Tag Archives: Substance abuse

The Human Brain

July 24, 2014

The Human Brain – Human Operation Manager

Brain

The Human brain. Being the nerve center and regulator of all body functions, drugs must not be allowed to get into the brain

Have you ever considered how the brain works, the a mount of information being processed by this organ is huge and what is surprising is how orderly and efficient hey are being processed. Take for example one of the life practical example like driving a car. A lot of multi-tasking will be taking place like you position yourself well on the steering wheel, focused on the road and not sleeping, communicate with your feet, leg, hands and arms, knowing where the brakes are  among very many things like listening to the radio, talking to your passengers. Can you imagine the kind of speed involved in processing such an amount of data all at the same time! While you look at these tasks as simple either because of your driving experience it may not be so if you bring the nerve center in the picture. In fact all these you are able to do them because of the proper functionality of your brain and so how does the brain work all these efficiently and perfectly?

Different Brain Regions Contribute to the Regulation of Different Functions

Taking our example of driving as the bigger task, the brain will break it into smaller units like communicating, hearing, seeing etc. for them to be processed. A section of the brain will analyze movement of objects we see, the other part will be organizing the tasks in other words each part of the brain carry out specific task meaning that whenever a given task is to be done the right information is processed by that specific part of the brain. The other aspect of the brain is that in the event that a section of the brain is damaged then all the functions done by that section will not be done and that is why in an accident if the occipital lobe at the back of the brain is damaged then blindness occurs but other unaffected areas like seeing and movement continues to function normally because the job of seeing is highly compartmentalized, individuals who have lost one aspect of sight like the ability to see colors or to recognize faces, may still be able to do other visual tasks can you imagine being able to recognize people by hearing their voices but not being able to recognize them by their faces when you see them?

The advantage of this localization of function is when larger jobs are parceled out throughout the brain they all can be done at once. This decentralization of labor adds great speed to our ability to understand what is happening in the world around us, to analyze it, and then to generate appropriate responses. Dealing with information in this way is called parallel processing and it has been used by the computer scientists in the development of computers.

The human brain consists of several large regions, each of which is responsible for some of the activities necessary for life. These include the brainstem, cerebellum, limbic system, diencephalon, and cerebral cortex.

The brainstem is that part of the brain which connects the brain and spinal cord. This part of the brain is involved in coordinating many basic functions such as heart rate, breathing, eating, and sleeping.

The cerebellum coordinates the brain’s instructions for skilled repetitive movements and for keeping balance and posture.

The limbic system is involved in regulating emotions, motivations, and movement. It includes the amygdala and hippocampus, which is important for memory formation.

The diencephalon contains the thalamus and hypothalamus. The thalamus is involved in sensory perception and regulating movement. The hypothalamus is an important regulator of the pituitary gland, which directs the release of hormones throughout the body.

The cerebral cortex makes up the largest part of the brain mass and lies over and around most of the other brain structures. It is the part of the brain accountable for thinking, perceiving, and producing and understanding language. The cortex can be divided into areas that are involved in vision, hearing, touch, movement, smell, and thinking and reasoning.

Drugs on the Reward System in the Brain

The same ways specific areas of the brain control seeing and hearing, specific brain areas also control emotions, motivations, and movement. These functions are carried out by a part of the brain called the limbic system. The limbic system prevails on how we react to the world around us. Imagine a cool sunny day. You finish your work early and head to your favorite park for a leisurely walk with your dog. You are feeling so mellow that when the dog slobbers on your clean shirt, you merely scratch him behind the ears. Nonetheless on another day you have a completely different experience when you have to work late, traffic is up, and the dog runs away instead of coming to welcome you home. This time when the dog slobbers on you (after he finds his way home again) you shove him away and scold him.

The feelings you have in those two different situations are a result of your limbic system at work. The limbic system uses memories, information about how your body is working, and current sensory input to generate your emotional responses to current situations.

The limbic system is involved in many of our emotions and motivations, particularly those related to survival, such as fear and anger. The system is also involved in pleasurable activities necessary for survival, such as eating and sex. If something is pleasurable, or rewarding, you want to do it repeatedly. Pleasurable activities engage the reward circuit (or system), so the brain notes that something important is happening that needs to be remembered and repeated. The reward system includes several interconnected structures the ventral tegmental area (VTA), located at the top of the brain stem; the nucleus accumbens; and the prefrontal cortex). Neurons from the VTA relay messages to the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex. Information is also relayed back from the cortex to the nucleus accumbens and the VTA.

