Statistics

SAMSHA claimed that patients who undergo detoxification as part of their addiction treatment will not readily relapse compared to their counterparts who did not go through detox. In addition, it will take 40% longer for patients who completed a comprehensive 30-day detox to relapse. This is a significant rate that shows detox success. However, detox itself will not cure addiction. The 2006 SAMSHA study proved that 25% of patients who went through detox are readmitted within the same year for substance abuse detox. But, patients who underwent detox as part f their substance abuse treatment program have an increased probability of recovery. The study also stressed the importance of attending an immediate addiction treatment program right after detoxification to avoid relapse.

Detox mechanism
It is important to note that substance abuse has deleterious effects on a person’s brain and body. When a person tries to withdraw from using addictive substances the period of withdrawal ensues. Such period is described by painful and sometimes life-threatening symptoms. In order for a person to safely get out of substance abuse, detoxification is necessary. Consequently, a good treatment program for drug addiction starts with a comprehensive detox which aims to achieve medical stability.

Detox success is attained through the following means:

• Gradual reduction of drug or alcohol dose
• Substitution of a similar or alternative drug with lesser side-effects

Although some individuals may not need medical supervision during the detoxification period, it is vital to undergo detox in a specialized facility to ensure the patient’s safety. Generally, the detox process requires the following medical assistance:

Monitoring of vital signs: Detox is a crucial procedure that aims to expel the chemicals from your system. During detox, you cannot take addictive drugs. This implies the fact that your body will feel symptoms associated with your withdrawal from addictive substances. Some signs of withdrawal may include changes in vital signs which can be indicative of a life-threatening condition. Examples of vital sign changes that require prompt medical attention include the following:

• Temperature: Hot flashes, mild fever and hypothermia (decreased body temperature)
• Pulse: Increased/decreased pulse rate
• Respiration: Rapid breathing (hyperventilation) or decreased breathing (hypoventilation)>

Blood pressure: Hypertension or hypotension may indicate a serious medical condition that requires quick medical intervention.
Emotional support: There are counselors and therapists available to help the patients discuss their fears and worries with regards to the detox procedure and the ordeals of addiction treatment. Presence of loved ones especially family members of close friends are also helpful in motivating the patient to carry on with the treatment.

Medications: If it is necessary, medications shall be administered by the qualified medical personnel assigned to you.

Visit the nearest Los Angeles detox center to know more about detox success statistics and the suitable detox and addiction treatment for you or your loved one.

References:
http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/0611162305.aspx
http://www.samhsa.gov/newsroom/advisories/0611162305.aspx ]]> http://www.sobamalibu.com/2013/01/20/detox-the-first-step-in-addiction-treatment/feed/ 0 http://www.sobamalibu.com/2012/12/06/relapse-prevention/ http://www.sobamalibu.com/2012/12/06/relapse-prevention/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 08:02:42 +0000 sobarecovery http://www.sobamalibu.com/?p=1310 View Article]]> When you finally decided to get ahead of your life and quit drugs or alcohol, you took your initial step towards recovery. However, you may have thought that all your anticipated problems will go away when you enter a rehab, only to find out that a bunch of them are still there. You can have mixed feelings about changing your old circle of friends, and you can also feel doubtful about your commitment to stay sober. However, it is important to bear in mind that recovery is a major life decision that takes time. It involves relapse prevention planning so that you can keep your goals. This article shall discuss about relapse and the importance of aftercare and sober living after drug rehab.
What is relapse?

Relapse occurs when you slip back to old patterns of behavior or habits. It does not necessarily mean that you have to take drugs or drink again after quitting for a while. Relapse may begin when you think that you can control drug or alcohol use and you take a chance to use it again. Some relapse triggers may also include the following:

• Poor stress management of problems related to work, school or family situations. When crisis or stresses build up, some people go back to alcohol and drug use.
• Failing to address your legal, medical or financial problems. You must not only solve the problems, but you also have to deal with your stress.
• You give in to your alcohol and drug cravings.
• You no longer stick to your recovery plan. You may have missed several AA meetings or meeting with your support groups.
• When stressed, you immediately think of drinking or using drugs again to cope up with it. You no longer want to deal with your loneliness, boredom and other negative emotions using the life skills you learned in the rehab or sober living facility.

What is relapse prevention?

Detox and treatment programs may not be enough to establish complete and continuing recovery. You need to learn a new lifestyle, through relapse prevention planning. In a nutshell, you need a guide to your new life without drugs or alcohol. Achieving sobriety is only a baby step towards full recovery. You need to grow as a person and you can only achieve this through a personal evaluation of you entire life and a development of a long-term plan for your total recovery. After rehab, relapse prevention plan aimed to achieving long-term changes shall follow.

A good aftercare program and sober living facility shall help you learn skills that will allow you to stick to your relapse prevention plan. Planning revolves around there major components:

People involved in your recovery: Your sponsor, counselor, family and friends. Family members and friends who also attend AA meetings or family therapy learn how to help the addict stay sober.

Life skills and effective stress management techniques: It is important to know what triggers your relapse and how you can handle them. You will learn techniques on how to reduce your daily stress.

Know when to ask for help: Once you need help because you’re beginning to stay off track again you need to seek for it.

How oxycontin affects your health depends on dosage, drug administration, and existing medical conditions. The following are the effects of Oxycontin on major body systems:

Nervous system

The common side effects of Oxycontin to the CNS include:

• Drowsiness
• Sedation
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Dry mouth

For patients with Addison’s disease

Doctors exercise caution in prescribing Oxycontin to individuals with Adrenal insufficiency because administration of this drug can cause the following:

Respiratory depression
Increases the possibility of prolonged CNS depression related to opioid use
For patients with brain injury

Mechanical ventilation is required before opiate agonists like Oxycontin can be administered. Otherwise, oxycontin will cause hypoventilation that induces vasodilation and cerebral hypoxia. As a result, the patient may experience the following:

• Increased intracranial pressure
• Alteration in the CNS functions including consciousness, pupil movements and respiration

Gastrointestinal

Some of the usual side effects of Oxycontin on the GI tract include the following:

• Constipation
• Nausea
• Vomiting

For patients with colon cancer and esophageal cancer
Patients may complain of:

• Difficulty in swallowing Oxycontin tablet
• Intestinal obstruction
• Exacerbation of diverticulitis
• For patients with Impaired GI motility

Oxycontin decreases peristalsis and increases the smooth muscle tone in the gastrointestinal tract. As a result, the patient may experience:

Respiratory

Rapid administration or high dosage of oxycontin may cause:

• Apnea
• Anoxia
• Chronic pulmonary insufficiency
• Hypercapnia
• Hypoxia
• Rigidity of respiratory muscles
• Sleep apnea
• Upper airway obstruction

Hepatic

Oxycontin is significantly metabolized by the liver. Its serum concentration may be increased in patients with a liver condition.

Cardiovascular

At a therapeutic dosage, Oxycontin may cause:

• Dizziness
• Hypotension

If administered rapidly or in elevated dosage, it can lead to:

• Cardiac arrest
• Shock
• Vasodilatation

Due to the cholinergic activity of Oxycontin, its increased dosage or rapid administration may produce the following:

• Arrhythmia
• Bradycardia

Renal

Patients with renal impairment may alter the elimination of Oxycontin and its metabolites which may result to the following:

• Drug accumulation
• Greater risk of toxicity

Psychiatric

Some of the withdrawal effects of Oxycontin include:

• Agitation
• Anxiety
• Hallucinations
• Paranoia
• Psychosis
• Restlessness

In spite of Oxycontin’s adverse effects, statistics showed that almost 1 in 20 high school seniors abused OxyContin. NSDUH also estimated that approximately 1.9 million individuals in the country abuse or suffer from chemical dependence on prescription opioids.

For more information on how oxycontin affects your health, contact the nearest addiction specialist in your area.

References:
http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=71915
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0000589/
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/topics-in-brief/prescription-drug-abuse

External triggers of bipolar disorder

The following are the external factors that trigger bipolar disorder:

• Issues at home
• Relationship problems
• Seasonal conditions: Bipolar disorder is influenced by cold weather especially winter
• Serious emotional pressure
• Work-related stress
• Drug addiction. Bipolar disorder is triggered by the use of drugs particularly cocaine, meth and other stimulants.

