Addiction and Rehabilitation

What keeps the parents from getting their acts cleaned up?

futureshock wrote:

What keeps the parents from getting their acts cleaned up?

I know I say this a lot but there are lots of reasons why.

1.How deep their addiction is.
2. How long they have had the addiction(s)
3. What they are addicted to
4. Job skills outside of that.
5. Do they even have a job.
6. How they feel about themselves.

And thats just what I can think about off the top of my head. Its easy for anyone not in the situation to not understand how someone can not just get clean when faced with this situation. But if you have never been there it may seem easy or a no brainer. But for someone in the grip of addiction its not always so easy just to clean up. And unless the system pays its hard to get counseling (personal), drug addiction counseling, in house help if addiction is strong, coming to terms of why you are in the situation etc. And if you already have little money these things can be near impossible for one to get unless the system pays for it.

Another thing is denial. This comes into play when one does not see the problem they have. Here is an example. My sister's boyfriend kept saying "I need my daughter back she is the only thing that keeps me from smoking dope". Now everyone at the table knew this was not true. If it was true none of us would have been there. But he held fast to that statement. So denial is a big element.

RebelCats wrote:

futureshock wrote:

What keeps the parents from getting their acts cleaned up?

I know I say this a lot but there are lots of reasons why.

1.How deep their addiction is.
2. How long they have had the addiction(s)
3. What they are addicted to
4. Job skills outside of that.
5. Do they even have a job.
6. How they feel about themselves.

And thats just what I can think about off the top of my head. Its easy for anyone not in the situation to not understand how someone can not just get clean when faced with this situation. But if you have never been there it may seem easy or a no brainer. But for someone in the grip of addiction its not always so easy just to clean up. And unless the system pays its hard to get counseling (personal), drug addiction counseling, in house help if addiction is strong, coming to terms of why you are in the situation etc. And if you already have little money these things can be near impossible for one to get unless the system pays for it.

Another thing is denial. This comes into play when one does not see the problem they have. Here is an example. My sister's boyfriend kept saying "I need my daughter back she is the only thing that keeps me from smoking dope". Now everyone at the table knew this was not true. If it was true none of us would have been there. But he held fast to that statement. So denial is a big element.

My brother inlaw does this also. Although it is drinking, not dope. His issue is that he likes to SAY what he believes everyone wants to HEAR so they'll get off his back. But the hoops he'd have to jump through to see his kids (at their mother's home, not foster care, although the reasons he can't see them are similar) are huge. He knows he won't and/or cannot come up with the lawyer's fees and all the court costs, etc and he is then allowed to drink because he doesn't have his kids there to prevent it.

Does this make sense how I wrote it? He says he wants them, he claims their are his rock. When in reality they are just another in a long line of drinking excuses.

It is my belief that drug addicts/alcoholics are selfish and are unable to see outside of themselves.

I think that in some individuals, their addiction causes permanent changes in their brain chemistry, making it impossible for them to remain sober. The answer to cases like these lies in prescription medication.

There has to be a way to make a medication that eases the symptoms brought on by these changes in brain chemistry.

the answer is to tahe them off a drug, to put them on a drug?
what you said is pretty much true about drug or alcoholic addicts, because you sometimes see this when they get out of Rehab, they hop right back into the kind of lifestyle they were living before[relapse]
But to put them on another srug, even if its a prescription medication, mostly used for depressions, anxiety, sleeping pills, i dont think in the situation with a person addicted to a drug, they would give them another drug to take. because thats still a drug addict if you think about it. and it really does not help, sometimes it makes things worse, or they get addicted to that prescribed medication.
People have to want to get clean themselves, not by taking another drug, they have to want it, and want treatment like rehab, thats the best way for someone to get clean i think.

krystineM wrote:

the answer is to tahe them off a drug, to put them on a drug?
what you said is pretty much true about drug or alcoholic addicts, because you sometimes see this when they get out of Rehab, they hop right back into the kind of lifestyle they were living before[relapse]
But to put them on another srug, even if its a prescription medication, mostly used for depressions, anxiety, sleeping pills, i dont think in the situation with a person addicted to a drug, they would give them another drug to take. because thats still a drug addict if you think about it. and it really does not help, sometimes it makes things worse, or they get addicted to that prescribed medication.
People have to want to get clean themselves, not by taking another drug, they have to want it, and want treatment like rehab, thats the best way for someone to get clean i think.

If I had said, let's take someone off of heroin by using crack, then you would have a point. But I didn't. Obviously rehab isn't working for many, many people, so another idea is needed. What's yours?

its not putting them on ANOTHER drug, despite whatever drug they were doing.
a drug is clearly not the answer for these kinds of people.
Im not sure what the other idea is to help these people, but i dont think the answer lies in another drug.
More rehab is probably the sollution because they are still unstable, otherwise they would not get back into the same path, but another drug isnt. its not a logical explaination, source or idea to me.

krystineM wrote:

its not putting them on ANOTHER drug, despite whatever drug they were doing.

You already said that.

Quote :

a drug is clearly not the answer for these kinds of people.

You already said that.

Quote :

Im not sure what the other idea is to help these people, but i dont think the answer lies in another drug.

You already said that.

Quote :

More rehab is probably the sollution because they are still unstable, otherwise they would not get back into the same path, but another drug isnt. its not a logical explaination, source or idea to me.

You already said that.

Why do you think people relapse after rehab?

krystineM wrote:

its not putting them on ANOTHER drug, despite whatever drug they were doing.
a drug is clearly not the answer for these kinds of people.
Im not sure what the other idea is to help these people, but i dont think the answer lies in another drug.
More rehab is probably the sollution because they are still unstable, otherwise they would not get back into the same path, but another drug isnt. its not a logical explaination, source or idea to me.

Rehab doesn't always work if the brain chemistry itself has changed. In fact, rehab doesn't always work whether or not the brain chemistry has changed.

because they didnt want the help, are not strong enough to stay clean, or are too addicted.

Methadone is a medication prescribed for the treatment of methamphetamine addiction. Antabuse is a medication used to treat alcoholism.

Methadone relieves the symptoms of withdrawal from opiates, which is one of the reasons addicts keep using.
Disulfiram, or antabuse, makes alcohol consumption intolerable. It is also being studied for efficacy in treating cocaine dependent individuals.

So sometimes, drugs prescribed for dependency can be an okay thing.

Rehab requires many changes. Some people are unable or unwilling to do these things. One may have to change their friends, job, employment, residence, etc.

Also, rehab is a process-many people cycle in and out of sobriety.

Ha! I just looked at the topic of this: "reasons teens get preg. on purpose" and here I just wrote about disulfiram.

thats intresting, i never thought that someone would prescribe an addict or drug addict another drug to get off of another...it is used to cut down or make it intolerable, but does that not mean they would become addicted to the Methadone now? What happens when they get off it, are they tempted to use again? just curious

People do not become addicted to any drug they use.

krystineM wrote:

thats intresting, i never thought that someone would prescribe an addict or drug addict another drug to get off of another...it is used to cut down or make it intolerable, but does that not mean they would become addicted to the Methadone now? What happens when they get off it, are they tempted to use again? just curious

There is a saying that goes "Once an alcoholic always an alcoholic" What that means is even if one gets sober they are still an alcoholic. Even the tiniest bit of alcohol can trigger the addiction again. Some do not believe this but I do. I am tempted all the time especially when stress levels are high to go back to what I was. Why because for a short time period that stress will be gone. But I fight that temptation and not go there.

The same can be said of drug addictions. The temptation will be there. You just have to be the stronger person to say no. That can be hard if you still hang with the same user friends and what not. When I decided to get clean I moved to a different state to get away from all the old friend's. If I had not done that I would still be using. Or I would have stopped but started again.

thats what i did..well not move to another state, but i moved out of the house i was living in before, away from the area i used to hang out in, away from all the friends i had that used too, and got myself clean with help from my fiance.
and like you said, if i didnt do that, i would have probably picked it up again. I dont feel the temptation to do the things i did before, imhappy with where i am and how im doing now.

What is it exactly that you guys crave?

i craved the feeling and the happiness and the total bliss it gave me.
but it was a temporary happiness and not one you achieve on your own.
i would use when i was upset, angry, depressed, for fun, mad for any reason i could think of.
but i knew i needed to stop, that this was not a good or healthy way of living, and i would probably come towards my death sooner than later. I had a near death experience once and i remembered saying, this is going to kill me.
I woke up surrounded by medics on a stretcher at a Rave that i was at and a heart monitor beside me.
Its ashame that that was the wake up call i needed. But it got me to where i am today. And i have not looked back.

I'm glad you are doing so well now, that was a scary experience!

What were you taking that caused that kind of reaction, Krystine?

i had mixed Ecstacy with Ketamine. i had done both seprately but never mixed both, and it reacted really bad for me. which contributed to the overdose and me waking up on a stretcher.

I just read a little about ketamine on Wikipedia. What is the feeling it gives people who take it?

its actually a cat tranquilizer, it gives you like a mind numbing sort of high, and is also a hallucinogen which makes you see things that you would normally not. Ecstacy gives you that...everything is bliss flosting on a cloud high..its hard to explain, if you asked a bunch of people who take Ecstacy they would probably give you a different answer as to how they feel on Ecstacy.
Mix the 2, and it does something weird, some are used to it and like the high, but some get a bad trip as did i.

I can see how that can be extremely dangerous. Did I read correctly that Ketamine was also used to put people to sleep for operations? Getting put under for an operation can sometimes be the most dangerous part of that operation, because being made unconscious on such a deep level like that is pretty close to death. I can see how too much Ketamine could kill a person.

i assume some doctors use it to put you under, but thats a lot less of an amount and your not mixing it with another drug, the way i did. i went into a coma for..i dont know how long but they said my heart had stopped for a minute or 2 mixing the two and i probably could have died. i remember thinking in my head 'this is where im gonna die' before entering the rave. I almost did.

sory about the post sgtspaz made, that was what i was writing i thought i was logged in on my account not his