Most drugs of abuse activate the same VTA and nucleus accumbens neurons and that is why drugs produce pleasurable feelings to the drug user. And, because the feelings are pleasurable, the user wants to continue to experience the pleasure which they felt during previous drug use.

One of the reasons that drugs of abuse can exert such powerful control over our behavior is that they act directly on the more evolutionarily primitive brainstem and limbic structures, which can override the cortex in controlling our behavior.

The Human Brain – Human Operation Manager

 

 

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Positive psychology in addiction treatment

July 24, 2014

Positive psychology in addiction treatment – Drug Addiction

Addiction

Positive psychology in addiction treatment. It is much healthier to treat addiction when there is common understanding of the problem at hand.

Everyone would want to be given hope that their life situation is not permanent and there is light at the end of the tunnel. When professionals are administering treatment they often give their patients words of hope and keep it that way even when they are convinced that chances of living the hospital bed is diminishing every passing second after all the patients only visited the facility to get better and being hopeful is very necessary in treatment of any kind of health condition. However there are instances when this has not been the practice in some quarters like in addiction related problems we know for sure that there is high possibilities of relapsing during and after recovery a process that may occur repeatedly and can be very discouraging. When one relapses consistently such a person needs to be encouraged to soldier on and be given hope that this is normal and will be defeated with time. To do this it will be important that we cultivate the positive psychology in both the addict and the health care provider.

Positive psychology in addiction treatment – Definition

Therefore let us understand what positive Psychology is all about. First this is a new initiative in the arena of psychological research and intervention defined as the scientific study of the strong points and virtues that enable individuals and communities to flourish. The initiative is founded on the understanding that people want to lead meaningful and fulfilling lives, to promote what is best within them and to improve their experiences of love, work, and play.

In effective addiction treatment, positive psychological approaches play an important role in achieving long-term addiction recovery goals. Usually addicts are told that:

  • They have a disease which they will have to manage for the rest of their lives.
  • To expect relapse and that from a statistical perspective, most will die from their illness.

This is extremely demoralizing prognosis to provide to someone who has presented a problem to you for help. This is not the way to go and a positive psychologist would rearrange the conversation and the situation by instilling hopeful suggestions that addiction is a behavioral disorder and even the most rooted behaviors can be changed with proper treatment and change of life style among other applicable factors. While not denying the negative statistics surrounding addiction recovery, reframing of the opportunity to recover into something achievable is empowering and motivating giving hope to many who may be suffering from substance abuse.

Positive psychology in addiction treatment – Self-discovery

Positive psychology is a continuous process and is boundary less so long as the patients still need help. Therefore after giving these quality encouragement to the addict patient by suggesting that recovery is possible not just for a select few, the positive psychologist will then begins to work with the addict to re-evaluate life and initiate a process of self-discovery where the addicted patient get to know the kind of activities and relationships of great importance to and for them.

Like I said before with this positive psychology there are no limits. For instance example, consider a physically challenged person on a wheelchair all his or her life being pushed to your office for advice in life telling you that what they want to do is to be serving seals, what would you tell them? Many may condemn then because they cannot walk and so may not be productive in an assignment. This is the wrong way of handling people by doing this you will for sure achieve great injury and demoralization to this people, instead you may instill hope in them by suggesting  and encouraging them to look into what it would take for them to save seals. You may inspire them that since they are not able to walk and be physically active what about if they be involved through the internet in those types of activities and raise funds to support the work! Being visionary is the kind of process being applied to the people suffering from addiction to help them a world and life beyond substances they abuse and to give them achievable goals to work towards with the sole objective helping them keep to their recovery.

Meaningful recovery is achieved when the pain of the past is worked through and goals for the future are set and worked toward. Part of the problem of addiction generally may include: An inability to envision a different future, future in which happiness, good work, and strong relationships are the fabric of daily life. With the application of positive psychology, the therapists are able to inspire and help addicts plan for and believe that they can attain the kind of future of which they previously could not even dream. This is the spirit that is transformative and realistic. If you have been with me on this link you may have read from our previous articles putting emphasis to every one of the duty of care owed to one another, this is an endless commitment that you and I should embrace for the good of our well-being. In attempting to achieve this doctor Akoury a known addiction professional of several decades founded AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center where total care and treatment is administered to all in need while focusing on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE this is ware to be for all kinds of addiction related problems.

