next time?  Has the power of that first experience worn off enough that you begin to think you could still drink now and then? 

When this happens, it is probably time to check in with people who help you with your relapse prevention plan.  Perhaps your motivations have shifted for staying sober.  You may have raised many questions during your drug treatment program, giving you new perspectives.  Maybe those can be tapped into now to give you a more purposeful reason for staying on your sobriety plan. 

No matter when or how it happens, relapse is normal and almost expected at some point in a drug addicted person’s life.  Nobody wants it to happen, but it is not uncommon.  It is an opportunity to learn more about yourself and your sobriety plan.  Somewhere, there is a hole or gap that isn’t being covered well enough.  New feelings or thoughts have emerged and you need some adjustments to deal with them and stay sober. 

Drug Addiction Relapse Does Not Mean Recovery Is Over

Although it can result in some pain and feelings of self-defeat, relapse is still an opportunity that can be used for your good.  You just need support from those you can count on, and possibly drug treatment professionals to help you through it.  Just because you stumble doesn’t mean you are kicked off the road.

Last month we talked about methadone maintenance and how it works to treat heroin addiction and opiate addiction. To round out the conversation on opiate detox and opiate addiction treatment, it’s important that we also talk about buprenorphine and Suboxone and how they work.

What is Buprenorphine and Suboxone?

Buprenorphine is the generic term for the drug, but it is marketed as Subutex and Suboxone. Subutex is just buprenorphine. Suboxone is a combination of buprenorphine and Naloxone, an agent that prevents abuse of the drug. The biggest benefit of buprenorphine is that it is the first opiate addiction medication that can be dispensed from a doctor at a doctor’s office rather than other opiate addiction medications like methadone, which require that you come into a methadone clinic or drug rehab facility each day to receive your dose. Buprenorphine, as Subutex or Suboxone, can be prescribed by any doctor licensed to do so and, like other prescriptions, you can get up to a month’s worth of the drug from your local pharmacy, which means that you can avoid the hassle and stigma often associated with methadone clinics.

Avoiding Opiate Overdose With Buprenorphine

According to Joanne Huist Smith at the Dayton Daily News, this is how buprenorphine works to treat opiate addiction and opiate detox:

“Addicts first take one Subutex pill each day for five days to eliminate the cravings and withdrawal symptoms. After that, they go on Suboxone, a maintenance drug, that contains the ingredient Naloxone, which provides a sort of fail-safe against abuse. Those who try to inject Suboxone suffer withdrawal.”

Basically, you really can’t overdose on buprenorphine like you can on medications like methadone. The only way to overdose on the drug is to combine it with other opiates or benzodiazepines.

Which is Better: Buprenorphine or Methadone?

Both buprenorphine and methadone are viable treatment options when it comes to opiate detox. For some, methadone is a better option. For others, buprenorphine is optimum. It depends upon the circumstance. For example, if your opiate addiction requires you to take more than 30 to 35 milligrams of methadone, then buprenorphine is not for you. Since about half of all addicts on methadone maintenance take more than 70 milligrams of methadone, this precludes a large number of people from the treatment. However, if you are required to travel for your job or do not have transportation to a methadone clinic on a daily basis, then methadone won’t work for you, either. Which treatment you choose depends entirely upon your personal circumstances, and it’s something you shouldn’t decide until you speak with your doctor.

If you are addicted to opiates like heroin, Vicodin, OxyContin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, Percocet and Percodan, Lorcet and Lortab and/ or Fentanyl, then you will need an opiate detox in order to safely break your physical opiate addiction. DO NOT attempt to do this alone. Contact The Canyon for more information on the different options you have for opiate detox and opiate addiction treatment.

If you are addicted to drugs, you may have started to help escape your problems or to relax your mind.  A person with anxiety or depression may have extra difficulty getting their mind to settle down.  The mental confusion from so much “mental traffic” can make a person feel like they are losing their mind.  It’s no wonder so many people with mental illness turn to drugs and alcohol.  Fortunately, dual diagnosis drug rehab knows how to help people with depression and anxiety.

Too Much Worrying Can Lead to Anxiety Problems

Worrying is focused on potential problems in the future.  When you worry, you may feel like your heart is beating a little faster, your palms are a little sweaty, and your nerves are a little shaky.  Worrying also involves a great deal of negative self talk and “what ifs”.  What if I really have cancer and the doctor doesn’t know yet?  What if I can’t work because I get too sick?  How will I pay my bills?  What if I lose my house? 

Mild worry is pretty normal and even helpful.  It can remind you of possible consequences from your actions - “What if I don’t pay that bill? My electricity could get turned off.  Better get that bill in today.”  Excessive worrying can paralyze you, making you unable to take any action.  You can’t get that worry about cancer out of your mind but you are too afraid to go find out or even tell anyone.  When you are paralyzed with worry, you can develop serious anxiety problems that interfere with your life.

Ruminating Can Lead To Clinical Depression

Ruminating is a lot like worrying with the negative self talk and judgmental thinking.  You stew over possible reasons that things are going badly for you now.  You look to the past, run things over and over in your mind, and compare them to your current problems.  This is more common in people who already have a more negative outlook on life and who tend to experience more negative emotions. 

Ruminating tends to build on itself after a while.  More ruminating makes it easier for the brain to keep doing it now and in the future.  This becomes a bad “brain habit” over time and can increase the risk for depression.  When someone has depression, they are not well equipped to break this cycle, so it generally continues to wear the person down mentally.  Eventually, the person often feels more and more despair, creating a situation is heavy and oppressive.

Drug Treatment Helps Anxiety and Depression

As you could imagine, a person experiencing either one or both of these problems might find that drugs and alcohol give some much needed relief.  Drugs and alcohol actually make this problem worse, but for a person in pain even temporary relief is better than none.  A dual diagnosis drug rehab can help uncover these worrying and ruminating problems. 

Drug treatment will help the person with their drug or alcohol addiction.  But they will also treat the mental illness problems.  When an addicted person can learn how to manage their worrying and ruminating, they can stay healthy without turning to their addiction.  Does this mean that drug treatment cures their addiction?  No, there is no such thing as an addiction cure.  But healthy management of anxiety and depression symptoms can be the key to long-term sobriety. 

Some people think drug treatment is unnecessary and that going cold turkey will be good enough.  You can see that a person with excessive worrying and rumination would not do well with that plan.  Drug treatment can give hope for a healthy life.