Drug Addiction Treatment Blog

Why Can’t Drug Addicts Quit On Their Own?

Long-term drug use results in significant changes in brain function that persist long after the individual stops using drugs.
Understanding that drug addiction has such an important biological component may help explain an individual’s difficulty in achieving and maintaining abstinence without addiction treatment. Psychological stress from work or family problems, social cues (such as meeting individuals from one’s drug-using past), or the environment (such as encountering streets, objects, or even smells associated with drug use) can interact with biological factors to hinder attainment of sustained abstinence and make relapse more likely. Research studies indicate that even the most severely addicted individuals can participate actively in drug addiction treatment and that active participation is essential to good outcomes.
* How Effective Is Drug Addiction Treatment?
Treatment of addiction is as successful as treatment of other chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and asthma.
According to several studies, a drug treatment program reduces drug use by 40 to 60 percent and significantly decreases criminal activity during and after treatment. For example, a study of therapeutic community treatment for drug offenders demonstrated that arrests for violent and nonviolent criminal acts were reduced by 40 percent or more. Methadone treatment has been shown to decrease criminal behavior by as much as 50 percent. Research shows that drug addiction treatment reduces the risk of HIV infection and that interventions to prevent HIV are much less costly than treating HIV-related illnesses. Treatment can improve the prospects for employment, with gains of up to 40 percent after treatment.
Although these effectiveness rates hold in general, individual addiction treatment outcomes depend on the extent and nature of the patient’s presenting problems, the appropriateness of the addiction treatment components and related services used to address those problems, and the degree of active engagement of the patient in the treatment process.
 

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FACT SHEET ABOUT GAY/LESBIAN SUBSTANCE ABUSE:
ü       Alcohol and drug abuse affects an estimated 20-30% of the gay and lesbian population – a rate that is two to three times higher than the general population. www.lakeviewhealth.com
ü       Alcohol and other drug use contributes to increased risk of HIV and AIDS, and other health and safety problems including drunk driving fatalities, date rape, and verbal and physical abuse.
ü       In the gay and lesbian community, the absence of significant alternatives to bars and parties contributes to the dependency on alcohol. www.gay-rehab.com
ü       Anxiety, alienation, depression, and low self-esteem among gay men and lesbians increase their risk for substance abuse.
ü       The use of cocaine, amphetamines, and other drugs is associated with high levels of sexual risk taking.   Nearly 10% of gay and bisexual men responding to a Michigan Department of Community Health survey reported that they had engaged in unprotected sex when they were high or drunk.
ü       Gay and bisexual men who use speed have much higher seroprevalence than either heterosexual injection drug users or gay and bisexual men who do not inject drugs.
ü       When compared with non-users, speed users reported more unsafe receptive anal intercourse, more condom breakage, and more unprotected sex with HIV-positive partners. 
ü       In a study of gay male adolescents, 68% reported alcohol use (with 26% using alcohol once or more per week), and 44% reported drug use (with 8% considering themselves drug-dependent).  Among young lesbians, 83% had used alcohol, 56% had used drugs, and 11% had used crack/cocaine in the three months preceding the study.
ü       In a 1992 survey of San Francisco lesbians and bisexual women, 30% had used drugs other than alcohol, one in seven women had experienced violence when drunk or high, and 29% reported sexual abuse.
Sources:  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan Department of Community Health, Journal of Addictive Diseases, Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, San Francisco Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Substance Abuse Planning Group - January 12, 2004
 

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In 2003, there were a reported 322 New Jersey drug rehabs and addiction treatment centers. These New Jersey addiction treatment programs combined to serve 31,797 clients for alcohol abuse or drug abuse problems.

On average for the country, approximately 90% of addicts go through outpatient addiction treatment before entering a residential drug rehab program. Statistics show that longer-term residential addiction treatment is more effective in the long run for the addict.
 (Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)
A New Jersey detox program is only the first step on the road of addiction treatment. Most drug rehabs in New Jersey consider a drug detox program to be when the addict is no longer under the influence of the drug and ridding the body of its toxic byproducts.  Inpatient detox programs have proven to be the safest and most effective method of detox. Please keep in mind that a New Jersey drug detox program is for medical stabilization, while a New Jersey drug rehab is for maintaining the gains made in detox while working towards developing a thought process necessary for future recovery.
 

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Addiction Treatment
Most addiction treatment are designed to do more than simply reduce or remove alcohol or drug use - they focus on getting addicted people to change their lifestyle and belief systems. Like treatments for other conditions, addiction treatment can also include medications and forms of talk therapy, but addiction treatment may be provided by a much wider range of personnel (clergy, counselors, social workers, physicians) than most other forms of healthcare.
No available therapy, program, medication or surgical procedure can remove recurrent desire or craving for alcohol and/or other drugs. Eliminating the desire to use drugs or alcohol is not an outcome of drug rehab. A more reasonable expectation is that medication may reduce this urge and effective drug rehab will teach a person what they must do to manage and contain their recurrent desires to use, much in the same way as a person with diabetes or hypertension must learn to manage their lives to control their illness.
It is best to think of three stages of addiction treatment, each with a different function in the larger picture of care:
·                          drug detox or alcohol detox
·                          drug rehab
·                          continuing care
 

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