Positive psychology in addiction treatment – Drug Addiction

 

 

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Fear And Denial In Addiction Hinders Recovery

July 22, 2014

FEAR AND DENIAL IN ADDICTION RECOVERY

What is fear?

Fear is a state of a distressing emotion which is aroused by impending pain or perception of danger. The causes of this fear may be real or imaginary. Normally, when someone has fear he or she may go into a panic mode. Fear in most cases, is viewed as negative but in some cases it can be beneficial.

Fear and addiction

When people who are addicted have fear, they may remain trapped in addiction. The problem here may be caused by the perception that such people will have, for instance one may fear to leave drugs taking due to the fear of withdrawal effects. It is also likely that some people will fear to seek assistance on how they can recover from drug addiction of fear that they will be known as addicts of the drug. The people who have fear may imagine life without drugs is miserable and hence fear leaving the drugs.

fear and denial

Which are the common fear areas in the recovery?

The following are the common fear areas for people in the recovery process:-

  • The person may have fear that life will never be the same again- This in most cases refers to the early days of the recovery period when the person will have to withdraw from the drugs. The person may fear that life won’t be easy without taking the drug. This may make the person fail to commit to the recovery process.
  • The fear of failure – the process of recovery is always challenging. It will involve difficult times and one may find him/herself in relapse. The issue is not falling but do you accept to learn from your failure and build on it and target success? Many addicts will fear to fail. This makes even to try the recovery to give up in the process. This leads to relapse. It is advisable that you should not fear to fail, since it is through failing we learn how to succeed.
  • Fear to success – this is the flipside of fear to fail. This may not be a common scenario, but some people have a feeling that they don’t deserve success. This will hinder them from making efforts in the recovery process. The process of recovery requires is normally demanding and challenging. It therefore requires a lot of determination for one to succeed. If you have fear to success, definitely you cannot show determination.
  • Fear of rejection – some people fear to disclose that they are addicted with a given drug. The fear is that they may be judged by others or abandoned. This makes them not to admit that they have drug problem or reach out the others for support. With this fear, there can be no recovery. To overcome this problem you need to push yourself to work out a recovery program even when you don’t want. Try also to attend sober gatherings since they will help you in building confidence in your recovery program.
  • The fear that you may lose identity – many people fear that if they disclose they are addicts they may lose their identity by being seen as failures or outcasts. This actually should not be the case. You should not fear what people may say, since the important thing is not who you used to be but who you will be today and tomorrow. Actually the identity that you should be thinking about is who you used to be before you started taking the drugs and therefore try to regain the status.

fear and denial

  • The fear of lasting misery – the main fear that people have here is the fear of, “suppose I go through all this hard work and remain miserable?” here the patient needs to remain positive to the recovery process and not fear the possibility of misery not going.
  • The fear of sobriety – the patient becomes worried about the change in life from misery to sobriety. The person fears how the new life will look like, since getting sober means replacing mechanism e.g. drugs and alcohol with new ones. The person asks the questions like; will the sober life be boring? Will all the hard work that I will do be worthy it?

The person should be ready to face the challenges if any, even though there will be challenges. Challenges are part of life. If you stay stuck in this fear, you will remain in addiction.

DENIAL AND ADDICTION

What is denial?

Denial refers to the refusal of a person to admit the truth or reality.

How is denial related to addiction?

Denial and addiction could be said to be brothers since they move hand in hand. If a person doesn’t believe that substance abuse is a problem, there will be no likelihood of behavior change. This will be the case even if the destructive nature of the substance is obvious to everyone. Such people will not be able to quite the substance taking, and if they do it will be to please the other people it cannot last for long. For anybody to be able to succeed in the process of recovery, he/she must try first to do away with denial and learn to accept the facts about addiction.

FEAR AND DENIAL IN ADDICTION RECOVERY

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Minors and College Drinking

July 21, 2014

Minors and College Drinking – Drug Addiction

Addiction

We have a duty to protect our young people from living wasteful life in alcohol and drug addiction by pooling together for a better society.

By now if you have been with us on this link you must be aware that alcohol is widely available and aggressively marketed throughout society across the globe.  It is the most frequently used and abused drug among youth in the United States and the world over compared to tobacco and other illicit drugs and although drinking by persons under the age of 21 is illegal, people as young as aged 12 to 20 consume about 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States for example. The available statistics is worrying notwithstanding the consequences of early use of alcohol. We are experiencing lots of problems with minors drinking and records indicate that about 5000 young people below age 21 die as a result of underage drinking including some 1600 homicides, 1900 from motor vehicle accidents and other like suicide, burns and many others.

According to NCADD (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence) an estimated 600000 college students are accidentally injured while under the influence of alcohol, 700000 are assaulted by their drunk colleagues and a further 100000 students are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault and date rape. Yet over 11,000 teens in the United States try using alcohol for the first time every day and more than four million drink alcohols in any given month. When I said that the statistic is worrying I believe you now understand the magnitude.

Minors and College Drinking – Why do young people drink alcohol

Parents are a worried lot if these statistics are anything to go by. The question I beg you to answer is “is your child enclosed in the bracket of these finding?” like their seniors young people also drink for various reasons however it is very difficult comprehending the feelings behind their reasons. For instance:

  • Some young people often drink to forget about the family problems or issues with school performance.
  • Loneliness, low self–esteem, depression, anxiety disorder and other mental health issues lead many young people to drink alcohol
  • Young people turn to alcohol to deal with the pressures of everyday social situations
  • Young people may drink for a sense of belonging or to fit in when moving to a new school or town
  • Young people may drink to gain confidence or lose inhibitions
  • Young people are more likely to start experimenting with alcohol if they have parents who drink and if they do not get parental guidance about alcohol consumption.

Minors and College Drinking – What are the Risks

Irrespective of how they get into drinking the risks are dare once they start drinking they will be subjected to various health and safety risk like:

  • Young people who drink are more likely to be sexually active and to have unsafe, unprotected sex.
  • They are more likely to be involved in a fight, commit violent crimes, fail at school, use other drugs, and experience verbal, physical, or sexual violence.
  • Those who start drinking before age 15 are five times more likely to develop alcoholism later in life than those who begin drinking at age 21

Minors and College Drinking – Preventing Underage Drinking

This is very dynamic and requires a comprehensive and collective approach by all stakeholders. Currently there are three basic approaches which have been applied and are yielding positive results in prevention of the problem:

  • Controlling the availability of alcohol;
  • Consistent enforcement of existing laws and regulations; and
  • Changing norms and behaviors through education.

The enforcement of these three is working well in attempting to bring this problem into manageable levels.

Minors and College Drinking – Alcohol Poisoning

Many people die each year from acute alcohol intoxication known as alcohol poisoning or alcohol overdose with other thousands of others are being admitted to emergency rooms in various health facilities. Alcohol poisoning is becoming rampant in high schools and on college campuses. These are all explained by young people drinking too much and too fast.

Minors and College Drinking – Alcohol poisoning is a medical emergency

Alcohol is a depressant drug, once ingested it works to slow down some of the body’s functions like heart rate, blood pressure and breathing.  When the vital centers have been depressed enough by alcohol, unconsciousness occurs. The amount of alcohol that it takes to produce unconsciousness is precariously close to a lethal dose.  People who endure alcohol poisoning sometimes suffer irreversible brain damage.

Many students are surprised to learn that death can occur from acute intoxication. Most think the worst that can happen is they’ll pass out and have a hang-over the next day therefore knowing the signs and symptoms of acute alcohol intoxication and the proper action to take can help you avoid a tragedy.

 Minors and College Drinking – Signs and Symptoms of Alcohol Poisoning

  • Unconsciousness or semi-consciousness
  • Slow respirations (breaths) of eight or less per minute, or lapses between respirations of more than eight seconds.
  • Cold, clammy, pale, or bluish skin.
  • In the event of alcohol poisoning, these signs and symptoms will most likely be accompanied by a strong odor of alcohol.
  • While these are obvious signs of alcohol poisoning, the list is certainly not all inclusive.

In an attempt to bringing alcohol and drug addiction Dr. Dalal Akoury founded AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a facility in which she administer addiction treatment by offering exclusive NER Recovery Treatment to addicts the world over. Doctor Akoury is an expert who has been in this addiction discipline for two decades now and together with her team of experts they are also offering addiction treatment to other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. This is the place of choice for anyone suffering from addiction of any kind therefore any qualified professional can now be a part of this truly successful and fast addiction recovery treatment.

Minors and College Drinking – Drug Addiction

 

 

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Guidlines for Prevention of Substance Use

July 21, 2014

Guidelines for Prevention of Substance Use – Drug Addiction

Alcohol

Giving goo guidelines to your children on matters relating to substance abuse and drugs go along way in shaping their future.

