Friday, August 18, 2006

Alcohol Treatment Centers

Alcohol Treatment Centers
By Max Bellamy
Alcohol treatment is a must. How often we drink it as an addiction without realizing its gripping power over us. Alcohol as an addiction is capable of ruining us emotionally as well as physically. Hence, before it turns into the controlling force in our lives, we have to bring it under control and take the reins of our lives in our own hands. To help us, thousands of rehabilitation centers are spread out throughout the country.

Research shows that usually different types of treatment programs are used by the rehabilitation centers to wipe out the addiction completely. First a detoxification plan to remove harmful substances and alcohol from the body is chosen. Depending upon the intensity of the addiction, various methods are used: inpatient, outpatient, or residential treatment; group or individual counseling; doctor-prescribed drugs or medications to prevent relapse; and other factors. Alcohol treatment centers also require the individuals to stay there and recover completely, which includes improvement on a physical as well as a mental level.

Usually with treatment, the best alcohol treatment centers also provide ongoing care and careful supervision and introduction to other recover groups - even after the recovery of an alcoholic patient.

Many, many centers exist to offer helpful and effective treatment against alcoholism. Some of them are Sober Living by the Sea, Spencer Recovery Centers, Drug and Alcohol Rehab Services, Hazelden, Starlite Recovery Center, Promises Treatment Centers, Comeback Treatment, Brookside Institute, The Bridge to Recovery, Recovery Center, Mount Regis Center, Support Systems Homes, Newport Coast Recovery, and Connor Ranch.

Some other detox centers are the Tarzana Treatment Centers, Home Detox of California, and Pat Moore Foundation.

Before trying out any medication, Hazelden conducts an accurate and detailed diagnosis of individuals and only thereafter, prescribes and uses a proper treatment procedure for its patients.

Drug and Alcohol Rehab Services and Narcanon Southern California provide after-care treatment in case of any relapse within six months of treatment without any further charge.

Alcohol Treatment Centers provides detailed information on Alcohol Treatment Centers, Drug and Alcohol Treatment Centers, Inpatient Alcohol Treatment Centers, History Of Alcohol Treatment Centers and more. Alcohol Treatment Centers is affiliated with Alcohol Treatment Centers.

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Drug Addiction Treatment

Drug Addiction Treatment
By Ross Bainbridge
About one million Americans are dependent on heroin, prescription painkillers and other opioids, and the vast majority does not receive treatment.

Combined with psychological counseling, opiate substitutes that prevent withdrawal are among the most effective treatments for these addictions. Until now, only two drugs--methadone and levo-alpha-acetyl methadol (LAAM ) were available, and only licensed treatment clinics were authorized to dispense them. Many addicts normally avoid opiate treatment programs (OTPs) because of the inconvenience, perceived stigma and because of limited treatment slots.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved buprenorphine, a new drug that could reshape opiate addiction treatment in the United States. This treatment could make pharmacotherapy available and attractive to patients who previously shunned it. Psychologists helped develop this drug and will provide key services to patients treated with it.

Like heroin, methadone and many prescription painkillers, buprenorphine acts on the brain's mu-opioid receptors to cause analgesia, euphoria and other effects. But unlike them, it is a partial agonist--a drug that has mechanisms of action that are similar to pure agonists, such as heroin, but with less potency. Even when it occupies almost all of the brain's mu-opioid receptors, buprenorphine has only about 40 percent of the effect that heroin has. Another pharmacological factor that makes buprenorphine well suited to addiction treatment is its high affinity for the mu-opioid receptor. Even after it's been removed from the blood by elimination and metabolism, buprenorphine stays firmly attached to the brain's receptors, blocking the effect of other drugs with lower affinities. That means that opiate-dependent individuals who take buprenorphine won't get any additional kick from using other opiates, such as heroin.

Buprenorphine's stickiness has another advantage, because it clings to the receptor long after it has been administered, it can make the detoxification process easier.

Addiction Treatment provides detailed information on Addiction Treatment, Drug Addiction Treatment, Alcoholism Addiction Treatment, Addiction Treatment Programs and more. Addiction Treatment is affiliated with Drug Addiction.

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Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Which Drug Addiction Treatment Is The Best?

Which Drug Addiction Treatment Is The Best?
by: Jeff Lakie

The answer is simple: there is no such thing as the best drug addiction treatment. Depending on the kind of the addiction, your age and social situation different treatments may be chosen for your benefit.

Here are a few most common drug addiction treatments (from www.nida.nih.gov website):

(1) Relapse Prevention - this treatment helps you control your behavior, learn to identify dangerous situations and avoid them. It concentrates on augmenting your learning processes and developing your own defense skills.

(2) Matrix model - strict and personal, with therapist acting as your friend and as your coach at the same time. This drug addiction treatment seems to be intensive and deep. It works as much on your consciousness as on forcing into you a kind of drill which prevents you from using drugs.

