Methamphetamine Drug Rehabilitation
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CRYSTAL METH |
Methamphetamine, or meth for short, addiction is one of the most prevalent
addictions in America today. Methamphetamine, also called just meth or
crystal, speed, crank, ice, or many other slang terms, is one of the many drugs
that have been marketed as an “aid” to one’s life or a “party
drug” and is touted as not being addictive. This myth has been attached
to other very addicting drugs, with Valium being prescribed by family physicians
for years to unknowing public who later found out that it was more addictive than
heroin. Pushers of meth will equate it to a potent caffeine-type substance
that will cause you to be tired after staying awake for many hours, but is safe
and non-addictive.
Methamphetamine and caffeine are both stimulants but their similarities end
there. All drugs have the potential to be psychologically addictive but meth
has a strong physical addictive component as well. When a person uses
methamphetamine on a regular/daily basis and stops, you find dramatic effects
on the body. It isn’t uncommon for a person to sleep for over 48 hours
or more after being on a “meth” run. The over-stimulated glands,
especially the adrenals, will under-produce until they can re-establish normal
activity again. In the absence of these hormones a person is barely able
to maintain physiological functions and in some cases, emergency medical
attention is advised since the body has been extremely taxed by the
over-stimulation of the drug. When meth is removed, there is a risk
of hypotension, or low blood pressure and other dangerous complication.
One would think that after a “sobering” episode of
withdrawing from a run on meth, a person would never want to use this drug
again, and that would be the case if it weren’t for the emotional and
psychological component of this addiction.
Once a person has recovered from the physiological effects, they find
themselves crashing into a morbid depression where nothing in their lives
feels valuable or worth having such as their families, jobs and their future.
When this feeling is connected to their significant other and children, families
feel as thought they are living with someone they don’t recognize. The
dramatic dehumanization that accompanies this drug’s withdrawals is a major
component in the breakup of many families.
Even “casual” use of this drug has many untoward effects in
one’s thinking and one’s decision-making processes. There are
basically three patterns of meth use: those of low intensity, binge use and
high intensity. Those users that are not psychologically addicted to meth
and are using it on a casual basis by swallowing or snorting the drug are
referred to as low intensity. Those that are psychologically addicted and prefer
to smoke or inject meth to get a faster and stronger high are the binge
and high intensity users.
There are some low-intensity users that swallow or snort the drug and
use it in the same way that many use caffeine or nicotine, but are seeking
stronger stimulation. As stated above, this is a very high-risk practice since
the drug’s effects on lowering the senses, and lowering the amount of data
that one perceives from his environment, leads to poor analytical processes and
one can soon justify larger and larger doses, leading to a chronic addiction.
These categories or low-intensity, binge and high-intensity use are
constructs that have been developed by law enforcement agencies to identify users
within certain ranges of abuse but they have very little use other than
in those circles.
Bluntly stated, any use of methamphetamine is a very high-risk behavior
and in using this drug one is gambling with consequences that no one thinking
rationally would ever consider. Most users do not know the extent of damage
that even “low-intensity” use can cause. In fact, science is far
behind in identifying the effects of this drug on one's thinking and
nervous system. Treatment programs that offer a thorough detoxification process
whereby the methamphetamine is liberated from the dormant fat tissue, can testify
to the profound “before and after” that meth users experience once
the drug is completely removed from their system. Meaning, when the drug is totally
out of the body, every user feels liberated from the suppression they had in their
reasoning and other necessary mental qualities. They will attest to feeling like
they did when they were kids for the first time in years. Because this drug
stimulates adrenalin and excites all systems in the body, the user feels as
though he is becoming more functional, but in reality, this is the delusion
from the euphoric effects of the drug and actually, the senses are being
suppressed.
For this reason alone, if you or someone you love is seeking treatment,
you should only consider biophysical programs that liberate the drug from
your system so that you have all of your abilities and faculties to handle
life without the use of this or other stimulates. Life is hard enough to
master without being hindered by having your sensory data collection clouded
and aberrated.
What keeps this addiction feeding on itself is that the euphoric feelings
that accompany its use tend to make you feel that you are being more functional
than you were in a drug-free existence. For this reason, you find many people
that are addicted to meth believing that they could never live without
the drug. Unfortunately, there are too many doctors that will diagnose these
people with latent ADD-ADHD or bi-polar depression and will give their patients
more justification to continue its use or an alternative with prescription
amphetamines, Ritalin or other legal speed.
The only solution is to get yourself back to a baseline of normal
physiology and thinking so that you can determine for yourself that these
dysfunctional feelings that you now have when off of meth are the consequences
of your drug use and not a indicator that you need some type of stimulant to
function and think normally.
Once the drug is out of your body, the normal metabolism will resume
quickly. However, if you attend a Disease Model program, such as the 12-steps
model, (where they say that addiction is a chronic and progressive disease
and where you do not get the drug out of your fat tissue) you will feel that
you do have a disease that keeps you from normal feelings and functions.
All abused drugs are poison to the body and anyone that has used these
“poisons” for a few months to years is as toxic as they would be
if they had been exposed to a chemical spill. Ironically, many users will become
vegetarians and limit their intake of pesticides by eating organic foods while
they are still consuming drugs. Our drug prevention system has failed to
educate the public on these facts, and instead, many users will defend their
use of drugs as being a necessary part of modern life and a product of good
medical science. Ineffective treatment programs that do not address this
physical component will never be able to restore their graduates to a level
of functioning that they were capable of having before drugs entered their
lives.
In investigating the successful outcomes of treatment with programs
that subscribe to the disease model versus those that use the biophysical
approach, one finds that even stellar disease model program are fortunate
if they get 10% of their graduates living free of drug use for a sustained
period of months and years compared to nearly 90% success rate for
biophysical model programs. One should do whatever possible to seek out those
programs with the highest success rate since living under the idea that one
has a disease is limiting in more ways then just relapsing in one’s
addiction. This disease model of treatment does not enhance self-determinism
and strength but fosters a weaker position that will lead you to being reasonable
with your continued use, under the guise of being overtaken by the disease.
Rather than confront this problem in a logical manner, advocates of the disease
model changed the definition of success to include periodic relapses and
redefined the disease as a “disease of relapse”. In other words,
it is only natural that people with this disease will have to struggle to
stay clean for the rest of their lives. Many times it is compared to the
diabetic that will, from time to time, have blood sugar problems and will
need to stabilize their diets and mediations. Rather than discover the real
basis of addiction and create a rehabilitation program that will undue the
causes, the disease model advocates have never questioned their original
premise but rather continue to describe their failures and make those behaviors
of their struggling graduates, part of the description of the disease.
Choosing a treatment program is one of the most important decisions
you will make in your life. If you go from having the delusion of drug
use to having a deluded idea about its cure, then you have limited your
future dramatically. Educate yourself by good investigation of the
programs that are available. Not that you need to talk to all 11,000 or
so programs in America, but become familiar with the different approaches
and go to a treatment center that has the highest outcomes and makes sense to
you. There are some people that attack successful programs on the Internet
and try to play on your fears of treatment. Don’t be influenced by these
lies.
Addiction treatment is a relatively new field and there are many who
are “addicted” to certain forms of treatment that do not pass
the muster of common sense and can lead you down a road that is not freeing;
instead demanding compulsive adherence to principles that are not based on truth.
Just look at the outcomes and speak to as many graduates and experts as
you needed to ensure that you can make an educated decision. It takes courage
to confront one’s addiction and to imagine living a drug-free life
and believing that you can do well or even better without having something
to help you escape from reality. Don’t be lead astray by advertising
and doing a program that worked for you cousin, do what you know is effective
and have the courage to do whatever it takes to reclaim you life.
CALL 1-866-403-8467 TO TALK TO A COUNSELOR
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