Dr. Agresti, West Palm Beach Mental Health Specialist – Psychiatrist, talks about drug addiction rehab options. If you or a loved one has a problem with drug or alcohol addictions, you should know the options for addiction detox rehab. Not all drug addictions require in-patient treatment. Many drug addictions can be treated in outpatient care. Dr. Agresti, in this video, shares the time periods to expect for drug addiction rehab.
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Dr. Agresti, West Palm Beach Mental Health Specialist – Psychiatrist, talks about Benzodiazepines Detox. Though benzodiazepines detox can have some serious problems, such as seizures, it is possible. There are medications that can help during benzodiazepines detox. If you or a loved one is addicted to benzodiazepines, do not stop abruptly or at home. Get professional help and benzodiazepines detox safely.
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Treating opiate addiction (Oxycodone, Roxycodone dependency) since 1988 has taught me a few things. Opiate dependency is all consuming. Individuals become consumed with getting money for opiates, obtaining opiates and having time to use opiates. All this mental energy is pulled from other activities. Resources are taken from loved ones, leisure activities and business. Individuals using opiates spend discretionary income on opiates (i.e. oxycontin), instead of going out to dinners, dating and playing. Once on opiates the range of activities that individual engages in decrease. Hobbies and sports fall to the side. These individuals lack time and money to do fun things, but also lack desire to have fun. There is no desire to have sex and desire to socialize decrease. These individuals can maintain jobs and relations with a few close others.
They usually become depressed, crave sugar, and gain weight. Their complexion changes to a grayscale cancer looking color. They develop strange eating habits and sleeping habits. Their sense of self worth and self-esteem decline. They have feeling of emptiness and detachment from others. One patient said she looked in the mirror and she saw a skeleton. She no longer existed. The opiate becomes everything.
The opiate becomes an individual’s lover and family. The fear of going into withdrawal is so powerful. When the possibility that the individual may be cut off from drugs, the beast comes out.
The opiate addict will do what ever it takes to get opiates. Individuals come up with carrying solutions. Stealing, lying prostitution, and selling everything come to mind. The individual wakes up every day with one problem, how will I get opiates today?
Initially people started on opiates to get high. That high gets less overtime, dependency develops. The individual spends most of their time not high but getting enough drugs so they won’t go into withdrawal.
Initially coming off opiates involves acute detox. That involves anxiety, abdominal cramping, goose flesh, leg jerking, yawning, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and headache and acute distress. These pains end in five days. After the detox ends, the real problems begin. Individuals begin to experience intense craving for the opiate. They become anxious, depressed and lethargic. They have no energy and have trouble functioning. Problems with sleep develop. People describe feelings; they don’t know who they are or what their purpose in life is. They have problems interacting with others because they are not sure how to act. There’s the feeling of loss. Almost as if they are mourning the loss of a lover. The loss of what they see as an exciting life and living outside the rules. It’s very difficult for these individuals to be integrated back into society and live normal lives. They always feel different. Also in the addict mind is a grandiose sense they are better and superior. This interferes with them finding jobs and forming relationships with others. Commonly individuals who stop opiates relapse, use marijuana or alcohol. Involve themselves in toxic relationships. Some develop gambling behaviors or inappropriate sexual activities. They continue to look for the high.
Opiate addicts must make an initial step and say to themselves they no longer want to alter their mental state. Decide the addict personality must go and a new one must be created. Psychotherapy may be helpful. Problems with depression, anxiety, insomnia, lethargy and drug cravings can be helped with non-addicting medication from a psychiatrist.
Forget one thing nicotine is usually what kills these people because they smoke too much.
How do you know when alcohol is negatively affecting someone you love? What should you do when you suspect that someone you know is suffering from an alcohol addiction? This article will help you discover signs and symptoms so that you can be prepared to take the proper action against alcohol abuse and addiction.
First, let’s consider the facts. Someone you know or love drinks heavy amounts of alcohol on a regular basis. They seem fine, and their alcohol consumption doesn’t seem to disrupt their daily life. So how do you know if they are abusing alcohol or if an alcohol addiction is forming? Take a little extra time to notice how alcohol currently integrates with your friend’s or family member’s life. Do they drink alcohol every day, or several times a day? Is alcohol a “necessity” for them at every function or celebration? Does alcohol change their behavior significantly? And finally, do they turn to alcohol to deal with difficult situations such as job loss or grief? If you can answer yes to any one of these questions, your friend or family member may be beginning to abuse alcohol or on the verge of an alcohol addiction. If you can answer yes to more than one of these questions, then it may be time to step in and take some action to ensure the safely and health of your loved one.
People turn to alcohol for a variety of reasons. For some, alcohol enhances happy or content feelings. For others, it helps to calm them during times of stress. Some people drink alcohol to fit in with others, and some even use alcohol as a means to forget or “wash away” memories of traumatic experiences. For these reasons, it’s important not to judge someone who is becoming addicted to alcohol. They may not even realize that their consumption has increased or that their behavior has changed. If someone you know is drinking alcohol regularly because of one of the reasons above, they will likely become defensive when approached about their alcohol consumption. If you choose to confront a friend or loved one who seems to be drinking too much alcohol too often, remember to first consider how they are changing and any possible situations that may have caused them to start drinking alcohol more heavily. There are different intervention processes and treatment options depending on the cause of their drinking. The most important thing you can do for a friend or family member who may be becoming addicted to alcohol is to show your support, be a listening ear and keep the judgmental thoughts to yourself. We all deal with situations different and your friend or family member may not know of healthier ways to cope.
Sometimes alcohol addiction is not totally a choice. Some people are more prone to fall into an alcohol addiction than others. Many factors, including genetics, how they were raised and the kinds of experiences they’ve had can lead them toward addiction faster than other people. If you friend or family member had a parent or other influential adult who drank constantly around them, then your friend or family member may see heavy alcohol consumption as a normal way of life. Physical or sexual abuse can also lead to heavy alcohol consumption. When considering your options for confronting your friend or family member about their alcohol abuse or addiction, remember to take potential pre-determination into account.
Finally, remember that alcohol abuse and addiction are not situations for one or a few people to handle alone. Dealing with someone who is addicted to alcohol can be draining and can wear thin on relationships. Do what you can to be supportive of the alcohol addict and enlist the help of a medical professional if you feel the situation getting out of control. Counselors and other medical professionals are trained to deal with alcohol addicts and can often have insight, patience and objectivity that may not come easily to you if you know the alcohol addict well. A counselor or medical professional can help you stage an intervention and suggest the most effective treatments for someone dealing with alcohol addiction.
Some argue that alcohol addiction is not a disease – that it is simply a wrong choice that a person can stop making at any point. However, there are too many factors involved in each individual’s life for such a statement to be true. Serious alcohol addiction almost always requires the help of a medical professional to recover from, which makes it an equally serious condition. After all, very few people seek to ruin their lives for the fun of it. Alcohol consumption may start as a choice, but often ends as a serious problem that requires help, patience and understanding. Be supportive and seek professional help if someone you love becomes addicted to alcohol. There is treatment out there, but the path to it requires guidance.
Different drugs affect your body in different ways. An opiate is one of the most common types of abused drugs in existence. While some drugs or substances may slow you down or change how you see things, an opiate will can make you experience what you might think are good feelings. However, taking an opiate, no matter how good it feels, can be extremely dangerous to your body. You need to learn how an opiate will affect your body, why taking an opiate is dangerous and what drug might be an opiate so that you know what to stay away from. If you have already taken an opiate and are considering doing so again, this article may help shed some light on why continued use of an opiate is dangerous to your health and can lead you on a downward spiral that could end in death if you’re not careful.
Lets talk about how an opiate will affect your body. Inside of you, there are cells with areas that act as opiate receptors. These areas become highly responsive in your body when you take an opiate, causing you to feel increased pleasure or contentment. However, do not be fooled by these feelings. They can cause you to neglect other feelings or stimuli that are important for keeping you safe and healthy. For example, taking an opiate might make you feel so good that your body “forgets” to cough when you’re choking. That could result in death. Your body may also “forget” to keep you from touching something hot that can cause serious burns. The problem is that you’ll feel so good from taking the opiate that you don’t feel the pain of the burns, which can cause long-term health issues or irreparable damage to the place where you got burned. Taking an opiate can also affect your body’s natural ability to breath, without you even knowing it. Taking an opiate may cause your breathing to slow or stop altogether, which can cause brain damage or even death. Are you starting to see how the good feelings from taking an opiate really aren’t so good for you?
Life becomes extremely dangerous when even simple, everyday choices and actions are taken out of your hands. Unfortunately, this can happen often an easily when you decide to take an opiate. If you take an opiate often enough, your body may stop responding in certain ways or may “forget” to perform vital actions such as breathing. You may not be aware enough to let someone know that something is wrong and you need help after taking an opiate. Taking an opiate can damage you quickly, or slowly and painfully. Either could end in your death. While it is nice to feel good in life, our bodies are meant to feel pain and other feelings for a reason. The variety of feelings we get from our bodies help us to survive from day to day. If you only feel good, like the feelings you’d get from taking an opiate, your body would not be able to warn you of problems and potential danger. You could end up in the hospital, having to get an arm or leg cut off, in a coma or dead. When we say that taking an opiate is dangerous, we aren’t exaggerating. Anything that takes your actions and choices away, without you knowing it, is never good for you.
So what drugs might be an opiate? The most common type of opiate is heroin, but other substances such as morphine and even prescription drugs like Dilaudid are an opiate. Each opiate can be combined in a substance with different ingredients to produce slightly different results. One type of opiate may make you feel good faster. Another opiate may make the good feelings last longer. Still another opiate may be combined with ingredients to take away the crashing and pain that is normally associated with taken an opiate. Knowing about each type of opiate will let you know what to stay away from if someone offering such a substance ever approaches you.
Remember that no matter how good it might feel, taking an opiate without the consent and control of a doctor is illegal and can be extremely dangerous to your health. Taking an opiate may make you feel good for a time, but it almost always ends with pain, nausea and potentially injuries or a hospital stay. In many common cases, taking an opiate, even one time, can also end in death. If you are finding it hard to fight the urge to take an opiate, talk to someone you know and trust or seek the help of a medical professional. Don’t let it go until taking an opiate has a chance to ruin your life. Even one time can be too much or too late. Stay in control of your life and avoid taking an opiate at all costs. When you see the damage an opiate can do, you’ll be thankful you stopped to think.