Alcohol Rehab

Rehabilitation (rehab) is the stage of treatment that offers the opportunity to develop positive motivation for recovery; stabilize health status through longer-term withdrawal symptoms, using medications if needed; learn skills for stopping drug and alcohol use and avoiding relapse; gain positive incentives to encourage participation in both treatment and follow-up programs in rehab and earn new ways of dealing with family and friends. Rehabilitation centers may be residential, outpatient, therapeutic communities, long- or short-term, or support groups. Detoxification from many drugs can be accomplished fairly quickly, and with the help of medication, but the psychological dependence is so strong that longer treatment is needed for lasting recovery.


All programs—residential and outpatient—have group and individual counseling. Many now offer medications for addiction and psychiatric problems and  help patients become aware of “Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome” (PAWS) that may disturb patients during the first year or so of recovery. The programs are designed to provide structure in their curriculum, trained and supervised therapists and counselors, individualized treatment planning, and monitoring for any alcohol and drug use during rehab treatment. Treatment programs arrange for continuing and follow-up care after discharge (many state agencies require rehabilitation programs to do this). The more thorough programs offer social services to help gain better employment, deal with pending legal problems, improve parenting and marital relationships, and even obtain drug-free housing.

Virtually all current research shows that a combination of treatments, with pharmaceutical support as necessary and professional counseling plus follow-up connection with support groups, works the best and for the longest time. Remember how the disease is described as “mental, physical, and spiritual”? These all things are dealed at alcohol and drug rehab. The treatments  have to cover all those aspects: physical detox alone, medication alone,  psychotherapy alone, or spiritual energy gained from religious experiences or  support- group fellowships alone aren’t as effective as the interaction of all those ingredients.

Stimulants take many forms. Dexedrine and methamphetamine, also known as crystal, crank, and speed, increase alertness and physical activity and so are called uppers. Heart and breathing rates and blood pressure go up, as does a sense of energy. Pupils dilate and appetite decreases. They have nicknames such as ups, copilots, and bumble bees. Taken orally, injected, snorted, or smoked, stimulants are also often in the form of pills, sometimes prescribed (see Prescription Drugs section below). Uppers can cause sweating, dry mouth, blurred vision, insomnia, loss of appetite, and dizziness. Users can feel restless, anxious, and have a false sense of power. Uppers also cause increased blood pressure and convulsions, and over a longer term they can cause overaggressive behavior, depression, and paranoia.

Methamphetamine is the most commonly abused amphetamine, in part because it is so easy to manufacture that its off-the-shelf ingredients have now been restricted. Called, among other nicknames, speed, white cross, or glass, it is taken orally, injected, snorted, or smoked. Meth has effects similar to any other amphetamine, but usually more intense. The addiction can be more powerful too.  Delusions include “formication,” the feeling that the skin is crawling with bugs.

Cocaine and crack are stimulants that are extremely addictive and produce intense euphoria. A powerfully addictive stimulant, cocaine directly affects the brain, causing quick highs and triggering intense cravings. Since the high these drugs produce is short-lived, users typically use repeatedly. They are often taken to “level off” the effects of downers, and to allow drinkers to consume increased quantities for long periods. One of the oldest known drugs, pure cocaine is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant, the Erythroxylon bush, which grows primarily in Peru and Bolivia. It is powdered and usually mixed with other substances.

Coca leaves have been ingested for thousands of years, and the pure chemical—cocaine hydrochloride—has been an abused substance for more than a century. The hydrochloride salt, or powdered form of cocaine, can be taken intranasally, or through the nose (“snorted”), or when dissolved in water can be injected. On the street it may be diluted with such substances as cornstarch, talcum powder, sugar, or with such active drugs as the anesthetic procaine or stimulants like amphetamines.

Short-term effects include increased heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolism; feelings of exhilaration, energy, increased mental alertness, and increased temperature. Once used widely as medication, it is still used as specialized anesthetic and high-altitude remedy in mountainous countries. Its abuse or continued use produces insomnia, hyperactivity, anxiousness, agitation, and malnutrition. Overdoses can be lethal, often from heart attacks.