When one has grown to the age where they can on their own will chose to indulge in substance abuse then we can comfortably say that such individuals are able to make positive decisions of stopping the indulgence. Often young people are faced with a number of challenges in life but of all these challenges much as they have some effects on you they can never be any ware close to the effects of experience when one uses alcohol or drugs. The decision you take about alcohol and drugs will influence your health, school performance, your job, career or your relationship and freedom. The effects of alcohol and drug abuse are fatal and life threatening. Because of the seriousness consequences it is important to know that as an individual young or old you first ore yourself the duty of care to be responsible for your own well-being and then to others around you.  When discussing the guidelines for substance abuse prevention and especially in our young ones we must take note of these two very important factors:

  • At what age do you first use alcohol and drugs?
  • Family history of alcoholism and drug addiction.

Guidelines for Prevention of Substance Use – Age of First Use of Alcohol and Drugs

Indulgence in alcohol consumption and drugs use at attender age when the brain is still developing and has not fully matured will definitely increase your risk of being an addict in the future for alcoholism and drugs. When you begin using drugs or consuming alcohol early say 15 years of age, because of the state of your brain at this time you will be more likely increase your risk to develop alcohol abuse or dependence compared to those making their first taste of the same at the age of 21 or more. This theory has been confirmed by several researches done of late.

Guidelines for Prevention of Substance Use – Family History of Alcoholism or Drug Addiction

Normally the choices individuals make to use alcohol or drugs are often influenced by their surroundings, peer, family and the availability of the drug in question. The moment an individual begins using these substances whether they are illicit or not their risk of developing alcoholism and drug dependence is largely influenced by genetics. It is necessary to note that alcoholism and drug dependence are not moral issues and therefore they are not based on choices or lack of willpower. Plain and simple, some people’s bodies respond to the effects of alcohol and drugs differently.  If you have a family history of alcoholism or addiction, you are four times more likely to develop a problem. 

Therefore as young people it is only necessary that you take measures to protect yourself and reduce the risk of alcohol and drug abuse. The following are some of the guidelines you may use:

Be confidence to Say No – don’t just do thing because the majority is doing it. Chose only to do what is right regardless of what your friend may be encouraging you to do. Be principled and stand with your decision even if you are the only one. If someone is pressuring you to do something that’s not right for you, you have the right to say no, the right not to give a reason why, and the right to just walk away.

Associate with Your Friends but Avoid Negative Peer Pressure – choose your friend very carefully avoiding those that are likely to be of bad influence like the company of smokers and alcohol abusers. It is said that birds of the same feathers flock together. Associate with people whom even if you were to mimic their behaviors there will be no harm or risk of being addicted to drugs.

Make Connections With Your Parents or Other Adults – as you grow up, having people you can rely on, people you can talk to about life, life’s challenges and your decisions about alcohol and drugs is very important. The opportunity to benefit from someone else’s life experiences can help put things in perspective and can be invaluable.

Enjoy Life and Do What You Love but Don’t Add Alcohol and Drugs – Learn how to enjoy the satisfactions of life and the people in your life, without compromising on alcohol or drugs.  Alcohol and drugs can damage who you are, limit your potential and complicate your life.  Whenever you are bored get out and engage in an active in school and community activities such as music, sports, arts or a part-time job.

Follow the Family Rules about Alcohol and Drugs – as you grow up and want to assume more control over your life, having the trust and respect of your parents is very important.  Don’t let alcohol and drugs come between you and your parents. Talking with mom and dad about alcohol and drugs can be very helpful.

Get Educated about Alcohol and Drugs – you cannot rely on the myths and misunderstandings that are out there floating around among your friends and on the internet. Your ability to make the right decisions includes being educated.

Be a Role Model and Set a Positive Example – Don’t forget actions speaks louder than words and your actions will be setting the foundation and direction for your life and where are you heading to.

Plan Ahead – as you make plans for the party or going out with friends you need to plan ahead. You need to protect yourself and be smart. Don’t become a victim of someone else’s alcohol or drug use.  Make sure that there is someone you can call, day or night, no matter what, if you need them and do the same for your friends remember we are pooling together.

Speak Out, Speak Up, Take Control – take responsibility for your life, your health and your safety. Speak freely about what alcohol and drugs are doing to your friends, your community and encourage others to do the same.

Get Help – if you or someone you know is in trouble with alcohol or drugs, look for AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury who is an addiction professional of many decades and together with her team of experts she will help you bet better in many natural ways but still focus on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE and remember you are not alone.

Guidelines for Prevention of Substance Use – Drug Addiction

 

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