December 2006

The Archives

• Studies, Treatment

  Party animals

  12.27.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Sometimes I wonder if there isn’t more validity to concepts such as karmic retribution and reincarnation than some of us may believe. The whole reward and punishment dogma pertaining to personal behavior good and bad is the basis for more than one belief system around the world. How much value an individual gives to this cycle is often supposedly a determiner of how you’ll spend your next existence and unless you come to terms with this, and start getting with the existential program you’re doomed to repeat the same futile cycle over and over.

  The real questions are “Where are you?” “Where have you been?” and “Where are you going?” Far be it for me to know about anyone else, least of all myself, but there are moments where I feel like I get a small but fleeting glimpse that gives me small but undoubtedly valuable insight to these answers, enough anyway to allow me to connect some of the dots to this mortal coil.

• Treatment, Websites

  ‘Tis the season to…relapse

  12.15.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  That’s just the way it goes. Life isn’t fair, so suck it up and admit it. It isn’t anyone else’s fault that you drink or dope too much, and the holidays are the time of year when everyone else does too. They (or at least they think they can) handle it and you couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t want to and now here the holidays are again, for another year, just like the next, and the year after that about to foist all your social weaknesses, foibles and shortcomings out there for all to see, or ignore or to talk about behind your back, or whatever the case may be.

  The bottom line is this, whatever the substance of choice is for anyone with an addiction, whether sober or still waist deep in the pudding, the holiday season can present a nightmarish dilemma for many. Temptations abound, rationalizing can be manifest and old habits can die hard. For some it can be a time of happiness and joy. For others it can be a downward spiral of despair, and for others it can be an orgy of unbridled indulgence, usually followed by some magnitude of regret.

• Kids and Drugs, Studies

  Flying solo

  12.15.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  The question of “Do you drink or smoke while you’re alone?” is one of the traits that merit the response of “Then you may have a problem or habit” if you happen to answer that question with a “Yes”. It’s a guarantee that almost any self assessment will, if you respond with a “Yes” to this question, indicate your behavior is more than likely not only unhealthy but problematic.

  Rationalizing this behavior will get you nowhere. Sitting having a smoke while driving alone in traffic, or drinking by yourself in a crowded bar will not exempt you from your addiction, given those standards. Nor should you be. A significant study recently drew the conclusion that at very early stages of experimenting with substances such as alcohol and tobacco teenagers who engage in substance abuse alone, as opposed to socially (at parties or with a group) run a much greater risk of experiencing significant consequences legally and scholastically in the long term scheme of life. Strangely enough, these solo users were not social outcasts trying to fit in with their usage, they were in fact not only social, but also far more focused on their usage unlike the other kids where usage is more like a by product of socializing.

• Treatment

  A new generation of addiction fighting drugs

  12.08.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  One of the best things of living in this day and age is the almost daily advancement in medical treatment.

  For the sake of brevity and to stick with the subject matter of the website I’ll only address some of the new medications and the approaches being used in conjunction with these drugs to help individuals who face substance abuse, and the inherent addiction that results.

  If you are an adherent to the “12 step process” which to be sure is a tried and true methodology that has worked for thousands upon thousands of people for decades these drugs are not a replacement, but an adjunct and a new option for addicts. I may be somewhat remiss in that there is a part of me that feels I should write up a more comprehensive article on the history and the mechanisms on the use of drug therapy in addiction. Drugs such as Antabuse andNaltrexone have been around for years and have proven effective for many physicians treating addiction but they do have some significant drawbacks. It may seem simplistic to say it, but the one that seems to prove the most difficult (alas it’s the case with most medical treatment) is the patient simply stops taking the medication. Antabuse is a perfect example of this. Why take medication that makes you sick or gives no buzz when the booze/opiate makes you feel so much better? More often than not an addicted individual has to hit a very low point for this approach to have even a remote chance of working.

Rehabology

Rehabilitating the Debate on Drugs

Because The Debate is The Point

With Rehabology, we hope to attcak the drug debate in an impartial way. While a lot of drug blogs will declare their allegiance to one strategy or another, the point of Rehabology is to give all players with differing ideas in eth debate equal footing for expressing their ideas. If you have something you think should be published on our blog, feel free to register and start writing!

search

Got an Idea?

We encourage anyone with an opinion on the drug debate to write for us. Just register and start writing!

recent

• Canibis Use Causes Memory Loss
• Are you my type?
• If you say so!
• Riding the elevator
• North Wales Chief Constable calls for legalisation of drugs

Tag Cloud

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• Furl
• Netscape
• Yahoo! My Web
• StumbleUpon
• Google Bookmarks
• Technorati
• BlinkList
• Newsvine
• ma.gnolia
• reddit
• Windows Live
• Tailrank

E-mail It

• To Address:
• Your Name:
• Your Address: