Dr. Mark Agresti discusses the benefits of stopping drug use.
Dr. Mark Agresti, West Palm Beach Drug & Alcohol Detox Specialist, Psychiatrist
Call (561) 444-7044 or email: info@206.189.200.158 Dr. Agresti today to get psychiatric help today.
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http://206.189.200.158 ~ (561) 444-7044
Dr. Mark Agresti, West Palm Beach Drug & Alcohol Detox Specialist – Psychiatrist,
shares his in-office video that educates his patients on the symptoms, troubles and hardships of Bipolar Disorder. Learn about the manic and the depressive sides to bipolar disorder.
Call Dr. Agresti today to get help with Bipolar Disorder.
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www.dragresti.com ~ (561) 444-7044 Dr. Mark Agresti, West Palm Beach Drug & Alcohol Detox Specialist — Psychiatrist, shares his in-office video that educates his patients on the symptoms, troubles and hardships of Bipolar Disorder. Learn about the manic and the depressive sides to bipolar disorder. Call Dr. Agresti today to get help with Bipolar Disorder.
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I want to share two stories to help those with drug problems — or those with loved ones who have drug problems — see how addiction works and how it can be overcome.
My clients, Belle and Bob, were both addicts. Belle managed to dig herself out. Bob did not. At the most basic level, these two people had bad relationships with themselves. It really all comes down to that. Improve your relationship with yourself and you can get better. Continue to hate yourself, and the ending can be very bad.
Belle’s Story
Belle, a 23-year-old woman working as an actress in Manhattan, was using Oxycontin and Adderall. She had gotten to the point where she was staying up all night, going to bed at 6 a.m. and waking up at noon. She had been very attractive, but her drug use had given her acne, a sickly skin tone and damaged her hair.
She looked like a drug addict and her life had become totally disorganized. Thankfully, her family recognized that Belle was in trouble. They brought her to a treatment center in Florida where I work and had an intervention with her.
Belle’s Family Intervenes
Belle did not come into treatment because she wanted to. Her family, who had been supporting her, had threatened her that they would cut her off if she didn’t.
Belle would tell you that she had a successful acting career, but she was actually making no money. Her mother was sending her a check for $6,000 every month. (more…)
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Initially the attraction is euphoria taking a mini vacation. Someone once told me getting high is like God putting a warm blanket around you and rubbing your temples telling you everything will be alright. This is a powerful draw. The mini vacation to escape life’s hardships becomes more frequent and all encompassing. Physically the body comes addicted. Psychologically the individual needs the drug to maintain emotional stability and to cope with life’s stress. Individuals with addicted family members are at an unfair disadvantage. Once they get a taste of euphoria from a drug, their bodies crave more drugs. Something is different with this group, they are genetically built to use excessively. Their bodies experience powerful cravings to use addicting drugs and keep using them. Their favorite word is more. Genetic predisposition is one unlucky factor. Another unlucky factor in making someone drug dependent, is being raised and living around drug dependent people. So, there are two forces at work, one is a genetic predisposition to use, another is a learned behavior.
That’s just the start. Once the psyche experiences the high, the escape, and a free ride from life’s problems; new forces take over. The individual goes undercover and must now conceal their activities. They have to make some time to get drugs and to do the drugs. They have to start explaining to others lost blocks of time, money, energy, and different thoughts and behaviors surface. By thoughts I mean all the using and getting drugs takes a lot of planning, manipulating and lying. They need to form a group of people who each contribute something to getting drugs, a place to use them and help with the cover story to disguise what’s really going on. (more…)
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Marijuana has been used by so many people and is so immersed in our culture that people don’t respect it dangers. Working with adolescents with mental illness, marijuana is the biggest problem, I face as a psychiatrist.
Every adolescent tells me the same thing: “It’s natural”, “They are going to make it legal”, “Marijuana helps me sleep”, “Marijuana relaxes me”, Marijuana is harmless”, “Nobody gets in trouble on marijuana”, “It’s not as bad as alcohol” and “Nothing is fun without marijuana”.
Then there is always the arguments what it’s not: “Marijuana is not addicting”, “People can stop anytime they want”, “Marijuana doesn’t make you violent or aggressive”, “You cant over dose on marijuana”, “You can smoke all the marijuana you want and nothing happens”, “Nobody steals to get a marijuana fix”, “Marijuana is not a hard drug”, and “No one gets rushed to the hospital because they used marijuana”.
Groups of people are organized around using marijuana. The glue that holds these people together is smoking marijuana and listening to musical groups like Dave Matthews, Phish and Grateful Dead. Those things are maybe true but that’s not the whole truth. Marijuana is subtle and effective in addicting people. The addiction is psychological in nature but powerful. Marijuana users usually become regular users. People tell me, “I use once a week, maybe every ten days.” That means you have marijuana in your blood stream most of the time. Marijuana may take 7-10 days to leave the body. Chronic smokers may have marijuana in their system for up to six week, so even infrequent use results in marijuana/THC in your system all the time. (more…)
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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. (more…)
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