Kay Kay Healthcare Ltd.
DRUG ABUSE
SYMPTOMS
• Changes in appearance and behavior that affect relationships and work performance.
• In children, abrupt changes in mood or flare-ups, or increased secrecy.
Specific symptoms depend on the drug:
• Extreme energy, weight loss, dilated pupils, insomnia, and trembling may indicate abuse of stimulants, or “uppers.”
• Lethargy, slurred or confused speech, lack of balance, constricted pupils, or excessive sleep may point to abuse of sedatives, or “downers.”
• Mood swings, red eyes, dilated pupils, slowed time sense and reflexes, dizziness, and lethargy may indicate marijuana use.
• Ulcerated nostrils are typical of cocaine sniffing; a runny nose or sniffles are typical smoking crack cocaine; needle marks on the arms may indicate intravenous cocaine abuse.
• Weight loss, lethargy, mood swings, excessive sweating, slurred speech, constricted pupils, and poor appetite suggest opiate abuse.
• Hallucinations, dilated pupils, trembling, and sweating indicate abuse of psychedelic drugs.
WHAT IS DRUGS ABUSE
Drug abuse is the use of a psychoactive drug legal or illegal enough to cause the abuser physical, mental, emotional, or social harm. Addiction or dependence is the compulsive, continued use of a drug. While the term “drug abuse” conjures up violent images of the illegal drug trade, abuse of legal drugs is an even larger health problem. Between two and three million Americans are addicted to prescription drugs, and hospitals report as many emergencies from abuse of legal drugs as from illegal drugs. Like alcohol abusers, drug abusers commonly deny their problem by playing down the extent of drug use or blaming external factors, such as job or family stress. Families may join in denial in a misguided effort to defend the abuser, creating a powerful barrier to treatment and recovery. Commonly abused drugs fall into several broad categories:
Central nervous system depressants. Sleeping pills and ant anxiety drugs are among the most prescribed medication in the United States; about seven million people take some form of CNS depressant at least once a week. Barbiturates bring on effects like those of alcohol: small doses are relaxing, but large amounts can damage both mind and body. Taken with alcohol, barbiturates’ can fatal. The risk of addiction and overdose are so well known that doctors prescribe barbiturates with extreme caution. Benzodiazepines are safer than barbiturates but can cause dependence as patient develop tolerance to them after a few weeks of use. This class includes the popular ant anxiety agent’s diazepam, alprazolam, and triazolam. Their abuse brings on drowsiness, slurred speech, and lack of coordination, which may progress to memory impairment, tremors, and paranoia. A drug abuser being treated with benzodiazepines for anxiety during withdrawal is quite likely to start abusing a benzodiazepine. Stimulants. Addictive stimulants cause rapid speech, agitation, and a debilitating pattern of high followed by crashes. People addicted to amphetamines, or uppers, often try to calm themselves down with CNS depressants, or downers, and become caught in an up and down cycle. A more powerful and more habit forming stimulant is cocaine; the smoked version called crack is highly addictive. There are an estimated two million cocaine addicts in the U.S. opiates. About half a million people in the U.S. are addicted to opium, morphine, or heroin. The addiction typically cause depression, anxiety, low self esteem, and reduced coping ability. Intravenous injection of these drugs carries the additional risk of hepatitis, AIDS, and other transmissible disease. Cannabis. Smoking marijuana can depress short term memory, motivation, and energy levels. Chronic use brings increased heart rate, vision problems, poor lung function, and changes in sex hormones, and increased risk of lung cancer. Other commonly abuse substance range from tobacco and alcohol to psychedelic drugs like LSD. Athletes who use anabolic steroids to add muscle face the possibility of violent behaviour, heart disease, and sever liver and hormone damage. Babies of pregnant women who abuse either legal or illegal drugs face specifically dangers, ranging from premature birth and malnutrition to life threatening birth effects. Many adolescents are tempted to experiment with drugs and are highly vulnerable to peer pressure especially those in poverty or with non-supportive families.
CAUSES
There is little agreement on the underlying cause of substance abuse, but experts are more likely to regard it as a disease than a lack of will power. Chronic alcohol and drug abusers may have a genetic predisposition to addiction, but environmental and social factor such as poverty, family dysfunction, and peer pressure are also significant. Certainly the social context can be crucial: one cannot become addicted to drugs without starting you uses them in the first place. Many people consider that drug dependence come from a natural desire to alter a person’s consciousness or an effort to achieve wholeness. One reason addictive drugs are so dangerous is that most people who use them believe they are immune to addiction. Once drug dependence is established, the pattern is hard to break whether or not the abuser is aware of the problem. Tolerance to opiates and stimulates increases to get the same effect. For the most addictive drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, continued use is often reinforced by the desire to avoid the pain of withdrawal.
