It’s a common response among those in recovery for any drug, including crystal meth: “It’s not my fault!” Many patients believe that they shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions if they didn’t intend the outcome that resulted – though most absolutely believe that everyone else should, especially if they suffered due to someone else’s choices. Here are some common excuses that people use for bad decisions during crystal meth addiction treatment and tips on how to take responsibility gracefully.

Excuses: Avoiding Responsibility for Your Choices During Crystal Meth Addiction Recovery

Most people who make excuses for their behavior blame their own actions on the actions of another. They claim that someone provoked them into their poor response or brought it on themselves. “If she would have stopped nagging me, I wouldn’t have….” When a person isn’t responsible for the patient’s behavior, a common claim is that they were powerless due to an outside influence: “I had a bad day,” or “There’s never any money.”

Others justify their behavior by saying that it was necessary or that they had no other choice. “She hit me first,” or “There was nothing else I could do.” Other common justifications include minimizing the behavior itself or its results: “She’s overreacting. I barely touched her.” Or “It hardly ever happens. It’s not that big a deal.”

Tips to Take Responsibility for Your Actions During Crystal Meth Addiction Recovery

If any of those excuses sound familiar, there are actionable things you can do to start taking responsibility for your behavior. They include:

• Take care of yourself. If you are not tired, hungry or already upset about something else, you’ll be more clearheaded in moments of stress that may result in poor decisions.
• Build a strong support system. Feeling isolated or cornered is a common cause of acting out and making rash decisions. If you feel that you have a strong support system behind you, you will be more likely to remain calm and avoid bad behavior.
• Commit to making the necessary changes. You know that it’s not okay – how you’ve been behaving of the excuses you make for yourself. Make the commitment to yourself that you don’t want to be that kind of person any more, that integrity is your new goal.
• Choose positive relationships and environments in your life. If you feel pressured to be something you’re not or uncomfortable in certain situations or with certain people, seek out those who accept you the way you are and environments in which you feel strong and relaxed.
• No when to say ‘no.’ If you are continually doing things you don’t want to do, you will build up resentments that are liable to explode at the worst moment. Create boundaries and stick to them, giving yourself the room you need to take care of yourself.

What are your tips for taking responsibility for your actions? Do you have a story about how your actions almost threatened your crystal meth addiction recovery?  Or how taking responsibility saved you from relapse?

A crystal meth addiction intervention takes a little bit of advance planning, but it doesn’t have to be overwhelming if you take it step by step. Here’s what to do before, during and after a crystal meth addiction treatment to make it as successful as possible for your loved one.

Before a Crystal Meth Addiction Intervention

Before the crystal meth addiction intervention, you have a few things to decide:

• Who you will include in the intervention
• Where and when you will hold it
• Who will run the intervention (you, another friend or family member, or a professional interventionist)

After you decide who will be involved in the intervention, you can hold a meeting to decide the other details in order to ensure that the time and place works for everyone’s schedule. You can also determine who will run the intervention then, as well.

It is common for each participant to make a brief, nonjudgmental statement to the addict in question. This is usually an anecdote that demonstrates how the crystal meth addiction hurt the addict of hurt the speaker. At the planning meeting, you can decide who will speak, help them understand the focus and goal of what they are going to say and determine in what order people will share.

During a Crystal Meth Addiction Intervention

Your biggest goal during a crystal meth addiction intervention is to maintain order and help keep the emotional responses in check. Many feel that they are too close to the situation to hold an objective stance throughout the process. In this case, a professional interventionist may be the best choice.

Either way, you need to determine how you will end the intervention. Most finish the event by saying, “It is clear that crystal meth addiction is a problem, and that you need treatment. I can’t stand by and watch you do this to yourself anymore. If you don’t choose crystal meth rehab, then….” Fill in the blank with what you will do to distance yourself from your loved one and their addiction and stop enabling them to continue without treatment.

After a Crystal Meth Addiction Intervention

You have one job after the intervention: follow through. If you said that your loved one needed to choose crystal meth rehab or find a new place to live, then you need to stand by that. If you said you would file for divorce if your loved one didn’t get help, then do that at your next opportunity. Waiting only gives the impression that things don’t need to change and that’s the last message you want to send when your life and the life of the person you love are at stake.

Tips to Plan a Successful Crystal Meth Addiction Intervention

• Pack a bag for your loved one prior to the intervention so that they can leave immediately for treatment if they opt for help.
• Hire a professional interventionist. They’ll not only run the event but escort your loved one to treatment.
• Prepare yourself for anything. There are no guarantees that your loved one will accept help, so be prepared for any outcome and follow through on your promise.

If you would like to learn more about our crystal meth rehab, contact us at The Canyon today.

It is estimated that 78 percent of all drug and alcohol rehab centers are outpatient programs and that 12 percent provide inpatient addiction treatment. Whether you opt for inpatient crystal meth rehab or outpatient crystal meth addiction treatment, the goals of the program should be the same: biopsychosocial stabilization when you first enter treatment, lifestyle reconstruction, and lapse and relapse prevention.

Crystal Meth Addiction Treatment Goal: Biopsychosocial Stabilization

The first step before in-depth care can begin, it is necessary to stabilize the patient after long-term drug abuse. Any withdrawal symptoms or physical illness associated with recent crystal meth abuse or any flare-ups due to untreated psychological disorders must be addressed before anything else. If there are medical issues due to crystal meth abuse (dental care is often needed among crystal meth patients), then that must be attended to as well. Transmissible diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C will need to be stabilized as well – it is estimated that 20 percent of crystal meth addicts who smoke the drug and 70 percent of those who inject the drug have Hepatitis C, yet many don’t know it until they go to crystal meth rehab. When all of these issues are addressed, it is time to move onto the next goal of crystal meth addiction treatment.

Crystal Meth Addiction Treatment Goal: Lifestyle Reconstruction

Crystal meth addiction is often deeply engrained in the patient’s identity and this is an issue that must be addressed in treatment or the patient will always end up returning to regular drug use. There are women who feel that they need the drug to maintain their weight loss, “tough guys” who feel they need to maintain their criminal image, students and professionals who feel they can’t excel without the stamina provided by the drug and gay men who feel that their sexuality is entwined with crystal meth abuse. Addressing the psychological issues underpinning those convictions and helping the patient to find new ways of achieving their goals or reorganizing their identity is a big part of effective treatment, especially when crystal meth is the drug of choice.

Crystal Meth Addiction Treatment Goal: Lapse and Relapse Prevention

The first two goals are in basic service to the final goal of crystal meth addiction treatment: to help the patient avoid lapsing and, ultimately, relapsing back into their old drug addiction patterns when they leave crystal meth rehab. This can mean direct educational classes that offer step-by-step instructions on how to recognize the physical and psychological signs of relapse followed by specific ways to avoid succumbing to the compulsion to use crystal meth. Personal therapy with a psychiatrist or therapist, group counseling sessions, and a range of experiential therapies can all aid in providing the patient with the tools he or she needs to heal the wounds that they were formerly attempting to mend with drug addiction.

Find Crystal Meth Addiction Treatment

If you would like to begin a crystal meth addiction treatment program that will provide you with the care you need to create real change in your life, call us today. We can help.

It’s more common than anyone likes to admit: suburban stay-at-home moms who abuse stimulants and other prescription drugs. With the myriad responsibilities and never ending “to do” lists, it’s easy to want a boost. When it works once, experimental use can become more regular and soon stimulant addiction is a problem – an embarrassing one that no mom wants to admit to. Getting treatment becomes increasingly more difficult to seek the longer the addiction lasts until the problem is so severe that family members are left with no choice but to stage an intervention.

If someone you love is addicted to prescription stimulant medication, contact us at The Canyon today. We can help you secure a spot for them in our prescription drug rehab program and help them – and you – find balance in life.

Suburban Moms and Stimulant Addiction: How it Starts

Stress. It’s a problem in almost every American life and stay-at-home moms are no different. The various classes, school schedules and supporting a working partner can mean that all the details – all of them – fall on the shoulders of the stay-at-home spouse. As a result, suburban moms are often tempted to get a stimulant prescription to help them stay on top of things –some even abuse their children’s Ritalin prescription, a common prescription for ADHD. Though Ritalin can calm children, it has a stimulant effect on adults and some moms use this to help them get through their long list of responsibilities with a little more energy.

Suburban Moms and Stimulant Addiction: Why It Continues

Like all drugs, once you start, it’s hard to stop. It becomes harder and harder to get things accomplished without stimulants once you’ve experienced doing them with assistance. Also, the crash afterward is difficult to deal with. Few moms have the ability to go to bed and recover for days at a time. As a result, they pop another pill to combat the exhaustion and keep going. It’s a never ending cycle.

Suburban Moms and Stimulant Addiction: Interventions

Families who are concerned about the stimulant addiction issues of their loved one can take action. Staging an intervention is one of the best ways to bring up the problem in a safe, nonjudgmental way and help your family member get the addiction help they need. Including the children is an option, depending upon their ages, and can help bring home the point that something needs to be done. Showing your loved one how her choices are hurting her and others in the family is a big part of a stimulant addiction intervention, but it’s especially important to make it clear that your loved one can be just as effective without the drugs.

Suburban Moms and Stimulant Addiction: Get Help at The Canyon

If you are ready to set up an intervention for your family member, secure a spot for her in our drug rehab program here at The Canyon before you begin. Call us now for more information about our program and how to get started.

Recent news has broken about Nicole Bobek, former Olympic figure skater and US champion from the 1990′s. In 2009, she was arrested for her alleged involvement in a crystal meth distribution ring. Just recently, she was sentenced with five years of probation and community service. However, she greeted the news with optimism for the future and a desire to help others. It sounds like she might even start training on the ice again.

Sheltered And Protected From Regular Life

Nicole Bobek captured the hearts of figure skating fans fifteen years ago with her beauty and spirit. Today she faces her personal demons and tries to start anew. The never-give-up spirit that endeared her to so many fans will serve her well in her current situation. Despite her fame and success, it seems she more strikes against her than the public realized.

As a professional skater, she was removed from much of the organic social support many girls her age would have developed. She apparently did not attend regular school classes of any kind in order to focus on her career. Her mother raised her alone with no involvement from her absent father. Nicole’s life was set up for athletic success, but maybe not for personal satisfaction and well being.

Isolation And Celebrity Status

Imagine the isolation from doing just one thing for most of your day. Imagine the hyper-focus that allowed Nicole to excel upwards but did not permit her to experience the more relatable ups and downs of her peers. It seems she and her mother have been close, but it’s hard to tell about friendships. How much time could she have had to develop them with such an intense schedule?

Also, consider the price many celebrities have to pay every day for their fame. Private events become publicly scrutinized in a heartbeat. Personal struggles become public struggles. Celebrities are misquoted, second-guessed, glorified, and manipulated to serve other people’s needs. For some people, fame is intentionally self-serving. For others, it is extremely isolating.

Drug Scene Started After Career Faded

One of the first things that NFL rookies do is meet with people to help them figure out what they are going to do after the NFL. Their careers are typically only a few years, so it makes sense for them to plan for life after athletics. Nicole had been constantly competing and working single-mindedly for years. Once her career started to fade, reports say she was ultimately not prepared. Perhaps she didn’t have the type of career transition guidance that NFL rookies receive.

Nicole’s drug use history is unclear. It has been said that she liked to party, but there’s been no direct mention of an addiction to crystal meth or any other drug. It may take more time for the facts to come out about her situation. If she is planning to help people, she may reveal more about her journey in the future.

Nicole Bobek’s Future Without Meth

As Nicole professes, maybe some very good things can come from this. It may be somewhat delayed, but maybe now she can find her way to a peaceful satisfying lifestyle. Maybe she can speak out to others about getting trapped in the dead-end world of drugs. Hopefully, the spotlight on Nicole Bobek will show her on the rise once again.

Meth is a hard-hitting drug. It takes your body on a wild ride every time you use it. Over time, the chemical influences can really harm your body. Drug rehab is essential with a drug as powerful as crystal meth. But the challenges don’t stop once you get sober. With a lot of support and persistence, you can start feeling better and rebuilding your life. Take a moment to better understand how and why your body may take a while to recover from crystal meth addiction.

Possible Brain Damage From Meth

Your brain is a very flexible and resilient organ, but it can’t always bounce back when it’s been damaged. Meth can significantly harm your brain over time. In some cases, normal functioning can return after a few years of sobriety. But the longer you have used meth, the more likely you are to suffer some level of permenant damage.

One of the biggest problems with meth addiction is its powerful effect on the body’s dopamine reward system. Dopamine is neurotransmitter that allows you to feel pleasure naturally. Eating, sex, or an happy event causes dopamine to flow through your body. It keeps you motivated to do things that are essential to your survival.

Meth overstimulates the dopamine system, causing an intense rush sensation in the early stages of use. Over time, your dopamine system shuts down. Excessive meth use can even kill nerve endings that use dopamine. When you get sober, the dopamine system doesn’t quite know what to do for a while. As a result, you may find that fatigue and depression challenge you in your first year or two of recovery.

Feeling Fatigue After Sobriety

Many crystal meth users have a lot of trouble feeling energetic shortly after becoming sober. Meth is a powerful stimulant, giving you an unnaturally high feeling of energy during your first several uses. As time progresses and your body adjusts to the presence of meth, you need the drug just to feel normal.

Your body dramatically alters the production of dopamine and other chemicals that help you regulate your cycles of energy and rest. Also, the addiction lifestyle will cause you to neglect your nutrition and physical health. This can also be part of the fatigue experienced in early recovery.

Feelings Of Depression

The lack of dopamine moving through your body also affects your mood. Without the natural ebb and flow of dopamine, you will likely feel many symptoms of depression. You may lack motivation or interest in doing things, feel hopeless, and feel unhappy much of the time.

Exercise, good nutrition, and healthy social connections can gradually retrain your brain and body to enjoy naturally positive things. It may take some time and patience, but recovering meth addicts can and do get through this period. If you are newly sober from meth, you can do it, too.

Meth Addiction – Adjusting To Sobriety

When you get sober from meth, you go through stimulant withdrawal. You experience the exact opposite of what you felt when you were using meth. Fatigue, depression, and lack of motivation are common hurdles in your first year or two of sobriety. When meth use is stopped early enough, you may eventually feel more like you did before your addiction. But you’ll need drug rehab to get you started. Don’t hesitate to call us for more information today.

Drug abuse and addiction problems in Florida are running rampant and every few months a new expose or research study is released that reveals a new troubled area of the state or a drug of focus. From crystal meth to heroin, Florida is a heavy area for drug traffickers bringing substances into the country. The prevalence of prescription drug abuse here, too, is a significant. Here’s a highlight report of some of the largest drug abuse problems affecting Florida right now.

Crystal Meth Addiction

Much of the state’s crystal meth supply is made within the state’s borders. Many rural areas are home to crystal meth labs where the drug is produced from scratch, but more recently, police have been busting labs in apartment buildings and “rolling” labs or labs in RVs and campers. Florida has had increased numbers of reported use of the drug, as well as arrests for possession and distribution of the substance. More and more Floridians are entering crystal meth rehab and attending counseling for their issues with the drug.

Heroin Addiction

The drug trafficking market that goes through Florida is primarily focused on heroin. It’s multiple ports to the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean means that it’s relatively easy for boats of all sizes to find their way ashore. Port towns, therefore, are a hot bed of drug and gang-related activity associated with heroin. Studies have shown that heroin abusers and heroin addicts (both the number of people who report using it in the month prior to the survey and the number of people seeking treatment for the disease) have increased in number every year for the past few decades.

Prescription Drug Addiction

Prescription drug addiction has long been an issue, especially in larger cities like Miami. There are a disproportionately high number of clinics devoted to filling and provide prescriptions as compared to the rest of the country. For that reason, there are also a disproportionately high number of doctors facing charges for illegal or inappropriate drug dispensation and higher rates of death due to prescription drug overdose.

Getting Addiction Treatment Help

Whether your drug of choice is crystal meth, heroin, or prescription drugs like OxyContin, Percocet, or hydrocodone or a combination of drugs, you can find the help you need to break free from your dependence at a drug and alcohol rehab. At a drug and alcohol rehab, you not only stop using your drug of choice with medical assistance, you also get the addiction counseling you need to understand your addiction, educational classes to understand how addiction works in the body, and therapy in groups and alone to help you gain strength in recovery.

If you would like to learn more about enrolling in drug and alcohol addiction treatment, The Canyon can help. Whether you are looking for a crystal meth detox, a prescription drug rehab or a heroin addiction treatment program, we have what you need. Call us today for more specifics about our California drug and alcohol rehab.