Help Drug Abuse

It is a well-known fact that substance abuse results in dreadful consequences in the abusers’ life. Being aware of this fact, many people are still abusing drugs and struggling to come out of this harmful habit. Do you know why they fail to recognize the severity of their condition? Read through the article to know about it in detail.

On abusing drug, the mental makeup of the person changes to a large extent. The strength of the mind is lost, resulting in loss of capacity to think and control over actions, thus making the individual ultimately become prey for the harmful substance.

Constantly crave for the drug: The very destructive feature of illicit drug or alcohol is that, it makes a person vulnerable to its use making the abuser constantly crave for the drug. This unstoppable craving for drug impairs his mind from any kind of thinking or analysis. This drive only results in prompt action of consuming the drug excessively, preventing him from having control over himself. Continue reading ‘Why Substance Abusers Fail to Recognize the Severity of Their Condition’ »

As a therapist of people in distress, I have been frequently exposed to the harsh reality of addicts (substance abusers), their circumstances and their families. Their pain and suffering has deeply troubled me. The overwhelming anguish and helplessness of good and well-intended parents, spouses and children has as a result, become clearly evident to me.

Why has this wave of addiction to substances increased as greatly as it has, only to impact our world with fearsome long term consequences when it not only costs a fortune and serves only to wreck the lives of the addict and its closest loved ones? How does this shocking epidemic breed and always expand when in fact, it should reduce by its very negative reality? We are all aware of the hazards of drug addiction, are we not? Everything about addiction is unconstructive for those of us who are not addicts. The recorded ‘benefits’ for the addict do not impress us and do not make any sense to the non-addicted population. Yet, for the addict, addiction’s apparent advantage is to launch one of the most powerful and destructive bonds that replace and defy all logic.

Addiction grows like a virus within the addict while it marches imposingly into our cities and coerces our children, stealing their lives and damaging their families. The addict’s meaningful lifestyle, social interactions and career are usually diminished with addiction. The addict’s values, morals and ethics disappear from its world. Unfamiliar mental states, altered perceptions, alien personas and new chemically linked relationships develop for the addict in lieu of all else, ensuring the set up of a ’safe’ crowd for a constant supply of the addictive chemical. Hence, the addictive persona arrives uninvited. This persona, by its sheer intensity to control all else, rules the addict’s natural personality, IQ and EQ. Continue reading ‘The Power of Addiction’ »

How could this be me? This is the question most women find themselves asking as they realize they have a drinking or drug problem. Usually this question arises after many difficult experiences including: drinking and driving, getting a DUI, physical injuries/accidents, blackouts, sexual encounters that would not have happened sober, poor work performance, hangovers, a run-down immune system, shame, self-loathing, etc. Unfortunately, alcohol and drug problems do not announce themselves directly, and one of the primary features of these problems is the ability to deny and rationalize them away, even after repeated negative consequences that are clearly related to drinking or using.

Did you know that women are the fastest growing segment of substance abusers in the US? That substance disorders in women are under-recognized and under-treated? That virtually all drugs including alcohol are far more damaging to women’s bodies than men’s? That women experience more social disapproval for their alcohol use? That alcoholic women are more stigmatized than men? That women with substance use problems are more likely than men to have experienced trauma and to have higher rates of concurrent psychiatric problems? If you have this problem, then you may know that these statements are true.

Continue reading ‘Women and Drinking’ »

Caught in the ambivalence trap of making a tough personal change? Do the contradictory feelings of: I want to… I don’t want to… sound familiar? Don’t feel bad-you’re not alone. Feeling 100% about something important is the exception, not the norm.

Sometimes the ambivalence is never resolved, but when it is, the results are magic. Like flipping a switch, what seemed nearly impossible just falls into place. The pounds start dropping off, the cravings for nicotine seem manageable, the recovery program for alcohol and drug addiction starts to make sense.

Is it possible to resolve ambivalence in just one interview? William R. Miller, Ph.D. says it is. Motivational Interviewing is the process he developed to prepare people for making challenging behavior changes. Used extensively with alcoholics and drug addicts, the results are dramatic: People who have had one Motivational Interview at their intake of treatment were rated by staff as more motivated. Not only that, they also have double the abstinence rate of those who did not have a Motivational Interview. “Two interviews are even better than one,” Miller concedes. Continue reading ‘Harnessing Ambivalence to Unleash Motivation – Motivational Interviewing With Substance Abusers’ »

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