Problems in bipolar treatment for drug addicts

Bipolar disorder is not easily treated because of the following reasons:

Late detection: A person with bipolar disorder does not readily notice that he or she is suffering from the condition. Bipolar symptoms like hyperactivity and depression are often associated to normal mood swings due to weather conditions, situations at home or work and the like. A person often recognizes that there is a problem when he or she already experiences problems related to the condition.

Denial: Oftentimes, a person with bipolar suffers from denial of illness. This is the characteristic symptom of bipolar disorder and drug addiction. Such denial swings during the course of the condition and makes detection and rehabilitation very difficult due to refusal of treatment.

Misdiagnosis: People suffering from drug addiction may also exhibit signs similar to bipolar disorder. As a result of the similarity of symptoms, the person may be over-diagnosed with bipolar. Therefore, it is crucial for a dual diagnosis treatment center to employ the best staff to ensure proper judgment.

Absence of FDA approved drug to treat drug addiction and bipolar simultaneously: At present, the drug of choice for bipolar patients is lithium. But, recent studies showed that drug abuse decreases the effects of this drug to bipolar patients. Therefore, excellent medical treatment and careful medical management are indispensable in the success of rehabilitation.

The SOBA bipolar rehab way of managing dual diagnosis

We at SOBA bipolar rehab recognize the need for individualized treatment for patients with dual diagnosis. Our team of experts shall organize a wide array of therapies to deal with your addiction issues and bipolar disorder. The specialized team of professionals shall include the medical team which shall take care of your total well-being. The team is composed of the following:

• Addictionologist
• Clinical psychologist
• Marriage and family therapist
• Psychiatrist

Since we are a holistic rehab, we also provide additional therapies to heal your mind, body and spirit with the help of the following individuals:

• Acupuncturist
• Discharge and aftercare planner
• Hypnotherapist
• Nutrition and wellness coach
• Personal trainer

Call us at (866)-547-6451 for immediate help.

To find out where my journey in sobriety all started click the link

http://http://abcnews.go.com/Health/staying-sober-daniel-baldwin/story?id=4543817   

There is no escaping the fact that alcohol or drug addiction can have a destructive impact on a person's life. Families, relationships and careers can all be impacted in the damaging wake of an addiction. That is why seeking professional recovery help is essential for those who are caught up in the throes of a substance abuse problem. However, just because a person has a desire to get clean and sober doesn't always mean they have the financial resources to enroll in rehabilitation care. As you explore the options for treatment for you or your loved one you can also explore the many options for paying for that treatment. Basically, there are three ways to finance a stay at rehab. These are through private insurance, obtaining government assistance or paying from your own savings.

Health Insurance: Many comprehensive health insurance policies cover the cost of rehabilitation treatment. Often you'll find these policies as part of an overall employee benefit package. In other words, you might be covered for rehab and not even know it. On the other hand, if you are buying your own insurance policy you might not include coverage for substance abuse treatment because you may think you'll never need it. While that might be true for many people it is often hard to predict which course our life or the life of our family members might take when it comes to substance abuse. If you currently have a health insurance plan and feel the need to explore rehabilitation care then call your policy representative and find out exactly what your options are. You might also be able to add coverage to your policy to cover these costs.

Government Assistance: Another option for paying for recovery treatment would be to seek out assistance from various government funded programs such as Medicare or Medicaid. It may be intimidating for someone to navigate through the bureaucratic red tape, but there is a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel especially if you can get the help. First, you should contact the treatment center you're thinking about checking into to see if they accept Medicare or Medicaid. If so they can probably provide you with the proper resources to determine if you qualify for that kind of assistance. You may find that a Medicare or Medicaid grant is on your own financial situation. If it is felt that you have assets to pay for the treatment yourself you might not get government assistance.

Paying Cash: A final option is to pay for the treatment out of your own pocket. If you have accumulated savings or the means this is obviously a direct way of getting the help you or your loved one would need. However, that doesn't mean that a particular rehabilitation center won't work with you to make financial arrangements. You might be able to take out a loan to cover the cost of treatment or work out a payment plan with the facility as you would with a college tuition loan. Many rehab facilities understand that we are living in tough economic times and have developed payment options for individuals to help them get the assistance they need.

When you consider the overall devastating financial effects of an addiction problem, putting off treatment today because you can't afford it doesn't make a lot of sense. Help is available and help is out there. You just need to ask for it.

BrainPaint – The next generation in EEG biofeedback

Simple to use, yet sophisticated in scope

BrainPaint is a state-of-the-art neurofeedback system that incorporates a comprehensive assessment tool, which systematically calculates protocol suggestions used to improve and restore activity related to brain function. This assessment tool is revolutionary, turning SOBA Malibu clinicians into top practitioners in a fraction of the time. SOBA therapist and practitioners appreciate the automation – similar to that of computerized chess crunching data to explore the potential of future moves – allowing the focus to be on the human aspects of the session.

The software transfers knowledge and experience from top researchers to SOBA Malibu practitioners. It incorporates Bill Scott’s 15 years of clinical, research and teaching experience fine tuning neurofeedback protocols from the following leaders in the field:

Barry Sterman’s SMR training
Dale Walters’s Alpha-Theta training
Eugene Penniston’s Alpha-Theta training
Susan and Siegfried Othmer’s Beta, SMR and Theta assessment process
Renate Drechsler’s Slow Cortical Potential training

In 2005, Bill Scott, David Kaiser, Siegfried Othmer and Stephen Sideroff conducted a 121 subject randomized control trial using a hybrid of the aforementioned scientists’ protocols. After demonstrating the efficacy of these neurofeedback protocols, the study was published in a peer review journal.

If you or a loved one is suffering from addiction or treatable psychological disorders, please contact our admissions counselors at 866-547-6451 or go to www.sobalmalibu.com

Robert has spent nearly 15 years teaching people from all walks of life the simple secrets that will let them lose fat fast without giving up the foods they love. Because of his effective and innovative approach to blending fitness, nutrition and motivation

– Robert has captured the attention of major television network executives and producers.

Robert’s unique ability to entertain, educate and engage others to eat healthfully is without question a gift. He was recently acknowledged for his approach to helping others embrace diet free living when Aetna featured him in their 2007 African American History Calendar, which addressed obesity. And because of his captivating speaking ability, Robert was also asked to speak at the annual event, which acknowledged those featured in the calendar.

He continues to be a popular lecturer for major corporations, organizations and universities including AETNA, Speaking of Women’s Health, Salem Communications, Universal Studios, Clipper Windpower, Blue Cross/Blue Shield and such colleges as The University of Texas Medical Branch. In 2010, at the request of the Mississippi State Board of Education, Robert presented a keynote lecture at the annual teacher’s conference. This event set the stage for Robert’s campaign to reverse the cause of weight gain by showing people how to eat the foods they love and reduce their waistline instead of adding to it.

Robert has served as national spokesperson and consultant to the world’s largest co-ed health club - Gold’s Gym Corporation (over 600 locations in 40 states and 30 countries) and as a national advisor and program developer to some of the most innovative wellness centers in the country including the California Health and Longevity Institute, the brainchild of health advocate, billionaire and Dole Food Company CEO David Murdoch, which offers innovative wellness solutions to Hollywood stars and the well-heeled executives.

A former professional athlete himself, Robert Ferguson has also built a national reputation as a nutrition, conditioning and weight loss coach for some of the top professional athletes (e.g., Fernando Vargas, Sergio Mora, Samuel Peter, Stevie Forbes, Lucia Rijker, Maureen Shea) in the country who routinely appear on such networks as HBO, Showtime andESPN to name a few. He is also a doctoral candidate in sports psychology, former U. S. Marine and holds certifications in personal training and performance nutrition.

Sherry Gaba, proudly has over thirteen years of experience as a clinician, and a graduate of USC specializing in addictions, eating disorders, parenting, single parenting, divorce, and life coaching.

Would anyone be interested in seeing a final match between Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe?