Tag Archives: Heroin addiction recovery

Addiction

Heroin addiction journey to the neighborhoods

September 3, 2016
Heroin addiction journey

Heroin addiction journey to the neighborhoods. Understanding myths about quitting addiction will enable you to make the right decisions in relations to drug addiction treatment

Heroin addiction journey to the neighborhoods: The prevalence of heroin

The cry of the society about the impact of drug addiction and in particularly heroin is making strides in to very unusual territories. It is no longer the preserve of the dangerous canners at the back yards in the city centers. It is moving into our homesteads and door steps to the disbelief of the authorities and parents. If you are in doubt then listen to this story of a college student whose name we are going to withheld and call him Felix. The story of Felix is a clear manifestation of heroin addiction journey right into our neighborhoods. To expose the picture clearly, expert at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under the able leadership of doctor Dalal Akoury who is the MD and founder of the facility states that “the drug has followed prescription painkillers into new neighborhoods, an element that has surprised even the police and parents into confronting the unexpected problem.”

Heroin addiction journey to the neighborhoods: The sequence of heroin addiction

And now back to the story of Felix, he was a good student in school always scoring above-average grades. He seemed poised and self-possessed, and like many of his friends in his charming coastal town north of their town was an incredible path to the college. Then, during his freshman year in high school, he decided to experiment with drugs and alcohol. And this is how it often begins they call it experiment no wonder Felix is following suit. It was on one night when he got very drunk in company of his friends and guess what? He loved it acknowledging that it made his day and that he felt like he has always wanted to be. Before long he was smoking cigarette and marijuana. Soon after a friend graduated him to some prescription painkiller pills which made him feel even much better than alcohol and other drugs he had been taking. Because of the experience he had, he begun purchasing these painkillers secretly and unlawfully spending all his up keep money on this unworthy habit. When he could not get further funding for the same, he resorted into stealing to support his habit but even with the stolen money it was not adequate. The trend continued and his friends introduced him to heroin which was much cheaper. His response was mutual “isn’t heroin for drug addicts?”

Heroin addiction journey to the neighborhoods: High drug dependency and addiction

Yes his concern was realistic but by that time his dependence on the painkillers had become more than he could resist. And as usual he bought the heroin, snorting the powder for the very first time. Oh my goodness, six days later he was injecting himself with a needle becoming the archetype of a classic heroin addict. His anguished journey from conscientious student to heroin user is one confronting many young people in suburbs across the country and the world over. It has become a thorn in everyone’s flesh and both parents and police are struggling with the ever rising usage of heroin in suburban neighborhoods than ever before.

According to the experts at AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center the rise is being driven by a large supply of cheap heroin in its purer concentrations that can be inhaled or smoked and which often removes the stigma associated with injecting it with a needle. But much of the increase among suburban teens, as well as a growing number of adults, has also coincided with a sharp rise in the use of prescription painkiller pills, which medical experts say are essentially identical to heroin. And with all these complications talking to doctor Akoury should be your starting point for a much healthier life.

Heroin addiction journey to the neighborhoods: The prevalence of heroin

 

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Understanding heroin presence in your life

September 2, 2016
Understanding heroin presence

Understanding heroin presence in your life will enable you to take the rehabilitation path

Understanding heroin presence in your life: Indicators of heroin addiction

It is always said that knowledge is power and that luck of it is the basis of many problems we are facing today. With that background, we want to be as informative as possible so that by the end of this article, you will be able to make informed decisions about substance abuse. For better understanding heroin presence in your life, doctor Dalal Akoury is sharing with us some of the questions tailored into helping individuals be on top of any possibility of heroin addiction. How you respond to the questions below will give a very strong indication about your position with heroin. Like for instance how would you respond to the following?

  • Do you isolate yourself when using heroin? In other wards you are avoiding people when using heroin, does that describe you? That should help you in understanding heroin presence in your life.
  • Have you ever used more heroin than you planned? If you have records of usage it will be helpful however you can also evaluate this by auditing your spending on heroin. Has it been constant or has it been fluctuating?
  • Has your heroin usage interfered with your job or school? Take stock of how many times you have lied to be sick and stayed off duty or if you have not been meeting your assignment deadlines inconsideration.
  • Do you find yourself concealing your heroin usage from others? Interesting, are you proud of this habit?
  • Are you experiencing financial difficulties due to your heroin usage? You may not realize this if you have more than enough to spend but evaluate from your spending how much is going into heroin account, in other word has it become one of the item you spend on heavily?
  • Has your heroin usage caused problems with your partner/spouse or family? Take a closer look at your present and your past before you got into heroin, are you still faithful in that relationship? How often do you hide certain information from your family? Dig deep in your past and respond honestly.
  • Do you wish you could stop using heroin and find that you are unable to quit? Many times users are very frustrated with their habits and are struggling to quit but because they are deeply hooked they are unable. Does this describe your situation?
  • Have you experienced legal difficulties from your heroin usage and yet you continue to use? Of course heroin is illegal and the authorities will not let you go without being punished. You may have escaped once or twice but will you escape forever?
  • Do you consume the entire amount of heroin you have and then immediately desire to get more? And have you become extravagant all over sudden?
  • Have you failed to cut down or quit heroin entirely? You know this is an illegality and probably you have been making effort of quitting but you keep meeting resistance and challenges. Does this describe you?
  • Do you wish you had never taken that first hit, line, or injection of heroin? In your years of addiction, somewhere along the way have you had any regret however small?

Understanding heroin presence in your life: Indicators of heroin addiction

 

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Heroin overdose and drug abuse management

September 2, 2016
Heroin overdose

Heroin overdose and drug abuse management. Heroin accessibility and affordability hindering treatment to the deserving communities

Heroin overdose and drug abuse management: Why do people Abuse Drugs

It is worrying the rate at which substance abuse is becoming a daily routine in most societies. Today heroin overdose is on the rise and managing drug abuse is becoming very difficult due to very many factors including the easy accessibility of these drugs in our streets. With the help of experts from AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center, we want to share with you some points you need to know about the impact of heroin overdose in our societies today. And as we turn our focus on this, we are going to primarily look at the heroin overdose and drug abuse management, what are the available options we have in the fight a against drug abuse. Doctor Dalal Akoury MD is going to highlight on what we need to know about this problem. The following are some of the points for consideration:

  • Majority of new users get to heroin as a result of addiction to prescription drugs.
  • Quitting heroin is the easy part the hard part is staying off.
  • The users trying to quit for good run the greatest risk of overdose.
  • We could stop people from dying of overdose, except we can’t find them.

Heroin overdose and drug abuse management: Majority of new users get to heroin as a result of addiction to prescription drugs

Heroin users like any other drug abuser are not really copying this practice from their favorite rock musicians. Currently the available statistics indicates that about 80% of new heroin users are lured into the drug after becoming addicted to the prescription pain medication. Due to a new medical focus on treating pain alongside false advertising by pharmaceutical companies, opiate painkiller prescriptions exploded from 76 million in 1991 to 219 million in 2011. The translation of this is that almost one for every American adult. This has necessitated the authorities to begin responding to the growing addiction and heroin overdose among other drugs by cracking down on prescription excess and fraudulent pill mills. With the intervention of the authorities, those patients who found themselves addicted when their prescriptions ran out of supply, resorted for the cheap accessible pills on the street. Many switched from $50 Oxycontin pills to $10 doses of heroin. That is why it is very essential that government agencies and medical professionals keep working together to reduce our reliance on opiate painkillers.

Finally with this kind of stringent regulation, many opiate-addicted patients are cut off from their legal supply, and will certainly turn to heroin further complicating the drug abuse management. It is time to address our society’s heroin problem from the front line collectively and individually. Expert experiences will be very vital along the way and should you be in need, doctor Dalal Akoury will be waiting to help you professionally.

Heroin overdose and drug abuse management: Why do people Abuse Drugs

 

 

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Addressing heroin overdose and drug abuse complications

September 2, 2016
Addressing heroin overdose

Addressing heroin overdose and drug abuse complications. Heroin long term effects on the body organs. The drug abuse development into addiction complications often begins little by little and grows in to serious health complication.

Addressing heroin overdose and drug abuse complications: Why do people Abuse Drugs

In one of the drug addiction forum, doctor Dalal Akoury MD and founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center while addressing heroin overdose indicated that quitting heroin is no problem, the real problem is staying off the addiction. This is true because a serious heroin user who misses a dose or two suffers the painful withdrawal symptoms. Worse than the physical symptoms are the debilitating depression and the knowledge that just one dose would make all the pains go away. In a few days, withdrawal ends but the cravings do not. Long-term heroin use causes users to hunger for heroin just in the same way we often hunger for food. Most users today have been through treatment multiple times, and only five to fifteen percent stay off for good. It is not a question of low self-control, cravings never ends, it may not show for a while but when triggered, it may not matter how long you have been off the drugs you are still able to relapse.

The society is not helping either. We often feel adamant in accepting the rehabilitated addicts or those who have served their jail terms. Take for example many organizations are not willing to absorb former convicts in job positions. Actually very few if will hire someone with a criminal record, especially for heroin. Just when users need help rebuilding a stable life, their criminal records cripple their job applications and bar them from college loans, assistance programs and professional licenses.

Addressing heroin overdose and drug abuse complications: The users trying to quit for good run the greatest risk of overdose.

Regular heroin users know how much of the drug their bodies can take. They increase their habit slowly, building up a high opiate tolerance. But when they quit, their bodies rapidly lose this tolerance. If they stay clean for a few weeks and then inject their usual dose, the dose may be fatal. If you followed the story of the young boy who only after two weeks of freedom from jail term, borrowing his friend’s car, his tolerance dropped enough that the usual dose killed him.

Others die from taking heroin with cocaine and alcohol, or from bad batches that the dealer mixed poorly or blended with toxic substances. Bad batches are par for the course, since the dealer’s only qualification as a pharmacist is his willingness to risk his life and the lives of others. But the most common reason for overdose is relapse use. In fact, studies show that people who die of heroin overdose actually have on average lower levels of heroin in their bodies than living users. This means that it is the people trying hardest to quit who are at the greatest risk of dying.

Addressing heroin overdose and drug abuse complications: We could stop people from dying of overdose, except we can’t find them.

Many are surprised to learn that heroin overdose deaths are entirely preventable. Naloxone which is administered by injection or nasal spray reverses overdose within seconds by dislodging the drug from the brain’s opiate receptor sites. Naloxone is available in hospitals and is often carried by paramedics and some police officers. In a small number of cities, community-based overdose programs train users, family and friends to administer naloxone. All this in an attempt of addressing heroin overdose and drug abuse complications. You can also seek for more clarity from doctor Dalal Akoury at your convenience.

Addressing heroin overdose and drug abuse complications

 

 

 

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Heroin addiction factors associated with depression

August 26, 2016
Heroin addiction factors

Heroin addiction factors associated with depression includes all the factors increasing addiction risk on drug users.

Heroin addiction factors associated with depression: Heroin abuse

Uncovering the causes of depression is one of the most challenging aspects of recovery for heroin users. Depression is much more than a low mood. It is a incapacitating mental illness that can lead to isolation, job loss, broken relationships, poor physical health and an increased risk of suicide. Depression can arise from a number of sources, including:

  • Genetic factors
  • Imbalances in brain chemistry
  • A stressful social environment
  • Psychological trauma
  • Physical disability
  • Drug or alcohol abuse

Treating a Dual Diagnosis of heroin addiction and depression is especially difficult if the individual is still under the influence of the drug. Many of the symptoms of opiate addiction fatigue, self-isolation, poor concentration and weight loss can resemble the symptoms of major depressive disorder.

According to a study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence followed 615 heroin users in various stages of treatment or non-treatment. In the study it was established that a quarter of the subjects were currently experiencing a major depressive episode. While about twenty-six percent of the individuals in treatment had a lifetime history of depression and 16 percent of those who weren’t in treatment had been depressed. In the treatment group, a significant number of clients were also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Others were living with a life-altering physical disability. In many of these cases, heroin was used as a maladaptive way to numb physical or psychological pain.

In long-term heroin users, it can be nearly impossible to determine whether depression led to addiction or the other way round. A comprehensive treatment plan must give equal attention to both conditions.

Heroin addiction factors associated with depression: Depression and heroin withdrawals

In the journey to recovery among many addicts, relapse is often very common among many heroin users who try to quit this highly addictive drug. The unpleasant side effects of heroin withdrawal can drive even the most determined individuals back to the drug. Heroin withdrawal usually isn’t life-threatening, however, heavy users may have dangerous seizures if they try to quit without medical supervision.

Finally physical symptoms of heroin withdrawal can feel like a severe case of the flu, but for many users, the psychological side effects are even harder to tolerate. In the first few days, weeks or even months after quitting heroin, users may feel extremely depressed. Once the brain comes to rely on the euphoric rush of a heroin high, the pleasures of everyday life may seem meaningless in comparison. A condition called anhedonia, or lack of pleasure, often develops in recovering heroin addicts. One of the primary goals of treatment is to help the addict find peace, hope and joy in a drug-free life.

Heroin addiction factors associated with depression: Heroin abuse

 

 

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