Alcohol is one teratogen that could greatly have an effect on the woman’s pregnancy. People may not be aware of its danger and still allow a woman to drink alcoholic drinks during her pregnancy, but the effect of this would be carried by the baby for the rest of his or her life. In the United States, alcohol is the substance very famous to cause mental and physical birth defects. Though, this is only a probability, the rate is high.

For one, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a disorder that can occur to the embryo when a pregnant woman ingests alcohol during pregnancy. Alcohol crosses the placental barrier and can inhibit fetal weight, create distinctive facial stigmata, damage neurons and brain structures, and cause other physical, mental, or behavioral problems. The main effect of FAS is enduring central nervous system damage, especially to the brain. Developing brain cells and structures are malformed by before birth alcohol exposure, often creating a collection of primary cognitive and functional disabilities including poor memory, attention deficits, impulsive behavior, and poor cause-effect reasoning, as well as secondary disabilities for example, mental health problems, and drug addiction.

There are different indications that can appear when one is diagnosed to have fetal alcohol syndrome. These indications include low birth mass, small head circumference, developmental interruption, organ dysfunction, facial abnormalities, including smaller eye openings, flattened cheekbones, and indistinct philtrum (an underdeveloped groove between the nose and the upper lip), epilepsy, poor management, poor socialization skills, such as difficulty building and maintaining friendships and relating to groups, lack of curiosity, learning difficulties, including poor memory, inability to understand concepts such as time and money, poor language comprehension, poor problem-solving skills, behavioral problems including hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, social withdrawal, stubbornness, impulsiveness, and anxiety.

The primary characteristic of fetal alcohol syndrome is the damage it brings in the central nervous system. Central nervous system damage can be evaluated in three areas such as structural, neurological, and functional deficiencies. Structural deficiencies includes microcephaly (small head size) of two or more standard deviations below the average, or other abnormalities in brain structure. During the first trimester of pregnancy, alcohol impedes with the migration and organization of brain cells, which can make structural deformities within the brain. During the third trimester, harm can be caused to the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory, learning, emotion, and encoding visual and auditory information, all of which can create neurological and functional CNS impairments as well.

The evaluation of neurological deficiencies will take place when structural deficiencies do not exist. Neurological problems are expressed as either diagnosable disorders, such as epilepsy or other seizure disorders, or soft signs. Soft signs are broader, nonspecific symptoms, such as impaired fine motor skills, neurosensory hearing loss, poor gait, clumsiness, poor eye-hand coordination.

Functional impairments are assessed when structural or neurological impairments does not exist. Functional impairments are abnormalities due to prenatal alcohol exposure (rather than hereditary causes or postnatal insults) in observable and measurable domains related to daily functioning, often referred to as developmental disabilities.

No evidence exists that can determine exactly how much alcohol ingestion will produce birth defects. There are differences in the processing’s of alcohol in women. Other factors vary the results, too, such as the age of the mother, the timing and regularity of the alcohol ingestion, and whether the mother has eaten any food while drinking.

Alcohol easily goes through the placental barrier and the fetus is less equipped to eradicate alcohol than its mother, so the fetus tends to accept a high concentration of alcohol, which remains longer than it would in the mother’s system. That explains why the child is the one greatly affected when in fact it is the mother who consumes the alcohol. This such a sad truth.

There comes a time that the addict tries to look for help. He seeks for professional help to intoxicate him from the drug. Rehabilitation centers offer help to those who have substance use problems. They provide medical help as well as psychological and social reformation. However, rehabilitation may not be enough for the full recovery of the person. The patient should be prepared with the right values and abilities in facing the real world after rehabilitation.

Groups such as alcoholics anonymous, emotions anonymous, and cocaine anonymous are fellowship groups that provide spiritual enhancement and life skills program to people who wants to receive them. Anybody who is willing to modify and turn away from such addictions or someone who merely wants to help victims recover form the darkness they were in is very welcome to join the fellowship. Here, people help each other in recovering from their problems. The fellowship believes that the best people who could understand addicts are those who have been addicts themselves. Sympathy and compassion will never be enough. Someone who has experienced any kind of addiction would really understand the feeling of an addict and thus, would be able to give the right comfort and support.

Such groups does not just rely on spiritual and medical help. They also make use of the twelve-step program. This twelve-step program was first created by the alcoholics anonymous. This consists of twelve steps on how to deal with the addiction, emphasizing acceptance, surrender, and self-awareness. The twelve step program tries to impart that there is one very potent being above us all, and that we should lay down all our flaws to Him and al will be well. Of course, man should do his best to become a better person and God will then do the rest.

Here is an example of the famous twelve-step program from Overeaters Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over our emotions — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

With the twelve-step program, people who have become victims of addiction are given hope that it is not too late – that life does not end in addiction. In fact, it even opens a new door, a new chapter in our lives in which we should live meaningfully.

The sex and love addiction anonymous was founded to cater to those who have been a victim of this addiction to sex and love. This was created by a former Alcoholics anonymous member. Though, he had been sober, he was unfaithful to his wife for a period of time. He founded sex and love addiction anonymous as an try to stop his compulsive sexual and romantic behavior.

The organization encourages members to identify their own “bottom-line behaviors.” The organization classifies these behaviors as “any sexual or emotional act, not regarding its initial impulse may be, which leads to loss of control over rate, frequency, or duration of its occurrence or recurrence, resulting in spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, and moral destruction of oneself and others.”

To aid their group members on the road to recovery, Sex and Love Addiction Anonymous utilizes the 12-step program and the 12 traditions. The good thing with the organization is that since everyone is a victim, they are empathic about each other’s experiences and feelings. Thus, they claim to understand what the other person is going through and are able to offer support through sharing and meetings. To quote, “we found in each other what we could find nowhere else: people who knew the depth of our pain. Together we found hope and the care of a loving Higher Power. Our commitment is to help others recover from sexual addiction, just as we have been helped.”

The twelve step-Program of Sex and Love Addiction Anonymous states that:

1. We admitted we were powerless over sex and love addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with a Power greater than ourselves, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to sex and love addicts, and to practice these principles in all areas of our lives.

Meanwhile, these are their Twelve Traditions:

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon S.L.A.A. unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as this Power may be expressed through our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for S.L.A.A. membership is the desire to stop living out a pattern of sex and love addiction. Any two or more persons gathered together for mutual aid in recovering from sex and love addiction may call themselves an S.L.A.A. group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or S.L.A.A. as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the sex and love addict who still suffers.

6. An S.L.A.A. group or S.L.A.A. as a whole ought never to endorse, finance, or lend the S.L.A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, or prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every S.L.A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. S.L.A.A. should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. S.L.A.A. as such ought never to be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. S.L.A.A. has no opinion on outside issues; hence the S.L.A.A. name ought never to be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, film, and other public media. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all fellow S.L.A.A. members.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

In the 1970s, cocaine was expensive and considered a “status” drug. The introduction of cheap crack increased the convenience of this substance, and crack has become the drug of choice for many drug users, especially for inner-city disadvantaged youth. This has been the beginnings of the growing crack addiction. Crack’s convenience, ease of concealment, wide availability, and low cost has increased its use. The fact that crack is smoked rather than injected has added to its popularity.

Moreover, drug addiction is not only occurring to people on the streets. It is a common fact that celebrities have their “shining moments” when it comes to substance dependence. They may look pleasant and very much happy in front of cameras, but their deepest secrets are yet to be discovered. A number of celebrities have already been into rehabilitation to fight their crack addiction, heroin, or even alcohol addiction.

Long before Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears hogged the headlines with their wild child antics, there was Drew Barrymore. At the age of nine, Drew was already smoking cigarettes. She was an alcoholic at 11, a marijuana smoker by 12, and a cocaine addict by 13. She went to rehab twice and even tried to commit suicide when she was 14. Right now, that is all in the past. Her wild child days behind her, Barrymore has grown into a sober, responsible and productive woman. Aside from starring in a slew of hits, she has also become a producer, forming the production company Flower Films with friend and partner Nancy Juvonen in 1995. Her company is responsible for hits like Charlie’s Angels and 50 First Dates. This goes to show that anybody messed up with drugs can revive from life.

There are actually two sides to this Oprah-Winfrey-was-a-drug-addict story. On one hand, there’s the memorable TV moment in the 90s when she tearfully admitted in her own talk show that she had smoked crack cocaine while in her 20s, but never said anything about an addiction to the drug or anything else. On the other hand, there’s the more recent allegation made in a tell-all book by a former boyfriend that Oprah was in reality, a habitual cocaine user in the 80s, and was in fact under the influence during her show tapings.

Right now, we can clearly see that Oprah Winfrey has triumphed over the use of cocaine. As of September 2008, Forbes has predicted Oprah to acquire wealth worth over $2.7 billion. CNN and Time Magazine called her “arguably the world’s most powerful woman”. She is quite the success story, sordid drug past or not.

Anyone of all walks of life could be a victim of crack addiction. Life is tremendously unpredictable. On a certain point we are having a good laugh with friends living the good life, the next time we know, we are shaking and craving for a drug we never thought we couldn’t seem to live without. People may be aware of the effects of drugs if abused, yet they still give in to curiosity, probably, or to pressure and thus end up living miserably. However, there is always hope for every addict in this world. Life doesn’t end in addiction. Giving up is ends life.

Will is the force that makes an individual do something when circumstances seems to tell that it wont be a possibility. Will power is the ability to overcome laziness and procrastination. It is the ability to reject unnecessary impulses. It is the ability to arrive to a decision and follow it with perseverance until its successful accomplishment. It is the inner power that overcomes the want to indulge in unnecessary and useless habits, and the inner strength that overcomes inner emotional and mental resistance for taking action. As they say, it is one of the corner stones of success, both spiritual and material.

Usually, the concept of willpower is mostly useful in the process of modifying behaviors and eliminating bad habits. Everyone possesses some habits they wish they could overcome, such as smoking, excessive eating, laziness, procrastination or lack of assertiveness. To overcome these habits or addictions, one needs to have will power and self discipline. These two makes a great difference in everyone’s life, and bring inner strength, self mastery and decisiveness.

These days, the question of how to have willpower arises with the powerful influence of media. Commercials have attempted to position their products as a substitute to willpower. They begin by saying that willpower doesn’t work and then attempt to sell you something “fast and easy” like a diet pill or some wacky exercise equipment. Often they’ll even promise impossible results in a dramatically short period of time.

But actually, willpower does work. Willpower is a meditation of force. You gather up all your energy and make a massive thrust forward. You attack your problems strategically at their weakest points until they crack, allowing you enough room to maneuver deeper into their territory and finish them off. To be able to apply willpower, one should first choose an objective. Then, create a plan of attack, and finally, execute the plan. An effective method for developing and improving these abilities is to do certain activities, which you would rather avoid doing due to laziness, procrastination, weakness, shyness, etc. By doing something that you do not like doing or are too lazy to do, you overcome your subconscious resistance, train your mind to obey you, strengthen your inner powers and gain inner strength. Muscles get stronger by resisting the power of the barbells. Inner strength is achieved by overcoming inner resistance.

Willpower, however, cannot be attained right away. It takes time for you to fully acquire this capability. Furthermore, practicing your capacity to have willpower in trying to do the things that you hate to do. In your everyday dealings with things such as having to wash the dishes, cooking a healthy meal instead of ordering fast food, and having to wake up in the morning to run a mile or two, you can practice willpower, resisting the temptation and evil caressing hands of laziness.

What’s more, in more serious cases such as quitting drug use, the first step is having the willpower and determination to change and quit the bad habit. In rehabilitation centers, patients are taught and encouraged to practice their willpower and take control over their lives, over their addiction.

