With painkiller addiction, the number one question we are asked at our rehab centers is, “I can get off painkillers, but how do I STAY off?”
Just getting off addiction to prescription pain meds can be gruesome. If the addict tries to simply stop using and, without help, just grit his teeth and tough it out, the withdrawal symptoms can tear him up. It tears up everyone around him too.
Recently, a very concerned father called about his 27 year old daughter. She has had two back surgeries for which multiple pain medications have been prescribed. You guessed it, she has become very dependent on them.
It is not clear at this point if the pain in her body is from the injuries, the surgeries, or from her addiction to the heavy opioids she is on.
Heavy use of pain medications can actually perpetuate the sensations of pain after long term use; a little known fact that the pharmaceutical industry does not talk about.
And these medications do not just mask the pain, they also change the way you function mentally. And if a person has emotional issues to begin with, the added effects of the drugs can lay the prefect foundation for a full blown addiction. Prescription drug addiction is so common these days that more of our calls are for prescription meds than anything else.
So what needs to be done for this girl?
Two things: Detox her and then Rehabilitate her.
You could sit and try to “talk sense” for hours on end and it would not change anything. We would not know what is going on until we find out how much of her pain is actually from the back injury and how much is from the addiction to prescription pain meds.
The word detox has somehow evolved onto a catch-all word that covers all aspects of recovery from drug addiction. In reality, it is only one part of the journey, albeit a necessary part. And detox is much more than just taking a holiday from the drugs for a week. By detox we mean actually cleansing the body of the residual drugs and toxins that had built up over the years of drug use.
Then, when she is really off drugs, it is time for true rehab. See what is needed in the way of physical correction while she learns what she was missing to begin with, help her to gain the strength to live without the drugs, to live in the light of full awareness and not in the dim, drugged world she has been struggling in for however long.
The skills that keep someone off drugs, month after month, year after year, are what must be learned, with the help of experts in the field of addiction recovery. That is real detox-rehab.
But getting help is not easy either. There are very few “free” rehab centers. And if you find one… get in line. The waiting list can be very long. It does not do you much good when you hear, “Okay, we will help you…in six months.”
Tony Bylsma CCDC, is a rehabilitation counselor and drug prevention speaker in Los Angeles.
Blog: http://www.detoxrehab.org
Website: http://www.theroadout.org/prescription-drug-addiction-help.html
|
|
1950’s Los Angeles Police Recruits Training Video for Narcotics & Illegal Drugs $4.99 Famous filmmakers Denis and Terry Sanders made this dark and powerful educational film, which was used as a no-nonsense training tool for new police recruits in Los Angeles. Dry and hard hitting, the film provides a harrowing look at illegal drug use, particularly heroin use in 1950’s Los Angeles. It depicts in some detail drug use and the social problems it creates, as well as the effects of hero… |
|
|
Cooked in LA: I Shot for the Stars and Hit Bottom $14.45 Paul Cook had everything going for him—he was young, good looking, had a successful career in radio, a lovely wife, and loving parents—and yet one night he found himself in a near-catatonic state caused by ingesting too much ketamine or “special K,” on the floor of a St. Louis bar. This autobiography details Paul’s voracious appetite for drugs and alcohol—exemplified by the search for an uno… |
|
|
Youth, Ethnicity, and Drugs: Reports From the Job Corps (2 Volumes) … |
