Category Archives: Preceptorship Addiction Treatment

Hospital Outpatient Entrance Sign

Controlling drug triggers and cravings

Controlling drug triggers

Controlling drug triggers and cravings will benefit the brain greatly

Controlling drug triggers and cravings: Finding addiction solution

From the several studies professionally done on the subject addiction, it has been established that in the quest of finding solutions to drug addiction, two problems are outstanding. The first obstacle is denial. Drug users are in denial and unwilling to acknowledge the problem. In the process the intensity of their addiction to the substances increases such that by the time treatment commences, it becomes difficult to help. Besides the hurdles faced at the initial stages, the other technicality comes at the end of the process when the patient is either progressing well with recovery program or are fully recovered from their addiction. That is why controlling drug triggers and cravings is very important and must be part of the treatment process.

Speaking to doctor Akoury it’s evident that while getting sober from drugs is an important first step, it’s only the beginning of the recovery process. And once sobriety is achieved, the next step is to allow the brain to recover and rebuild connections that have changed. This is likely to take some time. During this time, drug cravings can be intense and overwhelming. Individuals can take several measures to contain the situation. At this point you can support your sobriety by making a conscious effort of avoiding people, places, and situations that trigger the urge to drugs as follows:

Controlling drug triggers and cravings: Find new friends, break from old friends and shun clubs

For you to see the fruits of your recovery you mustn’t make a mistake of hanging out with old friends who are still doing drugs. They will trigger you back to your old habits. Therefore it is necessary that you surround yourself with people who support your sobriety, not those who tempt and tice you to slip back into old, destructive habits.

Alcohol is addictive and doesn’t pretend that you can resist the temptation to sip when meeting friends. Keep distance to social places like bars and clubs where alcoholic beverages are sold. Remember that drinking lowers inhibitions and impairs judgment, which can easily lead to relapse.

Know your history of drug use when seeking medication

This is very important and when a medical or dental procedure is done on you, open up to your physician and disclose all you know about your history. Ensure you find a provider who will work with you in either prescribing alternatives or the absolute minimum medication necessary. Take note, this is not the time for you to be ashamed or feel humiliated about your previous drug use. The more you open up to your health provider the better help you will get from them. So don’t withhold open up and allow yourself to be helped.

Use caution with prescription drugs 

Finally, stay away from prescription drugs. And take extreme caution because drugs with a high abuse potential include painkillers, sleeping pills, and anti-anxiety medication. For more information about containing triggers and cravings you can call doctor Akoury on telephone number 843 213 1480 today.

Controlling drug triggers and cravings: Finding addiction solution

 

 

 

 

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
outpatient-treatment

Medically supervised opiate detox

Medically supervised opiate

Medically supervised opiate detox and natural detox options for body cleansing are primarily done to pave way for the real treatment

Medically supervised opiate detox: Inpatient versus outpatient

Opiate addiction is a difficult addiction to deal with normally because of the extreme physical withdrawal symptoms associated with this type of drug addiction. Opiates or painkillers as they are commonly known can be natural or synthetic. Drugs like heroin, Fentanyl, hydrocodone, morphine, OxyContin and opium are types of opiates. The dangers of using opiate are that when a person becomes physically addicted to an opiate they must constantly use that opiate repeatedly to avoid the experience of withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms begin slowly in the form of agitation, anxiety, running nose, sweating and yawning but eventually they become much more intense. The later stages of opiate withdrawal include extreme hot and cold sweats, nausea and vomiting, intense muscle cramping, diarrhea and acute insomnia. That is why medically supervised opiate detox is very essential as a strategy of finding permanent solution.

Opiate withdrawal is painful and can last for several long, agonizing days. It is often the fear of this painful withdrawal process that keeps most addicts to continue using opiates for many years past the point where they wish to stop. In amidst all these seeking for lasting solution from the experts of addiction then becomes very necessary, and that is why the experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury are coming on board to help us understand some possible ways of lasting solutions. We have actually talked about treatment of addiction before and today we want to compare and contrast this by looking at inpatient versus outpatient medically supervised opiate detox as we progress into the discussion.

Medically supervised opiate detox: Opiate withdrawal

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center opiate withdrawal may not be lethal on its own unless the user is mixing together with other drugs while getting high or when they attempt to go through the withdrawal process all by themselves using medications and drugs on their own. Doctor Akoury is registering that the danger of opiate withdrawal is that it makes the addict feel like they want to die. It therefore means that in order to safely withdrawal a person from an opiate addiction, a medically supervised detox will be very necessary. This will involve using medication to take a patient from an opioid-dependent state to an opioid-free state under the care and direction of a medical professional with experience in conducting medical detoxification process. Ideally medications used during a medically supervised detox protocol would be buprenorphine or Suboxone.

These drugs treat the withdrawal symptoms of opiate addiction. Additional medications such as Clonidine may be used to help stabilize blood pressure, and over the counter drugs are often utilized to deal with the headaches, diarrhea and nausea. There are two ways a person can receive a medically supervised opiate detox. It can either be done Inpatient or outpatient detox. These are fundamental medications options we have and we are going address them in detail in our next posting. In the meantime, you may want to consult with doctor Dalal Akoury about any concern you may have in this worthy topic and she will address them professionally.

Medically supervised opiate detox: Inpatient versus outpatient

http://www.I-AM-I.com/wp-admin

 

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
Cocaine addiction

Problematic substances patterns

Problematic substances

Problematic substances patterns moves with wrong choices

Problematic substances patterns: Treating sexual addiction concurrently with drug abuse

When examining problematic substances patterns and who they are use in individuals seeking help for a sexual addiction, it becomes clear that the two are indistinguishably linked together. It is estimated from the various studies that between 40-60% of individuals struggling with sexual addiction also meet the criteria for alcohol or drug addiction. And according to the experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center it is evident that many individuals with sexual addiction problems have actually admitted to using substances in order to deal with, or escape from, the pain caused by their sexual behavior. Besides that it is also very common that many people are currently using substances to get over their inhibitions in order to engage in sexual behaviors that might be uncharacteristic for them if they were not drunk or high further explaining the significance of multi addiction.

We must therefore seek for information by way of investigating how multiple addictions can feed into one another. This is very important because it is possible that individuals may use one of their addictions to mask or dismiss the other addiction and this could be influenced by various reasons including fear and shames especially those elements that are considered shameful addiction. Like for instance, an individual may deny having a problem with sexual addiction and insist completely that their problematic sexual behavior is only caused by intoxication. The truth of the matter in this case may be that the drugs or alcohol are merely concealing the pain and shameful acts that are associated with the sexual addiction thereby helping the person to be spared from the emotional consequences of his or her actions. By the same token, both addictions may work on intensifying one another in such a way that the person only engages in their sexual addiction under the influence of alcohol or drugs. These rituals then serve to protect the addiction and ensure that patterns of use are stable and predictable and this can be very dangerous if not dealt with expeditiously.

Problematic substances patterns: Addressing the whole addictive process

A major concern with treatment of substance use disorder alone is that untreated sexual addiction often precipitates a relapse of substance use. Dealing with one addiction while ignoring the other may end up intensifying the problem that has not been addressed. A good example would be when a person in early recovery from a substance addiction turns to sexual performance enhancers in order to continue the ritualized sexual behavior that was previously enhanced by the substance use. This sexual behavior can continue to be problematic for the individual. The individual may continue to feel a sense of shame and pain.

Therefore recovery is about addressing the entire addictive process, not just those associated with a particular substance or behavior. The addictive process, whether related to sexual behavior or substances is often characterized by a pattern of secrecy, cognitive distortions and rituals. Consequently recovery from addiction regardless of type, would involve embracing and attempting to live a life of honesty, authenticity and emotional growth. All these are attainable with professional guidance from the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center.

Problematic substances patterns: Treating sexual addiction concurrently with drug abuse

http://www.I-AM-I.com/wp-admin

 

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
stop-drinking-alcohol1

Nutritional imbalances resulting from drug addiction

Nutritional imbalances

Nutritional imbalances resulting from drug addiction can also lead to serious health problems if not addressed timely

Nutritional imbalances resulting from drug addiction: Diet and drug addiction conflicts

The energy that keeps the body functioning normally comes from food we eat. It therefore means that the quality of this food stuff must be above board. In other words, every meal we take should be loaded with adequate nutrients and we must also learn to balance the diet so that the body is not just feed on one element of nutrient. This is very important and everybody needs to embrace it by all standards if we want to remain healthy. However as we endeavor to do good to our body by feeding it with good and well balanced diet, these efforts could be watered down if we in cooperate certain harmful substances in the body. That is what we want to understand in this article even as we address the nutritional imbalances resulting from drug addiction.

Professionally doctor Dalal Akoury (MD) who is a veteran specialist in addiction says that ideally the body of any living thing needs to be kept in perfect health for it to discharge it duties effectively. Even though good nutrition is very instrumental in keeping the body in good shape, it is not the only element that is needed to do this enormous task in the body. The body will also need to be active by indulging in reasonable physical activities among other necessities.

