Typically in the recovery world, there are two schools of thought concerning whether or not you should have a relationship while you’re going through detox and treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. The first is simple: don’t do it. Just don’t do it. Don’t date. Don’t hook up. And do not, under any circumstances, get romantically attached. The other school of thought is that two people are stronger together than one alone, that this other person can be like a partner and the two of you will be better equipped to handle temptation and, in essence, help each other stay clean.

Relationships During Addiction Treatment Recovery: The Power of Distraction

Some people enroll in a photography class when they first stop using drugs and alcohol. Others clean their house from top to bottom. Others spend their time in support group meetings and in service to others through volunteer work in the community. We do these things to replace the role of drugs in our lives, to find a way to pass the time, to find something else to think about outside of ourselves, our problems and the things that may have played a part in the development of drug addiction in the first place. A relationship can serve the same purpose: it’s fun. At least in the beginning. It’s something to do, something to think about. This new person can seem like a gift after addiction, one of the many new leases on life you’ve been given.

The problem is when this ‘distraction’ becomes an obsession. What’s that saying? “Scratch an addict, and you’ll find a codependent.” When your relationship takes your focus off of yourself to the point that you and your drug addiction treatment and recovery become secondary, distraction turns into disaster.

Relationships During Addiction Treatment Recovery: The Power of a Breakup

Just as bad as allowing your relationship to turn into an obsession is when the relationship goes downhill. In the beginning, it feels like this will never happen, but ask yourself: have you ever been in a relationship that hasn’t ultimately ended? When your emotional safety is bound up in a relationship, you’re setting yourself up to fail when the two of you inevitably have problems or decide to go your separate ways.

Even those who handle substance use well—only indulging moderately or only on rare occasions—will get drunk or high over a breakup. It’s hard to fight with someone you love, much less lose them, and if you’re freshly out of drug rehab, then you’re emotionally vulnerable and the experience is that much harder. An added pitfall is the potential for overdose that often occurs after a time of non-use and the risk of other associated risks due to driving and other poor decisions made under the influence. Even if these things don’t happen, a slip quickly turns into a relapse and relapse turns into regular use, and soon all that you’ve gained in drug rehab is nothing but a memory and you’re right back where you started. Over a relationship.

So what do you think? Bad idea? Good idea? Any circumstances to avoid or tips to pass along to those who are considering a relationship in early recovery? Tell us what you think.

Sober Living Homes

A person leaving drug rehab probably has a lot of uncertainty and questions about how they will keep their sobriety going each day. Some people may not be ready to go right home to start their near life again. They may also not need the enclosure of drug rehab anymore. Sober living homes can be the answer for the transition between drug rehab and completely independent living.

Sober Homes Require Drug and Alcohol Free Status

Sober homes require residents to be 100% drug and alcohol free. They are subject to random drug and alcohol testing. They are all so required to check with the staff regarding all medications (over the counter and prescription). Staff members also forbid common items that contain alcohol or some form of opiate like mouthwash, after shave, hair spray, cologne or perfume, nail polish and polish remover, even vanilla extract.

You might think a list like this is extreme. Who would ever try to drink nail polish remover or hair spray? But a person with a drug addiction is living an extreme life, and they will find ways to get alcohol or drugs any way possible. That includes risking being poisoned by consuming any of the above-listed items. That includes between transport from drug rehab to the sober home. That includes possibly hiding one of those items and consuming it right after a random check knowing they won’t be checked again for a while. This is all because of compulsive addiction thinking and the body’s occasional craving for the substance when in recovery.

Recovering Drug Addicts Required to Show Responsibility

Drug addicts are expected to attend regular twelve step support group meetings as a condition of their stay. This regular participation encourages addicts to develop the habits of attending and staying focused on the principles. They will have a better chance of continuing their sobriety in their own home if they can establish a good habit in their sober home. Residents are affected to do basic house cleaning and personal care duties. They are also expected to work together to make the home livable for everyone. Most homes have some form of shared living quarters. A person may have one or two roommates in most cases, sober living homes are either all-female or all-male.

Sober home residents are expected to work during their stay in order to pay the rent some sober homes allow for student involvement to replace employment. One way or another, residents are expected to spend their days doing quality activities to move their lives forward.

Sober Living Homes Fill The Gap Between Drug Rehab and Going Home

Living in a sober homes is much like living in the real world with real-world responsibilities and expectations. The key difference is that staff is available for support, the residents are given clear structure to their day, and the staff monitors progress as an authority collective figure. For the recovering addict that needs something between drug rehab and living at home, sober homes provide a great stepping stone on the journey of recovery.

Drug rehab and alcohol treatment are not quick fixes. One of the first questions to go through a drug addict’s mind when they think of treatment is, “How could I ever afford that?” Let’s take a look at the financial problems drug addict often face and how they can be overcome.

Financial Challenges With Drug Rehab

Financial Barriers Make Sobriety Difficult For Some

Maybe a young depressed single mom can’t afford a babysitter so she can go to therapy for her depression. Perhaps there are no AA meetings within walking distance of someone who is struggling with their sobriety. In this difficult economy, it might be easier to keep turning tricks for drugs and money instead of getting sober and finding a decent job.

Yes, these might seem like excuses. But money trouble in drug addiction tends to go together. The addiction can bring in financial burdens such as legal expenses, unpaid days home from work, medical bills, job loss, late fees for unpaid bills, and more. As these expenses mount. The addict may feel all the more reason to drink or use drugs.

Sliding Fee Scale And Scholarships Can Help Some Get To Drug Rehab

For those who qualify, many community mental health centers offer a sliding fee scale for their drug and alcohol services. Some drug rehab centers have scholarships to help those who don’t think they can afford treatment. However, that may not be enough to help an addict in a very deep financial hole. The addict has to get motivated enough and creative enough to get around these problems.

Perhaps it is not entirely bad that some barriers exist. People tend to have less motivation to accomplish their goals when everything appears to be easy. Not that it’s a good thing people have money problems, but it may force the addict to get out of their comfort zone. Maybe the prospect of homelessness seals more awful than asking for some help.

Current Economy Challenging To People Needing Drug Rehab

It is difficult to know how our current economy will impact the mental health agencies that provide sliding fee scales. They often depend on grants and government support for they can offer such low fees for people who need them. It may be time for all types of drug treatment and addiction support groups to work together on this problem. Maybe their collaboration can help addicts with serious financial problems and still get the treatment and support they need.

Financial problems are a reality for many drug addicts and alcoholics. Even if these problems interfere with sobriety and drug treatment, many drug addicts continue to find ways around them. There is always hope for a new start every day.

A new report on drug use in the Commonwealth was recently released; it stated that the number of drug overdose victims in Massachusetts outnumbers the soldiers from the state lost overseas… by a lot. According to Derek Gentile at the Berkshire Eagle: “The number of people who have died of drug overdoses in Massachusetts from 2002 through 2007 is nearly 41 times as many as the number of servicemen and women from the state who died in Afghanistan and Iraq over the same span.”

Drug Overdose in Massachusetts

Those vague percentages break down to some pretty big numbers and people should be in up in arms, according to David Capeless, the Berkshire County district attorney. He says: “If more than 3,200 people from the Commonwealth died overseas [in that time span], there would be outrage. People would be screaming for action.”

As a member of the Massachusetts OxyContin and Heroin Commission that held hearings throughout the state in order to produce the 71-page report released this week, he should know. He points to prescription drug addiction as the primary problem, even more so than heroin addiction. The most-oft offending prescription painkillers? OxyContin, Fentanyl, Percocet and Percodan.

There were more than 18,000 non-fatal drug overdoses reported in Massachusetts, which is about 200 percent higher than the numbers reported 13 years ago.

Drug Overdose: A Personal Story

Says Capeless: “We just had a very tragic example of this issue.”

He’s talking about a recent Massachusetts case in which Dawn Cote of North Adams, Massachusetts, was sentenced to three to six years in a state prison for providing a 32-year-old woman with Fentanyl. Fentanyl is about 100 times stronger than heroin and even though the victim was reportedly taking painkillers for a medical condition, the Fentanyl proved too much for her and she overdosed as a result.

Getting Help for Drug Overdose and Drug Addiction

The Massachusetts report released this week states that, “Because of the stigma surrounding substance abuse, this epidemic is left in the shadows.”

Is it just the stigma of drug addiction that is causing excessive drug overdoses or is something more complicated? Are people not seeking help for issues like prescription drug addiction (one of the largest causes of drug overdose) because they are embarrassed about the stigma or do they just not realize that they are dealing with a deadly problem? Most come to prescription drug addiction through a doctor’s prescription. They don’t assume that something that is generally considered illegal could start with a desire to get better.

However it starts, Massachusetts is working to remedy the problem. They intend to better monitor the prescription of opiate painkillers, identifying drug addiction early among patients, and providing early intervention and treatment.

If you or someone you love is struggling with prescription painkiller addiction, contact an opiate detox center or a drug rehab with an opiate addiction program today.

Prescription pain killer addiction is a growing problem in our world today. These drugs are so easy to get and they are legal. People keep taking their medication too long or to help them “get through the day”, and they may find themselves addicted to a strong narcotic.

Cycle Of Prescription Drug Addiction and Withdrawal Symptoms

Oxycontin, Vicodin, and Percocet are just a few examples of commonly prescribed narcotic pain medication. They are so addictive that a person trying to wean themselves may become trapped in a cycle of taking pills to avoid very uncomfortable symptoms. So then they are faced with two choices – do they try to endure pain and emotional distress from not taking the pills or do they keep taking them and create a monster?

Just admitting you need professional help for an addiction is a huge step. And many people addicted to prescription medication had begun with a fully legitimate reason to take the medication. It can be embarassing and humbling to ask for help, especially for someone who never expected to end up with an addiction.

Prescription drug detox is a necessary part of drug rehab. Thankfully, many rehabs already have a drug detox set-up in their facility. However long it takes for a person to endure the symptoms, the detox staff is there to see it through with the addict.

Prescription Drug Detox Medications Have Controversy

Sometimes, substitution drugs like methadone or Suboxone are used to make withdrawal easier. This can be tricky since a person may be in recovery but still technically not sober from all drugs. The benefit of these medication is there chemical similarity to the addictive drugs and their relative lack of withdrawal side effects. So instead of coming right off Vicodin, a person may be prescribed Suboxone in gradually reduced amounts.

Some controversy has developed over the use of these medications. Despite their usefulness for many people, some recovering addicts have developed addictions to these medications. Buprenorphine is a fairly new drug being developed as an effective but safer alternative to Methadone and Suboxone. Time will tell if science can come up with a completely non-addictive detox medication for prescription pain killers.

Prescription Drug Detox and Drug Rehab Combination

Prescription drug detox is the first step towards addiction recovery. It may be hard for a person to even believe they are truly addicted to painkillers. They may have even thought they could stop taking the drugs on their own with no guidance. The excruciating symptoms make it so difficult for anyone taking a narcotic pain killer to stop on their own. A professional drug detox and drug rehab can get you or someone you love on the road to sobriety.

Heroin addiction is a rampant problem across the United States that doesn’t diminish with time. Determining how best to fight heroin addiction has focused mostly on criminalizing the behavior and providing treatment for those who need it. However, not enough is said about the nascence of heroin. Where does the sticky black tar come from that is so popular in the western United States? How does it get here and why is how the drug produced and distributed as big a problem as the addiction itself?

How Heroin is Produced

Heroin is created in a process by isolating and concentrating the morphine produced by opium poppy plants. By combining this substance in a “cooking” process of sorts, it can be reduced and boiled to create a white or yellow power. Although the process of production is complicated, it can be carried out in a home laboratory, which makes it particularly dangerous. If an untrained person were to add too much of a particular chemical or too little of another, they might produce heroin that has deadly side effects in the form of poisonous chemicals or dangerous purity levels.

The basic recipe follows like so: Opium is placed into a pot of very hot water, out of which are taken bits of flotsam and jetsam like twigs, leaves, etc. Chemicals are then added to the mixture to create an alkaline solution, which is then filtered through cloths and rinsed. After the addition of other chemicals and a heating and cooling process, the heroin is taken out, allowed to dry, and is then ready to ship to distributors.

The Dangers of Heroin Production

Although initial steps of the heroin creation process are easy to perform in a home setting or makeshift laboratory, later steps in the process can be fatally dangerous. This is because caustic chemicals are used in the solution, and all of them require large quantities and are dangerous to handle or even be around. The last step of the process is the most dangerous of all, as it involves flammable gases that are pressurized. If these gases ignite, the result is an explosion of devastating proportions, and certain destruction of the laboratory or residence used to create the drug. It also almost certainly spells the doom for the person who was mixing the chemicals.

Heroin Addiction, Heroin Distribution and War

It’s not just the United States who if waging a war against drugs. All around the world, every day, there are bloody battles over the distribution and production of heroin specifically. Afghanistan produces about 90 percent of the world’s supply of heroin and the countries along its major distribution routes to get to the west suffer the most in terms of heroin addicts per capita. The lives lost in service to trafficking the drugs across well protected borders are countless, nameless people who are desperate to make money for their families or find a better life for themselves.

Though heroin addiction is tragic in action, the tragedy begins long before you call your connection or head out to the corner to score. If you are addicted to heroin, getting help means that you not only save your own life but contribute to saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of others around the world.

Getting someone you love to drug rehab is like a lot of things. You can try doing it on your own, or you can involve a professional. While it may be possible for you and a few others to get a reluctant loved one started with drug rehab, you might feel more comfortable having help from a drug rehab interventionist.

Experienced Drug Rehab Interventionist

First, you want someone with experience. Not just drug and alcohol counseling experience, but drug rehab intervention experience. You want someone who’s been through interventions gone well and gone wrong to
help you understand the paths to success and the pitfalls. You are going to be plenty nervous and uncertain anyway. An experienced leader can bring a calm presence to the process.

Interventionist Tells The Truth About Drug Addiction

Next, you want someone who can be direct and give the stark truth. That’s what you need hear after all, the absolute truth. An intervention is a step up from just sharing your concerns or pleading with someone one-on-one. It could represent the family’s last hope for making drug rehab happen for their loved one. You need someone who won’t be afraid to cut through it all with honesty and a straightforward style.

Interventionist Knows About Drug Rehabs

Also, you want someone familiar with various types of drug rehab centers. An interventionist who is well networked can help you know what kind of drug rehab would be appropriate for your loved one. You want to have a drug rehab set up already before the intervention starts. Sometimes a person’s willingness is fleeting, so it’s important to have that taken care of ahead of time. A knowledgeable professional can help take the guesswork out of choosing the right drug rehab.

Finally, you want an interventionist who is well organized. The better an intervention is planned, the more likely it will be successful. Everyone will know their roles, what they are going to say, what not to do, and why everything is being done. Of course, any intervention could have some surprises and unexpected changes. A good interventionist can prepare the family for handling these things.

Intervention Professional Helps You Get Loved One to Drug Rehab

An interventionist can bring a sense of direction and steadiness to your intervention. You and your family will be emotional enough as it is. The last thing you need is a lot of uncertainty or feeling like you failed because you didn’t know what you were doing. If you are planning an intervention, consider adding a professional intervention counselor to your team.