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It's your life, or that of a loved one, that's at stake! Talk to the Alcohol and Drug Professionals...Your family CAN be happy again.
PLEASE CALL 1-888-781-7060 NOTHING CHANGES UNTIL WE DEMAND CHANGE! We are invested in helping the Texas public in DEMANDING that our families are not subjected to the marketing of alcohol and other drugs which leads to the destruction of our families, communities and, ultimately society. As Texans we believe in individual freedoms and right to be successful, take care and love our families. However, if we allow drugs to be pushed on our young and naive, we will see our rights taken away as we endorse more and more law enforcement and relinquish our responsibilities to end addiction. Our police will be the first to admit that they cannot handle the addiction problem by arresting those who sell or possess drugs. We need to put our collective feet down and stop drugs in our families, schools and communities by getting our loved ones into EFFECTIVE DRUG TREATMENT. We must DEMAND effective treatment! There are so many weakened individuals that are suffering from a system of alcohol and drug treatment and rehab that isn't taking the responsibility to end addiction. Instead, they rely on the blamming the disease and shrugging their shoulders as they say: "We have done all we can.. His disease is so severe that he will probably die from addiciton"... (actural quote)....This is a totally irresponsible! Poor treatment is almost worse than no treatment... because it distroys hope. Effective drug treatment rehabilitates addicts to a functioning level higher than they have previously been. • Some alcohol and drug rehabs in Texas will only make things worse, yet some treatment centers are briliant. We will help you find those alcohol treatment or drug rehab centers that deserve praise. THE DILEMMA By the time that a family begins to decide that they cannot wait any longer for help for their loved one, they believe that the hardest chore that they will have is getting the addict or alcoholic to agree to alcohol or drug rehab or treatment. It is sometimes difficult to get the person to even admit that they are using drugs, when all indicators show that they are very sick and very addicted. Everyone in the family knows that they need to have professional help if they are going to end this addiction cycle. It is difficult to confront addicts about their addiction because they feel that they can't "live" without alcohol or drugs and that you are asking to take away their only connectionn they have to relaxation, happiness and peace of mind. This speaks to the delusional aspects of addiction since addicts actually have no happiness, peace or relaxation. Keep that in mind because most families listen to the arguments of the addict with the kindness and rationality that one would listen to anyone they loved. However, you need not be concerned about their justifications and their unwillingness to commit themselves to a program that will save their lives. YOU HAVE TO BE THEIR MOTIVATION TO DO THE RIGHT THING! Drugs keep a person from feeling the pain of guilt and physical problems, so a person addicted to drugs and/or alcohol doesn't have his natural feed-back system that keeps all of us correcting our problems. Without this communication, problems begin to overwhelm them. Most families will succeed in forcing their loved ones to seek professional help, but they need ther advice of a professional interventionist who can keep them away from mistake that will cause a blow-up. We have professional interventionist to answer your questions. All too often, families become reasonable when it comes to the level of drug treatment needed to get the addict or alcoholic back into health, production and happiness. When addiction is only partially treated, it will be back in short order... drug addiction and alcoholism must be completely handled before the patient leaves the program and very few programs are equipped to complete this treatment. That is why most rehab programs profess to the "disease model" of addiction, saying that "once an addict, always an addict." Any problem that isn't solved will continue to be present and will get worse in time. Therefore, the disease model of addiction is only one approach to alcohol and drug treatment and it is more of a description of incomplete alcohol and drug rehab than a description of an actual disease. The dilemma that all families have is finding what Texas drug rehabilitation works and will it work for their loved ones. That is why we are here and we do have the answers. Please, contact us and let us help so that things don't just get worse. Call us an let our professionals help solve your Rehab dilemma. We have received praise for the thorough reporting that we have done on heroin on our page dedictaed to Heroin. Please check it out. What you know can save your life and, unfortunately, the opposite is also true. HEROIN PAGE How is Addiction Different Today? Help us by Responding to our Request
We started in this alcohol and drug rehab field over 35 years ago. Graduating with a MSW from the University of Houston in 1975. At that time, many of the graduates students abused alcohol on the weekends and a few smoked pot. Out of a class of 60 aspiring graduate students that only two took any drugs stronger than pot. Those individuals would use Quaaludes, methaqualone, is a sedative-hypnotic drug that is similar in effect to barbiturates, and perhaps speed on a "recreational" basis, but there wasn't anyone physically addicted to opiate painkillers or heroin. At that time, people on opiates were considered to be our clients. The social tabu for these drugs precluded them as part of acceptable graduate student behavior. It needs to be remembered that there were many that were taking Valium and other tranquilizers to "help" them handle the stress of school and life. Benzodiazepines were new to the market and their addictive nature was being denied by manufactures and physicians. The 70s were a time of enthusiasm in America with many young adults aspiring to changing the world for the better. This is seen in the music of the day, like John Lennon's "Imagine" and other songs by Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez The emotional tone of our society was very different than it is today. It was the beginning of a distrust of government, with the Nixon Administration rationing gasoline and Viet Nam winding down, but veterans were returning from Southeast Asia with scars from war and serious heroin addictions. At times, we students would slip into grief and despair, but we were mostly determined that our actions could make us and other happy. There is a much different feeling in American society today. For one thing, if we were to examine the drug use of the graduate school population today, we would find about 10 to 15% of the students being addicted to opiate medications and/or heroin. For the past 10 to 15 years, there hasn't been a strong contingent of graduate applicants that are looking at careers in social work type jobs, with business degrees being the number one choice. Today there is a much lower emotional tone in society. Many young people feel that things won't automatically be better for them than they were for their parents. There is a much strong acceptance for marijuana and other drugs as being a viable solution to today's stress. It is much easier to find doctors that will readily prescribe opiate painkillers upon their patient's request. Many students today have been told that they are ADD/ADHD, or simply, hyperactive. This has led to many of these individuals not finding real solutions to their attention problems, but taking drugs to overpower their dispersed feelings. In the 70s, the graduate schools of psychology or social work didn't have classes on addiction. It wasn't a professional choice and a need for residential rehab was just beginning to be realized as a modality of care. Probably the worst indicator that is seen today in contrast to 30+ years ago, is the number of addicted young people that truly do not want to get off of drugs. It is alarming how many people are entering drug rehab today without the desire to get well. They usually stay less than two weeks, even though they have many skilled counselors attempting to convince them that life can be better when one is drug-free. It appears as though many between the ages of 16 and 30 have very little ambition or desire to do anything other than take drugs. The failings of the schools and families to instill hope and ethics in our young population is leading to a epidemic of addicted youth, that are apathetic about their lives and their futures. Twenty years and more ago, it was extremely rare to find this level of apathy, but talk to any alcohol and drug counselors today and you will find that they are continually fighting this apathy and attempting to get their clients to aspire to a life without alcohol and other drugs. The question that must be asked is whether this is a product of pharmaceutical and physician influence, or is it a feeling that nothing will change and it is a matter of finding amusements that will pass ones time rather than having motivations to make themselves and society better. We would love for any of our readers of similar age to fill out our response forms and let us know your analysis of the changes that have occurred in our society in the past 30 or so years. If you have loved ones that are addicted to drugs and will profess that they don't want anything more than just a reliable source of their "medications". The PITA Group is in a planning process to set new goals and objectives for the coming year that will target our energies at reforming the most needed changes in our thinking about alcohol and drug use. It is futile to think in terms of effective drug treatment if we don't have patients that are wanting to reform from their addiction and/or drug use. We are talking about a true feeling of wanting change and not something motivated by the legal system or bribes from families and loved ones. Please respond to our request so that we can continue to put our efforts on helping Texas become what it was attempting to do in the past. Arrest in Dallas Are SignificantOn September 17, 2010, the culmination of an extensive investigation that started 15 months ago led to the arrest of 25 criminals in Texas. One of those arrested was already in custody for the drug-driving murder of a newlywed couple in Dallas. The DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) said that these arrests have disrupted a drug trafficking organization that funnels drugs from Mexico to Texas and throughout the United States. This cartel is responsible for smuggling and distributing tons of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana from Mexico and South America and distributing them in the Dallas/ Fort Worth areas and other cities around the country. The seizure in North Texas was worth millions of dollars in cash, weapons, cocaine and methamphetamines. Our streets are safer because of the heroic actions of the DEA and local authorities and for that we are all very thankful! Youth in Texas Have an Alarming Use of AlcoholLook at the percentage of high school students who rode in a car or other vehicle driven by someone who had been drinking alcohol and who drove a car or other vehicle when they had been drinking alcohol. 35% of the high school girls had ridden in a car with someone driving who was drinking. 33% of the males had done the same. 12% of the high school students had driven under the influence of alcohol. This data is for 2009 from the Center for Disease Control's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. It is difficult to find statistics that represent what is happening with the youth in Texas in the past two to three years because of the time-lag that is required to accumulate all of the information and present it in a reliable form. You can read about the most resent research in this area from the University of Texas' publication of Substance Abuse Trends in Texas, June 2006. (Read more and join in the discussion about the need for effective drug treatment. Add to the political pressure for society to invest in quality drug rehab at this blog: http://alcoholdrugsandpolitics.blogspot.com/) Think about how many times you have heard someone tell you that addiction treatment doesn't work. Bad drug rehab doesn't work, in fact, it makes things worse...but Good drug treatment does work!. We can explain the difference and help you find one of the effective drug treatment centers. In fact, there are fewer than twenty truly effective drug rehab centers in the United States. It is too common to hear of someone that has done 4 to 8 previous alcoholism rehab in Texas or drug treatment programs in Texas and believes that addiction is an incuralbe disease...repeating bad programs makes you believe addiction is incruable, but doing an effective programs proves that Why should we accept anything less? "Texas Drug Rehabs.org" is the definative resource on information about alcohol and drug treatment centers in Texas and drug treatment programs in Texas, as well as surrounding areas. "Texas Drug Rehabs" is operated by the a Non-Profit Certification and Accreditation company that has reviewed over 150 alcohol and other drug rehab and drug treatment centers in the United States and around the world. All alcohol and drug rehab and treatment centers were reviewed on site, spending a minimum of two days at each alcohol and drug rehab center. We have Offices in Dallas, Texas and have referred hundreds of Texans to effective alcohol and drug treatment and rehab programs since 1971. PUBLIC TESTIMONIAL: ...Texas Drug Rehabs has worked with me for two months to help get my son into drug rehab. Their counselors worked tirelessly to help me know what to say and how to handle his outburst. I was being overun by his anger, but not he is in an effective alcohol and drug rehab in Texas... Thanks... MP.. Dallas, Texas...UPDATE...This young man has now graduated and is taking college classes and supporting himself through gainful employment. Call to speak to someone who has: • Don't choose a drug rehab center in Texas because their marketing department says they are the best alcohol rehab in Texas, call Texas Drug Rehabs and speak to someone that will give you the TRUTH about drug rehab centers in Texas and Texas addiction programs and will help you make the right decision. Find out the TRUTH rather than rely on failed practices such as "tough love" to change addiction in a loved one. The drug rehab field in Texas, and elsewhere, is full of superstitions and unproven practices...it acts much like those they are trying to help. Call us and find out the TRUTH about drug addiction, alcoholism and alcohol addiction. • Find drug rehab programs in Dallas, Texas; Houston, Texas; Austin, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and El Paso, Texas from Texas Drug Rehabs with an analysis of their effectiveness. Even adolescent drug treatment in Texas has been reviewed. Treatment programs are also available out of state and advice and recommendation on rehab programs in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisana, New Mexico and Oklahoma is available. Ask about Texas Interventions, Detoxing at Home and Brief Intensive Drug Therapy.
The 12-Step Programs The Long Term Rehab, Christian Based Treatment Demographics of Texas: Population (2006 American Community Survey): 23,507,783
Different Models of Treatment
Before one can look at the different modalities of treatment that are being offered, you need to understand that one’s philosophy about addiction drives the types of treatment that is provided. There are programs that believe that addiction is a disease and those that contend that it is a developed condition that has come about from repeated and habitual use that is oriented around changing one’s feelings; usually to find a feeling of euphoria or relief from pain but sometimes to experience different “realities”. Driven by a desire to help others and/or to make a profit, most programs have not analyzed or challenged the ideas of addiction, but have merely accepted and copied the practices of others. This practice of coping other programs seems strange in a field with so many doing so poorly, in terms of recovering from their addiction, but the types of people that have been drawn to start treatment centers are usually those that have had an addiction problem of their own and have been to treatment or have had a loved one that has been treated for addiction. There are certain requirements promulgated by each State’s “Single State Agency” that must be met to be licensed to provide alcohol and drug treatment, however, these are broad, generic requirements and usually not specifics. Licensing requirements will more often be specific about the types of certified and/or licensed staff that must be employed rather than requiring a specific type of treatment action. It isn’t unusual to find licensing requirements that specify that a residential treatment program must have 12 hours of counseling provided each week in residence. The regulations will also specify what type of documentation is to be kept to substantiate that this requirement is met, but usually do not specify what type of counseling is to be delivered. Again, it may say that the counseling must be supervised or delivered by a certain type of licensed clinical professional, but it is very rare for the State to mandate individual counseling over group therapy or to not allow specific types of counseling that the program has decided is best to reach their goals. I have seen programs where they had primal scream therapy and called it group therapy. Traditionally, group therapy is a model that has been codified and is done repeatedly under certain guidelines that don’t very much, certainly don’ t involve screaming in the woods, or regressing back to one’s infancy, but this is an example of how varied and different treatment programs can be, one to another. At least 80% of the thirty day programs follow the Hazelden model of treatment. These programs have all copied the Hazelden model of 12-step treatment that was developed to provide a structured and confined environment where addicted individual, who could not sty sober without supervision, were able to learn the twelve steps and twelve traditions of the “Big Book” of AA. Because of the thirty-day restriction put on by third-party insurance companies, it was agreed that it would be most successful if their patients thoroughly understood the first three steps and at least read the traditions. These first three steps are:
It was found that asking someone to believe in these principals to a point that they feel that these steps have given them hope that they are committed to learning more and continuing their commitment to following a path of sobriety and being engaged with others to support that sobriety, took at least thirty days of indoctrination. This part of 12-step treatment is usually referred to as “step work”, which includes workbooks that help a person understand the ramification of these three steps and lectures by others that are following this modality of recovery and can speak to their difficulties and rewards. This type of treatment usually has time for the spiritual understanding and exploration, which usually involves clairification of what God means to a recovering addict and how structured religion may not be beneficial, but a belief that God is available to remove one’s addiction and give them forgiveness for their past transgressions is vital to this “clinical” approach to treatment. The rationale for not going into the fourth or fifth steps lies in what is required by these next two steps:
Basically, these steps are asking the addict to look at every action in his life where he violated his moral code and to recall those times, pray about them, and tell someone else the exact nature of these “wrongs”. It was found that people that are only thirty days removed from addictive use of drugs do not have the emotional stamina to do this type of thorough examination of themselves without causing them to overwhelmed by their shame which causes them to relapse on their drugs of choice and to turn their backs on this type of recovery. It is generally recommended, in 12-step circles, that a person have a minimum of one year of clean time where he is going to 12-steps meetings regularly and where the individual has a “sponsor” who can help support them through this confessional. It was found that rushing this level for taking responsibility for one’s past brought up many clinical issues that had been treated by alcohol and other drugs and the 12-step model of treatment didn’t have the necessary clinical practices that could support someone during these memories. It should be noted that the two men that developed the 12-step approach to recovery and wrote the Big Book or AA, emphatically state that it is not treatment and it should never be institutionalized into what it has become. They argue that their form of treatment is reserved for “one drunk, talking to another drunk in an effort to stay sober”. The 12-step approach was designed to be a place where addicts and alcoholics could come together to communicate about anything, but benefit from human contact and communication, and follow a path that leads them to higher and higher levels of personal responsibility and dedication to a Higher Power, or God. Where human compassion and God’s love could bring inspiration and comfort for those that are using alcohol and other drugs to ease their pain. It might appear odd that a treatment modality is going against the advice of the people that developed the model, but there are good rationales for developing these institutionalized treatment facilities.
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As a new service, you can now ask any questions you like and get the advice on this homepage. Ask your questions on the form above.Question: Why are most treatment programs limited to 30-days of treatmen? There are some that want you in the program longer. Can you explain how this is the case? Answer: As with most medical care in the US, the answer is related to money. In the 1950s, those seeking inpatient treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction were sent to mental health wards or facilities. They were treated in the same manner as a person that is suffering from extreme depression or psychosis. This continued to be the standard practice until the 1970s when there was a rise in addiction in America and, therefore an increase in need for treatment. At that time, there were very few treatment centers and they were mostly dealing with the withdrawal symptoms from alcohol and other drugs. It was obvious that getting someone through withdrawals was a temporary solution because the addiction wasn’t treated and the addict was soon needing addiction help to detox. As the treatment was expanded from an approximate ten-day detox to a longer period of therapy, the insurance companies collectively decided that the maximum number of days needed to treat addiction was 30 days. Since the reimbursement for alcohol and drug treatment was maximized at 30 days, and since most of the income for rehab came from health insurance payments, the protocol was set at 28 to 30 days. This amount of time had nothing to do with how much time is actually need to treat addiction, but was designed to maintain the income stream. It was soon discovered that those people that finished a 30-day program were in need of further treatment within months of their original care, so the health insurance companies began to limit the number of 30-day treatments that they would cover. It was common to limit the health insurance coverage to one 30-day treatment within a calendar year. Some polices limited coverage to 30 days for one’s lifetime. The alcohol and drug treatment field was put in a position where they had to compromise their better wisdom and clinical knowledge by providing a service that they knew was too limited to actually handle one’s addiction. The clinicians began to extend the aftercare part of treatment in hopes that they could continue to provide enough care to get a successful outcome. Some rehab modalities realized that they couldn’t provide the regime of care needed to handle addiction without the client being in residence for the entire program. Many of these programs take three to six months to deliver all of the needed therapy to trust that their graduates can live alcohol and drug free. The integrity of their clinical protocols and their care for their clients mandated that they couldn’t compromise their time in residence. Naturally, these programs offer the most successful treatment. Qestion: Do most treatment programs believe that addiciton is a disease? Answer: In the 1930s, when the founders of the Alcoholics Anonymous were beginning their efforts to establish a new idea about addiction, the prevailing philosophy or attitude about addiction was being promoted by psychiatry and the belief was that an alcoholic had a mental disorder and needed psychiatric help. Society was equally unforgiving and moralistic about addiction and many believed that alcoholics were moral reprobates and should be shunned by respectable society. Basically, no one knew what caused addiction and the only treatment was institutioinalization by the mental health industry or attempts at religious salvation. With the advent of Alcoholics Anonymous, addiction was promoted as being a disease. The founders of AA knew that they weren’t in need of pschyatric help and they knew that they were possessed by demons, and since there was nothing that they had done at that time that ended addiction and it appeared that most people got worse in time, they decided that addiction, (in their case alcoholism), was a chronic and progressive disease and the only cure was abstinence from alcohol. The American Medical Association agrred with them in the 1950s and this has led to the present prevailing idea that addiction is a disease. From the beginning of their pronouncement that addiction was a lifelong disease, there have been other researchers, such as Bill Miller, Ph.D., from the University of New Mexico, that disagreed with the progressive disease concept. In the past ten years, there has been a groundswell of opposition to the disease model of addiction, partly based on research and the promotion of treatment programs that believe that addiction is a complex condition with physical, emotional and spiritual components. Most people, outside of the alcohol and drug treatment professionals, belief that addiction is a matter of personal choice. About 90% of the residential programs believe in the AA disease model of addiction, but with waning public support for this attitude, many of these programs have been influenced by psychiatry to believe that most addicts also have a diagnosable mental health problem and should take psychotropic medication to handle their mental issues. This approach is not proving to be a successful treatment since it diminishes the addicts ability to take responsibility for his condition and, instead, makes the person the victim of problems outside of his control. Presently, the most popular treatment programs demonstrate that there is definitely a physical addiction to alcohol and other drugs, but that this physical addiction can be rehabilitated and through behavioral therapies, control of one’s life can be returned to a person that has previously had an alcohol or drug addiction. Less than 10% of the professionals in addiction treatment believe that an addict can be rehabilitated to a place where he can have total control over his life without ongoing support-group meetings or therapies. Question: How does nutrition relate to addiction and what types of nutritional help should I find in a rehab? Answer: For many years, the role of vitamins and minerals wasn’t part of the treatment regime of most drug rehab centers. Alcohol treatment centers have used the benefits of vitamin B complex for many years, but it wasn’t thought to be necessary for those addicted to other drugs. However, in the last twenty years, especially with the rapid growth of biophysical rehab programs, it is much more common to find drug treatment centers giving their patients daily doses of vitamins and minerals. People who are actively abusing alcohol and other drugs are numbing their feelings, which include the feeling of hunger when the body needs nutrition. The diet of an addict is erratic and they don’t tend to eat regularly or well, and over time, their strength is drained and they are susceptible to infection because they haven’t gotten their basic nutritional needs met. The body relates to the intake of drugs in the same physiological manner as it does with any alien poison introduced into the blood stream. To protect the body from these substances, the body has to “burn” more than its usual amount of energy to metabolize these drugs or to push them into the dormant fat tissue of the body. This process uses large amounts of calcium and magnesium, which is not being replaced by most people that are actively addicted. Since the heart beat and many other vital functions of the body are dependent on calcium, you will find that many people on methamphetamines and long-term opiate use will have weakened teeth that are easily decayed. The body knows that it has to take the calcium from the teeth and bones when it isn’t available from the diet. Therefore, the use of calcium and magnesium is very important for anyone that is actively using alcohol or drugs and especially during the withdrawals from alcohol and drugs. The transmission of nerve impulses is also hindered by a low vitamin B’s as well as iron and folic acid. All of this information points to the fact that it is essential that all treatment centers need to pay special attention to the nutritional condition of their patients and have appropriate vitamins and minerals to counteract these types of problems. In fact, many of the relapses back to addictive behavior has its base on patients that have exaggerated anxiety and drug cravings because they are needing a better diet and the support of vitamins and minerals to make up for the nutritional damage that comes from alcohol and drug use, abuse and addiction. Question: Is being on methadone from a methadone clinic really treatment or is it replacing one drug for another? Answer: In the case of methadone, the simple answer is yes. Methadone is a synthetic opiate that is equally as strong or stronger than morphine. It has the unique quality of having a long half-life, which means that it metabolized much slower than most opiates like morphine or heroin. The painkilling effects of most opiates wear off in four to six hours whereas methadone only needs to be taken every 24 hours. Opiates are very physically addicting and once a person is physically addicted, they will experience withdrawal symptoms when the drug-effects of the opiate are no longer present. Since the drug effects of methadone last much longer, a person doesn’t need to continually be taking repeated doses throughout the day, but only once a day. Many people believe that once a person is addicted to heroin or other strong opiates, they will always crave these drugs, even after they have recovered from the withdrawals symptoms and since this leads many opiate addicts into repeated relapses, the government of the United States okayed methadone as a replacement drug for heroin addicts and others that are addicted to opiate painkillers. In the case of methadone, it can certainly be considered that anyone that is on methadone maintenance and taking methadone daily has substituted their previous addiction for a controlled use of another drug. This is far from an ideal condition since there are good therapies that can end one’s addiction to opiates, but these types of treatment are more expensive and usually require residential treatment. Methadone is marketed to those people that don’t have the resources in time or money to have more ideal drug-free treatment and choose a replacement until such time that they can withdrawal from methadone and get the help they need to live drug free. Methadone is a narcotic depressant and suppresses one’s ability to think as clearly or quickly as they could if they weren’t drug influenced. This depressant effect causes a lowering of one’s metabolism, which interferes not only with ones thought processes, but causes weight gain and other side effects. Long-term use of methadone causes problems with calcium metabolism and leads to tooth decay and weaker bones. Because of these limiting side effects, no one should choose methadone replacement as a treatment for opiate addiction, but it may be useful to assist in the withdrawal from opiates. Buprenorphine or Suboxone® is another drug that is similar to methadone in that it stops the withdrawals from opiates, but is less damaging to the body and mind than methadone. Opiate addiction limits and destroys one’s potential to do as well in life as they could if they were drug-free, so is very little rationale to use a “safer” and legal form of addiction when everyone can do better with other drug-free therapies. Methadone replacement is highly profitable and owning clinics that dispense methadone as a treatment modality has made small fortunes for the owners of these clinics. There are many drug professionals that strongly support methadone replacement treatment for chronic opiate addicts, but if the profit motive were removed, there would be many fewer backers of this form of treatment. Many opponents of methadone maintenance claim that this “treatment” is enslaving clients to an addiction that keeps them from actualizing their potentials and is self-serving for the owners of these clinics. This argument has strong evidence to support this position. Many more than half of the patients on methadone maintenance dislike what methadone has done to them and wish that they could get off of their dependence, but feel as though they are trapped since methadone is harder to withdraw from than any other opiate. Many say that if they would have known that this “treatment” would lead to where they are now, they would have never come to the clinic. Question: Why Should I go to Alcohol or Drug Rehab? Answer:In trying to end an addiction to alcohol or other drugs, it is important to know that there are many reasons why someone relapses after deciding to stop their drug use. To stop addiction, one has to address the physical, emotional, spiritual, and social changes that have occurred during the addiction. Some repair is also necessary for those problems that the person had before they first turned to alcohol or drugs as a release or solution. Everyone wants to take a pill that can fix a problem. Naturally, this is why so many people are ultimately addicted to drugs, they want a quick fix to their problems, rather than confront the situation and using their personal abilities to solve the problem. As a society, we have come to believe that doctors and pharmaceuticals can replace what man has used for centuries to handle life. This is what has led to so many people being addicted. Once a person has proven to himself that he can’t solve his addiction problem without professional help, the addict usually wants to find the quickest and least restrictive program available. This would be outpatient drug counseling. This form of treatment is nearly useless when it comes to handling a serious addiction problem. A person that is addicted to alcohol and other drugs needs to recognize the tremendous changes that addiction has done to one’s body and life and if these changes are not therapeutically addressed, one can expect to have his future limited by either relapses or living with unresolved emotional problems that will affect the entirety of his life. Therefore, it is imperative to go to rehab, but to also attend a rehab that has a success in treating the entire consequences of addiction. Many problems ignore the physical aspect of addiction, which easily becomes the first problem that causes relapse. Many people attend rehabs that don’t keep their patients long enough to address the many areas that need repair in one’s life, and they are also setting themselves up for further problems. The question should be “why should I go to rehab?” but “where can I find the most effective rehabs to attend”. The cost of addiction in terms of money and personal suffering is enormous. Any problem that can cause so much pain and suffering