Drug Addiction Rehab

The greatest fear of anyone associated with a friend, co-worker or loved one caught in the cycle of addiction is that the person will die of an overdose. Most overdoses are considered accidental. At least that is how the families and friends of the addict want to look at their death. However, a new study by SAMSHA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration) in 2008 showed that 8.3 million adults in the U.S. had serious thoughts of committing suicide in the last year.
Out of the 8.3 million considering suicide, 2.3 million Americans made a plan in the last year while 1.1 million adults had actually attempted suicide in the last year. Factoring into the risk levels was gender, age and history of substance abuse. Substance abuse, not surprisingly, increased the risk of seriously considering, planning or attempting suicide. It was found that people experiencing substance abuse disorders within the past year were more than three times as likely to have seriously considered committing suicide as those not battling substance abuse. Those with past year substance abuse were four times more likely to have planned a suicide than those without substance abuse disorders and nearly seven times more likely to have attempted suicide.
These numbers are tragic but not altogether too surprising when taking into consideration the lifestyle of a person caught in the cycle of addiction. Most people tried a drug to avoid a problem and then continued with taking drugs instead of handling the problems in their life, finding them actually worse than at first and now finding themselves addicted to their drug of choice. Now their foremost problem is the cravings for the drug and the “how –to- get -more” of said drug. The lifestyle to keep the addiction fed brings on depression and guilt due to the activities to keep their cravings at bay. This of course increases the guilt where the only way out of this lifestyle to the addict is to commit suicide, which in the their mind will handle all their problems and do their friends and family a favor by them not having to worry over them any longer.
According to one professional in the rehab field, many people entering a rehab program state upon arriving that they had considered suicide because they had hit rock bottom and saw no other way to stop using drugs; and in the process were destroying not only themselves but their families. A person addicted to drugs cannot see any way out of this lifestyle. This is why an effective and successful rehabilitation program which takes a biophysical approach, and teaches Life Skills steps, is able to give that addict the tools and skills to overcome their addiction and to achieve their goals and dreams upon completion of the program, drug-free.
If you need help for yourself or a loved one, please call us on our toll-free Addiction Helpline at 1-877-873-8532. There is hope. It is possible to live a drug-free life…
2009 SuccessfulRehabServices

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If drugs or alcohol were an addicts fundamental problem, recovery would be academic. Remove the drugs and the person would be “cured.”

The addict’s greatest demon however, is not the Meth he smokes, or the heroin he shoots. It is not in the money he lost or the disease he found. Families spend inordinate amounts of energy pursuing proof of their presence and proving their use, and yet, at the end of the day, the solution is not their removal.

An addict who is stuck in life, depressed, isolated, not behaving rationally, leading a life of dishonesty and shame, buried in guilt and defended by rage, is up against much more than drugs. His problem living life is based on a massively altered survival system, affecting every area of his life. Drugs, which at first may have been used recreationally, become an anesthetic to the resulting pain.

Addicts who become stuck in life evolve into this condition over time. They start out a bit bent and depressed and then they continue to do things that go against their own moral or ethical grain. Later, they may become hostile and more isolated as their transgressions against themselves and others pile up, as more and more feelings of guilt, shame, anger and regret melt together, becoming a blackness in the addicts heart. Things like betrayal, deception, theft, the commission of crimes or felonies, the drug abuse itself, simple meanness and whatever else the average addict is engaged in, weigh down upon him very heavily (whether he will admit to it or not). Typically, there are thousands of moments that can hang an addict up, sucking up his attention, and making him unable to operate.

While on the subject of drugs being used as a solution - it is important to note that inasmuch as an addict may wish it, happiness cannot be found in a bottle of pills, even if they are prescribed. This is one of the grave pitfalls of psychotropic drug use. They do not “fix” one, repair one’s conscience, a persons sense of loyalty, their ability to be honest, or their integrity. Drugs, whether provided under the law and distributed by a pharmacy, do not provide better decisions in life. These things take time and hard work to repair.

The fact that life is difficult is not a “disorder,” and may become even more difficult if one becomes dependent on more drugs to solve life’s problems. Drugs are not the problem to begin with and are not the solution in the end. This is why long term, residential treatment, and complete freedom from all drugs and alcohol is the correct goal for almost all interventions.

Successful treatment centers spend their time returning individuals to a balanced and controlled state of being, repairing a persons orientation in life. A person who is in good shape in terms of his integrity, his ethics, his identity and so on will handle his life, and his circumstances will fall into place, not the other way around.

Take for example, any man or woman addicted to drugs or alcohol and move them a thousand miles away from where they are. Invariably their problems follow.

If a person is able to confront his life and repair the damage of his past in an organized, supervised and supportive atmosphere, and if in doing this he is able to regain his sense of responsibility and identity, then he can be the person who will not go to drugs as a solution any longer. He will be happy and can win in life.

~ Steven Bruno CCDC RAS
Professional Interventionist

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In order to understand a subject, and be able to think with and correctly evaluate the data of a subject, a person needs to know the definitions of the terms used in that subject.

There are a few basic terms you will see widely used in the field of drug addiction and drug rehabilitation which you should know and understand well. These are as follows:

Addiction* - compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.

Detoxification* - to free (as a drug user or an alcoholic) from an intoxicating or an addictive substance in the body or from dependence on or addiction to such a substance.

Drug* - something and often an illegal substance that causes addiction, habituation, or a marked change in consciousness

Intervention* [intervene] - to interfere with the outcome or course especially of a condition or process (as to prevent harm or improve functioning).

A good understanding of the above terms will help you more safely navigate the sometimes rough waters of the drug addiction and drug rehabilitation fields. Your understanding is vital in enabling you to make sound decisions as regards addiction and rehabilitation, and in choosing a rehabilitation program that will work for you, or a loved one.

* Those definitions with an asterisk (*) come from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.

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