Freebase refers to a compound that has not been neutralized by an acid to make the hydrochloride salt. Crack is the street name given to the freebase form of cocaine that has been processed into a smokable substance. The term crack refers to the crackling sound heard when the mixture is smoked. Because crack is smoked, the user experiences an immediate high. This fact and the relatively low cost of the drug made it popular, but addiction is extremely powerful and triggers almost constant use, so long-term costs are high and withdrawal difficult. Smoking crack cocaine can produce a particularly aggressive paranoid behavior in users. In addition, it carries the same risks as any kind of smoking.

The duration of cocaine’s immediate “upper” effects is short, and the faster the absorption, the more intense the high. Snorting it may create a 30-minute high; smoking, a five- or 10-minute one. Long-term effects include rapid or irregular heartbeat, reduced appetite, weight loss, heart failure, chest pain, respiratory failure, nausea, abdominal pain, stroke, seizure, headache, and malnutrition. Because it can severely inhibit the brain’s production of dopamine, long-term cocaine use can cause serious depression.

Marijuana, or cannabis, has been used as a psychoactive substance since prehistoric times, whether smoked, eaten, or used as tea. It is considered a “quasi-psychedelic” because it is not strictly a hallucinogen but provides hallucinatory effects to some users. Because of those cases, it has often been made part of spiritual practices. The main active chemical is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, abbreviated THC, which triggers brain cells to release the chemical dopamine. Marijuana is the dried leaves and flower tops of the cannabis hemp plant, grown throughout the world. “Pot” is a common nickname for marijuana. In fact, there are hundreds of slang terms for marijuana, including ganja, weed, grass, herb, Mary Jane, gangster, and sinsemilla. Hashish is a stronger version of marijuana, made from concentrated resins of the cannabis plant and smoked as cigarettes or in pipes called bongs. While widely used, it is an illegal controlled substance in most parts of the world.

Marijuana makes people feel high because of its effect on dopamine levels, but the drug is characterized more as a hallucinogen because it can create varieties of hallucinations. Marijuana’s effects on the user depend on its strength, related to the amount of THC it contains. The THC content of marijuana has been increasing since the 1970s, so what was once considered a mild substance now has more potentially ill effects. Short-term effects include euphoria, slowed thinking and reaction time, confusion, and impaired balance and coordination. Longer-term effects can include memory and learning problems, distorted perception, and difficulty thinking. Cannabis can cause physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms.

Probably the oldest psychoactive substance around, with evidence of use for at least 10,000 years, starting in the Stone Age, alcohol is also available in the widest variety of forms. A chemical called ethanol is the basis of alcoholic substances, which is made through simple processes of fermenting or distilling sugar-based products.

Strength and flavors depend on the process and the products used. Fermentation, or the chemical breakdown of agricultural products like grains, fruits, and vegetables, produces wine and beer. Distillation—the purification by evaporation and condensation—of those products makes hard liquor. Beer, wine, liquor, coolers, and malt liquor are all forms of alcohol. Even some nonalcoholic products actually contain small percentages of alcohol, such as ice cream. Ethanol is also present in a wide variety of products, including mouthwash, toothpaste, cough syrup, prescription drugs, and many foods.

Taken orally, alcohol is characterized as a depressant, although it may seem to have stimulant or “upper” qualities. Users feel high because the inhibitions and judgment sections of the brain are depressed. Alcohol also seems to stimulate blood flow, causing flushing, because it relaxes the passages of the circulatory system. After an initial high, users often experience depression.

Other short-term effects include dizziness, slurred speech, disturbed sleep, impaired motor skills, nausea, and sometimes violence. High doses can lead to respiratory depression and death. Blackouts frequently occur during drinking episodes—a kind of amnesia during which drinkers may act normal but not be conscious of their behavior. Hangovers—sick feelings following drinking episodes—are common. Over the long term, alcohol ingestion can lead to learning impairments and addiction (alcoholism).