in the addict and his family should be seen as a problem as serious as cancer or any other life-threatening problem. If you feel that your drinking or drugging has caused you from being as successful as you might have been or if your addiction has proven to you that you can’t stop this insane use of drugs on your own, then you or a loved one needs to answer this question in its simplest reply: You need to go to rehab because your addiction will either land you in jail or it will kill you. It is as simple as that. There isn’t anything but pain and death and the end of an addict’s life. Go to rehab because you or the one’s you love are worthy of a better life. Question: What Steps Should I take to Find an Effective Treatment Program? answer: Once you or your loved one decides that it is time to confront one’s addiction and to find effective help, they may not know what steps to take to find the best and most accurate advice or treatment program. Many people will ask their family doctors for advice. This action has proven to be successful in most health concerns, but it is far from the best action in terms of finding effective. Family doctors are not trained in effective methods of alcohol and drug treatment nor do they usually have the time to have weeded through the thousands of treatment programs to delineate their success rates. In medicine, all hospitals deliver treatment based on established principals that they are taught in medical school, so if they were to refer you to someone for a medical problem, they have the knowledge and skills to analyze one service provider over another, but most family doctors do not know that there are different modalities of treatment with huge differences in outcomes. It is also a mistake of family doctors to connect alcohol and drug addiction to psychiatry. This is easy to understand since medical education only provides one semester where the students working in a mental health facility under a psychiatrist. However, psychiatrist treat mental health problems and are not experts in the alcohol and drug rehab field. So, what should be one’s first step in finding effective treatment program? Nothing can replace getting educated about addiction. Learn the history of addiction treatment in the United States and you will understand that many of the treatment centers that are advertising for patients are delivering programs that are NOT based on evidence that their clinical methods are successful. Building one’s awareness about the different types of treatment will give you a basis of knowledge so that you can challenge some of the statements that will be told you as you search through different treatments. If you don’t have an understanding of what works and what doesn’t, you will be at the mercy of whomever has the most persuasive sales talk. There are many treatment programs that have well known reputations and references, but actually have very poor outcomes. The next step in this process is to follow your instincts and common sense. If the program makes sense, then it is, more than likely, better in many ways than programs that try to impress you with “science” and new techniques. Thirdly, ask for the phone numbers of graduates or the parents of graduates that can tell you their experience at the program and how successful their lives became after treatment. Some of these testimonials are more valuable than any of the program’s outcome studies. You can learn a great deal about the strengths and weaknesses of the program by talking with those who are intimately involved with the program. Once you have found a treatment center that you believe is the best for your given situation, your next task is to ensure that the transition into treatment will be seamless, so as to avoid any problems during the highly emotionally charged window of opportunity when the addict or alcoholic chooses a drug-free live over addiction. Question: What are the most common calls for help in Texas? Answer: It is a toss-up between marijuana and opiate addiction. Many parents of children from 15 to 25 are calling us with problems related to pot use and it consequences. The calls have a common theme of how their son or daughter was a good or excellent student and then they were introduced to pot and everything changed. Typically they have dropped out of school or are no longer in good communication with other family members. The good news connected to these calls is that most parent have the wherewithal to get their kids into an effective detox and treatment program. This isn't the case with the following example. Opiate addiction calls are usually not from parents, but are from people that are addicted to painkillers or their spouses are calling us to seek help for a problem that has gotten out of control. Many times the opiate addicts have destroyed their finances and no longer have insurance or money to do a good treatment program, so the help that we are able to provide is limited. We can tell them the best course of action to help with withdrawals and offer support to get them through detox at home. Unfortunately, most people that are addicted to opiates will relapse after they go through withdrawals, so these cases are depressing. Our communities need to offer more resources, other than methadone, for those persons who have serious opiate addictions. It is also obvious that the doctors in our Texas communities are overly prescribing these drugs to their patients. The horror stories that we hear connected to prescription drug abuse are devastating. Question: What Are the Changes That Marijuana Will Become Legal In Texas? Answer: This website isn't a proponent for legalized marijuana nor is current on the legal debate that is going on in most states about the legalization of marijuana "legitimate medical" purposes. There may be a need for THC, the compound in marijuana that is responsible for the drugged feeling that comes from smoking marijuana, but it is our judgement that if this is needed, there needs to be a better way to administer this drug than allowing "marijuana shops" to sell smokeable marijuana to anyone that gets a prescription for the drug. Colorado passed a law in 2000 that allowed for the sale for marijuana for medicinal purposes. At that time there were 5,000 people that were using marijuana under this new law. In 2010, there were 170,000 people that were prescribed marijuana. Either there were a lot of people that were suffering from headaches and other reasons why marijuana is used before 2000, or, we can assume that there are many, many more people now smoking marijuana for whatever reasons they may have. Along with this rapid raise in the use of marijuana, the culture in Colorado is also thinking differently about marijuana than they did before it was legalized. We get calls from parents whose teenagers are smoking marijuana and they are having trouble telling their kids that it isn't good for them because they all say that it is a medicine and not a drug. We are having enough problems with our education system today without adding a drugged population to the mix. For that and many more reasons, Texas Drug Rehabs is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana in Texas, or elsewhere, for that matter. With so many people needing drug rehab in Texas and the limited amount of alcohol and drug treatment beds available, we don't need to create a population of others that need these services. Drug treatment experts will tell you that many hard-core drug addicts started their drug use with marijuana, which is a gateway drug to further addiction and problems. If you have been smoking marijuana, you are not operating with as much brightness as you could have been without marijuana in you system. Learn more HERE. Question: Is Cocaine Addictive? Anyone interested in cocaine abuse or ocaine addiction should get a better perspective by reading about some of the history of cocaine in our country. This article is written to help so that you will have an understanding of how cocaine came into use in America and how many myths have been connected to this drug that has kept real, effective treatment from being the mainstream in practice today. Statistics show that approximately 4 million people are chronic cocaine users, meaning that they use cocaine on a regular basis for an extended period of time. There isn’t a breakoff of how long someone has to be on a drug to have a chronic problem, but it is safe to say that six months of use and more would be the cover. In 1997, the National Hosehold Survey, a survey that is taken in America every couple of years, showed that 600,000 people in America are using crack cocaine or about one/eighth of the total number of chronic cocaine users. This figure has been around the same since the 1980s. The most absurd myth about cocaine is the one that leads people to believe that cocaine isn’t addictive. It is true that the physical addiction, when compared to opiates and alcohol, has a mild addictive effect, but the psychological or mental addiction to cocaine is strong than for most other drugs and is just as damaging to the person who is trying to quit as any physical addiction. Another factor of importance is the fact that cocaine is rarely used by itself, but is usually combined with alcohol or with opiates. i.e. speed balls, which are cocaine or speed mixed with heroin or another opiate. Since cocaine causes nervousness and paranoia with continued use, it is commonly combined with “downers”, such as Valium, Ativan and even heroin. In adolescents, it found that it is popular to use cocaine in combination with alcohol and marijuana. Cocaine occurs naturally as an alkaloid that is extrated from the leaves of the coca shrub, which are usually found in abundance in South America, especially in Columbia, hense the Columbian Drug Wars and cartels. It was the Germans that developed the process that extracts the alkaloid, cocaine from the coca plant. The story of Coca-Cola originally having cocain in the drink and being the reason that it was so popular is true and continued until the Harrison Narcotic Act of 1914 was enacted to remove the cocaine properties from its drink, but Coca-cola continued to make the drink with caffeine in hopes that they would lose customers that were addicted to the original drink. Most of the cocaine that you get in America today comes from South America where it is converted into hydrochloride and is exported at a purity of about 95%. After it arrives in America, it is cut by various dealers and the purity of the cocaine that is sold on the streets is anywhere between 0 and 90% pure. Intermediate distributors will dilute, or cut, the cocaine to increase their profits, using sugars, or other drugs that act like cocaine, like procaine or lidocaine. It has also been found to be sold, at times, without a trace of cocaine, but with caffeine, amphetamine, PCP added to simulate the cocaine effects. It is important to remember that cocaine is actually very addictive. The myth that cocaine isn’t addictive has been around for many years, but laboratory research and personal accounts prove that this is absolutely not the case and that the drug is highly addictive. The duration of effects varies according to the route of administration. If snorted, the effects will peak within 30 minutes with the duration of effects lasting 1-3 hours. If used intravenously or smoked, the effects peakin seconds to two minutes, but the effects only last 15-30 minutes. The metabolites of cocaine can be detected in the urine for 24 to 72 hours, except in chronic users who may how positive test results for up to two weeks. These figures do not take into account the cocaine that is stored in the fat tissue of the body. Cocaine is fat soluble and if getting treatment for cocaine, one should only consider the biophysical model of care since it will remove all physical cravings for the drug, which in turn lowers the psychological effects. Read More HERE
Continue to help fight alcohol and drug addiction. Find something in your Texas community that will support alcohol and drug prevention and treatment. ©2001 Texas Drug Rehab.org All Rights Reserved. Sponsored by the Non-profit...PITA Group, Inc.
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