Category: LGBTQ

Opioid Addiction

A Quick Breakdown Of Opioid Addiction

Articles, Australia, Education, International, LGBTQ, Understanding Addiction, United Kingdom, United States
What Are Opioids?

Opioid Addiction – Opioids are powerful, painkilling narcotic drugs that are supposed to be prescribed by a doctor for severe pain. However; many people illegally purchase opioids on the street from drug dealers and use them to catch a buzz.

Opioids are highly addictive substances that wreak havoc on the individual, their families, and society at large. Opioids are a multi-billion-dollar business for pharmaceutical companies and drug cartels internationally. Millions of people around the world are addicted to opioids.

Opiates VS. Opioids? What’s The Difference?

For years, people only used the term “opiates.” Now, people are using the term “opioids.” What’s the difference?

To be clear, opiates are natural substances derived solely from the opium plant, which is grown in tropical climates around the world. Heroin, Codeine, and Morphine are all considered opiates because they are natural derivatives of the opium plant.

Opioids are synthetic substances, which means they are partially derived from opium and partially chemically manufactured. Oxycodone, Fentanyl, and Percocet are all examples of synthetic opioids because they have to made in laboratories.

In the past, people commonly used the word “opiates” to refer to heroin and other all-natural substances that came from opium. In recent times, people around the world have started referring to opiates as opioids. Now, everything that comes from the opium poppy plant is considered an opioid. It may seem confusing, but we hold that clears things up a bit.  

Types of Opioids

Here is a list of the most popular opioids:

  • Hydrocodone (Lorcet, Lortab, Norco, Vicodin)
  • Fentanyl
  • Codeine
  • Oxycontin (Oxycodone)
  • Methadone
  • Hydromorphone (Dilaudid)
  • Percocet
How Opioid Addiction Works  

Opioids create a euphoric and intoxicating effect that causes the user to want more of the stuff. They work by binding to opioid receptor sites in the brain. To put it simply, the brain loves opioids.

When someone takes opioids for an extended period of time, they quickly build up a tolerance. Tolerance is what happens when your body becomes accustomed to processing a certain chemical. When tolerance takes hold, more of the drug is required to get the same effect. Before long, someone who takes opioids will develop a physical dependence.

If someone tries to quit taking opioids, they will go through the process of withdrawal. Withdrawal takes place when your body is used to processing a chemical and you remove that chemical from your body. Opioid addiction is an incredibly difficult addiction to kick because of this excruciating and painful process, which is also known as detox.

Here are the symptoms of opioid withdrawal:

  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Head-to-toe body aches
  • Insomnia
  • Anxiety
  • Loss of appetite
  • Tremors
  • Seizure, Coma, Death (In extreme cases)

Opioid withdrawal is so uncomfortable, users will continue using opioids to avoid the pain of detox.

Medical Detoxification Is Highly Recommended To Anyone Who Wants To Quit Opioids

If you are addicted to opioids, you should not stop using the stuff on your own – and you don’t want to. Opioid withdrawal is extremely unpleasant. People who have quit opioids cold turkey compare the experience to hell on earth.

More importantly, you can have seizures, go into a coma, or die if you attempt to stop using opioids on without medical assistance. Medical detoxification is recommended for anyone who has an addiction to opioids. This involves the use of medication to safely and comfortably remove the opioids from your system. This takes place in the safety and comfort of in-patient rehabilitation center, detox, or medical facility.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

opioid abuse

Donald Trump Proclaims a National Emergency

Articles, Education, International, LGBTQ, Understanding Addiction, United States

Opioid Abuse. Donald Trump Vows to Proclaim a National Emergency as Opioid Abuse Claims the Lives of 142 People on a Daily Basis.

The harrowing scale of the opioid epidemic is out. It has revealed that near 150 people die each day due to opioid abuse. However, President Donald Trump is set to take swift action, declaring a national emergency to control this shocking scenario.

It is perhaps ‘the’ deadliest drug overdose and epidemic recorded in US history. Trump’s panel has urged the Commander-in-Chief to address the situation as quickly as possible.

The recommendation to declare a nationwide emergency stems from a preliminary draft that is a part of the opioid commission report. The report itself comes from the horrifying statistics that went back to the death toll due to opioid overdose in 2016. Shockingly, more Americans lost their lives to this drug than the total US causalities reported in the whole Vietnam War.

In 2015, deaths reported from drug abuse and opioid overdose easily toppled the annual death toll from motor vehicle accidents, gang wars, gun violence and terminal diseases such as HIV/AIDS. You would also be surprised to know that the death toll from an opioid overdose in 2015 was more than the number of people who lost their lives succumbing to the 1995 HIV/AIDS epidemic.

According to a new report on the opioid crisis, approximately 150 people die every day due to drug overdose and the US is enduring a massive death toll each year. To put things into perspective. More people die due to opioid abuse every three weeks than the total number of people who lost their lives in the September, 11 tragedy.

The commission to combat the current tragedy in the US includes the following key members of Congress:
  • Chris Christie (R), governor of New Jersey
  • Charlie Baker (R), governor of Massachusetts
  • Roy Cooper (D), governor of North Carolina
  • Patrick Kennedy (D) (former Republican)
  • Bertha Madras
The commission contains some big recommendations – and mentioned below are some of the more important ones:
  1. Grant Approval for the entire 50 States to Extinguish Federal Barriers Pertaining to the Medicaid Programs. This act approval excludes all Federal Mental Institutes – As per the Social Security Act, government funds for Medicaid cannot fund or reimburse services and facilities from inpatient care that are designed to treat people with mental disabilities and illnesses – this includes addiction, with 16 or more beds.

This is a major barrier the government needs to break, and the Commission seeks to do just that. By eliminating this inhibition, all 50 states will be able to immediately start treating thousands upon thousands of US citizens held up in current facilities.

  1. Setting Up Immediate Funding for Federal Programs to Enhance Access to Patient Care in the Form of Medication-Assisted Programs – This is the highest standard when it comes to treating people with opioid addiction. Research indicates that immediate medical treatments and assistance can cut the death toll from drug addiction in half or maybe more.

However, the problem is inaccessibility. Only ten percent of modern and traditional treatment establishments and treatments offer this sort of drug abuse intervention and medication-assisted programs across the country. The commission seeks to greatly expand this method of treatments. It is even targeting prison systems and various other types of drug treatment institutions.

You or someone you know suffering from Opioid Addiction? CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

sex addiction

In What Ways Can Sex Addiction Affect a Person’s Life?

Articles, Celebrity Rehab, International, LGBTQ, Understanding Addiction

There is a huge difference between having extraordinary libido and being addicted to sex. It is important that you know the destructive effects that sex addiction can have in a person’s life so when you sense its symptoms, you can tell your loved ones about it to get help. The shame, embarrassment and humiliation that come with admitting to being a sex addict can keep many from disclosing it ever. Here is how sex addiction can affect a person’s life. Once you know the consequences, help yourself and your loved ones from its life ruining impact.

It Makes the Person Weak

What happens when a person loses control over their thoughts and actions? They become weak. Any type of addiction has physical effects, but the primary target of addiction is disrupting brain functionality. That’s what sex addiction does to a person—it disables their brain functions and starts controlling them. A sex addict cannot avoid having sex, the urge is too powerful and can be likened to that of a cocaine or meth user.  

It Brings Them Embarrassment and Shame

It does not matter whether the sex addict takes shame and embarrassment seriously or not. What you as an outsider know is that revealing your sexual affairs and immoral sexual acts deprive a person from their self-esteem and self-concept. Between any two surge-points that push a sex addict into extremities of sexual behavior there are moments of respite and withdrawal where they are in their senses for some time. That’s when this embarrassment and shame bothers them too.

It Keeps Them from Having Long-term Relationships

It’s the mental state of a sex addict that makes them from entering any long-term relationships. What starts out as a shameful act soon becomes a habit and a way to escape stress, emotional setbacks, burden of responsibilities, depression, etc. In this state of mind, they are not able to feel for their life partner, if they have any. They just want to move from one person to another as quickly as possible.

It Pushes Them into a Battle with Conscience

 A sex addict wants to cut back on their sexual activities and fantasies. However, they succumb soon to the urge. This process repeats and as a result, sex addicts find themselves brawling with their conscience over and over. This particular situation has to be taken seriously because the worst end to this fight could be in the form of suicide or suicidal tendencies.

It Makes Them Less Efficient

Sex addiction can affect a person’s career and work life in a negative way too. Withdrawal from sex can often fill a sex addict with restlessness, anxiety or depression. Anxiety and depression invoke thoughts of doom and devastation in the mind of a person. This results in drastic lack of focus and concentration when a sex addict tries to carry out his professional obligations or perform mundane tasks.

It Leads Them to Other Addictions

Sex addiction can force a person into prostitution or having sexual meetings with prostitutes to fulfill their unending desire. In communities where prostitution is common, substance abuse is common too, leading the sex addict to abusing others drugs. Not to mention, the loss of self-control and will-power already weakens a person’s resistance to these addictive substances.

Sex Addiction – Final Words

While any thought or excuse that prevents you from staying away becoming an addict is great, it shouldn’t just be the fear-factor that helps you stay sober. In fact, another motivation to avoid sex or any other type of addiction should be a person’s well-being. Start making the healthy changes in your life from today and become a role model so you can save many other lives in addition to yours.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

Honesty in Recovery

Honesty in Recovery

Articles, Australia, Education, International, LGBTQ, Malaysia, Treatment, Understanding Addiction, United Kingdom, United States

Nearly all programs of addiction recovery will treat the idea of honesty as a central feature of recovery. Honesty in recovery and treatment is at least a two-fold issue. We need to learn to be honest with others and we need to learn how to be completely honest with ourselves. Since addiction necessarily involves a great deal of hiding, covering up, and lying even by omission, one of the first hurdles we must go over is addressing the issue of honesty.

At a minimum, living with drug abuse and alcoholism involved hiding the drug use and drinking from others. Nearly all drug addicts and alcoholics know that what they are doing is not acceptable and they go to great lengths to hide their using from family, friends, and co-workers. This leads to duplicity and lying. A crucial feature of drug and alcohol treatment, then, is opening up to people after years of hiding from them. People in treatment and recovery are generally required to finally admit to others what they have been doing. The purpose of this is to clear the air of what can be many years of suspicion and mistrust between the addicted person and the people who are important in their life. This stage of treatment and recovery is cathartic for many. They are relieved of the burden of hiding so much of themselves form others. But it is also traumatic. Treatment programs offer counseling and psychological help during the phase of things because revealing the truth of addiction can bring some painful realities to  both the recovering addict and to their families and friends

Another dimension to honesty in recovery is helping the recovering addict to be honest with themselves. There is of course the primary admission of the full extent of the problem. Most people who struggle with addiction and/or alcoholism find it difficult or nearly impossible to admit to themselves that their drinking and drug use is out of their control It is a natural form of resistance. None of us want to believe that there is a huge part of ourselves that is out of our control. Yet, it is critical for those in treatment to finally admit that alcohol and drugs are no longer a voluntary art of their lives. They are, in fact, controlled by their substances. Being completely honest with themselves about these facts is the first step toward recovery. Giving in to the fact that they have the disease of addiction allows addicted people to be properly treated.

Honesty in recovery works in at least two directions in drug and alcohol treatment. One admits to others the realities of what they have been doing. The mistrust that has built up, mistrust that can go back many years for some, can be healed by these kinds of admissions. It is often the case that family, friends, and co-workers have no idea what a person has been doing. Worry, fear, and resentment builds along with the deceptions of the addict. By clearing the air and being honest, a person in recovery can begin to mend these rifts. Alcoholics and drug addicts lie to themselves first and foremost and this self-deception must be the first course of real honesty. By being completely honest with themselves, people who suffer from addiction can get the real help they need.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

Dating and Sobriety

Dating and Sobriety – How to Navigate the Process

Articles, Australia, Education, International, LGBTQ, Treatment, Understanding Addiction, United Kingdom, United States

Dating and Sobriety – Dating can be one of the most difficult things to do when you’re sober. Chances are, when you were drinking, you weren’t very successful in relationships. Your alcoholism always overshadowed romance, intimacy, companionship and all the other aspects that are supposed to accompany a healthy relationship.

Dating and Sobriety – Now that you are moving toward a place of health and wellness, you may feel as though you are ready to start dating and find a special someone. Here are five things to keep in mind as you navigate the process of sober dating:

  1. It is recommended that you don’t get into a relationship the first year of your sobriety. This may seem like a long time, but this suggestion is there for a reason. It is difficult enough to manage yourself in that first year of recovery. Throwing someone else into the mix makes things a lot more complicated and hard to manage.
  1. Your sobriety has to come first. When you get into a new relationship when you’re sober, it’s easy to let your recovery slack. Don’t let this happen. Remember, without sobriety, you are a hopeless drunk who cannot manage your own life. You have to make sobriety your number one priority and not allow yourself to get swept away by your new relationship. Keep going to meetings, stay in touch with your sponsor, and continue to work the steps.
  1. You have to decide if you are willing to date someone who drinks. Of course, you don’t want to get into a relationship with someone who is a practicing alcoholic. However; most people who drink do not have a drinking problem. Are you strong enough to go on a date with a person who might order a drink at dinner? Can you be in a relationship with someone who might drink socially on the weekends? If you think so, you need to be upfront and let the person know that you are a recovering alcoholic and that you can’t drink under any circumstances.
  1. It’s a good idea talk to your sponsor and ask him or her if they think you are really ready to manage a healthy relationship in sobriety. It’s not that you are asking your sponsor for permission to date – after all, you are a grown up who is capable of making your own decisions – however; your sponsor will be able to shed some light on your sobriety. He or she can tell you if they think it’s a good idea. If they don’t think you are ready, you might want to wait a little while longer.
  1. Remember that romantic relationships are very complicated. They involve intense emotions that can be difficult to navigate. Many people believe they are ready to get into a romantic, sexual relationship only to find the feelings that accompany them are far too difficult and frustrating to manage. You need to have a solid foundation in recovery, a strong relationship with your sponsor, and a firm practice of the steps to undertake a romantic relationship.

Dating and Sobriety – When you decide you are ready to start dating, take it slow. There is no hurry. Relationships aren’t a race. Remember to keep your recovery first and don’t drink no matter what. If you always keep your sobriety as your number one priority, no matter what happens, you will be equipped to handle whatever comes your way in the process of dating and establishing a romantic relationship.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.