Medical Drugs

Medical drugs are generally prescribed as short term solutions in the handling of pain. Many of these medical drugs will build up tolerance in the system requiring increased amounts for the same effect. Thus dependence sets in and one begins taking these at abusive and addictive levels before long. This accounts for drugs like OxyContin being more and more used in illegal black markets to handle addiction to them. Black market illegal use of drugs such as these is outstripping legitimate use and prescription. Anti-depressants and anti-psychotics are much the same story with many school age children selling their prescriptions in the school yard. Add the horrific side effects, some of which are life threatening, and what we see is an epidemic rise in the abuse and addiction to prescription medications.

Addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition, characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and drug use which is accompanied by functional and molecular changes in the brain. In addition to being addicted to methamphetamine, chronic methamphetamine abusers exhibit symptoms that can include violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. They also can display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, and delusions. The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts. With chronic use, tolerance for methamphetamine can develop. Users may take higher doses of the drug, take it more frequently, or change their method of drug intake. In some cases, abusers forego food and sleep while injecting as much as a gram of the drug every 2 to 3 hours over several days until the user runs out of the drug or is too disorganized to continue. Chronic abuse can lead to psychotic behavior, characterized by intense paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and out-of-control rages that can be coupled with extremely violent behavior.

Executive Director of Narconon Arrowhead Gary W. Smith reports, ‘Although the number of people coming to us who are abusing pot is a smaller percentage of our total clientele, in the 30 years I have been in the drug rehabilitation field I have not seen these numbers of individuals literally hooked on marijuana and unable to stop on their own. We’ve known for a long time that marijuana use can lead to other drugs but it is shocking to see people whose lives are being destroyed by smoking pot just like others we are treating who are addicted to crack or alcohol. I believe this is happening because the strength of the pot that is being smoked today is probably ten times stronger than the pot of 20 years ago.’

What exactly do we mean when we say rehab program? Well, rehabilitate means to restore to or improve a previous condition. A program is a series of steps to bring about a desired result. So an effective rehab program is a series of steps to bring about an improvement of the condition the person was in prior to the drug or alcohol addiction. Simply withdrawing someone from drug use is merely one step though an important one. Going to support groups or meetings is also a step. Here at the Narconon Arrowhead rehab program our full rehab program will address physical, emotional, and mental factors leading up to and then continuing addiction. The three broad categories are cravings, guilt and depression. When one is feeling better (emotionally and physically) as well as functioning better they will no longer require or crave drugs in an attempt to escape these unwanted feelings. Narconon rehab programs rehabilitate lives so that drug use is no longer needed or desired.

An effective drug abuse treatment center will competently deal with all levels of drug use problems whether abuse or addiction. If one is abusing drugs or alcohol then addiction has already to spread its tentacles around the user. Drug or alcohol abuse leading to addiction always starts as an attempted solution to some form of pain in life. This pain could be mental, physical, or both. It could start as simply of handling the pain of trying to fit in by going along with the crowd and using drugs, or perhaps excessive drinking as a supposed solution to unconfrontable home situations. There are probably as many reasons as there are abusers, addicts, and alcoholics. A good drug abuse treatment center realizes that unless the underlying reasons behind the addiction are handled the individual though now clean, will often finding themselves falling back into the trap of use and addiction as a false solution to handling the stresses that initially caused it to begin with - and never were handled.