The Canyon

If you have dealt with someone who has a drug addiction or alcoholism, you know you can’t deny the power of denial. It can be a nearly impenetrable wall of resistance for any sort of drug rehab or alcohol treatment. It can be mind boggling and frustrating, but it’s part of the deal. Instead of banging against it, take a different approach to make progress.

Feeling Stuck Dealing With Denial

When you are frustrated, you can feel really stuck. You might even wonder if you’ve been going down the wrong path or you are wasting your time. This is a common experience for someone trying to help a drug addict who’s heavily into their denial. The wall is up, ready to protect them against any perceived attack. Even if that “attack” is an outstretched hand ready to help.

First, you need to understand that bashing and clashing against the denial won’t do any good. In fact, an aggressive approach can do a lot to distance the addict from you. That decreases your chance of actually getting through to them. It’s tempting to try to force the addict to see what you want them to see. But denial is designed to skirt around a direct power approach.

Compassionate Approach To Drug Addiction Denial

A better way is through compassion and patience. It’s so tempting to be impatient with a person who really seems to not “get” that they have a problem. It may seem so obvious to you – three DUI’s, a drug possession charge, child custody being taken away, divorce. The addict can come back with a million reasons why none of this is their fault. Your immediate reaction might be to let your blood boil and start getting edgy.

Stop. Understand that this person really can’t see it. They want to be understood and listened to. Eventually, you can keep them talking if you remain patient and calm. When you speak slowly and calmly, you may at some point earn a small amount of acceptance from them. Just keep in mind that you can’t make them change their mind or their viewpoint. You can help present the obvious conflict between what’s really happening and what they believe is happening.

Gently Highlight Conflict Within Drug Addicts Life

So they don’t think they have a problem. But how about their desire to own their own home and have a good job like they used to? How does that match up with continued drug use? Do they see how those two don’t really match? Have they taken a minute to think about that before? They need to know it’s OK to notice that these two things are in conflict. Just being aware of this can sometimes tip the balance towards change. Rather than forcing them to see it, you quietly invite them to see it.

Drug Rehab Helps With Denial

Denial is a very challenging aspect of drug addiction. Drug rehab can help break down denial, and a person may still have some work to do when they are finished with their drug treatment program. Caring therapists and family members can help the drug addict create more cracks in the facade, allowing the truth to be a bigger part of their daily reality.

photo credit: Torley

You and your friends may joke about all the stuff you did last night while getting drunk that you didn’t remember. But memory problems associated with alcohol use are no laughing matter. It’s a sign of damage within the brain. Look closer at this often minimized symptom of alcohol abuse and alcohol addiction.

Blackouts and Long Term Memory Loss

According to research, it only takes one or two drinks to show evidence of memory deterioration. Blackouts or partial memories can happen with higher levels of alcohol consumption. It appears that according to a number of research articles, blackouts are related to quick rises in BAC. While this is a strong indicator of alcoholism, many social drinkers report having occasional blackouts.

With blackouts, the long term memory storage process appears to be blocked. However, short term memory (several seconds) seems to remain intact enough for a person to do normal looking activities. When asked to recall these activities just a few minutes later, they can’t do it. Nothing seems to get transferred between immediate short term memory and long term memory storage.

Alcohol Dementia Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome

Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome is actually two separate brain disorders happening at the same time. The symptoms are due to thiamine (B12) deficiency. It is sometimes known as alcohol dementia. Heavy drinking disrupts the body’s ability to absorb the B12 vitamin, resulting in some or all of the following symptoms:

• Can’t form new memories
• Significant overall memory loss Confabulation (making things up to fill in memory gaps)
• Hallucinations
• Visual problems
• Muscle coordination problems (unsteady walking)

Some symptoms can improve with B12 treatments and hospitalization to stabilize manage the symptoms. Sobriety can also help some symptoms improve and prevent further damage to the brain and body. But the memory problems will likely stay as they are regardless of treatment.

Other Problems Associated With Alcohol And Memory Loss

Imagine if you spent a night out with friends and woke up with no memory of the evening. Would you be afraid to find out what you did? Would you be ashamed to know you were so out of control? Would the incident have a lasting affect on how you lived your life from then on? These are the important real-life questions a person has to ask themselves if they have an alcohol related blackout.

Possible risks could include unsafe sexual behavior or becoming a victim of sexual assault, spending money foolishly, getting into an accident, becoming lost and left in an unsafe location, driving despite obvious intoxication. If a person with a blackout has no memory of these events, the natural course of guilt and reparation can’t happen. They cannot feel remorseful for something they don’t remember doing, maybe don’t even believe they did. That person becomes a true danger to themselves and others.

