Archive for: Addiction Recovery

A new report released by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provides a chilling statistic driven by teenage prescription drug use. Almost twice as many teens died from poisoning in 2009 compared to 2000. The reason for the alarming increase, according to the report, is an increase in teen use of prescription painkillers like Demerol, Percocet, Vicodin, and Oxycodone. These powerful painkillers are opiates, classed in the same category of drugs as heroin. They are highly addictive and extremely dangerous.

Ever have a fight about whether or not you have a drinking problem? If you have, that should be your first sign that you might have one. Here are a couple of the others:

• You’ve decided to stop drinking for a week, but cannot manage to do so.
• You regret something you may have done as a result of drinking.
• You wish people would just stop talking about your drinking.
• You envy people who can drink without getting into trouble.
• You “black out” or have difficulty remembering things you’ve done while drinking.
• You’ve done drugs or engaged in other dangerous behaviors while drinking alcohol.
• Others have noticed that you consistently seem very different when drinking (unusually happy, emotional, angry, relaxed).

Try not to get caught up in the stigma attached to alcohol abuse. No one chooses to have an alcohol problem.

You can find help here: Addiction Treatment

Although fatalities from automobile accidents are declining, a recent traffic analysis from the Department of Transportation (DOT) indicates that 33% of drivers killed in such accidents in 2010 tested positive for illicit drugs. The most popular among these drugs were prescription grade opiates / opiods (Vicodin, Hydrocodone, Oxycontin), benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium, Clonipin). The illicit drug most frequently implicated in traffic fatalities: marijuana.

Society has become familiar with the terrible consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol.  However, many do not realize the hazards of driving under the influence of drugs and medications. The drugs listed above, including those prescribed by a physician, can impair judgment, motor skills, reaction time, and perception, all of which are essential to operating a vehicle safely. Recent surveys by the DOT show that roughly one in four fatalities in accidents test positive for illegal prescription drugs.

Drugged driving poses threats to public safety, as evidenced by the number of fatal accidents on our highways each year. Public education combined with successful substance abuse/education programs can help family members, friends, and loved ones reduce drugged driving.

Alcoholics frequently deny their addiction to alcohol. Problem drinkers who acknowledge that alcohol has negatively impacted their lives still resist suggestions that they change their behaviors. What their family or loved ones see as a problem, alcoholics may see as a preference, a lifestyle choice. So they continue to drink despite increasingly negative consequences. Untreated, their alcoholism may cause them to lose their families, friends, jobs, money, and physical and mental health.

This is called hitting bottom. Bottom: the place where the alcoholic has lost it all. It is only after hitting bottom, the myth of hitting bottom tells us, that the alcoholic will be willing to see the truth about their addiction. Only then will they realize that what they thought was a preference is really a life threatening problem.

This pervasive myth has resulted in unnecessary suffering for many alcoholics and their families. The bottom for many alcoholics is the point at which they entered an inpatient or outpatient drug treatment program. Maybe they were told by a loved one that the nagging would stop if they went in for an evaluation. Maybe they received an ultimatum.

It doesn’t matter how someone gets into treatment. Treatment for drug and alcohol addiction works. It is possible even for those who don’t see their behaviors as destructive to come to realize that change is necessary.