Courts are cracking down more and more on those who enable a patient’s drug addiction by providing them with illicit drugs – especially when the patient takes those drugs and ends up overdosing as a result. A new twist on this legal trend is highlighted by a recent case in which one patient charged with burglary claims that not only are his actions due to his drug addiction, but that his drug addiction isn’t his fault either – it’s the fault of his brother.

Donald Dovenbarger is the man who was charged with six counts of burglary and then sentenced to five years in prison as a result of his crimes. Says Dovenbarger: “I believe he is my biggest relapse trigger. I looked up to Curtis. He was kind of a role model to me. Well, not really a role model, but I just wanted to be like him.”

His point? He shouldn’t have to serve the five years in prison, though he likely won’t argue with the mandatory drug rehab program that the judge ordered for after his release. What Dovenbarger doesn’t see is that, in this case, five years is a blessing; he could have gotten as many as 30 years in prison.

And it’s not like his brother, Curtis, got off scot-free. In fact, Curtis was with Donald on the burglaries and was also charged with six counts of the crime. He too was convicted but his sentence was even stiffer: eight years in prison instead of Donald’s five year sentence.

Donald’s lawyer, Kristen Burkett, agrees that Curtis had a lot to do with Donald’s drug addiction issues, his crimes, and ultimately, his conviction. She said: “That relationship has brought him to where he is today.”

Donald reports that he began using drugs by smoking marijuana, then began drinking, then took prescription drugs, and eventually developed a heroin addiction. He said the real problems began when his brother told him to try Xanax because he would like the high. Hanging out with his brother was what Donald credits with his repeated and unsuccessful attempts to remain clean and sober.

It was perhaps those failed attempts at sobriety that made the judge decide to give him five years – one more than prosecutors asked for. The five-year sentence means that Donald will not be eligible for judicial review and will be required to complete the full sentence, remaining in custody until he completes a drug rehab program – the one thing that will be able to help him from repeating his mistakes in the future, no matter what influences are around him.

If you are living with heroin addiction, alcoholism, marijuana addiction, or addiction to prescription drugs, The Canyon can help. Call now for more information about our different addiction treatment programs.

One of the biggest characteristics defining those in addiction is the inability to avoid acting on impulse. This means that when you feel like getting high, you do it. When you’re angry, you lash out. When you’re depressed, you mope or stay in bed. There is little thought given to the consequences of any action and most decisions are fueled purely by emotion rather than practicality. Doing the hard thing in favor of what’s best for you is often eschewed in favor of doing the easy thing that is most gratifying in the moment.

How Addicts in Early Recovery Usually Eat

The same process usually applies to eating habits for those in recovery after drug and alcohol addiction. If you happen to realize that you’re hungry while you’re standing in front of a fast food joint, you’re likely to step inside and grab a hamburger and fries. Unfortunately, foods like these can make you feel more tired and rundown when you’re done eating, providing you with more fat calories you need and not enough nutrients to stay healthy.

Why Eating Poorly is a Bad Idea in Drug Addiction Recovery

The negative feelings associated with poor eating choices can make you more prone to relapse. If you already don’t feel well or if you’re tired and rundown, little stressors will make more of an impact and you’ll respond more quickly and more emotionally than if you feel calm and healthy. If you have low energy, you’re less likely to make it to your 12-step meetings or therapy, put in the effort at work, or seek out positive friendships. Good nutrition can give you that baseline of positivity that you need to make good decisions in recovery and to stay dedicated to your treatment plan.

Making Good Nutrition Easy in Drug and Alcohol Addiction Recovery

For starters, eating small meals a few times a day can help you get and maintain a steady level of energy. Choosing healthful foods for those meals (e.g., whole grain breads, lean protein like chicken or nuts, fruits, vegetables, and a little bit of dairy and oils) can mean that your body is constantly getting the good nutrients it needs to keep going. If you’re on the go or if you want to save money and avoid buying premade salads or sandwiches while you’re out, pack healthful snacks and bring them with you. A piece of fruit, fiber bars, and sandwiches on whole grain bread travel well and will keep you going without wasting your money. Cooking healthful meals in advance and portioning them out, putting a few in the freezer and a few in the refrigerator can help make sure that you always have something healthy available to you at home, too.

Any tips you’d like to share about how you stay healthy and eat well during recovery?

Neither a slip nor a relapse are positive in recovery, but they are very different and can mean different things to you and your issues with addiction. A slip is easy to move forward from. A relapse – a relapse is far more dangerous and can result in accidental overdose, accident, or a return to a full-blown addiction.

A Slip: What it is and What it Means to Your Recovery

A slip is a one-time, brief mistake. It may or may not even lead to getting high or drunk: a glass of wine, a bump of a drug, a joint at the game. Though you may feel guilty or experience intense fear that a slip signals a failure in your recovery, it can be an unimportant moment in your history depending on how you follow it up.

The best way to deal with a slip is to increase your efforts in recovery and address the events that happened before the slip. Were you feeling stressed out before it happened? Were you just not paying attention? Was it a conscious, thought-out decision or was it something that happened because you weren’t focused on saying ‘no’? Depending upon the issues that preceded your slip, you should be able to address them by limiting stress and increasing your awareness of how your feeling and what and who is in your environment.

A Relapse: What it is and What it Means to Your Recovery

A slip is a full-on night or day of drinking and/ or abusing drugs. In some cases, a relapse can even last for a few days. Those who relapse often lie to friends and family about it during their period of relapse, stop their involvement in their recovery (e.g., no 12-step meetings, no therapy, etc). The only difference between a relapse in a recovery and a relapse back into addiction is whether or not you are able to stop. If you can’t stop, it’s time to head back into treatment. If you can stop, you may still need to follow up by amping up your recovery plan, increasing your support network, creating an actionable plan to defend against another relapse and consider an outpatient treatment program or a sober living program to help you get back on your feet.

Check out our first post in this series, Relapse in Recovery, Part I: How it Starts and stay tuned for the next one, Relapse in Recovery, Part III: Identifying it Before it Starts.

It’s been a long time since The Strokes’ first album hit the scene in 2001 – and blew up big. With such an amazing start right out of the gate and hits on many of their later albums, what took them so long to follow up with Angles, the album they just released? The biggest roadblock was the drug addiction of their 31-year-old guitarist, Albert Hammond Jr. Hammond recently spoke to SPIN magazine about his experience with drug addiction and drug addiction treatment.

Hammond told SPIN:  “I guess you could say I wasn’t really there when we started.”

Hammond was referring to his mental and emotional state when his band first started recording their follow-up album. The band had to halt work on the album in late 2009 so that Hammond could go to drug rehab and do the work he needed to do to get his drug addiction under control. Hammond finished treatment in December of 2009 and about a month later, The Strokes were back in the studio, hard at work on their album again.

Says Hammond: “People can’t believe I did that. I wasn’t on any chemicals. It was hard — you have two good years of post-acute withdrawal. I was nervous and couldn’t remember things. It’s like having a stroke, no pun intended.”

He’s right. More than one recovering patient has described the first year or so of early recovery as discombobulating to say the least. You have to rebuild everything from your morning routine to how you spend your day, who you talk to, and when you go to bed. Hardly anything remains constant when transitioning from an active addiction state to post- addiction treatment recovery.

Is it mandatory for rock stars to get loaded and go through what Hammond did? Says Hammond: “You always do the crazy-rock-star thing, of course, but I’d rather be left with music from someone I admire than their funny stories of all the f***ed up sh*t they did.”

The album was released in  March and Hammond wasted no time getting back out on the road. The Strokes’ first show was in Las Vegas and they have a full schedule planned to promote Angles.

Holding On to What You Have Through Drug Rehab

Occasionally, there are aspects of your life that you can hold onto as you go through the process of drug addiction treatment and recovery. Certain friendships, family relationships, relationships with children – even a job or your home. Anything positive that you maintained during addiction can provide a familiar comfort zone for you in recovery – just make sure that it truly is positive.

What did you hold onto in your recovery that served you positively even during addiction?

It made big news in California and across the country when the commander of a drug task force, Norman Wielsch, in the San Francisco Bay Area was charged with multiple counts of stealing drugs with the intent to distribute and selling drugs that included marijuana, crystal meth and steroids. Also charged was a private investigator who worked on the drug task force, Chris Butler. Chris Butler was also charged with the same felonies of stealing and distribution, but now another charge has been added to the pile: the detective has been accused of selling two bricks of C-4 explosives to an informant.

Desperate Acts and Desperate Measures

Butler has issued no statements saying that his actions were in support of his own drug habit or intimated that he has any issue whatsoever with illicit substances or addiction. In fact, Wielsch’s lawyer has said that Wielsch felt like he had to do something drastic to pay for his daughter’s bone marrow transplant and this was the option that presented itself. Why Butler joined in is unknown. Perhaps to help his friend fund the medical bills and make a little money as well? Butler has issued no statement to the press.

When Drug Addiction is an Issue

Selling drugs and stealing to fund a habit is extremely common among those who have a chronic drug addiction. The drugs themselves are inexpensive and it’s not easy to hold down a job when you are living with a chronic addiction. Criminal activities become the only way to procure enough income to support a drug habit. When caught – and getting caught is an inevitability – those who are living with a drug addiction can request help at a drug rehab center. Some states offer drug rehab in the form of a sentence with the option to wipe the slate clean if the offender can stay on the straight and narrow, complete the program and remain clean and sober.

Finding Drug Rehab Help

If you are doing any kind of crime in support of your drug addiction, it’s only a matter of time before you are pleading your case in front of a judge. One of the best things you can do for yourself is to get the drug addiction treatment help that you need to fight it well before you get slapped with any charges. Don’t join the ranks of those imprisoned for drug addiction. Contact us today to find out how you can extricate yourself from your drug addiction before it’s too late.

There are iPhone apps for pretty much anything you can imagine: a 4th grade long division app, a sports update app, an app that will help you confess if your Catholic, an app that will turn off or turn on your house alarm. Until now, there wasn’t too much iPhone technology in the area of drug addiction. Apple’s changed all that now with a new app that can help you identify whether or not drug addiction is a problem in your life. The app has features that include:

• Tips to manage stress without resorting to drugs or alcohol
• Reasons why people abuse drugs
• Information on different types of drugs, including their effects and symptoms of addiction
• How to find out if you have a drug abuse or addiction problem
• Information on how to help yourself or others living with drug addiction
• Benefits of getting drug rehab help

The drug addiction app goes for about $15.

The Benefits of Technology in Drug Addiction Recovery

This latest addiction to the iPhone app repertoire is just one of the many valuable technology options that provide a great deal of benefits for those who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Many in recovery have been saved by the cell phone: without the ability to call someone while they were out and feeling like they wanted to get loaded, they may have relapsed. With the cell phone, they were able to have the phone number they needed handy in their phone and to make a call on location without trying to find money for a pay phone. Yay, technology!

Here’s another one: the Internet and a plethora of online sites provide valuable information and support for those in recovery or seeking information about drug rehab. You can find sites that offer questionnaires that allow you to determine whether or not drug addiction is a problem for you, those that provide information about the different types of treatment available, and sites that assist you in paying for drug rehab. You can also create your own website or a free blog where you can recount your personal struggles with drug addiction treatment, vent your frustrations and find support during recovery. The round-the-clock nature of the Internet is extremely helpful for those who find themselves triggered at all hours of the night.

Find More Information on Drug Rehab

Even you took advantage of technology. You explored your options and landed here, reading about drug and alcohol addiction treatment. No matter what time of day or night, we are available to assist you in finding the drug addiction treatment help you need. The call is free and our counselors can assist you in enrolling in an effective program for you. Contact us today.

Your first day in drug rehab can be nerve wracking. It’s the beginning of a lot of work and big changes in your life, changes that won’t always be comfortable even if they lead to great rewards later on down the road. You can expect to meet with medical and therapeutic professionals during the intake process, help someone go through your suitcase to make sure you have no contraband items, and have a little time to settle in. It’s pretty simple and stress-free. In fact, your first day should be one of the easiest you experience in drug rehab.

Drug Rehab Intake Process

The intake process is a lot of questions and answers. You’ll undergo a physical to see where you stand medically. This is a good time to tell the medical professional about any underlying medical issues you are experiencing – high blood pressure, asthma, Hepatitis C – and make sure they have any prescriptions you will need during your stay. In some cases, you may find out that you need some more testing and treatment to handle those issues. This is a good thing – you’ll be able to meet with your medical team as often as possible to make sure you are taken care of.

You’ll also meet with a therapist for an intake appointment. You’ll have a chance to relate your drug history and what you’re hoping to accomplish in drug rehab. You may even have time to talk about some of the underlying issues that propelled your addiction and begin the process of creating a treatment plan that you can work with throughout your stay. If you are diagnosed with a psychological disorder, make sure that is known so that you can take advantage of dual diagnosis treatment.

Drug Rehab: Looking Through Your Stuff

It’s inevitable. You will have a counselor go through the suitcase that you packed and any other bags to make sure that you don’t have any drugs, alcohol, weapons or other contraband items. In some instances, you may have to give up electronic communication devices like cell phones and PDAs at this time. If you have a prescription medication, you will be expected to hand those over to the onsite medical center or pharmacy; you will be given your medication when it’s time for your dose.

If you are unsure what is and is not considered contraband, make sure to request a sheet that lets you know what you can and can’t bring to drug rehab before you begin packing. It will make your first day a lot easier.

Drug Rehab: Settling In

After you’ve signed the paperwork, met with everyone and been given a tour, you’ll have a little time to settle in. Depending upon what time of day it is, you may be invited to join the group for a meeting or head over to a meal. Note: Your physical health may dictate what happens now. If you are ill and require medical attention, that will always be attended to first.

First Day in Drug Rehab at The Canyon

If you would like to know more about what you can expect during your first day at drug rehab at The Canyon, call us today.