Drugs are categorized according to the effects they have: stimulants, depressants, narcotics, and hallucinogens. Stimulants speed up the activities of the brain, producing feelings of well being and alertness. Depressants slow down activities of the brain, producing a sedating effect. Narcotics alleviate pain and affect the brain’s pleasure-control center, causing feelings of well-being. Hallucinogens cause hallucinations, or distortions in the perception of reality, and produce a sense of detachment from reality. Different as their specific effects are, all substances of abuse share one characteristic in common, in addition to their addictive nature: Almost any drug taken for one effect will end up having the opposite. “It’s like backlash—you use cocaine [a stimulant] to get high and then you get depressed,” as one addict puts it. And as addictive substances, each of those drugs requires increasing amounts to achieve the same result.

According to government statistics, people of all ages suffer the harmful consequences of drug abuse and addiction.

a) Babies born to addicted mothers tend to be premature and underweight and slow to develop.

b) Adolescent drug abusers act out, do poorly academically, and risk violence and disease.

c) Adult addicts have problems thinking clearly, remembering, and performing well socially and on the job.

d) Parents’ drug abuse makes for stress-filled homes and child abuse and neglect, harming the next generation.


It’s estimated that every alcoholic or addict directly affects the lives of at least four other people. The simple arithmetic says that if one parent is an addict, the other parent and the kids are emotionally damaged. It gets more complex: If your Dad’s boss is an alcoholic, he can make your Dad’s life miserable—and that can affect you. If Grandma was a “secret drinker,” she raised her children with some emotional weaknesses, which get passed to you because your mother missed out emotionally. This is one reason that addiction is called “a family disease”—and why understanding it matters to every family member.

It’s not just that kids with a family history of alcohol dependence have four times the risk of becoming alcoholics, but the roles that children must play in those families change the way they live their own lives. Knowledge can protect you from the side effects of such family situations. But you don’t have to literally live with them.

In your own home you may get the “do as I say and not as I do” order about substance use. The same goes for outside the home, too, where our society has very mixed feelings about the use of chemical substances. This only complicates an understanding of the facts. We see shows daily detailing family dysfunction and hear news every week about yet another famous name going to rehab or falling off the wagon. There are other ways that the media makes substance use matter to everyone. Reporting the dangers of drug use while commercials celebrate the use of alcohol sends mixed messages at best, and it’s tough for teens not to get sucked into the media hype that’s trying to make you the next big market for alcohol.

Nicotine is more strictly regulated than ever and can’t legally even be advertised let alone sold to minors—yet 65 percent of teens report smoking. Since it’s been shown that the younger people start drinking and smoking, the more likely they are to become chronic drinkers and smokers, it’s to the producers’ advantage to encourage young drinking and smoking. Corporate spokespeople will deny any such unattractive motivations, but their promotions continue to glamorize alcohol and cigarettes for the young.

However, the media also helps to open up some truths about addiction. By now, thanks to popular information in the news, on TV, and on the Internet, most people know that addiction has many faces. The addict can be a 12-year-old prep school student, a 35-year-old female teacher, or a 60-year-old homeless veteran. There is no set profile. This kind of knowledge can help you break through the denial that blocks people from getting treatment.

Science, psychology, biology, society, family, the media: The many and connected aspects of substance use disorders make them especially hard to live with. Substance use disorders are not simple diseases, so dealing with them, in oneself or in others, is not simple either. Understanding how these substances work is the first step toward learning to manage them.

Gaining a solid understanding of substance use disorders is important for you, no matter what your circumstances, because even casual use of alcohol and other drugs can cause special problems for teens. The best way to treat SUDs is to prevent them. Anyone has the potential for suffering from substance use disorders, directly or indirectly, and almost everyone in the country is affected by substance use disorders, whether they realize it or not.

