Prescription Drug Addiction Few alcoholics or drug addicts have given their alcohol and drug abuse much intelligent study. They reluctantly agree they must quit, but keep right on drinking alcohol and/or using prescription drugs. Especially if they are prescribed by the doctor.
"I remember in my mid 20's feeling deep sadness, anxiety, and just feeling basically troubled. I went to a medical doctor and while there in the waiting room, read a pamphlet regarding depression. In about a minute I determined that in fact, I had all the symptoms listed in the brochure of a depressed person. When I met with the doctor I told him that I had read the brochure in the waiting room, and essentially had diagnosed myself as depressed. Twenty minutes later I left the office with a prescription for anti-depressants.
We never discussed that I came from a severely dysfunctional home, nor that I was raised by two alcoholics, and one other mentally absent care taker. We also never discussed that although I worked, worked out, and looked totally together on the outside, that I drank a bottle of wine a night, and had 2 drunk driving arrests up to that point.
It took another 22 years to get to place where I was so emotionally bankrupt and broken, that I actually found help, and it did not come in a large or small bottle of any kind. The good news is that there is hope and recovery available today" -Anonymous-
The alcoholic and drug addict live in compulsive slavery. Please click here for more information on prescription drugs that individuals abuse.
Signs & Symptoms of Drug Abuse
Meth, Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana, are just some of the most abused illegal substances at this time. Please click on the links to learn more about each drugs signs and symptoms of abuse/addiction.
Alcohol and drugs are the only means that makes life bearable and quiets the alcoholic or drug addict's restless nerves. Existence under such circumstances soon makes the alcoholic's and drug addict's life unmanageable. Read information about prescription drugs such as OxyContin here.
First Step In Treatment is Detox
Detoxification programs aim to achieve safe and humane withdrawal from opiates by minimizing the severity of withdrawal symptoms and other medical complications. The primary objective of detoxification is to relieve withdrawal symptoms while patients adjust to a drug-free state. Not in itself a treatment for addiction, detoxification is a useful step only when it leads into long-term treatment that is either drug-free (residential or outpatient) or uses medications as part of the treatment. The best documented drug-free treatments are the therapeutic community residential programs lasting 3 to 6 months.
Young Adult Alcoholism & Drug Addiction Alcoholism and drug addiction are rising at an exponential rate in the world today. As a society we struggle to understand why seemingly bright individuals are compelled to ruin their lives with alcohol and drug abuse, regardless of age, race, or economic level. Young adults struggle with addiction in this decade more than ever. Fortunately we know more about addiction today, than ever before. Addiction treatment centers that focus specifically on issues with young adult rehabilitation have better outcomes than those that do not.
Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for work, medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. At least one psychopharmacologist who has studied this field refers to it as the 'Fourth Drive,' arguing that the human instinct to seek mind-altering substances has so much force and persistence that it functions like the human drives for hunger, thirst and shelter.
Functioning Alcoholics & Drug Addicts
There are many so called functioning alcoholics and drug addicts that manage to keep a job, go to school, maintain a family, and have not killed anyone while driving drunk on alcohol or high on drugs as of "yet.
"Yet's" are those little lies we tell ourselves to help cement our denial. I am not really an alcoholic because I make an above average salary, drive a status car, have a house, don't live under a bridge, don't drink or use in the morning, never drink alcohol or use drugs alone, never use drugs or drink alcohol on the job, the list can go on and on. The determining factor is, can one predict with certainty what will happen each time they drink?
However, as time goes on many of us soon realize the "yet's. Pretty soon the family, job or school is gone, often the house is lost, DU I's and run ins with the law become common place. What was mentioned above has only talked about the result of loss in the material or worldly sense.
Codependency
Codependency is another debilitating addiction that is often times overlooked simply because there is not a substance attached to the addiction. The addiction shows up in individuals lives as personal issues in relationship to others. Some characteristics of an individual suffering from co-dependency is needing the constant approval of others to validate self worth, the constant need to control others, not being able to live alone, and being externally focused.
In love relationships this can become debilitating and no less painful than those addicted to an actual substance. Codependency shows up in ones life as controlling, manipulating behavior. Many codependent have difficulty looking at themselves because in their mind, the problems in their lives are always created by other people and situations that they consider to be out of their control.
Many addiction treatment professionals believe that codependency is the underlying disease of all addictions. Click here to read more about codependency.
Adult Children of Alcoholics
Many children raised by alcoholics experience and share common characteristics. Some of the shared characteristics include having an over developed sense of responsibility and always having to be in control. However, at the other side of the spectrum they just give up and feel completely ineffectual. ACA's usually live in extremes, everything is either black or white. They can suffer from depression, and may not have acknowledged that they never had a childhood. They tend to isolate and do not feel at ease around others.
Also, 50 to 60% of adult children of alcoholics may end of marrying alcoholics, becoming one, or both. One of the best books available for those who think they may be suffering from issues stemming from a life of being raised by one or both parents who are alcoholic is: Recovery: A Guide for Adult Children of Alcoholics by Herber L. Gravitz and Julie D. Bowden.
Adult Children of Alcoholics usually appear totally normal on the outside, in fact they typically appear to be above average in physical appearance and worldly accomplishments. They have mastered "image management", however at the core of their being can lie deep feelings of shame, fear of abandonment, and betrayal. They have difficulty with intimate relationships and they tend to isolate. They are survivors, in the largest sense of the word.
ACA is an organization to support Adult Children of Alcoholics. Al-Anon is another good support group for those affected by addiction, however ACA is designed specifically to address the needs of the Adult Child of Alcoholics. Here is a description of the Adult Child as presented by ACA:
Many of us found that we had several characteristics in common as a result of being brought up in an alcoholic or other dysfunctional households.
We had come to feel isolated, and uneasy with other people, especially authority figures. To protect ourselves, we became people pleasers, even though we lost our own identities in the process. All the same we would mistake any personal criticism as a threat.
We either became alcoholics ourselves, married them, or both. Failing that, we found other compulsive personalities, such as a workaholic, to fulfill our sick need for abandonment.
We lived life from the standpoint of victims. Having an over developed sense of responsibility, we preferred to be concerned with others rather than ourselves. We got guilt feelings when we trusted ourselves, giving in to others. We became reactors rather than actors, letting others take the initiative.
We were dependent personalities, terrified of abandonment, willing to do almost anything to hold on to a relationship in order not to be abandoned emotionally. We keep choosing insecure relationships because they matched our childhood relationship with alcoholic or dysfunctional parents.
These symptoms of the family disease of alcoholism or other dysfunction made us 'co-victims', those who take on the characteristics of the disease without necessarily ever taking a drink. We learned to keep our feelings down as children and keep them buried as adults. As a result of this conditioning, we often confused love with pity, tending to love those we could rescue.
Even more self-defeating, we became addicted to excitement in all our affairs, preferring constant upset to workable solutions.
This is a description, not an indictment.
Click here to visit the ACA website.
John Bradshaw is known as a pioneer in this field of work. An adult child of alcoholics himself, his book - Healing the Shame That Binds You is another excellent resource for those seeking recovery.