Heroin Addiction
With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and
addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped. Withdrawal, which in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (‘old turkey’), kicking movements (‘kicking the habit’), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the last dose and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally fatal, although heroin withdrawal is considered much less dangerous than alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal.
Drug Rehab Information By State
The dangers and harm done by marijuana use has been under debate for decades and show no signs of lessening.
Whether marijuana
addiction exists or not is even more hotly debated.
Addiction is a condition characterized by repeated compulsive seeking and use of drugs, alcohol or other substances despite adverse social, mental and physical consequences.
When
addiction exists, the drug controls the individual rather than the individual controlling the usage. Statistics do show increasing numbers of people entering addiction
treatment reporting marijuana as their primary drug of abuse. Add to this the much stronger strains of marijuana available and the tendency to mix the drug with other substances such or crack and PCP and the potential for addiction becomes more pronounced.
Rather than endlessly debate the issue, one should simply look at the marijuana use of self or a loved one against the above definition.
Three of the
drug effects in any type of
addiction that must be fully resolved for any chance of lasting recovery are cravings, guilt, and depression.
Cravings can be mental or physical and are strong, uncontrollable urges to use drugs or alcohol despite the consequences.
Depression is the source of constant and significant amounts of discomfort that prompts continued
drug use in an attempt to alleviate the depression. Guilt is the feelings resulting from dishonest deeds and harm caused to the people closest to and most important to the addict. With unresolved feelings of guilt the addict is very prone and quite likely to continue using drugs or relapse to
drug use in a misguided attempt to escape the feeling of guilt.
In what seems an endless cycles this goes on and on with the
addiction and the cravings, guilt, and depression going in a downward spiral towards death or jail.
Abuse occurs when a drug, alcohol, or other substance is used to the detriment of the users health, family relations, finances, career, etc.
The detriments may be slight at the beginning of
abuse but generally escalates quite quickly into cravings (mental or physical) for the drug, alcohol, or substance.
This is followed in short order by a marked rise in feeling of guilt and depression as the individual starts sacrificing quality of life for self and others in the more and more single-minded pursuit of the drugs and alcohol.
Once
abuse has set it the whole process of
addiction picks up speed as does the damage done to health, families, career, etc. The sooner this dwindling spiral is halted and addressed with effective drug and alcohol
rehabilitation the better.
Generally speaking a clinic is a medical facility (usually out-patient) which specializes in a particular condition or area of medicine.
A drug
rehab clinic would be a medical facility that more often than not offers services directed at the cessation of drug or alcohol use. This is an important part of
addiction recovery but is far from the entire story.
Many drug
rehab clinics use other drugs and medications in an attempt to handle the drug the individual is having problems with i.e. methadone clinics, etc.
While it is sometimes medically necessary to wean a person off of their drugs of
addiction or alcohol with the use of medication it is the minority of cases.
This of course would need to be decided by competent medical professionals and professional medical advice should be heeded. Long term use of replacement drugs or medications is not the answer to creating drug free productive lives.
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