Adderal: A College Epidemic
By Steve Campbell | June 22, 2010
Adderall: A College Epidemic
Problem:
While every semester college students across the U.S. fall into the habit of sleeping and partying a lot more and studying a lot less, it seems that the illegal use of Adderall exponentially increases. Of the recent, this is become a true epidemic across many universities, colleges, and even high schools. Students are obtaining this psycho-stimulant medication pretty much everywhere and anywhere besides the doctors office. Although this may seem minuscule in comparison to other commonly abused prescription drugs, Adderall is becoming a serious problem among our academic youth. Adderall, or amphetamine-dextroamphetamine, was first marketed in the 1960s as the diet pill of choice. It is currently classified as a stimulant medication and appetite suppressant and is mostly used to treat both ADD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Cause:
Adderall stimulates the central nervous system by increasing the amount of certain chemicals, such as dopamine and norepinephrine, in the brain. These chemicals, or neurotransmitters, help the brain send signals between nerve cells. Adderall helps restore the balance of these neurotransmitters to the parts of the brain that control the ability to focus and pay attention.
Effect:
Adderall abuse is becoming more and more of a problem. Recent national survey information found that full-time college students were twice as likely to abuse Adderall than other young people in the same age bracket. In addition, almost 90 percent of full-time college students who had abused Adderall in the past year were also considered to be binge drinkers, with half of them being classified as heavy drinkers, and they were also more likely to use other illicit drugs as well. They were 3 times more likely to use marijuana, used 8 times more cocaine, they were 8 times more likely to abuse tranquilizers and 5 times more likely to abuse pain relievers as well.
Addiction to Adderall is increasingly getting worse. The immediate benefits may seem appealing; loss of appetite (for the weight conscious), heightened brain stimulation and energy levels (for those never ending to-do lists), etc..but the consequences of dependency and withdrawal far outweigh the pro’s of this so-called “miracle drug”.
Solution:
Recovery from an Adderral addiction is as complex as any other abused prescription drug, but help is available.
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DRUG-USE STAGES
By Stacy Barnes | May 26, 2010
Drug use can be viewed as a series of developmental stages: initiation, escalation, maintenance, discontinuation (sometimes including relapse), and recovery. Some clients go from one stage to another, others do not. Some relapse many times, whereas others bypass relapse altogether.
INITIATION
Drug experimentation typically begins during adolescence, in social settings during middle or high school. Teens rarely try drugs alone. Alcohol is usually the first drug tried and is often provided in homes by parents, family, or friends as a social gesture.
ESCALATION
This is a time when clients recall using drugs occasionally. This is a time of increasing preoccupation with substances, more frequent use, and when intoxication is thought of as “normal and fun”. There is usually no concern at this stage about one’s health or future.
MAINTENANCE
When full-blown addiction has occurred, all other life activities become secondary to obtaining and using drugs. Using becomes a daily devotion, an obsession. At this stage using is no longer “fun”; it is a necessity just to feel normal.
DISCONTINUATION AND RELAPSE
Some people stop using drugs and alcohol to avoid overdoses, death, illness, loss of family, loss of jobs. Others stop temporarily because of incarceration or court-orders. Some people break free from their addictions on their own. Many addicts, however, require drug rehab treatment from qualified, caring treatment professionals in order to help them quit.
RECOVERY
Recovery occurs when addicted clients acknowledge that the drugs and alcohol are causing their ever increasing problems. Despite the negative consequences, they grieve the loss of their drug of choice and the lifestyle. Little by little, one step at a time, they replace their so-called “best friend” with a healthier life-style including the 12-step program, new friends, addiction treatment and sober activities.
Topics: Addictive Behavior, Alcohol Addiction, Drug Addiction, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, News, Relapse Prevention | Comments Off
Prescription Drug Abuse Destroys Millions of Lives
By Stacy Barnes | May 17, 2010
More and more drug users are turning away from street drugs and using prescription drugs to get high. This has contributed to a high street value for pain pills and many individuals are selling their pills for big profit.
According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, prescription drugs are second to marijuana as the drug of choice for today’s teens. These teens have reported that if they were to get caught, there would be less shame attached to the use of prescription drugs than to street drugs. They feel prescription drugs are a safer alternative to drugs typically sold by a drug dealer.
There is nothing safer about prescription drugs. They are just as addictive as street drugs. Prescription opiates like hydrocodone are synthetic heroin, and the brain does not differentiate between legal or illegal drugs. The high is the same, and the eventual drug dependence, both physical and emotional, is the same.
The Obama administration, recognizing the importance of raising awareness and prevention on these matters, has proposed a 6.5 percent increase for prevention and treatment in the fiscal 2011 budget.
R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in announcing the budget increase: “With drug use accounting for tens of billions of dollars per year in health care costs, and drug overdoses ranking second only to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of accidental death, the nation needs to discard the idea that enforcement alone can eliminate our drug problem.”
It’s about time this Country has decided to prioritize a public health policy response to drug dependence and abuse.
Topics: Drug Addiction, News, drug dependence, heroin, hydrocodone, marijuana, opiates, pain pills, painkillers, prescription drugs, street drugs | Comments Off
Violence and Alcohol 101
By Stacy Barnes | May 11, 2010
The tragic death of University of Virginia student Yeardley Love last Monday ought to be a wake-up call to the nation’s colleges and universities not only of the peril of violence on campus but of the alcohol abuse that helps fuel it. George Huguely, the former boyfriend charged with her murder, has a history of public intoxication and incidents of violent behavior.
