According to StopAgingNow.com, the consistent rise in prescription drug addiction and the rise of home invasions may be directly linked. It seems that thieves may now be targeting the homes of the elderly and others who are more likely to have opiate prescription painkillers in their medicine cabinets.

Janet T. Mills is Maine’s attorney general. She told the New York Times that, “home invasions, robberies, assaults, homicides and thefts — all kinds of crimes are being linked to prescription drugs.”

How do we fight the problem of prescription drug addiction and protect those who are legally using opiate prescriptions for medical purposes?

Raising Awareness of Prescription Drug Addiction with National Take-Back Day

What’s to be done? The DEA has decided that awareness of the issue is the first step in fighting it. They have instituted a National Take-Back Day, which will occur annually on September 25. On this day, everyone is encouraged to bring in old medications and prescriptions for proper disposal. In this way, thieves may be less tempted to take advantage of the back stock of pills in any one home. With no more than a month’s worth of any one medication in the cabinet, the idea is that thieves will look for alternate sources for their prescription pills.

The Drawbacks of Take-Back Day: The Real Fight Begins

While fewer drugs to steal may be a little bit helpful, it certainly isn’t a defense on par with the magnitude of the problem of prescription drug addiction, and the crime wave that is one of its many consequences. In addition to awareness of the existence of the problems, moving forward on a few other fronts will help to truly fight the core of the problem:

• Over prescription of opiate painkillers like OxyContin and anti-anxiety medications like Vicodin.
• Cracking down on the illegal distribution of opiate and stimulant prescription drugs online and on the streets.
• Treating the prescription drug addiction of those who are doing the crimes rather than throwing them in jail with other drug addicts and criminals to create more complex schemes.

Fighting Prescription Drug Addiction Where You Live

Though you may not be able to do much about the legal issues surrounding prescription drug distribution – especially if you are living with an active Vicodin addiction, OxyContin addiction, Percocet addiction, Lorcet addiction or a combination of prescription pills – you can do something about your own personal issues with prescription drug addiction.

If you or someone you love needs a Vicodin detox or a methadone maintenance program to stop using opiate painkillers successfully, then choosing a prescription drug rehab that provides that service is essential. The important thing to remember is that detox alone is not enough to fight off a prescription drug addiction. Prescription drug addiction treatment that includes behavioral therapy, personal sessions, group treatment and more gives you a real opportunity to learn how to live without prescription drugs and create a new life for yourself.

Contact The Canyon for more information about our prescription drug addiction program. We can help you change your life starting today!

Drug addiction can create a lot of chaos in your life. When you get sober, it can be tough to look back on your past without wincing. Those arrests, the terrible fights with your family, and all the emotional ups and downs can be hard to face. You know you don’t want to repeat the past. You want to move forward and make a different life for yourself. How do you live with those experiences without letting them get you down?

Develop Good Coping Skills

When you have a challenge in front of you, a little preparation can boost your confidence. When your sobriety is brand new, difficulties in your past can seem overwhelming. As you learn to use healthy coping skills, you’ll feel more confident about facing tough memories or feelings.

You can effectively use your coping methods in two ways. First, you can lower your overall level of stress by eating well, sleeping well, keeping in touch with friends, and so on. Start by building a life with a lot of positivity and good routines. When difficulty comes, you will have a strong foundation underneath you.

Second, you can use some coping skills as a response to a difficult moment. You get a flashback, you run into an old drinking buddy, or you feel a craving. As soon as you realize what’s happening, you can use one or two of your most reliable coping skills to settle yourself again.

Don’t Keep The Truth Hidden Inside

Painful emotions become powerful when you hide them. It may seem like hiding them away would make them feel less intense. But feelings like fear or shame have a way of getting more disruptive when you try to box them up.

When these feelings or memories are triggered, recognize them and let them be there for a moment. Then, use your coping skills to help you change gears. Take a brisk walk, turn on some good music, or talk to a good friend. Do something positive to lift your mood and calm your mind.

Rather than wrestling with your feelings, you let them have a little space. Thankfully, the human mind cannot focus on two things at once. When you pay less attention to your painful feelings, they naturally loose their tight grip.

Every time you experience these feelings in an honest and direct manner, you take away some of the mystery and the sting. If you keep up this approach, time will eventually soften the edges of your past. You may still not like everything in your personal history, but you will be more comfortable living with it.

Live With Your Past In Addiction Recovery

Your past is part of your life, even the parts that include your worst drug addiction struggles. But you can find ways to keep your toughest moments from having power over you. When you can learn to face and live with your addiction experiences, you’ll make important discoveries about staying sober.

Internet Addicts don’t steal to pay for their habits. They don’t lock themselves in bathrooms and shove needles up their arms or snort things through their noses. Their addictions don’t cause car accidents or impair their judgment or ability to make decisions, but that doesn’t mean an Internet addiction isn’t dangerous.

Internet addictions have broken up marriages and strained friendships. They’ve torn apart families and gotten in the way of school and work. Because an Internet addiction isn’t seen as life-threatening as drug addiction, it’s a lot more acceptable. Because it’s legal doesn’t mean we should be any less aware of what can happen if we spend all our time online.

The Internet vs. The Real World

The Internet is attractive to so many people because it offers something we don’t have in the real world, anonymity. People who are shy or have trouble speaking to others can have intense discussions online. People who feel they’re unattractive or unpopular can have many online friends. In fact, there’s really no need to leave the house anymore. Now that we can shop, chat, play, date, even have sex online. One can see how easy it is for someone to get hooked.

Signs of Internet Addiction

There are those who spend a lot of time on the Internet and there are those who are just plain addicted. People who spend too much time online, might have trouble tearing themselves away from their computer screens, but people who are addicted can’t seem to do so at all. Here are some signs of Internet Addiction:

• Spending hours online without a break.
• Preferring to spend time with a computer over friends and family.
• Lying about the amount of time spent online.
• Hiding what you do online.
• Checking email several times an hour.
• Family complains about the amount of time spent online.
• Thoughts are always on the Internet – even when offline.
• Logging on while at work or school instead of working or studying.
• The first thing an addict does when family leaves the house is log on.

Internet Addiction Defense

In July 2007, a Nevada couple was charged with child neglect after their Internet gaming addiction kept them from caring for their two children aged 11 and 22 months. The couple claimed they spent so much time online, their kids where left to “fend for themselves.” The children were underweight, malnourished, dehydrated, suffered from infections and filthy. One child had cat urine in her hair. The couple was unemployed and used a $50,000 inheritance to support themselves and pay for equipment. The couple pleaded guilty to two counts of child neglect which can land them each a dozen years in jail. (Source: bloggernews)

In 2000, a teen who vowed to “finish what Columbine started” blamed his threats on his Internet addiction. 18 year old Michael Ian Campbell sent the threatening note to a sophomore at Columbine High School. The school ended up closing down for a couple of days as a result. Campbell was sentenced to four months in prison. (Source: nytimes.com)

Crimes & Other Addictions Attributed to Internet Addiction

Many Internet addicts are also addicted to:

• Online gambling – Some online addicts turn to robbery to support and pay off gambling debts.
• Pedophilia – With child pornography available online, more cases of pedophilia and predators searching for children to have sex with are surfacing.
• Identity theft – Hackers break into online databases and steal personal information.
• Cyber Harassment, Stalking and Bullying – The anonymity of the Internet allows many individuals to be bolder than they would in real life. Thus, cyber bullies are becoming more prevalent as is stalking and bullying others online.

Statistics and Studies

The Washington Post listed some interesting statistics:

• About 6% of surveyed individuals responded, “their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use.”
• About 9% attempted to conceal “nonessential Internet use.”
• Nearly 4% reported feeling “preoccupied by the Internet when offline.”
• About 8% said they used the Internet as a way to escape problems
• Almost 14% reported they “found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time.”

A 2006 telephone-based Stanford University Study revealed one in eight individuals displayed at least one “problematic” sign of excessive Internet use. Elias Aboujaoude, a clinical Assistant Psycholology and Behavioral Sciences Professor at Stanford’s Impulse Control Disorders Clinic likens these problematic behaviors such as the constant need to check email or visit online forums and chat rooms as being similar to the cravings drug addicts experience.

Some statistics from the Stanford University study:

• 13.7 percent of those interviewed found it hard to stay away from the Internet for several days at a time
• 12.4 percent stayed online longer than intended very often or often
• 12.3 percent had seen a need to cut back on Internet use at some point
• 8.7 percent attempted to conceal non-essential Internet use from family, friends and employers
• 8.2 percent used the Internet as a way to escape problems or relieve negative mood
• 5.9 percent felt their relationships suffered as a result of excessive Internet use

Treatment:

So other than shutting down forever, how does one treat an Internet addiction? In China online addicts are put behind bars and given shock treatments to ensure they don’t abuse their access. In the German town of Boltenhagen there is actually a camp geared towards weaning kids from the Internet. These are rather drastic and there are more recommended recourses:

Most treatment involves therapy, including getting to the root of the addiction. What does the addict do when online? Socialize? Gamble? Shop? If so, the treatment might not necessarily be to control Internet use but work on socialization skills or addictions to shopping, gambling or sex. In fact, many argue the addiction isn’t to the Internet itself but what one does when one is online.

Other therapy relies on motivation. What will motivate the user to spend less time online? Since most people can’t function at work, or even at home without at a computer, the key is moderation rather than abstinence.

Conclusion

If you find you’re online more than off, that your real-world relationships are sacrificed to cyber friends you’ve never met, and you can’t stay away from your computer … you may be addicted to the Internet.

Because Internet addiction doesn’t impair one’s ability to judge and think clearly like drugs, it’s a more socially acceptable addiction. Plus, many who spend large blocks of time online refuse to believe there’s such a thing as Internet addiction, anyway.

If the time you spend online is straining relationships in the real world and getting in the way or school or work, do seek help or at least make an attempt to spend less time online. As many things as there are to do online, there are more in the real world. Get out and explore.