TREATMENT
Treatment is a two step process. Withdrawal from drug use may require only days or weeks, but can be unpleasant and even dangerous without professional supervision. Recovery is the extended stage of remaining drug free.
CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE
The first step in treating drug abuse is awareness. Some addicts may not know they are drug dependent; others deny it. At this stage, family, friends, or a trusted professional must make the case for abstinence and treatment. No single treatment fits all abusers; appropriate treatment depends on the type and severity of the addiction. Approaches range from outpatient maintenance programs, psychotherapy, and self help groups like Narcotics Anonymous to residential programs lasting weeks or months. An addicted person may need not just drug treatment but also medical care, welfare support, and psychiatric or social counselling. Successful recovery programs strive to establish social support, raise self esteem and help the addict avoid situations that can trigger relapse. Withdrawal from CNS depressants, or downers, can be painful and even life threatening. Stopping the chronic use of barbiturates and some benzodiazepines can produce delirium tremens, rapid pulse, weakness, convulsions, and hallucinations. Because of the danger of seizures, withdrawal should be done under a doctor care if the drugs have been used for more than four to six weeks. Breaking away from stimulants or uppers, can produce lethargy, anxiety, fatigue, and depression. Because most stimulants do not produce physical addiction as strong as that of barbiturates or heroin, withdrawal symptoms may not be as sever the exception is cocaine, which is very difficult to relinquish. Post withdrawal treatment of chronic cocaine abuse often requires extensive counselling, along with group and family support. Therapy and group support are equally essential for abusers of amphetamines; patients may become depressed and even suicidal after withdrawal. Withdrawal from an addiction to opiates with shakes, sweats, tremors, and acute craving for the drug has been widely dramatized. As disagreeable as the symptoms are, they are not as dangerous to the addict as those of alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal. While opiate addiction was once thought almost impossible to break, the experience of many Vietnam War veterans who voluntarily quit their drug habits on returning home has shown that self initiated cure is possible. After withdrawal from heroin or morphine, some users are “maintained” on prescribed doses of methadone, a less addictive narcotic, under a doctor’s care. While controversial, methadone maintenance is still customary because stress or depression can easily trigger a return to more harmful drugs even after years of non-use. Recovery is the stage after withdrawal when the individual must strive to remain drug free. This stage is often very difficult because it requires the addicted person to change habits and lifestyle, and to control the use of potentially addicting substance throughout life. The backing of family, friends, employers, and drug-support groups can be a powerful often vital part of an addict’s recovery.
ALTERNATIVE CHOICES
Many alternative therapies can help reduce the stress that accompanies or under drug abuse, strengthen the body, and reduce cravings.
ACCUPUNCTURE
Acupuncturists report success in treating addicts of heroin, cocaine, and other drugs. In particular, acupuncture on several points of the ear is reported to reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings, prevent relapse, and raise recovery rates.
HERBAL THERAPIES
Cleansing the body of toxins is an important step in healing. Silymarin, found in milk thistle, is taken to strengthen the liver. Wild oat extract, burdock root, Echinacea, and liquorice are said to cleanse the blood, while skullcap, valerian, and verbatim reduce anxiety. See a professional herbalist for dosages.
HYDROTHERAPY
Some therapist believes that cleansing the body of drugs takes months. A daily 10 to 20 minute bath containing half a cup of breaking soda or sea salt can be a powerful aid to detoxification.
MIND/ BODY MEDICINE
Biofeedback, medication, relaxation response, and guided imagery techniques can help reduce stress and bring about behavioural changes as aids to recovery. For specific techniques, see stress.
NUTRITION AND DIET
Drug abusers tend to eat poorly and may overuse sugar. For lasting recovery, eat at least three regular meals a day with a good balance of protein, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. If you have an irresistible craving for sweets, use barley malt or rice syrup instead of sugar, and take a 250 mcg capsule of chromium picolinate daily to help stabilize erratic blood sugar levels.
PRVENTION
While efforts to eradicate illegal drugs have shown little success, both treatment and public education make a difference. Once study found that a dollar spent on treatment of cocaine users was seven times as effective in cutting cocaine consumption as a dollar spent on law enforcement. Parent groups, community efforts public education and prevention programs, drug free workplaces, and strong national leadership have all played a role in discouraging illegal drugs use. Parents may not be able to stop their children from experimenting with drugs, but they can give them accurate information about drug abuse especially the genetic risk to their own unborn children. Lectures and scare tactics are rarely successful, but adolescents should understand the internal and external pressures that make people start using drugs, hear rebuttals to pro drug arguments, and learn techniques for resisting peer pressure. But if you don’t want your children to abuse drugs including alcohol and tobacco the best first step is to set the right example.
DRUG ABUSE
SYMPTOMS
• Changes in appearance and behavior that affect relationships and work performance.
• In children, abrupt changes in mood or flare-ups, or increased secrecy.
Specific symptoms depend on the drug:
• Extreme energy, weight loss, dilated pupils, insomnia, and trembling may indicate abuse of stimulants, or “uppers.”
• Lethargy, slurred or confused speech, lack of balance, constricted pupils, or excessive sleep may point to abuse of sedatives, or “downers.”
• Mood swings, red eyes, dilated pupils, slowed time sense and reflexes, dizziness, and lethargy may indicate marijuana use.
• Ulcerated nostrils are typical of cocaine sniffing; a runny nose or sniffles are typical smoking crack cocaine; needle marks on the arms may indicate intravenous cocaine abuse.
• Weight loss, lethargy, mood swings, excessive sweating, slurred speech, constricted pupils, and poor appetite suggest opiate abuse.
• Hallucinations, dilated pupils, trembling, and sweating indicate abuse of psychedelic drugs.
WHAT IS DRUGS ABUSE
Drug abuse is the use of a psychoactive drug legal or illegal enough to cause the abuser physical, mental, emotional, or social harm. Addiction or dependence is the compulsive, continued use of a drug. While the term “drug abuse” conjures up violent images of the illegal drug trade, abuse of legal drugs is an even larger health problem. Between two and three million Americans are addicted to prescription drugs, and hospitals report as many emergencies from abuse of legal drugs as from illegal drugs. Like alcohol abusers, drug abusers commonly deny their problem by playing down the extent of drug use or blaming external factors, such as job or family stress. Families may join in denial in a misguided effort to defend the abuser, creating a powerful barrier to treatment and recovery. Commonly abused drugs fall into several broad categories:
Central nervous system depressants. Sleeping pills and ant anxiety drugs are among the most prescribed medication in the United States; about seven million people take some form of CNS depressant at least once a week. Barbiturates bring on effects like those of alcohol: small doses are relaxing, but large amounts can damage both mind and body. Taken with alcohol, barbiturates’ can fatal. The risk of addiction and overdose are so well known that doctors prescribe barbiturates with extreme caution. Benzodiazepines are safer than barbiturates but can cause dependence as patient develop tolerance to them after a few weeks of use. This class includes the popular ant anxiety agent’s diazepam, alprazolam, and triazolam. Their abuse brings on drowsiness, slurred speech, and lack of coordination, which may progress to memory impairment, tremors, and paranoia. A drug abuser being treated with benzodiazepines for anxiety during withdrawal is quite likely to start abusing a benzodiazepine. Stimulants. Addictive stimulants cause rapid speech, agitation, and a debilitating pattern of high followed by crashes. People addicted to amphetamines, or uppers, often try to calm themselves down with CNS depressants, or downers, and become caught in an up and down cycle. A more powerful and more habit forming stimulant is cocaine; the smoked version called crack is highly addictive. There are an estimated two million cocaine addicts in the U.S. opiates. About half a million people in the U.S. are addicted to opium, morphine, or heroin. The addiction typically cause depression, anxiety, low self esteem, and reduced coping ability. Intravenous injection of these drugs carries the additional risk of hepatitis, AIDS, and other transmissible disease. Cannabis. Smoking marijuana can depress short term memory, motivation, and energy levels. Chronic use brings increased heart rate, vision problems, poor lung function, and changes in sex hormones, and increased risk of lung cancer. Other commonly abuse substance range from tobacco and alcohol to psychedelic drugs like LSD. Athletes who use anabolic steroids to add muscle face the possibility of violent behaviour, heart disease, and sever liver and hormone damage. Babies of pregnant women who abuse either legal or illegal drugs face specifically dangers, ranging from premature birth and malnutrition to life threatening birth effects. Many adolescents are tempted to experiment with drugs and are highly vulnerable to peer pressure especially those in poverty or with non-supportive families.
CAUSES
There is little agreement on the underlying cause of substance abuse, but experts are more likely to regard it as a disease than a lack of will power. Chronic alcohol and drug abusers may have a genetic predisposition to addiction, but environmental and social factor such as poverty, family dysfunction, and peer pressure are also significant. Certainly the social context can be crucial: one cannot become addicted to drugs without starting you uses them in the first place. Many people consider that drug dependence come from a natural desire to alter a person’s consciousness or an effort to achieve wholeness. One reason addictive drugs are so dangerous is that most people who use them believe they are immune to addiction. Once drug dependence is established, the pattern is hard to break whether or not the abuser is aware of the problem. Tolerance to opiates and stimulates increases to get the same effect. For the most addictive drugs, such as heroin and cocaine, continued use is often reinforced by the desire to avoid the pain of withdrawal.
TREATMENT
Treatment is a two step process. Withdrawal from drug use may require only days or weeks, but can be unpleasant and even dangerous without professional supervision. Recovery is the extended stage of remaining drug free.
CONVENTIONAL MEDICINE
The first step in treating drug abuse is awareness. Some addicts may not know they are drug dependent; others deny it. At this stage, family, friends, or a trusted professional must make the case for abstinence and treatment. No single treatment fits all abusers; appropriate treatment depends on the type and severity of the addiction. Approaches range from outpatient maintenance programs, psychotherapy, and self help groups like Narcotics Anonymous to residential programs lasting weeks or months. An addicted person may need not just drug treatment but also medical care, welfare support, and psychiatric or social counselling. Successful recovery programs strive to establish social support, raise self esteem and help the addict avoid situations that can trigger relapse. Withdrawal from CNS depressants, or downers, can be painful and even life threatening. Stopping the chronic use of barbiturates and some benzodiazepines can produce delirium tremens, rapid pulse, weakness, convulsions, and hallucinations. Because of the danger of seizures, withdrawal should be done under a doctor care if the drugs have been used for more than four to six weeks. Breaking away from stimulants or uppers, can produce lethargy, anxiety, fatigue, and depression. Because most stimulants do not produce physical addiction as strong as that of barbiturates or heroin, withdrawal symptoms may not be as sever the exception is cocaine, which is very difficult to relinquish. Post withdrawal treatment of chronic cocaine abuse often requires extensive counselling, along with group and family support. Therapy and group support are equally essential for abusers of amphetamines; patients may become depressed and even suicidal after withdrawal. Withdrawal from an addiction to opiates with shakes, sweats, tremors, and acute craving for the drug has been widely dramatized. As disagreeable as the symptoms are, they are not as dangerous to the addict as those of alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal. While opiate addiction was once thought almost impossible to break, the experience of many Vietnam War veterans who voluntarily quit their drug habits on returning home has shown that self initiated cure is possible. After withdrawal from heroin or morphine, some users are “maintained” on prescribed doses of methadone, a less addictive narcotic, under a doctor’s care. While controversial, methadone maintenance is still customary because stress or depression can easily trigger a return to more harmful drugs even after years of non-use. Recovery is the stage after withdrawal when the individual must strive to remain drug free. This stage is often very difficult because it requires the addicted person to change habits and lifestyle, and to control the use of potentially addicting substance throughout life. The backing of family, friends, employers, and drug-support groups can be a powerful often vital part of an addict’s recovery.
ALTERNATIVE CHOICES
Many alternative therapies can help reduce the stress that accompanies or under drug abuse, strengthen the body, and reduce cravings.
ACCUPUNCTURE
Acupuncturists report success in treating addicts of heroin, cocaine, and other drugs. In particular, acupuncture on several points of the ear is reported to reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings, prevent relapse, and raise recovery rates.
HERBAL THERAPIES
Cleansing the body of toxins is an important step in healing. Silymarin, found in milk thistle, is taken to strengthen the liver. Wild oat extract, burdock root, Echinacea, and liquorice are said to cleanse the blood, while skullcap, valerian, and verbatim reduce anxiety. See a professional herbalist for dosages.
HYDROTHERAPY
Some therapist believes that cleansing the body of drugs takes months. A daily 10 to 20 minute bath containing half a cup of breaking soda or sea salt can be a powerful aid to detoxification.
MIND/ BODY MEDICINE
Biofeedback, medication, relaxation response, and guided imagery techniques can help reduce stress and bring about behavioural changes as aids to recovery. For specific techniques, see stress.
NUTRITION AND DIET
Drug abusers tend to eat poorly and may overuse sugar. For lasting recovery, eat at least three regular meals a day with a good balance of protein, vegetables, and complex carbohydrates. If you have an irresistible craving for sweets, use barley malt or rice syrup instead of sugar, and take a 250 mcg capsule of chromium picolinate daily to help stabilize erratic blood sugar levels.
PRVENTION
While efforts to eradicate illegal drugs have shown little success, both treatment and public education make a difference. Once study found that a dollar spent on treatment of cocaine users was seven times as effective in cutting cocaine consumption as a dollar spent on law enforcement. Parent groups, community efforts public education and prevention programs, drug free workplaces, and strong national leadership have all played a role in discouraging illegal drugs use. Parents may not be able to stop their children from experimenting with drugs, but they can give them accurate information about drug abuse especially the genetic risk to their own unborn children. Lectures and scare tactics are rarely successful, but adolescents should understand the internal and external pressures that make people start using drugs, hear rebuttals to pro drug arguments, and learn techniques for resisting peer pressure. But if you don’t want your children to abuse drugs including alcohol and tobacco the best first step is to set the right example.
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