Serious Alcohol Related Memory Problems And Alcohol Rehab

If a person has developed serious and persistent memory problems from alcohol use, they are either alcoholic or very close to it. This is a symptom that may be overlooked or diminished in cultures or populations where heavy drinking is normalized. It is a sign of brain damage, a sign that alcohol treatment is necessary. Alcohol rehab may not be able to reverse all levels of memory impairment. However, it can help a person establish a sober life to prevent further problems. If you are suffering from memory impairment and you drink heavily, please seek more information about starting alcohol treatment right away.

photo credit: ViPier

Gladys Lillas, of New Zealand, was notorious for her drinking habit. Often drunk, Lillas would walk and dance in traffic, forcing cars to swerve out of the way to avoid her. Many an accident was narrowly missed due to her antics, and the local courts finally decided recently that enough is enough: they forcing Lillas into rehab.

Typically, a person’s family members have to be the ones to push someone into alcohol and drug rehab if they aren’t choosing it for themselves. In the event that criminal acts are done under the influence, some courts have drug court options in which the offender is offered drug rehab rather than jail time, but still no one is forced into anything. If the offender decides not to opt for treatment, they are well within their rights to choose jail time instead.

In short, it’s highly irregular for a court to force anyone into treatment and though no one can deny that Lillas is an alcoholic and that her behavior under the influence is dangerous, some are a little hesitant about the court’s decision to force her into drug and alcohol addiction treatment.

Said Judge McGuire who presided over her case: “We need to get you help for your alcoholism to quit finally so some poor motorist will not have your death on their conscience when you walk out in front of them drunk.”

To be clear, Lillas is far from a first time offender. She has been picked up numerous times over the years with drunk and disorderly charges. Her favorite pastime seems to be walking in traffic and yelling at the top of her lungs. She even did three months in an alcohol rehab facility but the court was told that she immediately began drinking again upon her release. The police are have been inundated for years with phone calls from concerned citizens who feared for Lillas’ life due to her behavior, and the courts seem to have decided that it was time to step in.

Says Police Prosecutor Aroha Cooper: “It’s sad because she is such a lovely person. Everyone loves Gladys. She has a real sense of humor but on the down side when she has been drinking, all police can do is lock her up and detox her. She needs some help.”

Inspector Greg Sparrow also commented on Lillas’ situation, saying: “We’ve usually been called when she has been wandering out on the road presenting a danger not only to herself but to other road users. We are pleased that danger may be mitigated. It is obviously a concern for us having people wandering about on the roads. The last thing we want to see is Gladys being injured.”

What do you think? Is it fair or constitutional to mandate treatment for those who refuse to help themselves if they continue to be a danger to others? Or should the judicial system only be allowed to levy fines and enforce jail time for offenses no matter what the cause of those choices?

The human brain is an amazingly complex and interconnected organ. When alcohol and drugs come into the body, each unique portion of the brain reacts in a different way. These individual effects all add up to making a person appear high or drunk. Take a look at each of these reactions from the brain.

Portions Of The Brain Affected By Drugs And Alcohol

Frontal lobe – Impaired reasoning and judgment, inhibitions lowered, sociability affected
Parietal lobe – fine motor skills impaired, reaction time slowed
Temporal lobe – speech slurred and hearing impaired
Occipital lobe – Vision and judgment of distance impaired
Limbic system – Emotions become exaggerated, various levels of memory loss
Cerebellum – Loss of muscle coordination, impaired balance
Brain stem – Disruption of automatic vital functions like heartbeat, breathing, body temperature regulation

Most of these effects are temporary, ending when the person is no longer intoxicated by drugs or alcohol. But extended drug use can make some of these effects become long-term such as memory problems.

Factors Affecting Potential Brain Damage

Drugs and alcohol used in excess can do serious damage to a person’s brain. But since each person is unique, one person’s brain damage may not be the same as that of another person. The US National Institute of Health has published a chart of the important factors in chemically induced brain damage. Take note of how different these circumstances could be for the millions of people abusing and addicted to chemical
substances.

* The person’s age, level of education, gender, genetic background, and family history of alcoholism
* How much and how often a person drinks
* The age at which he or she first began drinking, and how long he or she has been drinking
* Whether he or she is at risk as a result of prenatal alcohol exposure
* His or her general health status.

As you can imagine, a young woman who has only been drinking for a year would be at a different risk level than a 45 year old man who’s been taking drugs and drinking alcohol off and on for 25 years.

The young woman has a generally higher risk for damage over her lifetime because of her gender. However, at the age of 19 she is at a lower risk than the man because of the length of time she has been drinking. If she abstained or drank moderately from this point on, her risk for brain damage from alcohol could be slim to none.

The older man may already have had years of brain damage because of his longer use and multiple substances. The protective factor of his gender makes no difference with his chronic addiction issues.

Drug Rehab To Prevent Potential Brain Damage

If your drug use has gotten out of control, it is likely that you are at serious risk for brain damage. In fact, you may have already sustained some damage without realizing it. Drug treatment or alcohol rehab may be the only way to prevent further damage. Brain damage might not be reversible, but you can learn to live with it when you establish a sober lifestyle. Drug rehab can help you learn how to live sober and live well.

Don’t risk brain damage because of a drug addiction or alcoholism. Stop the cycle right now and start drug rehab today.

photo credit: BlatantNews.com

A few weeks ago, I introduced you to a few important ways to reduce your addiction relapse risk. Sobriety isn’t necessarily forever, and every recovering addict needs to keep a good sobriety plan in place. Take a look at a few more methods and reasons for this.

Know Your Drug Addiction Triggers

Know thyself. This is one of the most challenging yet most important parts of staying sober. You may want to hide from those ugly parts of your past or about your personality. But if you don’t acknowledge the things that trigger your cravings or desire to cover your feelings, you may get yourself into trouble.

Knowing your triggers can help you head off potential problems. Relapse temptations are so much easier to avoid than they are to manage. Instead of fighting of cravings and being emotionally distraught because you went to visit an old drinking friend, you can set a boundary for yourself because you know it is better for you. Not easy to do, but worth it to keep your sobriety intact for another day.

Review and Revise Your Relapse Prevention Plan

Your relapse prevention plan should change and evolve as you do. Life happens, and when it does you need to be sure your plan can keep up with you. If you’ve experienced a death in the family, moved to a new community, changed jobs, or had any sort of relapse issue (even a small one), you may need to make some adjustments in order to keep your stress levels down.

If it’s been several months or years since you’ve even reviewed your plan, it’s probably time to do it again. Just because you check it out doesn’t mean you have to make a change. If what you have still makes sense and targets the right triggers and needs, then you are probably in good shape. If not, have someone help you or at least look over your changes.

Consider The Possibility Of Going Back to Drug Rehab

You may cringe at the thought of going back to drug rehab. Maybe you won’t ever need to do it. But it’s a fair chance that at least some people who have been through drug rehab once will relapse to the point where they may need it again.

If you do relapse and it seems beyond your control, going back to drug rehab can really make a difference. Trying to gut it out on your own because of your pride can sink even deeper into relapse. With drug addiction, there is no guarantee with sobriety. In the end, your quality of life is what matters the most.

Preventing Addiction Relapse Is Daily Work

It takes daily effort to stay sober. Many people who have been sober for years still know exactly how long they have been sober. With a current relapse prevention plan, you make ongoing sobriety so much more attainable and manageable for yourself.

A person’s heart suffers when they have a drug addiction. Their emotional heart and their physical heart can both be damaged significantly. This post will focus on the physical harm drug addiction can do to a person’s heart and how that harm affects their overall health. It’s another reason anyone addicted to drugs may need to consider drug rehab.

How Hard Drugs Affect The Heart

Heart damage is a dangerous effect of drug use, but it’s not usually noticed until it’s severe or too late. Many drugs do a lot so slow or speed up heart rate as part of the desired physical effect. But this irregularity can overload and stress the heart to the point that it functions less effectively or even stops

Cocaine constricts the blood vessels, which limits the flow of oxygen through the body. Stroke, aneurysms, and irregular heartbeats can develop after long term use. However, some heart damage is possible whether a person uses cocaine for a short or long period of time including heart attacks.

Heroin can cause damage to the heart valves. Methamphetamine use causes similar problems to the heart as cocaine including heart tissue damage, heart attacks, irregular heartbeats, high blood pressure, aneurysms, and stroke.

Alcohol Addiction and Heart Damage

Excessive alcohol in a person’s blood stressed the entire circulatory system. One or two drinks can provide some benefit to your heart. Much beyond that and you are causing your heart to work harder than it should to do the same job when you have no blood alcohol level. When a person drinks excessively over time, this leads to high blood pressure.

If you look at an alcoholic person’s face, you may notice a constant rosy blush to their skin. Alcohol use causes capillaries to become more dialated while the alcohol is present. When a person drinks heavily and constantly, their capillaries eventually stay expanded and show through the skin. This not only looks somewhat unsightly, it’s clear visible evidence that their circulatory system is suffering. Oxygen and nutrients can no longer be effectively circulated to those tissues. This could potentially have accumulating effects on a person’s general health.

Drug Rehab Can Help Stop Or Reverse Heart Damage

Going to drug rehab has never been a more urgent need if you’ve been told you have a heart problem due to drug or alcohol use. Stopping your addiction in its tracks may save your life. Your addiction will only continue to make problems for your heart if you allow it to continue. Although some severe damage may not be reversible, some heart and circulatory damage can be slowed, stopped, or even reversed if it is caught early enough. If this is your situation, get to drug or alcohol rehab immediately and give your heart a chance.

Sometimes the way you try to solve a problem just makes it worse. When you use alcohol to deal with emotional trouble, you will end up with more problems than you started with. If you are on this path of self destruction, you need to pay attention and see what lies ahead of you.

Alcoholism Takes Over Devastates Your Body

Alcoholism Devastates Your Life

Alcoholism can sneak up on you, an accumulation of drinking patterns that eventually got too strong to control. Or, you might suddenly start drinking heavily to deal with a major change in your life. Regardless of how slowly or quickly your alcoholism developed, you are heading down the same terrible path.

Alcoholism can devastate your body. The fact that you are drinking fluid can fool you into thinking you are hydrated. But in truth, alcohol has a drying effect on everything. Just a few drinks can leave you more thirsty than you started. That’s where the cotton mouth feeling comes from after a hangover (acute withdrawal). Can you imagine how your body is effected when you are drinking 20 beers or a whole bottle of hard alcohol a day? Day after day after day?

Alcoholism Devastates Your Emotions and Self Care

Unfortunately, too many people use alcohol to drown their sorrows. When you are addicted to alcohol, your whole day revolves around it. You may think you are still functioning because you go to work or you still sleep and eat some. But it’s all a big distraction from whatever your emotional problems are. If you are feeling depression set in, you are going through a divorce, or you have just lost a job, those circumstances remain even when you drink. The emotional pain remains even when you drink. The problems may get worse because you continue to drink. The more you try to cope, the deeper you go into the pit. Before long, you may find yourself looking ragged, feeling despair, and just about to lose every bit of stability you know.

You don’t have to wait until you actually lose everything to stop your alcoholism in its tracks. Many alcoholics miss the early signs that their life is self-destructing before their eyes. And even when they do see it, they fail to act because they are stuck between fantasy and reality. They just react and cope with more alcohol. It often takes a huge crash in an alcoholic’s life to get their attention. Before it gets any worse, you can choose alcohol rehab right now.

Alcohol Rehab A Healthier Life Path

If you can see the truth about your drinking, then you can also see that things won’t get better unless you get some alcohol treatment. And if you get help sooner rather than later, you may be able to avoid losing everything. Alcohol rehab can’t change the past. If things have been lost, they have been lost. But going to treatment can help you keep the healthiest things in your life. The sooner you start, the better your chances of preserving your meaningful healthy relationships, your job situation, your financial situation, and your health.

Alcoholism is a guaranteed path of self-destruction. But you don’t have to go any further down that path today. You have the choice to step off right now, right this minute. You can choose alcohol rehab and step onto a healthier life path.

Lots of people head to drug rehab after the holidays. Time for a new start, maybe a reminder of family troubles, perhaps one harmful binge too many – the reasons are as individual as the addicts and alcoholics. What matters is that drug rehab centers often see their numbers go up at this time of the year. So if you decide to take that first step of sobriety by going to drug rehab, do you know what to expect?

Drug Rehab For The New Year

Drug Rehab Not An Easy Step

First, expect to do some work. As you might imagine, drug rehab is no vacation. You may be staying in some fairly comfortable surroundings and be sheltered somewhat from the outside world for a while. However, I’m reminded of a phrase that pretty much says it all – wherever you go, there you are. In other words, you carry your issues with you and you’ll be facing them in drug rehab.

OK, that might be one of your first scary thoughts. The good news is that you are not doing this alone. Well-trained staff and fellow addicts are there to help everyone through the rough spots. Some drug rehab centers invite their alumni to stay involved with current attendees for specific events or meetings. Their experiences and perspective can be invaluable for a newly sober person.

Holistic Therapies With Drug Rehab

More and more drug rehab centers are incorporating holistic therapies into their treatment programs. This includes yoga, meditation, acupuncture, and other treatments associated with eastern health practices. At first, it might seem like these are out of place with drug and alcohol recovery. However, the healthy mental habits that come from regular practice can really help the psychological dimension of drug addiction.

A recovering drug addict has to learn how to deal with a constant barrage of impulsive thoughts related to drinking or using, as well as physical cravings, negative thinking, excuses, and some serious rationalizing. The mental discipline and relaxed approach of these therapies help the mind let these urges come and go. When a recovering addict can stay calm and let them go, they can avoid getting caught up in their emotions. They can stay more rational and make better decisions to help them stay on track with their
sobriety.

New Year New Start With Drug Rehab

This new year may be your time for drug rehab. Are you ready to do something different with your life, get it going in a healthier direction? It takes courage to do this. However, it’s also important to remember that courage is not the absence of fear. It is simply action in the face of fear. Go ahead and have that new start this year, a new sober life.

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.

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.