TreatmentTalk – social issues

Addiction is an equal-opportunity destroyer. It has no respect for anyone. ~ Joe Herzanek

When I started the teenage years with my children, I never imagined it would end with their substance abuse and addiction. One of the things that is deceiving for parents is that if you experimented in high school or college and left it at that – experimentation – you expect that your children will as well.

Some parents may not be surprised if their kids try drinking and maybe even if they smoke marijuana, as they feel this is still within the range of normal teenage behavior. Everyone agrees that harder drugs are dangerous.

Many teens do try drinking and smoking pot and don’t become addicted. Our inner feeling and hope is that this is a temporary situation and it will pass as our children grow and mature.

Yet, this experimentation can become an issue because our kids are taking a risk. We have no way to predict whether our child will later become addicted to alcohol, marijuana or any number of other drugs. I know, as a former parent of a teenager, this is one of the biggest challenges.

In the 2009 DAWN* survey of hospital Emergency Department visits, marijuana was involved in 375,000 emergency room visits, with about two-thirds (65%) of patients being male, and 12 percent between the ages of 12 and 17.

Did you ever experiment with drinking and drugs? I know I did. Many of us tried drinking during our teen years, and many of us have memories of occasionally over doing it. We were not comfortable with how we felt the next day. It just didn’t feel right.

When I graduated from college, married and started working, any experimentation with drugs and drinking to excess had no place in my life. Something inside me gave that clear message, that enough is enough. It is time to grow up and be responsible. I followed that inner voice. Call it maturity or the end of a rite of passage, but it was not difficult. I hardly remember the transition at all.

That is the difference between what alcoholics call “normal” people and people with addictive personalities. When you are an addict, there is no inner voice strong enough to let you know that it is time to stop. Your habit has taken over. You know deep down that your habit is unhealthy, but you have lost all control. That inner voice is never heard, because the drug is the one who is now in control of your brain.

You cannot tell in advance if you will become addicted. It is true that some people are more at risk than others—if you have a family member with drug problems you may be at greater risk since addiction is about 50% genetics. NIDA

Prescription drug abuse is now the latest drug of choice. For your children, this drug may be the easiest of all to find. It is “legal” and can be found right at home in your medicine cabinet. Take a moment to lock up your medications. This is an overall good practice, but especially if you have teens living at home. It is a protection for them.

In 2007, prescription pain medications like Vicodin and OxyContin were involved in more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined. ~ NIDA

Where does that leave our kids? It leaves us all in the situation of understanding that when our kids drink and use drugs, this may be a phase, or it may be the start of their downhill slide into alcoholism or drug addiction that will turn into a battle for their life.

Addiction has taught me many things. Here are ten:

1) Addiction doesn’t discriminate. No one is immune and I am not alone with this disease. I never thought addiction could happen to our family, but it did.

2) I cannot control my child’s or anyone’s addiction.

3) Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that goes beyond the addict’s use of drugs.

4) To help yourself and your child, you need to educate yourself about addiction.

5) Let go of expectations. Worry or future tripping has no positive outcome.

6) Addiction disconnects us from ourself, others, our spirituality and our life.

7) Finding a quiet time each day to access your inner thoughts will bring you closer to peace and serenity.

8) Al-Anon gave me the strength to carry on. Parents in this situation need support. We can support each other.

9) Take the time for self care to keep your body and your mind in a healthy state.

10) The stigma of addiction holds us back from getting the help we may need, and from having addiction reach the same level of awareness as other worthy causes such as Breast Cancer or AIDS.

At the end of the day, addiction is the card that I have been dealt. For some reason, it was meant to be part of my life. I’ve needed to accept and understand why this disease affected my family. With every experience there is a lesson and usually a silver lining.

I would not wish this disease on you or any of your family members, but since I’ve already experienced it, I can say with all truthfulness, that although my life will never be the same, it is better for having had the experience. I have met some amazing people because of it, and I hope through my journey, I have become a better person.

By educating yourself on the dangers of substance abuse and addiction, my hope is that your family will be spared this devastating disease.

All we can do is adapt the way we view this condition, not as a crime or a romantic affectation but as a disease that will kill. ~ Russell Brand

What are your thoughts about teens and substance abuse? How can we help our kids stay healthy? I would love to connect with you on twitter and Facebook.

