Question:

Areeba writes,

I know this person who actually is really addicted to pills because she has this depression problem. If she takes it then she feels better, and does not lose so much weight, but when she tries to leave it for about a month, then she simply loses 9 pounds.

She has an average diet and is a young teenager. She now weighs about 76 pounds and is 15 years old.

I want to help her out by letting her stop this, but I don’t know how because if she does, then she loses extensive weight which is not good for her.

She has a serious depression problem and I really do not know what to do or how to help her, but I know she is not at all interested in taking drugs. She just has to . Please help me.

 

Answer: You are far beyond the point of self-help. She needs to see a doctor ASAP. She needs the help of a psychiatrist immediately. She may also need to consult with other specialties.

Addiction and depression are a BAD combination. Is she on prescription medication or is she taking street drugs? You did not specify, but this is a very important question.

The bottom line is that you don’t want to get help from some question and answer service on the Internet – what she needs to do right now is go see a psychiatrist. This is no joke. If something bad happens, you might blame yourself.

Unfortunately, drugs have been known to alter the body’s chemistry – this creates not only a psychological addiction but very often a physical addiction.

The road to recovery for an addict is never an easy one. The one major requirement for success is the desire to get off the pills AND to overcome the depression.

Here is a resource – written by a recovered drug addict:

Addiction Free Forever

The psychiatrist can help with the drug addiction, the weight problem and the depression all in one shop. A psychiatrist is your best choice for a professional in this case – in my opinion.

If you are already seeing one and receiving prescription meds – then perhaps it is time to find another doctor?

You may need to involve multiple specialties so don’t be afraid to see a Naturopath if they are legal in your state. But, I would not involve a holistic doctor alone – you also need the help of a psychiatrist – someone who is willing to do more than write another prescription for medication.

The mind and body are connected. She needs to change her thoughts, not mask them, to get better. I hope that made sense. If it did not, just ignore it. In either case you MUST seek the professional help mentioned earlier.

This problem is beyond the average layman’s ability to fix.

Go get help NOW!

-Dave

 

* this post and site are for informational and entertainment purposes only. It does not seek to render advice or suggest treatment. If you have or think you might have any type of health problem, including a mental health or addiction problem, visit your doctor for professional advice, treatment, diagnosis and care.

Now this is an interesting one, a new cocktail of drugs that is alleged to beat cocaine, meth, heroin and alcohol addictions.

Addictions are serious! I have heard a number of heart wrenching tales about various addictions. I’ve even written about some.

Here are some of the articles I have written:

Addiction From Another Perspective

Heroin Addiction

Alcoholism Requires Recognition And Treatment

Addiction is a particularly sad state of affairs. It absolutely destroys lives. People lose their spouses, families, homes, jobs, and sometimes more!

If Prometa can give someone a chance that can’t muster up the will power on their own, then maybe that is good.

However, the problem is and always has been with the person wanting to quit and I don’t mean if he just says that on the surface level. The person has to truly want to quit in his heart.

That is really the defining factor. If someone has an addiction and they only half-heartedly want to quit, Prometa or other meds might have some effect for a short while. However, chances are strong for a relapse.

Again, a person has to want to quit deep down inside and really mean it for anything to work long term.

The FDA hasn’t approved Prometa, but apparently it is being used. And true to what I just said, it has worked for some but not others.

The difference is in the person’s heart.

Warm Regards,

David Snape
Author: What You Should Know about Gum Disease

Here is another informative article on addiction:

Why Do People Become Addicted to Drugs?

Resource page on alcohol addictions

Quitting Smoking

If you have anything to say on addictions, please leave a comment below. You can tell your own story or that of someone you love or just know.

Life is too short to live under the cloud of addiction.

Pub Med: 17609255 shows that there is less muscle growth in the body of smokers as compared to non-smokers.

We can add this to our list of side effects to smoking.

Aside from the risks of lung cancer and heart disease, smoking can affect your bodies ability to build muscle tissue as well.

Here are some reasons to quit smoking:

87 percent of lung cancer deaths are caused by smoking

Smoking is also considered to contribute to or even cause many other disease such as: heart and blood vessel disease, lung disease, cataracts and strokes.

Greater risk for pregnancy problems has also been established. There is even a correlation to sudden infant death.

Tobacco smoke contains over 60 substances that are known to cause cancer

Annually, thirty percent of all cancer deaths are directly attributable to cigarette smoking in the United States.

Nicotine does not cause cancer, the other chemicals in the smoke do. Some research does indicate that nicotine might contribute to tumor growth.