(3) Supportive-Expressive Psychotherapy - it works mostly through interpersonal links, creating your sphere of comfort and teaches you to trust in other people support. Good and comfortable, used mostly for cocaine and heroin addicts.

(4) Individualized drug counseling is a drug addiction treatment that concentrates not only on a drug addiction, but works also on other related subject - employment status, family problems etc. It's a short-term therapy, but when it helps, it helps in a big way.

(5) Motivational Enhancement Therapy - this one concentrates on the addicts will - its aim is to incite the will to fight the addiction. It changes people, but in a good way. It makes them stronger and more focused.

(6) Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents - the treatment is based on assumption that by showing desired behavior and rewarding any steps addicts take toward achieving it, this drug addiction treatment will change patients behavior to drug-free one.

(7) Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) for Adolescents takes a different approach and tries to help addicts by their families. It offers interesting and fruitful approach as many addictions have their roots in dysfunctional families, but it doesn't need only the addict's cooperation, but also the help from the family, which may be sometimes difficult.

About The Author

Jeff Lakie is the founder of http://www.alcohol-drug-abuse-treatment.com a website providing information on drug and alcohol abuse treatments.

Drug Addiction

Drug Addiction
By Seth Miller

Statistics show that drug addiction is on the rise. Designer drugs are finding their way into clubs and bars and straight into the hands of teenagers and young professionals. Addiction to prescription drugs is becoming common, as well. Many people become victims of addiction to anti-depressants and other doctor-prescribed medications.

Beginnings of addiction

Drug addiction usually stems from misinformation. Most individuals think that they can easily kick off the habit of taking illegal drugs, and most patients who get addicted to prescription drugs use them for reasons other than those specified by their doctors. Once a user associates certain capabilities and emotions with the drug intake, he becomes addicted.

Left unchecked, the drug intake becomes frequent, especially when the user is in the company of fellow drug addicts. By this time, the drugs are already influencing the brain and are beginning to cloud judgment. Professional intervention is needed.

Signs of addiction

Drugs can alter a person’s behavior and lifestyle almost immediately. An addict may show sudden shifts in general behavior, outlook on life, diet and sleep habits. Eventually, the effects of drug addiction manifest physically. The cheeks and eyes become hollow and hair starts to fall out, among other symptoms. Some of these symptoms can be easily treated with professional help. Prolonged substance abuse, however, has long-term effects that cannot be reversed, such as brain damage or cancer.

Drug addiction treatment

Drug addiction can be cured through medication and counseling. But the best method of dealing with addiction is combining these two methods with sustained therapy. Family support and understanding also play a major role in the total recovery of the patient. Clinical rehabilitation may take up to six months, but the effort to stay drug free is a life-long commitment.

Drug Addiction provides detailed information on Drug Addiction, Prescription Drug Addiction, Drug Addiction Treatments, Drug Addiction Symptoms and more. Drug Addiction is affiliated with Pre-Employment Drug Testing.

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Effects of Alcoholism

Effects of Alcoholism
By Jennifer Bailey

Substance abuse or drug and alcohol addiction involves ingesting or administering harmful substances to our bodies. Given this, it can be expected that the continued use of these substances will have negative effects on our bodies. For alcoholism, the effects include short and long term effects, both of which can be life threatening. Some long-term physical effects include increased susceptibility to liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and other life threatening diseases. On the psychological aspect, alcoholics may also develop certain mental illnesses as a result of alcoholism. However, among the two, it is the short-term effects that can affect not only the drinker but other people as well because some of these short-term effects are enough cause deadly accidents.

Some short-term effects

Some of the short-term effects of drinking can happen in as short as ten minutes after you begin drinking, and as you continue to drink, the effects you may feel may have more serous repercussions. Some of these include reduced inhibitions, wherein your behavior may change and you may end up engaging in activities that you would later regret and memory loss as a result of increased alcohol levels in your blood and which affects your brain’s control mechanisms. Other short-term effects also include the loss of muscle control, which can lead to slurred speech or falling accidents and stupor, which makes you unable to function and disoriented. In extreme cases, drinking a large amount of alcohol can cause you to go under a coma, have respiratory paralysis and die.

All these symptoms have detrimental effects on the drinker and other people. An example of which is when you decide to drive a car even if you exhibit these short term effects of alcohol consumption, which most likely cause you to have an accident that not only endangers your life but of those who are on the road as well. Given this, it is very important that people are not only aware of the long-term effects of prolonged alcohol dependence since the short-term effects are as serious and as fatal.

Alcoholism provides detailed information on Alcoholism, Alcoholism Treatments, Signs Of Alcoholism, Effects Of Alcoholism and more. Alcoholism is affiliated with Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

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Brain Health And Teen Drug Addiction - Why One Drug Leads To Another

Brain Health And Teen Drug Addiction - Why One Drug Leads To Another
By Robin J. Derry

What chance does a teenager have to avoid the "drug tentacles" reaching into every crack and crevasse of American society? Drug addiction and drug abuse are not simply about "street drugs" sold by nefarious persons to innocent victims. Both illegal and legally prescribed drugs mimic each other in the many in which they exploit the structure or neurobiology of the user's brain. The bad news is that teenagers have free-and-easy access to any number of mind-bending mood altering substances.

The money culture of America has created an "open hunting season" for access and "market share" of Americans' consciousness by alcohol, tobacco and drug marketers of all ilk and stripe.

Beer and spirits ads promote brand use, yet finish with "drink responsibly" throwaway lines, as though the millions of kids and adults might "just have one".

Smoking and cancer are proven bed-fellows, yet brand sellers "pitch" their products, while placing label warnings and even advertising their "stop smoking" web sites.

Last but certainly not least are the research and pharmaceutical firms, embracing FDA approvals for distributing all manner of body and mood-altering drugs.

The intersection between government and money interests simply rubber stamps the "she'll be right, Mate" attitude towards creeping drug addiction. Everyone has seen the somber and chilling TV ads about "Just Say No To Drugs" government campaigns to build awareness of teenage drug addiction, as well as law enforcement muscle applied to illegal drugs trafficking. To what impact? Precious little, as drug addiction and drug abuse proliferate across all age groups and economic classes.

Sign Of Drug Addiction - What To Look For

At its core, teen drug addiction describes an inner drive, and an inner void, towards self-medicating. Why? Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, heroin and crack swamp the teen's mind, diffusing anxiety while creating a distanced abstracted "dream like" safety space from the press of reality.

* Physical Signs

Your teen shifts towards an out-of-phase approach towards eating and sleep. Food tastes change, cravings pointing towards intense high caloric sweets and fats. Sleep disorders prevail, with late nights and impossible mornings the new order. Weight gains are interchangeable with weight loss as eating disorders slowly surface. Concentration lapses, missing school work and poor grades. Beginning with headaches and dizziness, physical sign of drug addiction can suddenly "blow up" into a full scale anxiety panic attack.

* Anti Social Behavior

For allegedly "normal" teens, all parents are "pathetic and lame". Add drug use and hostility and suspicion towards parents becomes legion. Teen drug addiction amplifies the normal tendency towards intense secretiveness. Many parents, and even brothers and sisters, are the last to know that a teen "in the next room" has created a life threatening drug addiction. To be a teen is to be a master of the "cover up".

Cause Of Drug Addiction - Contributing Factors

Peer pressure, stress, struggling self-esteem and identity issues, feeling of worthlessness, inability to manage the whipsaw of daily emotions, body changes and pressure to look a certain way, sex, parental pressures, parental neglect. Any one, or combination of factors, can become a cause of drug addiction once use begins and overwhelms a teenager.

Neither a teen nor her parents will typically "catch" the early signs in time before the snowballing effect of daily drug use radiates into a major drug abuse life crisis requiring aggressive professional intervention for drug addiction treatment of the mind and body. For parents, Hell’s door has just opened as they struggle to learn new attitudes towards their child, and to admit that they "no longer know" their child.

Knowledge Of Brain Changes Key To Drug Addiction Recovery

Consider the staggering complexity of our brains, with over 10 billion individual brain cells each with over 20,000 separate and unique synapse-links to other cells and a neural "roadway" of 4 million miles of nerve fibers.

* Drugs Create Unique Homes In The Brain

All substances, drugs included, travel along unique neurological "pathways". So-called receptor sites become temporarily "occupied" by drug compounds, creating a short-lived "feel good" mood altering impact. Responding to external pressures, the teen "self medicates" in order to re-create that safety zone. The Catch 22 for all drug users is that they lack the ability to self-analyze and resolve psychological issues, and their self-medication only buries them deeper inside the very problems they're trying to resolve. This is the inevitability, steep slope and snowballing reality of teenage drug addiction.

* Brain Adapts - Drug Use Increases In Search Of The "High"

Brain receptor sites adapt over time. Result? Starter drugs no longer create the "same high". Teen response? Experiment and find another, more powerful drug. The cycle of brain adaptation and intensifying drug usage creates a downward spiral of increasing drug addiction, where withdrawal stresses produce a bio-chemical flow of demand for more drugs and shorter intervals.

Explore additional drug addiction therapies, as well as natural options for managing brain health and moods while promoting natural rest and life cycles.

Natural Nutrients: http://www.wise4living.com/hfvit-brain/melatonin.htm

Brain Health And Repair: http://www.wise4living.com/hfvit-brain/

Author Robin Derry is publisher for http://www.wise4living.com/ a specialty information site that gives solutions to health, household, sport, travel and legal needs.

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