That both victim and alleged perpetrator are Marylanders — raised in the seemingly protective shelter of affluence, private schools and lacrosse fields — has made the episode all the more chilling. By all counts, Ms. Love was an extraordinary young woman, and her loss is a devastation to her family and those who knew her, from Charlottesville to Cockeysville.
Alcohol use offers no excuse for Mr. Huguely’s behavior — he has admitted to breaking down Ms. Love’s door and shaking her so that her head repeatedly struck the wall — but the connection between criminal assault and substance abuse, particularly drinking, is too well established to ignore. The nation’s schools have an alcohol problem, and it’s time college presidents and school administrators started taking greater responsibility for it.
The statistics are daunting. Studies suggest college students between the ages of 18 and 24 suffer nearly 700,000 assaults and 600,000 injuries each year that are alcohol-related. An estimated 1,700 students are killed from drinking-fueled injuries, including car crashes.
Harvard School of Public Health surveys show two out of every five college students are binge drinkers. And small wonder, as researchers note they have relatively easy access to low-priced alcohol in typical college communities.
Schools have not exactly ignored the problem. But their response has often been tepid. Two years ago, college presidents from more than 100 of the country’s best known schools called on lawmakers to consider lowering the drinking age from 21, in the misguided notion that it might actually reduce binge drinking. The list included the heads of the University of Maryland College Park and Towson University, and the former head of the Johns Hopkins University.
What college administrators should be doing (and many have) is coming down much harder on students who are caught drinking to excess, particularly those involved in assaults or property damage. One of the things that fuels such behavior is the knowledge that there are no significant consequences for illegal or irresponsible drinking, on or off campus.
But even that is not enough. More must be done in the communities surrounding the schools to make sure bars and liquor stores aren’t serving under-age buyers. Neighbors must sound the alarm when off-campus parties get out of hand. Colleges should be patrolling neighborhoods to ensure their students haven’t become unruly. They also need to better educate students on the dangers of binge drinking and offer alternative activities that don’t involve alcohol consumption.
Schools don’t operate in a vacuum. High school alcohol abusers become college alcohol abusers. Society has long embraced the notion that drinking to excess in college is a rite of passage to adulthood. And the alcohol industry, particularly the major beer companies, make a fortune marketing their products to the young.
(Source: The Baltimore Sun, May 09, 2010)
Topics: College drinking, News, alcohol problem, alcohol violence, binge drinking | 1 Comment »
Common Myths about Seeking Addiction Treatment
By Stacy Barnes | May 10, 2010
A prevailing myth in the addiction field is the belief that addicted individuals should be “cut off” from their families and that families can be detrimental to their recovery process. To most people’s astonishment, the family’s inherent resilience as well as their capacity and commitment to heal, regardless of the severity of the illness, can be the most important factor in recovery.
Another myth is that the only successful entry point to treatment is a request for care by the addicted person him/herself. However, the frequent contact and close connectedness between addicted individuals and their families provide a potent avenue for engagement through the actions of concerned others such as family, friends, clergy, neighbors, employers, teachers, family doctors, and other members of the 12-step social support network.
In many Florida treatment centers and addiction agencies, when a concerned other calls for advice about the addicted individuals problem behavior, or seeks help with getting the individual into treatment, typical responses include: “Please have the substance abuser him/herself call,” or the agency will often recommend that the caller attend Al-Anon even though Al-Anon is designed to help family members deal with – and if necessary detach from – the disease of addiction, rather than for the purpose of engaging their loved one in treatment. Al-Anon may provide help and support for the concerned individual, but will not address the addicted individual’s need for timely alcohol/drug treatment services.
Yet another myth is that individuals must “hit bottom” in order to recover successfully. The treatment team at Unity Recovery Center believe that waiting for an individual to “hit bottom” with an addiction is not the best idea. Addiction is much like most other medical problems; the earlier the problem can be diagnosed and treated, the better the chance for recovery. Think of how the survival rate of some cancers have increased over recent years. Some of this success can be attributed to the enormous media campaign that has so successfully promulgated the importance of early detection and treatment. Addiction is very similar; the earlier the addiction is treated, the more the individual has to gain because he/she has not yet lost everything. Looking at addiction treament in this way helps to understand that there really is no “bottom” and certainly no need to wait for and addicted individual to get worse before anything is done to help.
Often, family memebers fall into behavior patterns of dealing one-on-one with the addicted individual, believing the myth that this is the most effective way of helping the person change. One of the destructive features of addiction is how masterful the addict can be splitting the family and getting individual family members to talk only on a one-on-one basis. The addicted person makes promises, uses guilt, and skillfully plays one family member against another in this process.
Research shows that dealing one-on-one with the addicted person is seldom helpful or successful at getting the individual to stop using. In fact, this dynamic is the one most family members give as the reason they feel so angry, frustrated, and ready to give up.
Thanks to the highly skilled and professional treatment team at Unity Recovery Center and oftentimes with the support of professional interventionists, addicted individuals can receive the help they need before it’s too late.
Resource: Invitational Intervention – A Step by Step Guide for Clinicians Helping Families Engage Resistant Substance Abusers in Treatment/ www.linkinghumansystems.com.
Topics: Alcohol Addiction, Drug Addiction, Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Family Problem, Interventions, choosing a rehab | 1 Comment »