Nicotine causes an initial elevated feeling of energy when it hits the brain about 30 seconds after entering the body. Then there is a subsequent low feeling after the effect wears off. This causes the smoker to want to smoke again.

The cycle repeats itself. This is much like the cycle of any other drug addiction.

Quit Smoking Resources

- Dave

Tags: smoking, quit smoking, cigarette smoking

Did you know that you can gain a lot of insight from reading studies that show up in health related journals?

Take this one as an example:

A study entitled ” Health consequences of reduced daily cigarette consumption” first reported in February 2006 indicates that cutting back on smoking does not reduce your risk of facing health problems.

This study was conducted by: The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway and the National Health Screening Service, Oslo, Norway.

Smoking is definitely addictive and definitely deadly. There are, of course, documented benefits to quitting smoking.

Unfortunately, if the above study reflects reality, there is no benefit to cutting back on smoking, only quitting.

It is sad to think that so many people smoke.

Smoking blackens the lungs. I have seen this myself in gross anatomy class. It is one of the freakiest things you would want to see. The cadaver we worked on had lungs that were the same color of black from the outside all the way to the center.

It is easy to imagine that the ability of those lungs to function had to have been severely impaired.

It is amazing to me how many people still smoke today, despite the all the data and facts about smoking.

Plus, the cost of smoking is pretty high, usually running several dollars per day. Imagine investing that money instead!

Have you ever felt that it was time to quit smoking? As they say, “there is no time like the present”.

Ask Dave A Question

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: smoking, quit smoking, stop smoking, habit, cigarettes, smokes

The crazy eyed look was immediately apparent. He walked into the java shop I was relaxing in and began asking people for money. The owner of the shop was about to pounce. I gave the man money and after the guy left, the owner pounced on ME instead.

She said that he was just going to use that money to buy drugs. Judging by the wild look in the man’s eyes, I would have to guess that she was right.

In retrospect, the owner had a very good point. It is a bad idea to help feed an extreme addiction like that.

More recently, there was a lady who didn’t look quite as crazy but she was also not looking ‘right’ either. She had a story that she would whisper to people so that other people could not hear. That way if the person said, “no” to her. She could ask the next person. Everyone would wonder what she was telling other people. Not a bad strategy from a certain point of view.

She would whisper that she just ran out of gas and needed a couple of dollars to so she could get some gas to get home with. I didn’t think she was telling the truth judging by the strange whispering behavior. So, I declined to ‘help’ her.

Next week, she gave me the exact same story again. She obviously gave this story to so many people that she couldn’t remember who she had talked to before. And she probably made some good money doing this.

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Addicted people often reach a point where they no longer care how their behavior appears to other people. They no longer care whether they appear to be telling the truth or lying and they no longer care if you believe them or not.

All that matters is if you give them money. If you won’t or don’t give them any money they will go ask someone else and they will continue asking until they get what they want.

Some may turn to stealing, even from each other.

The question becomes, do I help these people or not?

Alcohol and drug addictions can devolve people into exhibiting more and more animal like behaviors. The spiral is ever downward UNLESS the addicted person wakes up enough to beginning exerting WILL POWER to begin the ascent towards humanness and normal human behavior again.

 

Will power and choice are really the only weapons and shields we have to get by in this modern world with. Choice becomes the factor whereby a person’s character is ascertained. What do you choose to do in a tough spot? What do you choose to do or not do that gets you in that spot in the first place?

In the end, whatever the circumstance of our life is, we have to make choices. Those choices become the essence of character building or character destroying activities.

When we leave this world, we only have our character to take with us. Perhaps where we go at that point in time entirely depends on the character we developed or lost while here.

I encourage to think in these terms as often as possible and to do character building rather than character destroying activities.

Don’t give in to the prevailing hedonistic mentality of today’s world. Remember, there are consequences to everything and those consequences might extend living a terrible life here on Earth to continuing a similar existence into the future.

I met a drummer for a couple of very famous rock bands. He said that practicing Falun Gong helped him to defeat drug and alcohol addictions and continue playing drug free in an environment that was very drug and alcohol use promoting.

I think his story is a good one and I wanted to pass it along to you.

You can also make use of my lists of drug rehab centers and alcohol rehab centers.

 

If you have your own experience about pan-handling addicts or if you have your own story about drug addiction, please use the comment or ‘leave a reply’ section below to tell us about your story.

Best wishes for the brightest future -

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Tags: addictions, rehab, drug rehab, alcohol rehab, drug addictions, drug use Cigarette addiction

Question: There is a big drug addiction problem in our culture. What are your thoughts on that? Why do people become addicted to drugs?