One of the very potent thing is willpower. When people possess willpower, they will be able to do the things that in the first place they are very reluctant to do. It is like with willpower, you are fighting your resisting mind.

Takin in heroin or methadone will have no effect at all when subutex binds tightly to the opiate receptors. This drug is generally used in narcotic drug treatment programs, and prescribed in varying doses. The effects of subutex are less definite than those of other opiates, giving the individual the feeling of being somewhat “normal” once more. Buprenorphine is an opioid that is used to wean people off their addiction to stronger opioids such as morphine, diamorphine (heroin) and methadone. It is prescribed as a replacement for such drugs. By acting on the same opioid receptors as other opioids, buprenorphine prevents the physical withdrawal symptoms that occur when these drugs are blocked. This prevents physical cravings. Over time, the dose of buprenorhpine is slowly reduced until it can be stopped completely. Moreover, buprenorphine substitution therapy for opioid addiction must be used together with other medical, social and psychological treatment.

However, after medication, it is not an assurance that the person would become free from drug dependence. One’s body would eventually adapt to the effects of subutex and thus would possibly become reliant to it. Meaning to say, the person may be free from heroin addiction but in turn, become a subutex addict. Science has found a substance that could counterfeit the effects of certain drugs such as heroin and methadone, to stop withdrawal syndrome. However, just like any other drugs, subutex still has a negative effect on the body.

Drowsiness; dizziness; weakness; constipation; headache; nausea or vomiting; slow, shallow breathing; mental changes; mood changes (depression); stomach or abdominal pain; liver problems; dark urine; yellowing eyes; skin changes; vision changes; and death due to overdose are some of the side effects of subutex. These effects could be experienced upon using subutex. Moreover, it could get worse if the drug is taken together with other substances such as alcohol.

Subutex (buprenorphine) can cause drug dependence. If the use of subutex is suddenly stopped, the person may experience withdrawal symptoms and/or the desire to relapse and consume the addictive drug once more. When taken together with other drugs (antidepressants, alcohol, sleeping medicine, etc.), subutex may enhance their effects and cause serious health hazards. Subutex can cause fatality from overdose if injected with a tranquilizer.

The increase of subutex addiction cases can be attributed to fact that it is very accessible and the price is affordable. The fact that buprenorphine costs less than heroin and is more accessible has accelerated the development of illegal markets in various countries. Buprenorphine manufactured in India, for example, is smuggled into Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as Bangladesh, where it is used by 90 percent of the country’s intravenous drug users, according to a UN Drug and Crime account last year.

It is quite alarming to imagine that no single drug is free from becoming an object of addiction. People have to be cautious in taking both prescribed and non-prescribed drugs. These definite drugs could someway be thought of as a traitor. At first they act as if they are giving you positive effects. Then later on, you become addicted to the drug and take the drug

regardless of the negative effects it is eliciting. It’s like the devil that attracted you to eat the apple from the forbidden tree and then left you when everything else went wrong.

As they say, we all are crazy. We all have that craziness within us. It is just a matter of how we deal with our differences and extremities that we are able to handle our craziness. Moreover, many ask if mental illnesses really do exist. The English-speaking world has not always used medical language to describe the behavior we now label as symptomatic of mental illness. Illlustrations were sometimes framed in quite different terms, such as possession. What we now call mental illness was not always treated as a medical problem. Non-English-speaking nations in the West have had changes in their linguistic usage and their treatment of the mentally ill roughly parallel to Anglophone countries. Anthropological work in non-Western cultures suggests that there are many cases of behavior that psychiatry would categorize as symptomatic of mental disorder, which are not seen within their own cultures as signs of mental illness.