Take care,

USC Trojan Family – We Are Addicts

Do you wonder why you or your family member became addicted? I know I do. This is the million dollar question.

The thing is this disease has been a mystery to all of us for many years. As a parent, I have often wondered why some kids who experiment along with their friends, become addicted while others survive unscathed. Why addiction occurs in some families and not others is one that we would all love a concrete answer to.

We want to understand the deep rooted cause. If we had the answer to this question, many lives could be saved from this emotional destructive disease.

Suzanne Wu wrote an article for the USC Trojan Family Publication about the research this university is doing to learn more about the cause of addiction which challenges conventional wisdom. It’s reassuring to know that universities such as USC (University of Southern California) are putting dollars toward the disease, and that they are doing in depth research on the mystery of addiction.

Although many would like to believe that addiction is on the fringe of society, one researcher Steven Sussman, who claims he was a workaholic at one point, recently published an article that tried to explain 83 studies about addiction. He shared his finding that in a given year 47 percent of the U.S. adult population will suffer from an addiction – a severe addiction.

That is startling news that almost one half of the population will be affected by this disease. I’m not sure this is a statistic that the general population is aware of. These addictions would include more than just drugs or alcohol.

From the website, Masters in Public Health the top ten addictions in 2010 were media (any form of mass media) tobacco (nicotine), alcohol, marijuana, food, gambling, prescription drugs, bulimia, Cocaine, and Hallucinogens.

As Sussman notes, some addictions, such as those that do not have legal consequences or others such as addicted retirees may be harder to track. Some addictions cause more problems for the addict and society than others.

Listed below are some of the findings from the researchers listed in Suzanne’s article on USC addiction research, which I found particularly interesting.

• Alcoholism alone costs the United States an estimated $185 billion per year. (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism)

• Addiction is a disease of decision-making and bad choices…Addiction is a failure to learn from mistakes.

• Substance and behavioral addictions tap into a core brain system: the mesolimbic pathway governing pleasure and reward.

• Addiction is governed by nothing less the pursuit of happiness. We are all wired to want to feel good.

• Different addictions work on the brain in different ways.

• Impulsive tendencies is a trait that has a high correlation with addiction.

• Addiction is the result of both genes and opportunity – of nature and nurture.

• One researcher found that from 2000 to 2007, when high-speed Internet access had the highest expansion, was also the largest increase in hopsital admissions for prescription drug abuse.

• There are also genetic causes for addiction. Opiate addiction was linked to the presence of chromosome 14q, a genetic predisposition much more prevalent among certain ethnic groups.

• Early adolescence, family and social environment is the most critical indicator of whether a child will try alcohol, cigarettes or marijuana.

• NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) is already funding studies on compulsive gambling that may pave the way for new insights into addiction.

• Researchers have found that smokers with lesions on a deep-seated, prune-sized part of the brain called the insula were able to quit smoking immediately, completely and easily, which Nora Volkow director of NIDA found “mind-boggling.”

• Addiction, including habits such as smoking, is about persisting in a behavior despite knowledge of negative consequences.

• Even after they have been clean for a period of years, there seems to be a permanent decrease in their dopamine receptors, making it more difficult for former cocaine addicts to feel pleasure.

• If addiction is a disease, it is a disease of self-destruction – as if people with skin cancer kept sneaking outside without sunscreen on cloudless days.

• One of addictions greatest enablers is secrecy.

• We are able to control ourselves if there are consequences to the reward we are seeking. There are areas in the brain that are in charge of this ability to self-control, which is a new way of looking at addiction.

• As humans, we have the capacity to make the big conceptual maneuver required for trading short-term pleasure for long-term goals.

• We as humans have the ability to weather the storm of self destruction. We are able to get better.

Other universities are studying addiction as well. As more information becomes available, hopefully fewer people will suffer the consequences of this devastating disease. Be sure to read the full article titled, We Are Addicts.

If you enjoyed this post, consider a free email subscription and receive my ebook, “Embrace the New Life.” Connect with me on twitter and on Facebook. What other information can you add regarding addiction? Join the discussion and let us know in comments.