Answer: I agree that drug addiction is a big problem in our culture and around the world. Drugs are everywhere and they are very, very available. Whether it is crack cocaine, heroin, marijuana, LSD, alcohol or whatever, drugs are easy to obtain. Drugs harm society as a whole and they also harm individuals in so many ways.

 

Don’t get Stuck in the Box of Addiction

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I’m sure you remember your high school days. Drugs have been and will probably continue to be a part of our culture. There seems to be little we can do as a society to prevent the drugs themselves from circulating and finding their way into the lives of people, including those whom we love.

This is sad. The destructive nature of substance abuse is truly horrendous. If you’ve ever witnessed someone with a drug addiction, you know far too well how they are often driven to obtain the substance and can’t seem to ‘function’ without it. Lower levels of addiction or compensating behavior may not seem as severe, but still destructive in a variety of ways

Here is a free list of drug rehab treatment centers

Here is a free list of alcohol treatment centers

Here is a free ebook on The Principles of Drug Addiction

Sometimes a person will lie, cheat, steal and do things he wouldn’t normally do or even hurt others physically to get the drug. The movie, Less than Zero comes to mind.

 

 

 

How Does an Addiction Occur?

Physically, the brain uses dopamine to create a ‘good’ feeling. This is normal and natural. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that the brain uses during its normal functioning. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that allow cells to communicate with other cells.

(note: dopamine is being used as an example – other brain chemicals can also be involved in addiction)

Dopamine –> Dope – You can see the connection.

Drugs of addiction cause the brain’s cells to excrete and flood the brain with the chemical dopamine or conversely, block the chemical from being reabsorbed into the cells.

Unfortunately, there is a process called down regulation that feeds right into the state of addiction. The brain sees too much dopamine present and realizes that it must create less, because there is an overabundance. When the drug wears off, the person feels lifeless, without joy and ‘dull’, perhaps even depressed. This is because the dopamine levels have become abnormally low.

The addict finds a solution by taking the drug again. (the wrong solution) He needs the drug to feel good. Unfortunately, the problem gets worse.

 

 

As the brain down regulates further, tolerance grows. Tolerance is resistance to the drug. More of the drug is needed to create the same feeling as before. This is due to the brain adjusting and naturally producing less and less dopamine. For this reason, addicts may seek larger and larger doses to get the same feeling they had previously.

So you have the elevated good feeling on the one hand. Then you have the abnormally low feelings when the drug wears off. You can see how this leads the person on a vicious cycle of highs and lows.

This cycle leads to physical addiction. A state where the person feels driven to obtain the drug, oftentimes at any cost. There is no set number of times that it takes to provoke an addiction.

Not all professionals agree on what an addiction is or at what point a person can be said to be addicted. For our purposes, we’ll just say that an addiction is when a person causes harm to himself or others due to substance abuse. This is not limited to physical harm alone but emotional hurt, unavailability, losing one’s employment, and any other negative affect that comes from using or abusing a substance.

You’ve probably seen addicts in your local city pan handling for money to buy drugs or alcohol with. Sometimes you ask them if they want some food and they readily turn that down, they only want money. Money is needed to buy more drugs.

 

Beating a drug addiction is possible, yet it can be difficult. Treatment typically involves a combination approach involving multiple factors being addressed simultaneously. Here is a list of drug rehab facilities that might help with overcoming a drug addictiont. Here is another rehab center page specifically created for alcohol addiction.

Repeating treatment is often times necessary as one round of treatment may not be enough. In other words there tends to be a risk factor that the treated addict will seek the drug again. Sometimes, there is a long gap of time before the addiction occurs again.

Physical dependence can be offset by doctor prescribed medications. However, there may be psychological factors that need to be treated as well. Perhaps there are social, legal or other tough situations that make taking the drug again an attractive proposition to the user.

This is part of why addiction treatment can become so complex. A major contributor to success is the patient’s willingness to eliminate the addiction, especially then the struggle becomes tough.

It seems to me that developing the will to eliminate an addiction is one of the most crucial components to long term relief. The love and support of others can certainly be helpful, but the individual must ultimately choose for himself what he wants.

 

I am sympathetic. I think drug addiction is one of the worst states of being for a person. I hope that people can either get help or help themselves out of the box of addiction. Facing both physical and psychological barriers makes the struggle harder. However, it can be done and there are plenty of examples of people who have beaten their addiction and live normal, productive and hopefully loving lives.

If you would like to comment on this topic, you are encouraged to do so below, under ‘leave a reply’.

Stay out of the Box of Addiction