Methamphetamine Addiction
Addiction is a chronic, relapsing condition, characterized by compulsive drug-seeking and
drug use which is accompanied by functional and molecular changes in the brain. In addition to being addicted to methamphetamine, chronic methamphetamine abusers exhibit symptoms that can include violent behavior, anxiety, confusion, and insomnia. They also can display a number of psychotic features, including paranoia, auditory hallucinations, mood disturbances, and delusions. The paranoia can result in homicidal as well as suicidal thoughts. With chronic use, tolerance for methamphetamine can develop. Users may take higher doses of the drug, take it more frequently, or change their method of drug intake. In some cases, abusers forego food and sleep while injecting as much as a gram of the drug every 2 to 3 hours over several days until the user runs out of the drug or is too disorganized to continue. Chronic
abuse can lead to psychotic behavior, characterized by intense paranoia, visual and auditory hallucinations, and out-of-control rages that can be coupled with extremely violent behavior.
Drug Rehab Information By State
With regular heroin use, tolerance develops. This means the abuser must use more heroin to achieve the same intensity or effect. As higher doses are used over time, physical dependence and
addiction develop. With physical dependence, the body has adapted to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms may occur if use is reduced or stopped. Withdrawal, which in regular abusers may occur as early as a few hours after the last administration, produces drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (‘old turkey’), kicking movements (‘kicking the habit’), and other symptoms. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 48 and 72 hours after the last dose and subside after about a week. Sudden withdrawal by heavily dependent users who are in poor health is occasionally fatal, although heroin withdrawal is considered much less dangerous than alcohol or barbiturate withdrawal.
There are various forms and methods of ingesting drugs and toxins. Orally, nasally, injecting, and smoking are a few of these. The effects from smoking drugs as opposed to orally ingesting them or nasally generally creates a more intense effect faster. This is one of the factors that make crack cocaine a tougher
addiction to break than powder cocaine.
Drugs like Oxycontin are often ground up and mixed with other drugs and smoked for faster more intense highs as well. Also many times the harder drugs like heroin are smoked under the misunderstanding that the risk of
addiction is lower and this is definitely not true.
Addiction is addiction, some methods of taking drugs will take you to addiction faster and with more devastating effects.
A short stay in a
rehab hospital is sometimes and important and vital beginning to the drug
rehabilitation process.
This is not required in all cases by a long ways.
However some extreme cases of
alcoholism as well as some cases of prescription drug
abuse necessitate very close medical supervision.
These substances can present life threatening side affects is use is ceased cold turkey.
This is quite different from randomly giving out substitute drugs because someone is uncomfortable or fearful. This should be evaluated by competent medical professionals who are thoroughly familiar with the
treatment of drug and alcohol addiction. Most addicts do well with a drug free withdrawal process, while a small percentage are going to require a medically supervised step down at a
rehab hospital.
Narconon Arrowhead is not only a drug
addiction rehab, but is also a drug
abuse rehab.
In reality these two are very similar with the main difference being degree of use.
If we understand drug
abuse as ‘the harmful and illegal non-medicinal use of drugs or alcohol’; and
addiction as
‘a condition characterized by repeated, compulsive seeking and use of drugs, alcohol or other similar substances despite social, mental, and physical consequences’ we see that the line between the two is small at best.
Cravings, guilt, and depression resulting from drug or alcohol use are the common denominators between the two and ARE the points needing resolved if one is to achieve lasting sobriety from either abuse or addiction.
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