Most Effective Tips For Alcohol Detox

Most Alcoholics complain that the detoxification process at rehabilitation centers never helped them to completely get rid of the effects of alcohol despite their best efforts. But the fact is most of the times the actual mistake lies with the drinkers themselves. Either they make a fumble at choosing the right rehabilitation center or they do the mistake in consuming medicines as prescribed.

Following tips are very effective in detoxification process, consider them seriously:

Firstly choose a rehabilitation program that matches to your needs. Rehab programs are designed for common causes and problems prevailing in the society. It is not necessary that your causes match to the program. It is in your best interest to consult a doctor and take his recommendation about which rehab program suits you best.

Doctors at rehab centers use physical and medical therapies to treat alcohol addiction. You can get maximum advantage of such therapies only if you cooperate with them fully and believe and follow what they ask you to do. People generally get immensely benefited with this kind of therapies.

Never try to self medicate. Never consume over the counter pills for detoxification. It is very important that you consult your doctor before consuming any detoxification medications.

Unless you are completely determined and sincere to get rid of your alcohol addiction you cannot help yourself. All rehab programs, therapies and medications will help you only if you are motivated and convinced that you want to get rid of you addiction.

It is also very important for you that you follow a healthy diet during and after treatment, a well balanced diet rich in essential minerals and vitamins will not help you in improving your overall health but it will also keep several health problems miles away from your body.

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Substance Abuse Among Nurses

Introduction

Substance abuse among nurses has not been fully documented, but it is estimated that about 10% of the current nursing population is addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, with about 6-8% of those having a serious enough problem that it interferes with job performance.

Specifically, nurses as a population seem to be prone to addiction to prescription medications more than to alcohol or illicit drugs, as compared to the rest of the population. This may be due to the fact that they have easier access to prescription medications than does the general population. It's also heartening to note that once in treatment, nurses are much more likely to remain sober and to avoid relapse or return to abuse than the general population is.

What causes substance abuse among nurses?

As a population, nurses tend to be highly caring individuals who have chosen to devote their lives to others in a caretaking role. Unfortunately, however, nurses who abuse drugs and/or alcohol seem to come from families that have had significant emotional turmoil, resulting in low self-esteem, and a struggle to "make things better" by becoming an overachiever and falling into unhealthy caretaking roles of other troubled family members (such as "taking care of" alcoholic parents, as one example). As an illustration of this, one study has shown that up to 80% of nurses come from families with at least one alcoholic member.

The fact that these individuals are already highly sensitive individuals who care deeply about the needs of others and who are vulnerable to falling into caretaking roles, whether healthy or unhealthy, draws them to the nursing profession. However, with this type of background, it also makes them vulnerable to substance abuse themselves. They see substance-abuse behavior (such as drinking to excess) as somehow normal, since that's what they've grown up with, and they have become used to enabling this behavior by ignoring it, minimizing it, or even participating in it. And again, certainly, they may very well "take care of" addicted family members suffering from the symptoms and consequences of their illnesses.

Environmental factors on the job

Environmental factors on the job may well start an active addiction or exacerbate it. The health care profession is unique because it creates a particularly conducive environment to addiction. As may also be true of other professions, nursing has very stressful working environment, and long workdays. However, nursing has other pressures and factors other non-medical professions may not have. As death and illness are often ever present, this is emotionally difficult to deal with, and the recent work environment is one of mandatory overtime, incredibly stressful work shifts, and the necessity to switch shift times often so that one can never quite get into a rhythm of working a regular schedule. Nursing also has an added disadvantage to drug addiction not present in other non-healthcare professions, because prescription medications are readily available on the job site and as part of the job itself.

Indeed, one of nursing's duties is to dispense medication to patients; medications are also seen in the nursing culture as a way to cure ills very legitimately. All of these factors can make it very easy for someone in the nursing profession to become an addict if the propensity is there. And because nurses are so familiar with drugs, they may think (erroneously) that their expertise gives them the ability to self medicate without becoming addicted.

Ways the medical profession is dealing with addiction in nursing

Nurses are legally and ethically required to report colleagues they suspect may have an abuse problem. This is necessary for a number of reasons. First among them, of course, patients are entitled to proper and "sober" care by the medical health profession, and they are entitled to receive the full and proper dosage of the medications they need to manage their own pain and cure their own ills. (Nurses who abuse drugs often "short" patient dosages and then give themselves the excess.) Second, nurses who are under the influence may make mistakes that are life threatening if not fatal. And third, of course, is that the abuser needs help and intervention to save his or her own life.

Although still a problem to some extent, administrators and other officials are increasingly NOT turning a blind eye to the problems of abuse and are getting them addressed. This is contrary to previous nursing culture, which often had an unspoken "don't talk" rule when it came to notifying others about drug abusing colleagues' behavior.

Finally, drugs themselves are much more carefully kept track of and monitored than they were previously. Most often, they're kept under lock and key and strict records are maintained so that if any shortages should occur, they are immediately noticed and the reason for the shortage is found. If it is because someone on the nursing staff has been taking it for his or her own use, measures are put in place to address the problem through intervention and help, and if necessary to remove the nurse from his or her job.

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Free Drug Rehab

Almost anyone with a substance addiction is looking for free drug rehab. Unfortunately it can often be difficult to find. One form of free drug rehab are support groups that will meet a few times per week in your city and may specialize in various substances. These are a great way to meet a supportive group of people who are in various stages of coping with an addiction that is similar to yours. They can provide an environment of understanding and can relate to what you are going through when it's often difficult to find people in your normal life who have any sense of the difficulty of the job you are doing.

It would be nice if you could find free drug rehab residential treatment facilities. Often these are very rare and I don't think that prison really counts! It's worth looking at the charity and nonprofit agencies in your area to see if they sponsor any free rehab programs and ask their advice about where you can get support that does not cost too much money. As most people know, the hardest cost of drug rehab is not really the financial cost: it's the personal commitment to removing a substance from your life and regaining your former substance free life that you had before. The most important thing is a sincere personal commitment to getting over the addiction. Even the best free treatment program won't work well if you don't really want to kick the drug addiction you have.

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The Key to a Successful Family Intervention

The family intervention checklist is a guide for preparing an intervention for alcohol and/or drug addiction in order to get a person into appropriate treatment. Don't plan an intervention using just these guidelines alone. Do this only with an experienced interventions specialist.

Bring together three to eight people who are important to the alcoholic and are willing to learn how to help.
Work and pull together as a team, for there is the one purpose and end goal to get the client safe and into treatment.

Set up a planning meeting to discuss moving forward with the family intervention, this can be done an hour before away from the client the family intervention is for.

Choose a detail person for at the family intervention.

Choose a team chairperson, normally the family interventions specialist.

Discuss the importance of not alerting the alcoholic to the intervention plans.

List ways you've tried to help the alcoholic that may have enabled the drug or alcohol addiction.

Put in writing all the negative consequences caused by the addiction problem.

Write a one- to two-page letter to the alcoholic or addict.

Read your letters to each other, editing out anger, blame, and judgment.

Determine bottom lines, and write them down on a separate page.

Test each other's willingness to follow through with the bottom lines.

Identify financial resources for covering treatment costs.

Set a date, time and place for the rehearsal and the family intervention.

Create a plan likely to guarantee the alcoholic's or drug addict's presence at the intervention.

Identify objections the alcoholic or drug addict may use to avoid or postpone treatment, then formulate your answers.

Pack a suitcase using the guidelines provided by the clinic treatment staff.

Determine who should drive the alcoholic or drug addict from the intervention to treatment.

Compile a list of all prescribed medications the alcoholic or drug addict is presently using.

Decide where each person will sit, including the alcoholic or drug addict for the family intervention.

Discuss the order in which you'll read your letters.

Find a place to park your cars out the way from the addicts view so as not to alert them.

Script the chairman's introduction and closing statement.

Review objections and answers.

Plan to arrive at the family intervention location 30 minutes before the alcoholic drug addict is expected to be there.

If the client intervention is taking place at the alcoholic's or drug addict's home, arrive as a group.

Collect all letters and send them to the alcoholic's or drug treatment counselor.

Once at the treatment center reassure your client every step of the way through the booking in process.

Intervention is the most powerful tool to help someone struggling with alcohol or drug addiction.

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Effects of Steroids in High School Athletes - How to Avoid It

As a certified personal trainer & gym owner, I am very much concerned about the effects of steroids in our youth, especially high school athletes. I know what the negative effects of taking steroids are, not only physically but mentally and socially as well.
Steroids are the performance-enhancing substances that have caused more losses than wins in the life of High School athletes. "We have a serious steroids problem among our country's youth." Stated California state senator Jackie Speier, a Democrat from the Bay Area
Different reasons were raised why many adolescents use or abuse steroids.
1. To improve their athletic performance. Many athletes saw recourse to use performance enhancer substances because the pressure to win is enormous.
2. To increase their muscle size or to reduce their body fat. This group is suffering from the behavioral syndrome called muscle dysmorphia, people who think they have distorted figure. It is so alarming because according to a study, 9-to-11-year-old females use steroids to enhance their build too.
3. Part of a pattern of high-risk behaviors. Like the thrill that they get from drinking and driving, driving a motorcycle without a helmet, carrying a gun, and abusing other illicit drugs, taking steroids give that adrenaline they can't explain.

How to Determine Steroid Abusers
Individuals who abuse steroids can experience withdrawal symptoms (like many other prohibited drugs) when they stop taking steroids, such as mood swings, restlessness, fatigue, insomnia, loss of appetite, reduced sex drive, and steroid cravings. Depression is the most dangerous of the withdrawal symptoms, because oftentimes it leads to suicide attempts.

What can be done to prevent steroid abuse?
According to the researchers who do the study on steroid educational programs, it has shown that simply teaching students about steroids' undesirable effects does not convince them that they can be adversely affected, nor does such teaching discourage young people from taking steroids in the future. But presenting both the risks and benefits of using anabolic steroid is more effective in convincing them about steroids' negative effects, apparently because the student-athletes find a balanced approach more credible.

Thanks to the effort of some groups and individuals like the New Anti-Steroid Measures that are being implemented in California and they are:
• A written policy that ban steroid use in which must be signed by all student-athletes and their parents/guardian. Violators would be subject to school penalties.
• Mandated training and education in muscle-building dietary supplements and steroids for the state's coaches to help them spot steroid use and warn the players about the health dangers.
• A strict prohibition on school sponsorships from any muscle-building supplements. Encouraging or distributing muscle-building supplements from any school staff members would lead a ban for them. Violators would deal to personnel actions by their schools or districts.
Another thing is about the Adolescent Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids Program (ATLAS). It was designed to reduce the use of anabolic steroids among high school athletes. The program combined weight-training and classroom sessions, to teach students about nutrition, strength training, and risk factors for steroid use.

The Athletes Targeting Healthy Exercise and Nutrition Alternatives (ATHENA) program was modeled after the ATLAS program, but designed for adolescent athlete girls. Early study of girls enrolled in this program showed significant decreases in risky behaviors. ATHENA team members were more likely to wear seatbelts, less likely to ride in a car with a driver who had been drinking, less likely to be sexually active, and they experienced fewer injuries during the sports season.

With these initiatives for stopping the use of steroids in our young athletes, let's make our own efforts, parents and guardians, to monitor closely our youngster and educate them in the caring informative way before it was too late...

Real Andrews is an actor by profession who is very passionate about the health and wellness industry, a Certified Personal Trainer & Gym Owner. He is very passionate about making a difference in the State of health in our Country. Visit his blog for more health-related articles.

Real is an expert at helping people achieve their dreams & Goals. You might recognize him as Lt. Taggert from the ABC Show General Hospital.
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Drug Companies Accountable For Damage

The Purdue Pharma $634 million fine incurred for misleading the public, and doctors, about the addictiveness of OxyContin really made the headlines. But the Purdue fine is only the tip of the iceberg; billions of dollars are paid out in settlements every year for prescription drugs' dangerous side effects, not the least of which is prescription drug addiction.

In 2007, Merck agreed to a $4.85 billion settlement for their Vioxx painkiller alone.

Big pharma is the most profitable industry going, but as the lawsuits pile up and cut into those dollars some drug companies are feeling the crunch.

Desperate to hold onto more of their ill-gotten money, drug companies waited with baited breath for the Supreme Court ruling in the case of Diana Levine, a Vermont guitarist who lost the use of her arm to gangrene after using an intravenous push injection injection of Phenergan, an anti-nausea drug made by Wyeth.

Levine said the warning label was inadequate, sued in her home state and was awarded $6.7 million. Wyeth appealed, affirming that they had fulfilled their obligations on a federal level, through the FDA, and were therefore immune to any state charges.

Had the appeal been successful, it would have set a precedent that could prevent any state from hearing a suit against a drug company, assuming their drug or device had FDA approval, and awarding damages.

The Supreme Court, however, upheld the Vermont verdict, much to the dismay of the drug companies.

A Merck spokesman said that state courts that accept suits and award damages are second-guessing the doctors and scientists at the FDA. Wyeth's lawyer made a similar comment.

Judging by the number of deaths and injuries caused by prescription drugs the FDA approves, it's clear that much more second-guessing has, in fact, been needed. The agency is apparently incapable of determining when a drug or device is safe and when it's not, or they've been duped by the drug companies. Or both.

Have you been damaged by prescription drugs? Has someone you care about had to go into an addiction treatment center to get off them? Or worse?

The drug companies may not be on your side, but the law is. Drug companies are responsible for ensuring their drugs are safe. If their products have hurt you, they're accountable. Don't be afraid to acknowledge your problem and stand up for your rights.
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Addiction Cures They Don't Want You to Know About

You may not immediately understand this, but all addictions are the same thing. For instance, alcohol and sugar addiction are the same thing.

Yes, they are the same thing. Sugar is a slower metabolizing sugar than alcohol. Alcohol just hits you immediately. Wheat, milk and protein can also have a narcotic effect similar to opium. Yes, it's hard to quit milk and wheat for many people because they are addicted.

There is a way to get over these addictions however. Regardless of what the addiction is, the process is always the same. The substance hi-jacks some sort of biological process. Nicotine hi-jacks the dopamine metabolism process which allows us to feel good. So when you quit your dopamine levels go to zero which makes it normally impossible to feel good.

The easiest way to reverse any of these addictions is to take back the biological process that has been stolen. You can actually use things called "super foods" in a few hours to do this. This may sound stupid, but some people have actually reported that they have "forgotten to smoke for the past 3 days".

You can use chocolate without chemicals or caffeine added, and has been processed in a way that removes caffeine. It doesn't have milk or sugar in it. It's 100% raw organic cocoa powder and it's very inexpensive online.

Chocolate is one of the only substances that operates on all of the hormonal receptors, and also vanilla, which has far less studies done on it because it is so cheap.

You can try going to entire day simply by taking the 100% pure chocolate and most people can clear their addictions.
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