Even casual use of alcohol and other drugs can cause special problems for teens.
We’ve outlined the negative effects of chemical substances on brain development, but there are more reasons why their use matters especially to adolescents. Alcohol and other drugs impair judgment, and brain studies show that the judgment center of adolescents is still not fully developed, so that teens are in extra trouble when it comes to making decisions after using even a small quantity. This may explain why alcohol is a factor in the three leading causes of death among persons ages 10 to 24: car and other accidents, homicide, and suicide. In less deadly situations, when combined with teens’ developmental drive to rebel against family, this judgment impairment can also make for extra painful conflicts. And for those many teens who struggle to fit in, alcohol and various other drugs are often used to make that situation feel better.

The best way to treat SUDs is to prevent them.
Perhaps the biggest reason for understanding addiction and alcoholism has to do with prevention. Columbia University research shows that a person who reaches age 21 without abusing alcohol or using drugs is virtually certain never to do so. Remember those statistics about the use of many drugs by teens going down? That’s because studies show what you know—kids are smart. When they have information about potential harm, many of them tend to avoid it. The more you know about alcohol and other drugs, the more likely you are to use caution when approaching them.

The 21st century has an additional way of looking at substance use disorders, thanks to breakthroughs in the scientific study of the brain. Today, addiction is viewed as a chronic and brain disorder, according to NIDA. NIDA explains, even in the face of negative health, social, or legal consequences. These changes, in turn, cause behavior changes, especially those related to motivation, decision-making, and pleasure-seeking. In other words, the source of a lot of the behavior that addicts, alcoholics, and their friends and family have observed over many years can be seen inside the brain.

Whatever the label, alcoholism, addiction, or any kind of substance abuse is not something people choose. What’s key is to realize that people like Harry or Angela, who “need” to use a drug during their day at school, are not troublemakers or slackers who are simply making bad choices. They are troubled and suffering from forces they can’t control. Some people don’t like the idea that they may have a disease because they may think of diseases as being dirty or catching. For them the term disorder may be more acceptable.

A disorder implies a system that just doesn’t work right—diabetes, for example, or high blood pressure. These are conditions in which an internal system is out of order, through no “fault” of the sufferer. The source may be inherited, and the condition may be worsened by lifestyle—just as in addiction and alcoholism. Like diabetes or high blood pressure, alcoholism is chronic, meaning that it lasts a person’s lifetime, usually follows a predictable course.

Alcoholics and addicts feel a compulsion to ingest chemicals known to be dangerous despite experiencing progressively more negative and painful results. A compulsion is an overwhelming urge to take an action that makes no sense. For example, Angela and Harry need those daytime hits—they don’t necessary want them. A fundamental element of this compulsion is the fact that users use despite the adverse consequences. They keep using even though they know that it will lead to problems in physical health, psychological functioning, relationships, the workplace, and finance. Few people who are addicted to alcohol and drugs want to admit that they are mentally ill, but the American Psychiatric Association considers addiction a mental illness that causes significant impairments in a person’s ability to function.

Another key feature of substance use disorders is denial, which the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence defines as a defense mechanism disavowing the significance of events, and a range of psychological maneuvers designed to reduce awareness of the fact that alcohol use is the cause of an individual’s problems. In other words, an alcoholic or addict knowingly hurts him or herself but then is unable to see or admit the problem.

Harry, 16, needs to smoke a joint before school and during lunch, and Angela, 17, needs a beer at breakfast, at mid-morning, and at lunch. The two of them have the same problem—and it’s not just that both substances are illegal. Angela might not think of smoking, and Harry can’t stand the idea of beer. But both are displaying addictive behavior, and as the previous section noted, addiction and alcoholism are two versions of the same disease—substance use disorders.

It’s not hard to see that these teens are in trouble, and that it doesn’t matter whether it’s drugs or alcohol causing the problem. But the idea that they have a “disease” is not always easy for some to accept. The National Institutes of Health considers alcoholism and addiction diseases, as does the American Medical Association and the insurance companies that pay for their treatment. But to many it may still seem like a “cop-out” to say, “I have a disease.” According to a dictionary definition of disease, it’s “a condition of the living animal that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms.” Government health experts agree that alcoholism and addiction are brain diseases.

So why is it hard for some people to call them diseases? Perhaps it’s because it seems to be something that people choose to inflict on themselves. It may be that the bad behavior that alcoholism and addiction can trigger makes people so angry that it’s hard to take a clear look at the illness. Also, studies show what many nonprofessionals have observed—that there is an element of mental illness that runs through addiction, and that frightens some.

Addiction and alcoholism were once thought to be “moral failings.” People thought that an alcoholic or addict simply had a “weak will” or a “bad character” and that punishment or moral improvement was the best way to handle them. Even today, despite the fact that substance abuse is a widely researched illness, many people continue to believe that people who struggle with alcohol or drugs are “weak,” “evil,” or “sinful”. Let me tell you How Substance Use Disorders Work.

Research into body chemistry and the brain itself has revealed scientific facts that show that addiction is, in simplest terms, a brain disease. Alcohol and drugs have a major impact on nerves controlled by the brain, for example. One area that heavy drinking affects is our ability to manage stress. Alcohol, often taken to relieve stress, can actually make the brain feel more stress. Other drugs create changes in the brain’s centers for pleasure and other emotions, as well as for memory and motivation, and can create a need for more drugs, leading to addiction. Different types of drugs have different effects on the chemistry of the brain, and over time repeated use alters brain structure and activity, so that effects last long after use has stopped.

We will try to describes these brain connections and explains much more about this exciting new field of research in further posts. The knowledge of how alcohol and drugs act on the brain will help improve treatment of the disease of addiction. More importantly, this brain research has also shown that young people are especially affected by addiction. Since your brain is still developing and will continue to until you’re about 21, the addiction to any foreign substance can alter your brain’s healthy development and result in serious and long-term changes in how it works.

Mary Anne, whose family let her drink at home, wouldn’t ever think of “using drugs.” Lisa, who chose pot at that party, believed it was much less messy than booze. They share the common misconception that “alcohol is not a drug.” In fact, alcohol is one of many psychoactive drugs—substances that affect the brain in very specific ways, including causing addiction. People can become addicted to alcohol just as they can become addicted to the whole range of other drugs—from pot to heroin to nicotine or even caffeine. Substances like some cough syrups or prescription medications contain a variety of ingredients that create an addictive reaction. Addictive substances may differ, but addictions themselves have so much in common that members of the medical profession use the term substance use disorder (SUD) to refer to any kind of dependence on an external chemical substance.

The most common types of SUD are alcoholism and drug addiction. Addiction is a physical, mental, and emotional dependence on chemicals known as psychoactive drugs. Alcoholism, for example, is an addiction to alcohol. Addiction is a disease that includes the following four symptoms:

1) Craving— a strong and often overpowering urge to use a psychoactive drug.
2) Loss of control— not being able to stop using once a drug has been introduced to the body.
3) Physical dependence— the need to maintain the level of drugs in the body in order to avoid withdrawal symptoms, such as nausea, sweating, shakiness, and anxiety.
4) Tolerance— the need to use increasingly large quantities of a drug to get the same sensation.

Alcoholism and addiction are considered “bio-psychosocial” disorders, in which biological (physical), psychological (mental), and social (interpersonal) factors are intertwined. Physical dependency on a chemical can lead to behavior that is extremely painful to the substance abusers and to all those connected to them. In some cases, a preexisting mental or psychological problem can cause an individual to self-medicate with an addictive drug. A social aspect of the disorder can refer to the impact of family on addiction, and vice versa.

Since in today’s world “society” extends way beyond one’s home, a wide range of influences, including the media, have an impact on attitudes and addiction—and substance abusers can affect a wide range of social groups. A unique characteristic of both alcoholism and addiction is a process called denial. Denial is an inability on the part of substance abusers (as well as, often, their family and friends) to admit that the addiction exists.

Another fact that’s only recently gaining acceptance is that addiction starts at a much younger age than was once thought. By high school, it’s often already time for treatment. According to a survey by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than a fifth of all eighth-graders have used illegal drugs; more than a quarter have used alcohol; and a quarter report having been drunk at least once.

The long-term dangers and effects of addiction are revealed by recent research, as you’ll learn in detail in this blog. The impact of early use of alcohol and other drugs on the brain is more serious and long-lasting than once thought.

The federal government tracks substance use among young people and reports that for almost all types of drugs, use by eighth-, 10th-, and 12th-graders was down during the first few years of the 21st century. Though surveys show that fewer teens are using drugs, large numbers are still using. The numbers show that use increases with age: Twice as many 12th-graders as eighth-graders use drugs. Twelve million teens are regular substance users, and as many as 3 million qualify as substance abusers or full-blown addicts.

Chances are, you know at least one person your age (in addition to one or more substance-using adults in your life) who is dealing with a drug or alcohol problem. Each of these teens has parents, siblings, and friends who are significantly affected by their problem. You’ve probably already been confronted with literature and lectures designed to scare young people away from drinking and drugging.The bad effects of alcohol and drugs are indeed something to be scared of, but as you probably also know, using fright to keep young people away from substance abuse often has the opposite effect—it makes danger seem attractive.

Instead, this blog presents facts about these widespread, serious disorders to help you figure out the best way to deal with them, whether you experience them in yourself, in a friend, or in a family member. You’re also surrounded by opportunities and even encouragement to at least try alcohol or another chemical substance. Even if your friends don’t use, TV shows, ads, and movies all make drugs and alcohol seem like a natural part of life. The more you know about alcoholism and addiction, the better you will be able to cope with them, whether they affect you directly or indirectly.

Hi to all friends. As a new blog allow me to give you an introduction to our relevant topic.
Alcoholism and addiction are more widespread among teens—and even preteens—than many realize. We’re not just talking about the kind of beer parties that sometimes make the news, but also about situations like these:

> Tommy keeps a bottle of cough syrup in his middle-school locker. He sips from it between classes—but he doesn’t think about being a drug addict.

> Mary Anne’s parents let her—and sometimes her friends— drink beer and wine at their home. They are happy it’s “just alcohol.”

> Lisa’s parents are alcoholics, and her grandparents too. At 14, Lisa is determined to never be like them. She busies herself with positive activities such as cheerleading and service clubs. But one evening at a party, she is offered some pot. She takes a couple of puffs she likes the effects—and she knows it won’t make her a “sloppy drunk” like some of her family members.

> Jason’s junior high class learned about the dangers of hard drugs, and they all hated smoking, but pills from his mom’s medicine cabinet seemed safe—and fun.

Putting aside questions of illegality, each of these stories might sound like mild examples of kids who have substance use “under control.” Unfortunately, they are all-too-common scenarios of teens and preteens—some 8 million of them—on the road to alcoholism and other kinds of drug addiction, which science now says causes permanent changes in the developing brain. Many still think of alcoholics as drunks sleeping in the gutter, or addicts as junkies nodding out with needles in their arms, but here are some basic facts about alcohol and drug addictions,

1) A drug addict is not necessarily a strung-out street junkie—yet.

2) Addiction can begin with repetitive and inappropriate use of something as seemingly innocuous as cough syrup.

3) There’s no such thing as “just alcohol.” Alcohol, in addition to being a dangerous substance on its own, is a potentially addicting drug. Alcoholism is an addiction.

4) Addiction runs in families, whether from socially learned patterns, from genetic inheritance, or both.

5) Alcoholism is not solely an adult problem. It doesn’t necessarily take a long time to become an alcoholic or an addict, and it can mean trouble for kids as young as 12.

6) The abuse of prescription medications is increasing, and it is potentially one of the more dangerous addictions.