It’s a new year, a new decade and it could be a new phase of your life if you are currently living with drug and alcohol addiction and you’re ready to get clean and sober. Drug and alcohol addiction treatment can provide you with medical treatment for physical and emotional drug dependence. There’s no better time than the present to make the change you’ve been wanting to make for years.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment: The Opportunity of a New Start

You open up a world of opportunities for yourself when you choose to enroll in a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center. Holistic addiction treatment especially provides more than just medical detox. You also get a number of different therapies and treatments that provide recreation and exercise. From hiking and beach walks to swimming and equine assisted therapy, you will have the opportunity to create new habits, get involved in new hobbies and build a life for yourself outside of drug and alcohol addiction.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment Options

The number of drug and alcohol addiction treatment options available means that no one need walk away without the help they need this year. There inpatient crystal meth rehabs, outpatient heroin detox, short-term alcohol detox, methadone clinics, sober living homes, long-term cocaine addiction treatment… the options and combinations are almost endless.

Your options are increased by the fact that for every type of drug and alcohol addiction treatment services available, there are different styles of providing that service. You can find high end or luxury drug rehabs or public, basic options. You can find religion-affiliated detox and addiction treatment programs for almost any religion or non-religious rehabs. You can find non-profit organizations offering treatment or private companies offering more of a resort-style option. From seven-day detox programs to year-long inpatient treatment, you can find a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center to suit your needs.

Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment: Take Back the New Year

New year’s resolutions are usually great intentions and nothing more. At best, they’re promises that are kept for a week or even a month before they are broken. Don’t be one of the masses. If you are living with heroin addiction, prescription drug addiction, cocaine addiction, crystal meth addiction or addiction to a combination of drugs and alcohol, then resolve to get clean at a drug and alcohol addiction treatment center this year and make it happen right now. Call The Canyon to get started.

Depression and drug addiction are both complicated issues. The complexity goes up dramatically when both occur at the same time. Naturally, people have lots of questions when they find out they or someone they care about has these diagnosed together. The following is a list of a few questions you may or may not have thought about when considering drug addiction and depression.

Psychotropic Medication and Drug Addiction

If I have a drug addiction, aren’t I supposed to be completely drug free all the time? Won’t medication for depression be against that recommendation? Medications for depression are usually non-addictive. As you do with anything, be sure you check with your doctor to be sure they know you also have a drug or alcohol addiction. There are many choices for depression medication, so as long as you doctor is aware of the whole situation, you should have very few problems with this form of treatment.

Depression and Addiction Together

When you are treating depression and addiction, does it matter which came first? No, it doesn’t matter which came first. Up through the 1990′s, a person with both disorders were usually made sober for a while before their depression (or other mental illness) was ever addressed. The theory was that a person needed to be sober before they worked on their mental illness. Now, research supports better results when these two problems are treated at the same time, no matter what order they occur in.

Depression and Together Throughout Life

If I get through this depression and addiction now, could I have these problems again in the future? Yes, once you have been through an episode of depression, you are generally more vulnerable to it in your lifetime. Maybe not for a few years, ten years, twenty years, or ever. But so many changes can occur over a person’s lifetime, so it’s best if they are aware of this risk. They can develop good self-care habits and awareness of any symptoms coming on.

Likewise, once someone has become addicted to a substance, they must make lifestyle changes for their entire life. They are at risk for relapse unless they stay on top of it. Depression is very treatable, so the outlook for someone who’s had depression once is still good. Also, drug treatment centers and support groups are in practically every community around the world. Having depression and an addiction may seem like a dismal lifetime risk. But with proper drug treatment and support, a person’s outlook can still be very good.

More Questions About Drug Addiction and Depression

What are your questions about drug addiction and depression? Did this list have one or two that were new to you, or did you think of a couple of questions that still need answers? Put your questions here at the end of this post, or call your local drug rehab center for more personalized answers.

When you are physically dependent upon any drug, including alcohol, detox can be an extremely difficult experience. More than just a physiological response to the lack of drugs in your system, drug detox is emotionally and psychologically exhausting as well.

If you are about to enter drug detox or if you are currently detoxing off of your drug of choice, here are a few safety tips to help you make sure you are detoxing healthfully and effectively.

Drug Detox Safety Tip #1: Medical Supervision

Of primary importance is your health as you go through drug detox. The only way to ensure this is to begin and end your drug detox under medical supervision. At inpatient drug detox or drug rehab facilities, you will have onsite medical supervision as you begin your drug detox all the way through until your withdrawal symptoms are gone. Should you experience any complications due to underlying or co-occurring medical disorders, you will be protected.

Drug Detox Safety Tip #2: Don’t Binge

Many are tempted to overindulge in their drug of choice right before entering a drug detox program. They view it as a “last hurrah” before getting clean and sober. Unfortunately, this will only make your detox experience worse. It also increases your chance of drug overdose, which may ultimately mean that you never make it to drug detox at all. It’s just not a good idea.

Drug Detox Safety Tip #3: Don’t Relapse

One of the biggest risks during drug detox is relapse, yet another reason why it is important that you enroll in a medically supervised drug detox program before you begin. The risk of relapse is highest during detox due to the intensity of withdrawal symptoms. Unfortunately, the largest percentage of drug overdoses occur after a period of sobriety and relapsing during detox is significantly more dangerous than regular drug use. The chances of death or coma due to overdose after abstinence is much higher.

Drug Detox Safety Tip #4: Positive Support

The support of people who love you and want the best for you as well as from people who have been through what you’re going through is invaluable. For many, this is the only thing that keeps them involved in the program and fighting through the hard parts of each day. If you feel like relapsing or if you find yourself wondering why you started this in the first place, if you can’t seem to remember what it is that you’re getting clean and sober for, then calling a supportive friend, counselor, a 1-800 hotline or a sponsor will help you get back on track.

Drug Detox

If you’re ready to get started on building a new life without drugs and alcohol, then The Canyon can help. Give us a call or contact us by email for more information about our drug detox program today.

If there were a pill that abolished addiction of any kind—heroin addiction, crystal meth addiction, alcoholism, sex addiction, gambling addiction—then everyone would know about it instantly and it would be available everywhere. There is too much lost to addictions every year for everyone to keep a medication like that a secret. Could this really be real?

Research and Addiction Medication

Researchers are always on the lookout for this magical medication, but failing an all-powerful pill, they occasionally come up with something that seems to work for certain aspects of specific addiction in some people under some circumstances.

Here’s the latest:

According to USAPlayers.com http://www.usaplayers.com/news/2009/gambling/december/study-reveals-that-gambling-addiction-may-be-treated-with-medicine-12364.html, it’s the medications designed to raise inhibitions and combat the urge to act impulsively that have been developed to fight drug addiction that recently have been shown to have an effect on those struggling with a pathological gambling addiction.

Drugs and Their Effect on Gambling Addiction

Says USAPlayers.com:

“The study, which was so extensive as to break down problem gamblers into two classes, had examined three different medication studies. Each study held between seventy and one hundred participants, and was led by Dr. Jon Grant. Grant and his team, at the University of Minnesota, studied the ‘cognition to identify what motivates extreme types of gambling behavior.’

“The two classes of gamblers included first those that were driven by urge. The urge driven gamblers were those that had stated that they gamble when they lose control of their desires. The other type, which is arguably more extreme, are those that cannot contain their habit even when they do not feel the urge to do so.

“The first class, those driven by the urge, responded well to the treatments that block certain receptors in the brain. These receptors are those for the neurotransmitter glutamate. Family history was also shown to be significant with helping this group of people. Opioid blockers were also effective in decreasing the urge to use substances, particularly when there was a family history for those with addiction.

“Those who have trouble controlling their habits, even with a lack of desire, responded well to a drug that would affect the enzyme catechol-O-methyl-transferase, or COMT. This enzyme played a significant role in certain brain functions. Decreasing this function can make a problem gambler’s desire less severe.”

Gambling Addiction Treatment

Gambling addiction is said to affect about 5 percent of the population, but its effects reach out into the community, affecting families of addicts and taxpayers alike, just as every addiction does. And just like drug and alcohol addiction, gambling addiction can be treated in an addiction treatment program. Since many gambling addicts also struggle with addiction to alcohol, cocaine, crystal meth and/ or amphetamines, it is often helpful to attend a dual diagnosis addiction treatment center that can provide treatment for both disorders simultaneously.

If you need drug and alcohol addiction treatment, gambling addiction treatment, or dual diagnosis treatment, don’t wait to get started. Every day you let go by without getting the help you need is a day lost to addiction.

The holidays are saturated with alcohol commercials, opportunities to drink, and even alcoholic gifts. For a person trying to live or create a sober lifestyle, just getting through the holiday season can be challenging.

Christmas And Addiction Recovery

Drinks Offered at Holiday Gatherings

You can put alcohol in fruit juice, coffee, eggnog, soda, or just on ice. It’s hard to think of a time when more types of alcoholic drinks are available. So many of them are made to taste like delicious desserts. Having a drink on a cold night is a cozy image for many adults. But for an alcoholic or drug addict, alcohol will bring anything but Christmas cheer. In fact, some alcoholic families give bottles of alcohol to each other for Christmas. They excuse and accept excessive drinking as a way of life. When someone breaks the mold or bucks the pattern, they are the one that stands out and often end up being isolated from everyone.

Emotional Ups and Downs

Christmas is a time when people get heightened emotions and expanded expectations about family gatherings, presents, their looks, money, and various other things. In most cases, people manage these emotions and fluctuations with minimal problems. A recovering alcoholic may find their emotions tweaked and tested during this period. Memories of a difficult past, recent troubles and challenges, adjusting to a new way of living – this can all be enough to test their coping skills. If the addict or alcoholic doesn’t have a solid support system or has gotten off their healthy sober habits somewhat, they could face a possible relapse. This could be just as challenging for a person just freshly discharged from a drug treatment outpatient program or drug rehab center.

Friends Coming Back To Town Wanting To Party

People often visit their home towns during the Christmas holiday season. Old friends from high school, college, or from previous jobs like to go out or have parties. A person living a sober lifestyle may have old temptations to fight when these friends come calling. “Come on, let’s go out like the old times. We had so much fun then.” Saying no can be so hard, hard enough that the recovering person may be tempted to take their chances and go along with them.

Drug and Alcohol Treatment Recovery Plans

So how does an alcoholic or recovering drug addict get through this festive yet challenging time? They get and stick to their drug treatment recovery plan. The holidays require self awareness and commitment, perhaps more than other times of the year. Even though this is supposed to be a time of wonder and happiness, many people (especially the newly sober) struggle to stay on track. With support and a good plan, a person in recovery can still enjoy this time of celebration.

When Jemima Phillips was appointed Royal Harpist by the Prince of Wales, it would have appeared that her life couldn’t have been more perfect. Behind the scenes, however, an out of control heroin addiction had her struggling to hold it all together.

Recently, Phillips was convicted for theft and the arrest revealed a life full of secrets kept from the public, including violent relationships and family tragedy that likely contributed to her abuse of heroin, according to the Daily Mail.

The Appearance of Perfection

As Royal Harpist, Phillips found herself playing at amazing venues. She even played at the wedding of the Prince of Wales to Camilla Parker Bowles. To anyone viewing her life from the outside, it appeared as if she had it all: 28 years old, a graduate of the Royal School of Music, master of her £18,000 harp, and a position as the Royal Harpist.

After being convicted for handling stolen goods, Phillips confessed to a heroin addiction. Even without the conviction, the admission of heroin addiction pretty well secured the loss of her position of Royal Harpist and left her with a destroyed reputation. The long story of losing her brother during childhood, developing her musical gift to soothe her siblings (one of who suffered brain damaged, the other severely autistic), emotional alienation from her father, abusive boyfriends, abortions, and burglary only served to solidify her fate.

Heroin Rehab for Heroin Addiction

If she recognized that she was struggling with heroin addiction, why didn’t Phillips seek medical help at a heroin rehab? Simple: she was trying to keep the secret and if it got out, she feared the loss of her job and the possibility of being denied the ability to work in the United States. She attempted to get clean on her own and, occasionally, was successful for a few months until something would happen to trigger her and start it all again. She was trapped by the cycle of relapse in addiction and couldn’t break free before her choices under the influence revealed her to everyone far more dramatically than a stay in heroin rehab ever would have.

Heroin Addiction Treatment: Get Help Now

If you are struggling with heroin addiction, going through the cycle of attempting to get clean every few months only to relapse as soon as something stressful comes your way, then you need heroin addiction treatment. For those who are lucky enough to be completely free of withdrawal symptoms, an outpatient heroin addiction treatment program that focuses on the emotional and mental aspects of heroin addiction will assist you in learning how to make better choices and avoid relapse. Many will provide therapies that allow you to explore your drug history for clues as to why heroin addiction became an issue for you.

For those who are currently experiencing withdrawal symptoms, a heroin detox will need to precede heroin addiction treatment either at an inpatient heroin rehab or separate from outpatient treatment.

Whichever style of heroin rehab you choose, don’t wait. Call Canyon for more information.

Drug detox is something no drug addict or alcoholic looks forward to. A person needing drug detox goes through an uncomfortable, sometimes painful withdrawal from the drug as it leaves their body. The withdrawal process can be so difficult that many people end up staying on drugs because they can’t tolerate the symptoms well enough to stay clean for long. Unfortunately, a person does have to go through this if they decide to get sober. Fortunately, there are many great drug detox services available today, both as independent facilities and as part of drug rehab centers. Here are some of the things you need to know about drug detox.

Difference Between Drug Detox and Drug Rehab

Drug detox is not drug rehab. Detox is simply detoxifying the body from the chemicals, nothing more. Drug rehab is a more long-term therapeutic service done by trained drug addiction therapists. Drug rehab involves individual talk therapy, group therapy sessions, twelve step principles, sometimes holistic therapies like yoga and meditation, and is often done in a 30-90 day residential setting.

Drug detox services will be much shorter, usually just a few days. Some drugs create withdrawal symptoms for several days to a few weeks after the majority of the drugs have left the body. However, the addict may still stay only through the worst couple of days at the beginning until the symptoms are more manageable.

Drug detox services have caring professionals that offer medical and emotional support. However, they do not provide the important personal therapy work done at a drug rehab center. Drug detox is an important part of getting sober, but it is only a small part of the big picture. Drug rehab is usually necessary to create a foundation for lasting sobriety.

Drug Detox More Comfortable But Not Perfect

Drug detox, however well done, can still be uncomfortable. The ultimate goal with drug detox is to make withdrawal symptom-free. But no medicine can take the place of good rest, good nutrition, and a healthy body. Medicine and a comfortable location will certainly make the detox process more tolerable, but it does not guarantee that an addict won’t feel some discomfort from the process. Drug detox still makes much more sense than a cold turkey approach. The emotional and medical support can make the withdrawal step successful rather than another frustrating cycle.

Use Drug Detox And Start A Sober Life

If you know you are facing drug withdrawal at some point, do it in a professional drug detox setting. What once may have been a roadblock can be a point of inspiration and courage in your life. You can overcome an important hurdle to your sobriety. For best and longest lasting results, do your drug detox as part of a comprehensive drug rehab stay. Contact your local drug rehab or drug detox center to see what your options are and to ask questions.

I really should take at this time to watch more of A&E’s Intervention, a show about people needing drug rehab intervention. After scrolling through several episode reviews, I have decided to just give my thoughts on this for now. Believe me, I’m sure I have enough comments to fill more than blog post.

Having just an interview today, I have found common threads among many of the drug addicts and alcoholics. By no means is this list comprehensive, just my first impressions from what I’ve seen.

Exceptionalism and Drug Addiction

Drug rehab intervention

A number of people featured on the show were described in traditional way. They were on track for success in real estate, the beauty industry, acting, athletics, and college. Some were even labeled as genius and high achievers. I couldn’t help but wonder if these people, success made for a lonely life. More being famous and supremely talented, most people truly want to feel like they belong somewhere. And if something makes them feel like they are left out or less than what they used to be, they may face a real identity crisis.

Who are they without this reputation of success? Some of these men and women used their achievements to cover emotional pain. Some have difficulty handling the ups and downs of their career. One brilliant young woman suffered a brain injury from a car accident and turned to alcohol to deal with her life. I imagine for folks on the fast track of success, the prospect of going to drug rehab could feel like the ultimate insult, even if they understand how it could help.

Drug Addicts Didnt Recover Well From Tragedy

Some of the stories on intervention, highlighted a personal tragedy in someone’s life is counselors for their drug addiction. Things were going well until a grandmother died, a devastating accident, a sibling’s death, and so on. Makes me wonder how well things were really going before that happened. Perhaps the family was living in somewhat of a fantasy world with some of their problems.

Of course, many people suffer from a death or significant life changes without developing a drug or alcohol addiction. It’s important to remember that several ingredients need to get together before this becomes a reality. However, I was struck by the number of traumatic or painful incidents . That seemed to push things in a bad direction.

Childhood Trauma and Addiction

A traumatic childhood was also a common factor in several stories. Compared to the single devastating event, the traumatic childhood seems more like a slow burning pit of coals. Both things, if not handled well, will burn up a person from the inside. Many people had a father who was distant or hard to please. More than one had an alcoholic parent.

For these situations, it can be a little harder to pin down the moment everything began to fall apart. Since the emotional pain still lingered, it may not have taken much to set things off. Anyone who married an abusive person perpetuated their childhood trauma (and emotional pain) in their adult life. Almost like a ticking time bomb waiting for someone to light the fuse.

Drug Rehab Can Help

So many people on this show have said the didn’t need to or didn’t want to quit what they were doing. Fortunately, many people have also gotten better because they relented. They may not have been willing at first, but something took enough hold during their time at drug rehab to help them get over some big hurdles. It is really gratifying to see the follow up stories when people have made such a positive change.

Anna Nicole Smith’s two doctors and her lawyer boyfriend—Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Howard K. Stern—are pleading not guilty to drug conspiracy charges. Pending the outcome of the trial, the judge will not suspend the doctors’ medical licenses, according to the Associated Press.

Though the trio are not charged with manslaughter, homicide or even being the cause of her death, they are charged with conspiring together to illegally provide Anna Nicole with copious amounts of prescription pills including a combination of sedatives and opiates. After a preliminary hearing that outlined the many different drugs given to Anna Nicole, how they were prescribed and dispensed to her, and why (a process that took three weeks), charges were formally filed against all Kapoor, Eroshevich, and Stern.

The former Playboy model’s addiction to these pills eventually led to her death in February 2007 at a hotel in Florida, just days after her son, Daniel, died of an overdose as well. Her autopsy revealed that she died due to taking a combination of at least nine medications.

So why won’t the doctors lose their licenses considering the severity of the charges against them?

Says Linda Deutsch at Associated Press, “Superior Court Judge David Wesley rejected an effort by the attorney general’s office to lift the medical licenses, saying a yearslong delay in seeking that action undermines the claim of an imminent danger to the public if the doctors continue to practice.”

The trial itself may not happen until the summer of 2010, but in the meantime, all sides will likely file a number of motions to resolve certain issues. During the trial, the testimonies of those who were around Anna Nicole in the Bahamas during her last days will be heard.

The defense of all three alleged “co-conspirators” is that all of them had worked together to attempt to save Anna Nicole from her self-destructive behavior during her last years. All three claim that they were not aware that she was suffering from drug addiction.

The prosecution argues that drug addiction could not have been more obvious, especially to trained medical professionals, and that the three were caught up in riding her coat tails in the celebrity world.

If they are convicted, all three of the defendants could spend five years in prison.

The Warning Signs of Drug Addiction

Because the three charged with drug conspiracy charges in the wake of Anna Nicole’s death claim they had no idea that Anna Nicole was a drug addict, it seems that it is less important to cast blame after an overdose than it is to recognize the issue of drug addiction while you are still alive and able to fight it.

If you think that your prescription drug use has evolved into abuse or even addiction or if you believe that your loved one is a prescription drug addict, don’t wait to get help. Talk to a substance abuse treatment counselor as well as your doctor and determine whether or not a prescription drug rehab is the right move for you.

Sometimes it helps to understand something when you know a few facts and figures about it. When a mental illness and addiction happen together, they are called a dual diagnosis. You need to know the following important information about depression and addiction.

Depression Commonly Linked With Addiction

About 10% of the population in the United States is affected by some form of depression each year. Between 30-40% of people with drug and alcohol problems also have depression, making it the most common mental illness associated with a dual diagnosis. Untreated depression can put a recovering alcoholic or drug addict at risk for relapse.

Depression and alcohol or drug addiction are strong factors that can put a teenager at high risk for suicide. Young people with depression between the ages of twelve and seventeen have twice the likelihood of drinking alcohol or using drugs than young people of the same age with no depression symptoms.

Get Properly Diagnosis For Depression and Addiction

Diagnosis can be challenging when it comes to depression and drug addiction because many symptoms overlap. These can include fatigue, sleep problems (too much or too little), a sense of sadness or emptiness, irritability or restlessness, suicidal feelings and thoughts, loss of enjoyment and interest with activities that have been previously enjoyed, problems with anger and changes in eating habits.

Alcohol has a depressant effect on the body, meaning that it slows down the central nervous system in various bodily functions. A person may feel groggy, have blurred vision, and slowed reaction time. With prolonged heavy alcohol use, a person may develop a separate diagnosis of clinical depression. That would mean he or she would have a dual diagnosis.

A person with depression and an alcohol or drug addiction needs specialized drug treatment. Both the depression and the addiction need to be treated simultaneously. It used to be common practice to treat the addiction for several weeks before addressing the depression. Now, research supports much better outcomes when the depression is treated right away. When a person becomes sober with depression treatment, they have a lower chance of relapsing because of depression symptoms.

Dual Diagnosis Drug Rehab Important Choice

It’s important to know if you or a loved one truly has a dual diagnosis. Not all drug rehab centers are equipped to deal with mental illness. Before starting a drug treatment, be sure you know that the program of your choice specifically treats dual diagnosis disorders. Contact them or check out their website to find out for sure. Getting the right drug rehab can make all the difference for building a sober life.