Rockland, Maine Drug Rehab Information

Prescription drug addiction generally occurs with those medications which suppress pain of a physical or emotional nature. Painkillers suppress physical pain and many are taken at levels exceeding recommended dosages and tolerance builds up fast, abuse then continues in an attempt to handle the pain, or just out of fear of future pain. Medications such as anti-depressants are designed to suppress various forms of mental stress or duress. Abuse of these is similar to painkillers in that dosages are exceeded and tolerance builds leading to more and more of the drug needed in an attempt to maintain emotional balance. Prescription drug addiction in both these cases results from trying to mask the symptoms rather than treating and resolving the underlying causes of the physical or emotional pain.

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.

Heroin is a highly addictive illegal drug. During the 1800’s opium addiction was a major problem in the U.S. Morphine was developed as supposedly a non-addictive substitute for opium but proved to be even more addictive. The same is true of Heroin which was a supposedly non addictive replacement for morphine, but again is actually more addictive than opium or morphine. In more modern times we know have methadone as a supposed ‘solution’ to heroin addiction. Methadone is even more addictive than heroin. If withdrawal from heroin can be gruesome and harrowing, then methadone is even worse and can be life- threatening if unsupervised.

Addiction therapy is a very loose term given to hundreds of different methods of assisting the addicted individual or his family. The could include nutrition, withdrawal, simply talking, formalized therapy sessions, replacing one drug with another as in methadone treatment, or any of countless other methods. At Narconon Arrowhead the addiction therapies we find most workable are drug free withdrawal, followed with FULL detoxification of drug and toxins from the body, A full handling of the three main factors of addiction – cravings, quilt, and depression. These last items are handled with a multi-phase approach which delivers into the hands of the individual actual tools and abilities to fully resolve these points and so arrive at a drug free productive life that he can and does maintain.