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, a health institution primarily formulated by doctor Dalal Akoury to make a difference in the lives of people struggling with addiction, drug addiction impacts negatively in the lives of people and it causes a lot of nutritional imbalances in the process. This is what we want to interrogate even as we move towards finding lasting solutions that will deal permanently with the scourge of drug addiction in our societies. Doctor Akoury is very categorical that the body needs sufficient nutrients to dispense energy that will enable it to propel the daily activities however deficiency of these vital nutrients in the body is likely to have serious consequences more in the life of those using drugs. And that now brings us to the question “how does the substance abuse cause harm to the body?” continue reading as we progress into the discussion.

Nutritional imbalances resulting from drug addiction: Harmful effects of substance abuse on the body

Without the knowledge of how drug addiction harms the body we may not be able to fight the problem from its roots. In that respect, doctor Akoury reports that substance abuse is capable of harming the body in two major ways which may include: the substance itself affecting the body and it can also cause negative lifestyle changes including irregular eating and poor diet. Like for instance the infants whose parents were alcoholic or abusing certain drugs, such infants are exposed to alcohol and those other substances their parents were using even when they are still in the womb and the consequences of that is that they will often have physical and mental problems as they grow up.

Alcohol will affects the growth of such babies at the connection point which is by crossing the placenta. And in most cases after birth, the baby may have withdrawal symptoms. The mother’s poor nutrition while she is drinking can harm the baby’s growth and development while still in the womb. And remember that even recovery from substance abuse can also affects the body in many other ways, including metabolism processing energy, organ function, and mental well-being. Proper nutrition may help the healing process. Nutrients supply the body with energy. They provide substances to build and maintain healthy organs and fight off infection. We’re going to continue with this discussion while looking at the specific impacts different drugs have on nutrition and healthy living, in the meantime, you can schedule for an appointment with doctor Akoury to help you have a deeper understanding of the health implications associated with the nutritional imbalances resulting from drug abuse.

Nutritional imbalances resulting from drug addiction: Diet and drug addiction conflicts

http://www.integrativeaddictionconference.com/wp-admin

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin
stress

Dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental disorder

Dual diagnosis

Dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental disorder can really frustrate your life if timely action is not taken

Dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental disorder: Co-occurring complications

Are you struggling with drugs or is there any of your loved ones or anybody you know who is struggling with drugs? Drug addiction is not by any standard good for anyone’s health. People who have recovered from this scourge will attest to this. Even though this condition is treatable patients (addicts) are always in denial of what they are going through. This is one of the biggest challenges that must first be dealt with before any meaningful treatment can be administered. For sure without acknowledgement of the problem and willful acceptance, there is very little that any professional will do to help. That is why we put more emphasis about dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental health so that addicts can own up and get ready for treatment. With that said and done, doctor says that if there is anything you need to remember then remember that substance abuse problems and mental health issues don’t get better when they’re ignored. As a matter of fact any time wasted will cause even much problem when treatment finally begins, in other words when dealing with matters addiction treatment should be immediate to rid of any possibilities of worsening the situation which is already frustrating. While appreciating that you may not want to be associated with drug addiction hence your reason for denial, surely you don’t have to feel this way. It is important to note that admitting you have a problem is the first step towards conquering your demons and enjoying life again. The following will help you come to terms with the problem at hand:

Dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental disorder: Family history

If people in your family lineage have grappled with either a mental disorder such as depression or alcohol abuse or drug addiction, you have a higher risk of developing these problems yourself. Meaning if this is true then you are not the first it had happen before.

Your sensitivity to alcohol or drugs

Are you highly sensitive to the effects of alcohol or drugs? Have you noticed a relationship between your substance use and your mental health? For example, do you get depressed when you drink? Interrogate that further.

Look at symptoms when you’re sober

While some depression or anxiety is normal after you’ve stopped drinking or doing drugs, if the symptoms persist after you’ve achieved sobriety, you may be dealing with a mental health problem.

Dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental disorder: Review treatment history

Have you been treated before for either your addiction or your mental health problem? Did the substance abuse treatment fail because of complications from your mental health issue or vice versa? These will be very helpful to you in realizing that the problem you have is just like any other problem and treatment must be sought for immediately. Once you have noticed these then the next step is letting the professionals do their part by administering treatment so that the problem doesn’t escalate to some other complications.

Dual diagnosis of substance abuse and mental disorder: Co-occurring complications

 

 

 

Save

Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedin