Engaging the Right gear in Controlling Drug Addiction

May 13, 2015

Engaging the Right gear in Controlling Drug Addiction: Acknowledge When we go wrong

Engaging the Right gear in Controlling Drug Addiction will go a long way in creating an addiction free society

Have we been doing the right things when it comes to bringing up our children as we should? Why is it that today most young people are seriously hooked up in drugs? Time has come for us to choose engaging the right gear in controlling drug addiction and also to acknowledge when we go wrong in some of our actions especially as responsible parents. In the past few articles posted, we have been discussing some of the experiences, many people and especially parents have gone through. The seven lessons listed below are some of the insights we have discusses with the exception of the last two which we want to finish with in this last series of articles about the roles of parents in taming drug addiction. The problem of drug addiction is not new to us and certainly it is not going to be ending any time soon. However, we can pool together to help in reducing the impact of drug addiction from our societies and with the help of professionals from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center this will not be a problem. Now back to the topic of discussion, doctor Dalal Akoury the MD and also the founder of this health facility is one professional of great value more so when it come to her area of specialization. If your children or any of your loved ones are struggling with substance abuse, all is not lost, talking to doctor Akoury will be the starting point for your great recovery from this problem.

Parents are enablers
I cannot fix his
My addict is a liar
My addict is a criminal
Others don’t want them around
Life will not be the same
Homelessness may be the path he chooses

And now to conclude on the lessons and experienced gained from the parents who have been there and are now coming to terms with the addiction of their sons and daughters. We are going to discuss the last two as follows:

Engaging the Right gear in Controlling Drug Addiction: Life will not be the same

This father of three is explaining to us that “at the age of five years old my son thought he was Michelangelo of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Running around the house with an orange bandanna tied around his head brandishing plastic weapons fighting evil and the bad guys. When we look at our addicts we see that 5 year old and mourn the loss and try anything we can to get them back. My addict is now a 21-year-old man. He is every bit an adult with at times a child’s maturity. But our world recognizes chronological ages, not maturity levels. Parents must do that too. I believe Michelangelo is lost inside of him. Those that are lost sometimes find their way back, but some do not. I can grieve this loss but it will not help him or us to move forward. An addict does not live in the past or the future. An addict lives in the here and now, if you want to help your addict you must live in the same world he does.

Engaging the Right gear in Controlling Drug Addiction: Homelessness May Be the Path He Chooses

Mom works in downtown Kansas City. When you drive down there you see homeless people with signs and some of them living under the bridges. They are dirty and hungry. They very likely are addicts, alcoholics or suffer from a mental illness. The one common denominator for all of these men and women living alone and homeless is that at some point in their life they had people that loved them. They are sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, cousins, and friends to someone. That doesn’t change their situation. They made choices that got them to this point. They can make other choices, and there are people and organizations to help them change. The key is, they must make the decisions. If our son makes the decision to live this way, it will hurt me terribly but he will do this until it is time for him to change, I cannot change him or those circumstances. It will not help him for me to give him a bed in my home if he continues to live the lifestyle.

Engaging the Right gear in Controlling Drug Addiction: Why is this Important?

We struggled mightily against these truths, fought with every ounce of strength. We lost our fight. We have accepted what we wished was not true. My learning is: until you understand the truth you cannot find peace within yourself or really be able to help your addict. Accepting the truth is what allows you to help your addict by helping yourself.

In all these seven points we have now discussed in these three articles, I have learnt my lessons and it must be understood that like a responsible parent, I do not hate my son for using drugs and putting all of us through this pain. For sure I can’t pretend that all is well because under these circumstances, all cannot be well and therefore the truth is that I hate the things he does. I hate the lying, the stealing and all those improper things he does. In spite of all these, I still love my son very much and it is only his ways that I hate. As a good parent if you were in my place, you would do the same and it is perfectly okay to separate the two. Finally the life of addiction is not just dangerous to the individual patients or addicts, but also to their loved ones. This even complicates the whole thing further and the sooner you take action the better. Remember that your health is best thing you can have and scheduling for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury for a more professional treatment approach that will leave you healthy for a more productive life a head of you.

Engaging the Right gear in Controlling Drug Addiction: Acknowledge When we go wrong

The Roles of Parents in Taming Substance Abuse

May 13, 2015

The Roles of Parents in Taming Substance Abuse: Setting the Record Straight

The Roles of Parents in Taming Substance Abuse. It is not a wast of time to start early in bringing up healthy children free from all kinds of substance abuse

If you have not been there it may seems like listening to music or watching a movie which you are not obligated to act on from the comfort of your living room. Many of us parents, guardians and care givers to children may not be aware of the indicators of different forms of addiction and so when they are attributed to our children, we ignorantly become very defensive. I agree with the sentiment that our children are the most important people in our lives, and this importance must be protected even as we choose to protect them to the last dollar. That is why this article is tailored to helping you get the hits of the roles of parents in taming substance abuse in the lives of our children and the societies at large. In our line of duty at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a medical facility established by doctor Dalal Akoury to offer solutions to all people across the globe suffering from drug addiction, we meet a couple whom we want to use their experience to help many parents out there do the right things in solving the problems of addiction in our children.

From their experience the couples explain and throughout the discussion the man of the house was sharing what they did and did not do to help their son when he needed them the most. And he says “I feel deep sympathy and compassion toward parents and guardians who are just beginning to come to terms with the terrible journey of their children’s drug addiction and those facing the mayhem of a next step which is the treatment aspect: rehab, incarceration, dislodging the addict from the family home. We have been there and what we went through is something that will forever be fresh in our minds (I and my wife). We have been there and we want to share our story with you on this plat form to help you and many others get ready for the possibilities and impossibilities.

The Roles of Parents in Taming Substance Abuse: The lessons Learned the Hard way

Dear parents the following are some of the inputs that we want to share with you from what we have been through. It is important for all parents to appreciate the following:

Parents are enablers
I cannot fix his
My addict is a liar
My addict is a criminal
Others don’t want them around
Life will not be the same
Homelessness may be the path he chooses

In many cases due to being protective to our children, we get into denial and for sure we were in denial in the beginning. Being in denial made us to fight among ourselves and point fingers at each other as to who did what or dint do what. Listening became a problem and even when we were told by our friends and neighbors, we took offence for we knew our son better than them and that he is a well behaved boy who cannot get into drugs. Nonetheless today we have come to accept these truths and now it is much easier to deal with the heartache and we’ve become more effective helpers for our son in his struggle with addiction. Now let us look at some of the lessons mentions above briefly.

The Roles of Parents in Taming Substance Abuse: Parents Are Enablers

I believe that just like we love our sons and daughters you also do the same. For our case we would do anything to ease the pain he was going through. Take away the addiction. Smooth the road. In fact we would give our life if it would help protect our son from the sufferings of addiction. In one of my communication with my son over his addiction and to bring my message home I made it simpler using the illustration of a moving train and him standing on the railroad. In this illustration, the train represented the drugs. Encouraging him that it was my duty as a father to take care of him by pushing him off the danger and take his place. Of course that is what you would have done too. However, I now understand how wrong I was since all that would only save his life and risk mine on the tracks and thereafter he would repeat the same thing again and again. His mind set shall have not been changed and I will be dead not being there to take my role as a good father I am.

Even though we are bringing up our children in the best way we can, it does not guarantee that they will forever be that way. In those unforeseen circumstances, they will often take the wrong railroad. I realize that we can only support them and give then the opportunities to make another decision. It may not be easy but that is why there are other professionals who are well trained in such disciplines. It does not mean that they will be taking our roles as parents but professionals like experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center and others including recovering addicts, police officers, probation officers, corrections officers, pastors, counselors, all these people can do a better job than we can in showing our addict the correct path. I appreciate that this may be very difficult to some because no one loves our children like we do but, then a gain we must also be flexible and accept that we cannot do what the experts can do and more importantly what our children need and when they need it. That is why we are only enablers we do our part and let the others do the rest with our full support.

The Roles of Parents in Taming Substance Abuse: I cannot fix this

Doctor Akoury has maintained that the first step in the addiction treatment and full recovery is by make self-acknowledgement that I have a problem which needs to be fixed. This is in support of my earlier remarks that the addiction problem of our children needs our support, but the decision of stopping must be made by the addicts themselves. It is true that as loving parents we would always want to fix all the problems of our children and so this may be a challenge. However no one has the access of our addict’s children’s minds besides them. This decision remains with them and for them. This you can’t fix for them as a parent. All you can do is to be supportive and living in the very best way you know how. And like doctor Akoury puts it, no meaningful recovery program will succeed where there is denial on the part of the addict. Therefore any loving parent trying to force this decision on the children is likely to fail and get frustrated as they watch their children sink into more and more of substance abuse. To prevent this parents needs to talk to experts for help and doctor Akoury will be very helpful if only you can schedule for an appointment with her today.

The Roles of Parents in Taming Substance Abuse: Setting the Record Straight

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin

May 13, 2015

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: What is Heroin and Opium?

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin. As a plant these drugs can be very appealing unto the eye but when processed for abuse they represent death and suffering

Before we can settle into the discussion of exposing the effects of opium and heroin, let us try to understand the proper definitions of the two. A lot has been said about heroin across the globe and one very important point is that heroin and generally all substance abuse has got nothing beneficial to human health. All that can be associated with them are poor health, suffering and even death to the extreme. So what really are these dangerous and devastating substances?

Heroin is derived from the morphine alkaloid found in opium and is roughly 2-3 times more potent. A highly addictive drug, heroin exhibits euphoric (“rush”), anxiolytic and analgesic central nervous system properties. Heroin is classified as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 and as such has no acceptable medical use in the United States. Pure heroin is a white powder with a bitter taste. Most illicit heroin is sold as a white or brownish powder and is usually “cut” with other drugs or with substances such as sugar, starch, powdered milk, or quinine. It can also be cut with strychnine or other poisons. Because heroin abusers do not know the actual strength of the drug or its true contents, they are at risk of overdose or death. Another form of heroin known as “black tar” may be sticky, like roofing tar, or hard, like coal. Its color may vary from dark brown to black. Heroin has some funny street names include smack, H, skag, junk, brown sugar, horse, and black tar.

This is the simplest definition for heroin nonetheless as for opium which is also a highly addictive narcotic drug it is normally acquired in the dried latex form from the opium poppy seed pod. Customarily the pods which have not ripened are slit open and their sap seeps out and dries on the outer surface of the pod. The product realized will be yellow-brown latex, which is then scraped off of the pod; it is bitter in taste and contains varying amounts of alkaloids such as morphine, codeine, thebaine and papaverine.

And now back to exposing the effects of opium and heroin in both the short-term and the long-term, can actually be overwhelming in a number of different ways. The high or euphoria experienced in the short-term can overtake the senses, making the patient incoherent, unresponsive and unable to focus. In the long-term, the health effects can erode major organ systems and cause infections that can be very life threatening. From the first use, heroin overdose is a risk as well, and once physical addiction has set in, withdrawal symptoms are a constant threat explains doctor Dalal Akoury.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: The Short Term Effects

The short-term effects of opium and heroin are generally the reason why people use opiates in the first place. This is when you experience the high or euphoric rush associated with the drug.

Less than 10 seconds after intravenous injection, opiate users will feel a rush while an intramuscular injection provides a high in less than 10 minutes.
For those who snort or smoke the drug, the euphoria takes up to 15 minutes.
Other short-term effects of heroin and opium include dry mouth, a warm feeling, and heavy arms and legs.
When heroin is cut with poisons or dangerous drugs like Fentanyl or when too much heroin is taken, a short-term effect of the drug can be overdose or death.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: The Long Term Effects of Using Heroin and Opium

Generally when considering the long-term effects of opium and heroin, ordinarily this will depend upon the methods with which the drug is administered into the body like for instance:

When the drug (heroin) is administered through an injection the direct effects would be that the veins will collapse veins quickly followed by a huge risk of infections in the heart lining and valves.

Abscesses are a problem as well and those occur whether you are shooting up heroin intravenously or intramuscularly.

One very fundamental point that needs to be appreciated is that, it may not matter how you go about doing heroin, whether the mode of administration is through injection, smoking or snorting or otherwise, the problems with liver and kidney disease as well as liver failure, pneumonia, and issues with the lungs and the brain will always be there. In other words so long as there are traces of heroin in your body system, there are health conditions that you will have to endure. It is also very important to appreciate that those who have an addiction to heroin are more likely to develop co-occurring medical conditions too, this is so because their defenses are weakened and they are more vulnerable to infection and disease.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: Opium and Heroin Addiction

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury’s care, one of the most significant effects of heroin and opium use is their addictive nature and the fact that they are indiscriminative meaning that everyone is vulnerable and can be affected anywhere and anytime. With regular use and in a relatively short period of time (especially when needles are the chosen method of ingestion), heroin addiction develops quickly thereby weakening the body systems significantly. Opium use and addiction on the other hand is less common compared to heroin addiction. This point is supported by the fact that these days accessibility and cost of heroin is within rich for many. Experts are confirming that in each case, each of these drugs have certain common similarities, like for instance the frequency of abuse influences your desire for more and subsequently the more addictive they become on an individual. If this trend is allowed to thrive breaking the addiction will be very difficult and hence the more severe will be the experience with heroin withdrawal symptoms in the long run. Therefore to correct this situation, it is very necessary that you seek for help in good time from the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center. You can schedule for an appointment with doctor Dalal Akoury today for the most excellent and professional treatment and recovery program.

Exposing the Effects of Opium and Heroin: What is Heroin and Opium?

The truth about withdrawal from Heroin Addiction

May 12, 2015

The truth about withdrawal from Heroin Addiction: Quitting Heroin Addiction is Possible

The truth about withdrawal from Heroin Addiction is very essential if we are to defeat this problem of addiction

If there is anything users should have done like yesterday, is to stop their habit of substance abuse. The little euphoric moments are just for a moment but the repercussions are for a life time if one does not quit. If you were to be given an opportunity to choose between life and death in your sober state of life and at your very best moments in your life calendar, what would you go for? Would you opt for life or death? You have the liberty to make that choice but I strongly believe that you will settle for life like I will too. Therefore in this article, we want to look at some of the truth about withdrawal from heroin addiction to help you be ready to face any challenges that may come with your noble choice of quitting. To help us get the facts right, we are going to be talking to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a heath facility formulated by doctor Dalal Akoury primarily to offer lasting solutions to all drug addicts across the globe among other health complication matters.

Actually there is no secrete concerning the truth about withdrawal from heroin addiction because much has been written about “cold turkey” and the huge trauma of getting a heroin addict off the drug. Doctor Akoury acknowledges that withdrawal can be very difficult, but she is also very quick to register strongly that it is only difficult but not impossible. It therefore means that when there is the willingness and determination, freedom from drug addiction can be realized with a very short time. She says that at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center up on scheduling for an appointment, her team of experience experts will in the most professional way help you to first come to terms with this disturbing condition. They will also work very closely with your loved ones because in this journey everyone is a victim with just small differences in the intensity. Elements like “Clucking” or “cold turkey” is characterized by unpleasant symptoms such as sold sweats, nausea, confusion and intense craving and those are some of the areas that we will help you cope with. Nonetheless it is also very important to note that some of these symptoms are not necessarily physically dangerous.

The truth about withdrawal from Heroin Addiction: The genesis of Effects of Withdrawal

When you have enrolled for treatment our team of experts will evaluate your individual conditions to determine the degree or the magnitude of the problem before commencement of a tailored treatment designed specifically to address the root cause of your individual addiction problem. This will help significantly in fast trucking the recovery process. We are determined to getting you back on your feet and pick up the pieces of your life back and live it to the fullest. And as this treatment process gain momentum, it is equally important to appreciate that the withdrawal effects are likely to start around eight to twenty four hours after the last dose. This will be accompanied with some symptoms similar to flu aches, chills and sweating, sneezing, yawning and muscular spasms. These effects take a week or two to subside but feeling of weakness and loss of well-being can last months. Psychological dependence can be even harder to overcome than physical dependence. As a possible candidate for treatment, it is very important that you are well informed of these challenges and contain with them because they form part of the withdrawal process. If you are not adequately informed, these can lead you into losing the treatment momentum.

The truth about withdrawal from Heroin Addiction: Real treatment obstacles

Despite all this treatment side shows, very many patients have successfully come off high doses of heroin without medication or massive withdrawal symptoms like for instance this has been particularly common in some rehab units run as Christian foundations across the globe. Many factors are involved, not least of all mental state. For example, a heroin user who injects regularly may experience a “hit” even if he or she is injecting medical saline (salty water) so long as the person believes it to be heroin. This so-called placebo effect can be very powerful.

When dealing with heroin addiction, a lot more is involved besides the real object and target the heroin. Many users have gotten so much into the habit that they tend to be so much attached or let me say that they have fallen in love with the needle and the act of injecting themselves. When an addict gets to the position where they take this habit as a hobby, withdrawal is quite a challenge. I know of one patient whom I will name Mr. H, he is such a thin man in his late thirties and a father of three very handsome boys. For a couple of years he lived alone in a government flat and he has used heroin for very many years besides injecting so many other drugs including crush tablets and anything that comes his way. His love for the syringe causes him to sleeps at night cuddling his syringe, holding it in his hand on the pillow by his head. To him, the needle is a symbol of comfort and a source of happiness and hope. That is a serious problem and he is not alone. This gives us even greater challenge to pool together, educate the world on the truth about withdrawal from heroin addiction and all other drugs. The society is grieving and you and I must step up the spirit of defeating this menace. And even as Mr. H is changing the game in that manner, for many others the ritual of passing the needle has a meaning, they see it as a sign of belonging, of being a part of the club something that unite them, can you see the danger? The syringe being used as a bonding factor! Oh what a life? That aside the good news is that much of that is changing in this post-AIDS world. And even though a lot more still needs to be done, most injectors are now using their own equipment, replenished from government funded needle exchanges a practice that is being appreciated by many both as individuals and institutions.

Finally the luck of knowledge is a very bad disease, if you are reading this right now, be an ambassador of change and share what you now know with a friend and better still schedule for an appointment with the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center and get the best treatment that will restore your life back for prosperity.

The truth about withdrawal from Heroin Addiction: Quitting Heroin Addiction is Possible

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain

May 4, 2015

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain: Effects of Cocaine in the Nerve system

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain. Cocaine has an extremely rapid euphoric effect on the user, especially when smoked or snorted.

Cocaine is very addictive and a psychoactive drug affecting the central nervous system primarily. Originally it is prepared from the leaf of the Erythroxylon coca bush, which grows mainly in Peru and Bolivia. The simplicity of its usage has made the inversion of cocaine in your brain more chronic and threatening. As a matter of facts this drug is self-administered in several ways explains doctor Dalal Akoury. The most common method of cocaine abuse is snorting in its powder form into the nasal sinuses, either alone or with the accompaniment of heroin (speedball). This drug is easily available in the streets as a hydrochloride salt which is a fine, white crystalline powder known in several street manes as coke, C, snow, flake, or blow. Besides snorting, the drug can also be administered through smoking which for many is effective in producing quick result as crack cocaine.

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, cocaine produces a wide range of physiological effects in humans, including the stimulation of a plethora of emotional experiences. When people take in cocaine, they become euphoric, over exited, highly active and more talkative than normal. When they use this drug, they experience the feelings of extreme power and alertness. This initial high is followed by sessions of severe anxiety, paranoia, and depression, which often lead to addiction. Those who become addicted to the drug often turn the habit into an obsession, so that they devote more, and more of their time and money to acquiring and using the drug explains doctor Akoury. Therefore what are some of the notable symptoms of addiction for users?

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain: Symptoms of addiction

People who abuse these drugs regularly often exhibit psychotic behavior such as:

Hallucinations
Delusions of persecution
Mood disturbances
Repetitive behaviors

All these closely resemble the symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. Trained mental health professionals have difficulties in telling a schizophrenic and cocaine addict apart unless they know the patient’s background. Although the psychological and behavioral effects of cocaine use in humans have been well documented, the current knowledge of the neurological basis for the abuse of cocaine in humans is still limited. The majority of knowledge we possess about the mechanisms of the effects of cocaine comes from animal studies performed over the last 20 years. These studies have clearly demonstrated the crucial role of the neurotransmitter dopamine in initiating many of the effects of cocaine use.

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain: Effects on the brain

Cocaine is an indirect dopamine agonist. Once in the brain, it works in large part by occupying, or blocking, dopamine transporter sites in the terminal buttons of neurons in the brain. This prevents the reuptake of dopamine by the neurons that release it, allowing higher concentrations of dopamine to remain in the synapse for an extended period of time. This abnormally long presence, and high concentration, of dopamine in the synapse is believed to cause the high associated with cocaine use. Dopamine has been implicated in several important functions, including movement, attention, learning, and the reinforcing effects of drug use. Therefore, its extended presence in high concentrations will be effective in the particular parts of the brain that control these functions, such as the basal ganglia and the limbic system.

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain: Cocaine and the dopamine transporter

Studies have confirmed that the reinforcing effects of cocaine involve dopamine transporter molecules. In a dopamine study, a group of scientists produced a targeted mutation of the gene responsible for production of the dopamine transporter protein in mice. In their findings, it was established that several compensatory mechanisms in an animal’s brain help it to adapt to the chronically higher level of dopamine resulting from their mutation induced reuptake inability. One of these mechanisms is a large decrease in post-synaptic dopamine receptors, rendering dopamine less effective. Another strategy is a corresponding decrease in the concentration of tyrosine hydroxylase (enzyme responsible for the synthesis of dopamine), decreasing the availability of dopamine. So, when cocaine was administered to these animals, it had no effect on the animal’s behavior since dopamine reuptake no longer occurred due to lack of functional dopamine transporters. This therefore is a demonstration that the dopamine transporter is essential for cocaine to be able to produce its effects.

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain: A quick fix

Cocaine has an extremely rapid euphoric effect on the user, especially in the case of the smoking method of use, because the drug directly enters the pulmonary blood stream when smoked. Cocaine has a relatively short half-life in the plasma and in the brain. When administered intravenously (IV) to humans, the half-life is in the range of 16 to 87 minutes. This short half-life accounts for the rapid euphoric effects of the drug. Typically, when the drug is administered intravenously, it produces a fast “hit-and-run” effect on the potentiation of the extracellular levels of dopamine. Nonetheless when rats are given a continuous flow of dopamine intravenously, they experience a peak in dopamine levels in just 10 minutes followed by a return to regular levels after 20 to 30 minutes. Because the initial high experienced by cocaine abusers lasts for only a short time, the initial stimulatory actions of cocaine can be attributed to the elevation of synaptic dopamine levels.

Finally the use of drugs not necessarily cocaine is not your portion. Nothing actually comes good out of the use or abuse of drugs in whichever way you look at it. Being safe and free from drugs is the best thing you can do for yourself especially if you are already deeply addicted to it. There is help around you and doctor Dalal Akoury made one of the best decisions to give her professional contribution in helping the struggling societies with addiction. She decided to create a medical center whose main objective is to transform each individual’s life through increasing awareness about health and wellness and by empowering individuals to find their own inner healing power. You can also be part of this by scheduling for an appointment with her today and your life will be completely transformed for greater productivity ahead of you. Remember that doctor Akoury’s practice focuses on personalized medicine through healthy lifestyle choices that deal with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of patching up symptoms and this will be very good for you too.

The inversion of Cocaine in your brain: Effects of Cocaine in the Nerve system

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