However, nowadays, it has been talked about that mental disorders are really existing mental conditions that may have caused disruption in a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a lessened ability for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Mental illnesses can affect persons of any age, race, religion, or income. Mental illnesses are not the result of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are treatable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan. In addition to medication treatment, psychosocial treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, peer support groups and other community services can also be components of a treatment plan and that assist with recovery. The availability of transportation, diet, exercise, sleep, friends and meaningful paid or volunteer activities contribute to overall health and wellness, including mental illness recovery.

Unfortunately, society may be responsible for one’s failure in recovering form a mental illness. When the person is treated inside a medical institution, he or she is given ample treatment and is treated as if they are normal. They are given proper care and attention so as to promote recovery. However, when they go out into the real world after some time, society, upon knowing their past, would most likely mock them and treat them differently. Society would look at them as someone who still has the mental disorder and consequently, it would make them feel worse and thus, could trigger an occurrence of the mental illness once again.

The feelings of inadequateness would cause problems for a person with mental disorder. He would think that he I not worthy to live in this world given that he could not function properly anymore. However, support from family and friends would be a great help for the patient to view life differently and positively. Thus it is the role of the family to provide the patient with love and care so as to sustain his recovery.

However, sometimes, there are people who are not able to adjust to certain events in their lives and are unable to control their emotions and deal with what they are feeling. An emotional problem is not just a simple problem. An individual is not able to function well due to the disruption of its emotions. Usually, people would make use of defense mechanisms as to cover up their emotional problems. However, this would in turn cause some disruption in their daily lives. And, moreover, it could affect the people around them. Moreover, emotional problems could be caused by alcoholism or any addiction problems. When one is addicted, the person does not only become physically attached to the object of addiction, but also he or she becomes emotionally attached to the object of addiction.

Just like Alcoholics Anonymous, Emotions Anonymous is a twelve-step organization. It provides to people whose emotions are causing difficulties in their lives. Emotions such as depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness, anger, compulsion, and obsessions are the most common in which the members had to deal with. this organization started on July 6, 1971. Emotions Anonymous meetings are self-supporting by intentional contributions of its members. Emotions Anonymous is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution, nor does it endorse or oppose any causes. The main objective of Emotions Anonymous is to show its members how to stay well emotionally and how to help others to become emotionally well.

This is the twelve-step program being used by Emotional Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over our emotions — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

With emotions anonymous, people in all walks of life are able to look for help from others and may find relief and guidance from those who have been there and had done that, or even share compassion with people are experiencing the same thing. Indeed, social support is very important and could be a cure to emotional illness.

Originally, heroin was promoted as a non-addictive drug. In fact, the name heroin means “heroic treatment” derived from the German word heroisch. From 1898 to 1910, it was marketed as a non-addictive morphine alternative and cough medicine for children. However, in 1924, the United States’ “Heroin Act” made it illegal to possess or manufacture heroin in the country.

Today heroin is typically sold as a white powder or as the black sticky substance known as the “black tar heroin”.

Heroin is commonly smoked. A heroin dependent individual usually injects himself four times a day. Intravenous injection offers the supreme intensity and most quick set of euphoria. With this, the person would feel the rush in as fast as 7 to 8 seconds after injecting. Intramuscular injection produces as slower onset of euphoria. Injection continues to be the predominant method of heroin use among addicted users seeking treatment; however, researchers have discovered a shift in heroin use patterns, from injection to sniffing and smoking. In fact, snorting heroin is now the most widely reported means of taking heroin among users admitted for drug treatment.

Heroin works in the brain by converting itself to morphine then binding quickly to the brain’s opioid receptors. The addict would feel a gratifying feeling. The intensity of the rush would depend on the dosage of the drug. The rush is usually accompanied by a warm flushing of the skin, dry mouth, and the heavy feeling in the extremities, which may be accompanied by nausea, vomiting, and severe itching. After the initial effects, abusers usually will be drowsy for several hours. Mental function is clouded by heroin’s effect on the central nervous system. Cardiac function slows. Breathing is also severely slowed, sometimes to the point of death. Heroin overdose is a particular risk on the street, where the amount and purity of the drug cannot be accurately known.

The long-term effect of heroin is another thing to be discussed. Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, cellulites, and liver disease. Moreover, the most detrimental long-term effects of heroin is dependence to the substance itself. Heroin abuser eventually becomes too dependent on the drug that he/she spends most of his/her time and energy obtaining and using the drug. Once they become addicted, the addicts’ main purpose of living is seeking and using the drug. Furthermore, with continuous use, this could cause death to the addict.

Heroin addiction is not free from withdrawal symptoms, once the use is stopped. The withdrawal syndrome from heroin can start within 12 hours of discontinuation of the sustained use of the drug: sweating, malaise, anxiety, depression, persistent and intense penile erection in males, general feeling of heaviness, cramp-like pains in the limbs, yawning and lachrymation, sleep difficulties, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, cramps and fever can happen. There is also a significant risk of tonic-clonic, which can lead to stroke possibly resulting in lasting disability which includes blindness or paralysis, or heart attacks which can potentially be fatal.

Heroin can be greatly fatal among users most especially among those with poor health. It also serves as a teratogen among pregnant users. Among pregnant addicts, not only does the drug affect the user, but it greatly affects the baby.

One of the most dangerous substance abuse is heroin dependency because it can be a cause on why an individual continues to live. Consequently, treatment is not that easy. It takes time, effort, and will power for an addict to be treated.

Besides its pain relieving benefits, the drug could provide the body with a relaxing and euphoric feeling. The drug has a time-release structure that will last for 12 hours. When taken properly, which is through swallowing it whole, it is safe and not destructive. However, the drug becomes abused and people are more likely developing an addiction to the drug. Abusing it is through chewing, crushing, or dissolving the pill into liquid form, and then snorting the solution. When the drug is released, the effect is similar to heroin. Oxycontin addiction shows through chronic use and increasing tolerance so that more of the drug is needed to feel the same effects day by day. Consequently, like any other addiction, life is slowly disrupted and destroyed.

Once oxycontin addiction kicks in, an individual needs to increase the dosage to avoid experiencing pain. Side effects of the addiction include insomnia, muscle and bone pain, sweats, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, stomach cramping, and muscle twitching. Severe side effects could be detrimental.

Oxycontin is a prescription drug and is prescribed to lessen pain. Yet it’s not as innocent as it seem. It also brings detrimental effects once exploited. Once an individual experiences the “high” brought on by oxycontin, the person is reinforced to take in more to achieve the same “high” feeling. This condition is now called addiction. One former oxycontin dependent testified that within a very small amount of time of taking in the tablet, he felt like superman, he could work all day, go home, and play with his kids. He has the notion that he could do everything he wanted. Common sense would tell us that the immediate effects of the drug are very inviting. As time would pass, nonstop intake of the drug would lead to dependence. The problem begins when you could not get away with the drug.

An oxycontin addict may admit that they have become dependent on the drugbut it’s the physical will to stop using the drug that is too difficult to deal with. Why is this so? One, an individual becomes very dependent on the drug and two, discontinuing usage would mean painful side effects. Yes, the drug may be man’s best friend but once you turn your back on it, it becomes a snake that poisonously bites it could kill you. Once the usage of the substance is stopped by an addict, he/she is more likely to experience withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal syndrome is characterized by dysphoria, the opposite of euphoria, which entails sadness, depression, anxiety, and craving. Nothing really lasts forever.

Treatment for oxycontin addiction is done with a medical professional. There are a number of means to treat oxycontin addiction. This includes medication and behavioral and counseling approaches. Methadone can be used as an effective medication that eliminates withdrawal symptoms and relieves drug craving. Rapid detox is also one option to treat opioid addiction. Furthermore, medication is accompanied with counseling and behavioral therapy since addiction is not only biological but psychological.

Oxycontin is a drug prescribed by doctors to eliminate mild to severe pain and it is used among cancer patients who experience extreme pain. Nevertheless, when addiction sets in, one should be prepared to go rehab for a treatment.