Substance addiction is a disease that forces your brain to seek pleasure from something that does your body an incredible amount of harm and has absolutely no upside, save the fleeting feeling of euphoria that soon becomes weaker and weaker as your body begins to crave more and more of said substance. Those that abuse…
The short answer is a resounding yes. Research indicates that the detoxification process can be one of the most difficult and testing periods of an individual’s life. In this process, an individual effectively forces themselves to enter into a stage of intense withdrawal and allow their bodies to purge themselves of a substance that has…
It is almost impossible to efficiently get through recovery and maintain sobriety if you continue to allow negative people, influences, or environments to play a role in your life. This may sound harsh, but studies have actually indicated that those that remove negativity from their lives in the early stages of recovery see much faster,…
It is important to note that drugs in and of themselves serve a multitude of purposes, and not all are bad. In fact drugs statistically save more lives than they take on an annual basis. When prescribed by a physician and used correctly, drugs can aid in the body’s natural healing process and make the…
People rarely consider cannabis, or marijuana, to be a drug that requires treatment. However, the disease of addiction is indiscriminate. Although physical dependence does not develop, people can become just as psychologically addicted to cannabis as any other substance. A man or woman who has the disease of addiction can face major consequences and lose…
Many people, especially men and women entering treatment, do not have an in-depth understanding of the disease of addiction. Instead, their knowledge about addiction comes from common misunderstandings and myths about the disease. Here are four common myths that may change your mind about addiction: You Can’t be Addicted if You Take Medication as Prescribed…
Health is rarely a consideration when we are living in active addiction. Intravenous drug users, specifically, are at a greater risk for these health complications. When we inject drugs, we create the potential for serious damage to our circulatory system that can cause irreversible damage. The circulatory system is a network of organs and vessels…
Opioids are one of the most addictive substances a person can use. The current opioid epidemic is due, in part, to many people who begin using prescription opioid painkillers, but move onto harder drugs like heroin after they develop physical dependence. Their addictive nature comes from their ability to change brain chemistry very quickly, as…
Many men and women suffering from drug addiction choose to insufflate, or snort, substances because it provides a quick effect and is seen as less harmful that other routes of administration. As the opioid epidemic continues to grow, many people struggling with pain-killer addiction choose insufflation because it allows the drug to enter the bloodstream…
The increased number of overdose deaths from opiates is due in part to the ubiquity of fentanyl. Many drug manufacturers choose to use fentanyl as a way to strengthen other opiates, but because of the extreme potency of fentanyl, this often leads to immediate overdose upon use. Fentanyl is a synthetic opiate about 80 times…