Many people who struggle with substance use may feel awkward calling it an addiction. There is still a lot of stigma behind that word, and it may not feel accurate based on how you used drugs. Maybe you were a binge drinker or “only partied a few times a week.” Substance use disorder doesn't care how much you used or what you used. The words are more nuanced than that. The term means anyone who uses illicit substances, drinks to get drunk, or misuses substances, usually to their own detriment.

Are You Using Substances To Get High Or Drunk?

A person with a substance use disorder uses street drugs, alcohol, prescription pills, or other substances to get high. For example, a person whose drug of choice is alcohol may drink only to get drunk.

Substance use disorder is a term to describe anyone who has an unhealthy or dependent relationship with alcohol, illicit drugs, or prescription drugs. Illegal drugs are marijuana, heroin, cocaine, or any other drug you can buy on the street. People who drink to get drunk typically have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. A person who misuses substances may be taking a legal prescription, but more than prescribed because they are trying to get more of a side effect such as euphoria.

People with substance use disorders often use drugs impulsively and obsess over their drug use. Addiction can cause cycles of heavy drug use, followed by pain and regret, that lead to more use. Nobody chooses to have a substance use disorder, but you can decide to get help when you realize you may have a problem.

Accepting That You May Have Substance Use Disorder

Using drugs or alcohol is an unhealthy coping skill that can keep you from living life to your full potential. If you find that your alcohol or substance use interferes with your quality of life, you probably have a substance use disorder. Many drugs are highly addictive, including alcohol. Addiction can cause many negative consequences in your life, such as financial problems, relationship issues, and even trouble with the law.

Admitting you need help is the first step toward recovery. Take an honest look at your life right now. Are you happy with it? Are you accomplishing the things you want? Are your relationships being hindered by your substance use? Have you lost anything due to the substances you use? Are you lacking money, relationships, or self-respect? Addiction can cause a lot of harm.

You don’t have to be a “fall-down drunk” or live on the streets to have a problem with alcohol or drugs. If you’re unhappy and having trouble quitting substances, you may have a problem with them.

We now know that substance use disorder is a disease of the brain. It’s not a moral failing or something you need to be locked away for. Instead, there is now treatment that can help you reclaim your life. You’re worth the work!

Getting Help for Addiction

If you or somebody you love has a problem with drugs, we’re here to help. You can reclaim your life and get started on the path to healing and wellness. Get in touch with your questions at 619-363-4767. All calls are confidential.

Many people take prescription medications under the supervision of their doctors. However, some drugs that are prescribed have the potential for abuse. In addition, people who take these medications may not be aware of their addictive nature until it is too late. People with opioid use disorder, for example, often don’t realize the extent of their addiction until they try to stop using opioids and suffer severe withdrawal symptoms.

Legally obtained prescriptions are one of the most commonly abused drugs in America. While most drugs are meant to improve our quality of life or our health, some also have side effects that can cause misuse and lead to a substance use disorder.

What Prescription Drugs Are Addictive?

Any drug that can alter your state of mind, cause euphoria, or other pleasurable side effects can be addictive.

• Some of the most addictive prescription drugs are opioids (narcotics) such as Oxycontin or Vicoden. People addicted to opioids can suffer severe withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop using after regular drug use.
• Barbiturates, also known as downers or sedatives, are also frequently abused. One drug in this category is phenobarbital, a powerful sedative.
• Benzodiazepines are prescription medications commonly used to quell anxiety or help a person relax their muscles. This drug class includes drugs like Klonopin or Valium that can cause a drowsy, calm, and sedate effect in their users. These feelings can be pleasurable, especially for people who have anxiety.
• People sometimes abuse sleep medications. For example, drugs like Ambien can cause side effects like sleepwalking or hallucinations when people take more of the drug than prescribed.
• Amphetamines like Adderall are often prescribed for people who have an ADHD diagnosis. The drugs are also sometimes used by people who want to lose weight or “cram” for classes in college. However, at higher doses, these drugs function as speed and can have dangerous withdrawal symptoms. They also can cause cardiac arrest.

Who Abuses Prescription Drugs?

People of all ages have the potential to abuse prescription medications.

When a drug is addictive, there is always a potential for misuse when a doctor prescribes it. For example, it’s common for a person using an opioid for pain relief to take an extra pill or take their next dose early to get more of a euphoric feeling.

Sometimes, though, a person who misuses prescription drugs may not have been prescribed them. For example, adolescents who experiment with drugs might take medication from their mother or grandfather’s pill bottle when they are not looking. This scenario is why it is so important to properly dispose of opioids and other prescription drugs if you’re not using them.

Symptoms of Prescription Drug Misuse

People who are abusing substances will often change their behavior. For example, they may be more secretive or less talkative. In addition, young people who are using drugs will sometimes change their friend circle. They may have trouble getting to work on time, have financial issues, or even get in trouble with the law.

If a person is misusing prescription drugs, they may also display the following behavior:

• Splitting pills or having multiple bottles of drugs in the room - usually from more than one doctor. Sometimes there will be evidence of tablets being crushed into powder and snorted.
• Doctor-shopping and getting multiple prescriptions for the same health issue.
• Looking unkempt or not caring about their appearance.
• Buying drugs or pills off the internet or seeing multiple internet doctors for the same problems.
• Refusing to talk about their health problems or prescription pill usage.

Each drug, however, has its own side effects. For example, a person who is misusing Adderall may stay up all night for days, while a person who is on opioids may appear to be sleeping all the time.

You can learn more about prescription drug abuse on this blog and recognize the symptoms of addiction. In addition, information on specific prescription drugs can help you learn about the signs of misuse and the dangers or side effects.

Getting Help for Addiction

If you or somebody you love need help with a substance use problem, we’re here to guide you. Learn more about our programs and how we can help you get on the road to recovery by calling us at 619-363-4767.

Have you or somebody you love started to drink too much during the pandemic? You’re not alone. Almost every adult generation has seen an increase in substance since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. And for many people, that means drinking too much has become a coping method. The term “pandemic drinking” has become a casual euphemism for this dangerous behavior.

Fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters are all living in a new world. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected people and families from every walk of life. Even when we have a reliable vaccine or treatment, we will probably still be coping with the aftereffects. Hopefully, people who have a problem with pandemic drinking can get the help they need.

Why Are People Pandemic Drinking?

The era of COVID-19 is a lonely time for many people, primarily because, as humans, our mental health relies on being social. It can be hard to connect or reach out to others when you’re home alone and struggling. You may think it’s easier to drink than to talk about your feelings. However, alcohol addiction can take over your life. You may find yourself drinking during the day or having to drink more or harder liquor to get the buzz you crave.

Alcohol is a common “escape” for people who are depressed, anxious, or lonely. Nobody binge-drinks or drinks until they blackout because they’re happy in life.

Many people think that drinking more heavily can help them cope with stress, sleep problems, boredom, and loneliness. But this is simply an escape that can have dire consequences.

Consequences of Regular Alcohol Abuse

People who drink too much right now may have struggled with their alcohol use in the past. You may have consumed a lot of beer in college or when you were going through a difficult time. No matter what the reason is that you’re drinking it, alcohol is not a safe coping mechanism. It has long-term health consequences, contributes to many social ills, and can cause intense withdrawal effects.

Some withdrawal effects from heavy alcoholism cause life-threatening consequences, such as hallucinations, heart palpitations, or seizures.

Alcohol abuse doesn’t fix any problems, but it can introduce new ones to your life. You don’t have to hit bottom to get help. Even during a pandemic, there are programs ready and willing to help you reclaim your life.

Getting Help for Alcohol or Substance Abuse

While drinking is seen as a more acceptable addiction, it is still a dangerous addiction that can cause significant problems in your life. It inhibits your ability to make good, rational decisions. Some people get DUI’s or even commit acts of rage or violence when they drink too much.

Abusing alcohol also makes you more likely to overdose on other drugs you use.

Getting Help for Alcohol or Substance Abuse

If you’re drinking too much during the pandemic or need help with substance use, there’s never been a better time to reach out. We’re here for you to help you start a new journey and reclaim your life. We can help you navigate your options and start charting your course to recovery and healing. Give us a call at 619-363-4767 to learn more about how we can help.

Drinking can cause a lot of problems for people, especially the drinker. Long-term drinking makes the drinker at still at risk for a myriad of issues, including mental health disorders and specific conditions and diseases. One particularly severe health problem that an alcoholic might have is “wet brain,” a slang term for Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. The syndrome is a dangerous disorder caused by alcoholism. A severe thiamine deficiency causes it.

Alcohol Abuse Causes Nutritional Deficiencies

Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency is common among people who chronically abuse alcohol. People who have been drinking heavily for an extended period of time don’t always have the best diet. Pair this with the fact that alcohol prevents thiamine absorption, and there are several health problems that a drinker can be susceptible to.

Not every person who has a thiamine deficiency gets wet brain. But a large number of people who chronically abuse alcohol have nutritional deficiencies that can lead to blood diseases, dementia, and other serious health problems.

Understanding “Wet Brain”

The term “wet brain” has been around a long time. It’s a term that’s used to describe Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome and a collection of symptoms caused by thiamine deficiency.

Symptoms in the early stage of the disease include a loss of appetite, fatigue, and irritability. These symptoms are all familiar to doctors and, in general, can signal a variety of conditions. A person with an alcohol use disorder may have multiple deficiencies.

Another, more evident and alarming symptom of wet brain is problems with motor coordination. A person with this condition may have slow reaction times even if they haven’t been drinking.

Thiamine is an essential vitamin to the body. When the brain is starved of it, it causes brain damage, which can lead to dementia. This means that a person may seem psychotic or have delusions. They may have significant lapses in the memory.

Curing Wet Brain

Because wet brain is brain damage, it cannot be cured. Some symptoms can be treated, but brain damage is usually severe. Treatment for a vitamin deficiency can be treated with injections or an IV. If treated immediately, the damage can be minimized.

Getting Help for Alcohol Addiction

Do you or somebody you love have a problem with drinking or drugs? Help is available. You’re not alone. No one has to be vulnerable to this disorder! Recovery from alcohol addiction is possible. We offer a safe, comforting, safe environment to get and stay sober.

Learn more about our detox services at 619-363-4767.

Addiction (also known as substance use disorder) is a devious and sometimes confusing disease. However, many signs and symptoms may alert loved ones to the fact that a person is in trouble with their drug or alcohol use. Drug-seeking behavior, financial issues, and drama with relationships and even the law are signs that something is wrong. People who are addicted to drugs may have different symptoms, depending on the drug they use. People can become addicted to any mind-altering substance. However, some drugs are more addictive than others. These are important to know because “hitting bottom” or experiencing negative consequences can snowball quickly for the drug user as they begin to need more of the drug.

1. Heroin: Heroin is one of the most addictive drugs and one of the most dangerous. It’s been used in many years all over the world as a narcotic, derived from the poppy plant. As an opiate, heroin quickly affects the brain, eliminating any pain signals and giving the user an intense euphoric high. Users rapidly also develop a tolerance to the drug, making them need more amounts to get the same rush they first experienced when getting high. When a person who uses heroin problems tries to cease using, they experience intense withdrawal symptoms. Often they choose to use again because these symptoms are so unpleasant or painful.

2. Opioids: Similar to heroin, opioids are fueling an addiction crisis across the Unit4ed States due to lax prescribing and regulation. Opioids such as Oxycontin, Percocet, and Vicoden are all highly addictive drugs. They operate in the same way as heroin, with the difference being that they’re pharmaceutical drugs. They are made in a lab, not from the poppy plant, but they work the same way. Withdrawal is a considerable issue that stops people from getting help for this addiction, and people often resort to heroin when they can’t get their drug of choice.

3. Crack cocaine: Crack cocaine spurred a crisis of addiction, drug wars and mass incarceration throughout primarily inner-city communities in the 1990’s. Many stereotypes still surround this drug, and a lot of stigmas encompass its use. However, crack is incredibly similar (just more potent) to its more “designer” counterpart, cocaine. Crack is considered more addictive than cocaine because it’s more powerful, and its high is short-lived. Many people who use crack are unable to quit because of its powerful high. It gives users euphoria and more energy, making them jittery as well as high. The intense lasts about 15 minutes. People who become addicted to crack crash from that high and seek it again immediately, without realizing that they are quickly becoming addicted to the drug.

3. Methamphetamine: This drug is also an “upper” with a high that can last for hours and cause the user to stay awake for hours or days. The high stimulates almost ten times as much of dopamine as is normal, causing extreme euphoria, adrenaline and sometimes paranoia too. The brain chemistry is immediately effected when a person has used meth. With the extreme high comes an extreme crash – making the user feel depressed and lethargic almost immediately after they “come down”. The withdrawal effects of meth are dangerous and can include nausea, vomiting, tremors, fever, seizures and hallucinations.

Many other drugs are addictive out there, but these are some of the most dangerous and, unfortunately, popular among addicted persons. Help is available no matter how bad you feel your addiction is! Recovery is possible.

If you or somebody you know thinks they have a problem with drugs, help is available. Please give us a call at 619-363-4767.

Ohio codifies recovery residence principles in groundbreaking legislation | Addiction Professional Magazine

Many States believe the a Sober Living Environment (SLE) is a great place go on day 31 of ones recovery journey. The treatment plan is being extended to an Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) but the person is not ready, willing or able to go home or start a new living sitution just yet. This is where we help. If the community could would embrace the fact these homes (most anyway, FYI, I am all-in for inspections and regulations from industry groups like NARR , just not government agencies) serve a vital role in the Treatment Plan for a person living a life in recovery. Ohio is setting a great standard that California should look closely at...

Why Pay Per Leads, Call Centers, Patient Brokers and Fixing Dollar Signs to Clients are Horrible Ideas

• Published on October 25, 2016 on LinkedIn

David Skonezny, CADC-II, ICADC

Behavioral Healthcare Consultant

DEXTOX from Drugs and Alcohol can be a comfortable

Treatment of Addictive Disorders in the 21st Century

By Phillip Milgram, MD, Medical Director @ Present Moments Recovery

Recent advances and experience with the treatment of physical, chemical and habitual dependence, and with attempts to individualize treatment and engage unwilling or biased participants in traditional 12-step programs demand a discussion of how treatment can be more successful currently, than in the past.

“Treatment” consists of the gamut of use and abuse to identification, intervention, detoxification, introduction into rehabilitation, dedication to recovery, lifestyle changes, sober living, intensive outpatient and ongoing individual and group therapies. Predictors of successful recovery include rigorous self honesty, willingness to change, accepting direction, cleaning your side of the street, identifying and dealing with past issues so you can let go of them, social networking, admission of one’s faults to another human being, seeking authenticity and assisting others. As one who has personally found a new way to live in the 12-steps, I know to the deepest introspection; that to each of these contributors to successful program of recovery I can respond with “Yes, and by the way; AA has that”. As a treatment professional for 25+ years and with 28 years of dedicated personal recovery and a commitment to addiction treatment as my personal cause; I would like to discuss some recent discoveries that can serve to increase the success of recovery treatment.

The detox with Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD) is a game changer. I believe that therapeutic use of NAD will prove to be one of the greatest discoveries in medicine since Fleming invented penicillin. As an experienced Detox MD, and a member of “Like-Minded Docs” I have managed hundreds of patients with traditional “white knuckle” detox, and now personally observed almost 100 detoxes with NAD infusion therapy. NAD is a game changer. If you respond with the common 12-step old-timer response “there is nothing really new. They are just promoting already known concepts to make it sound new, softer and easier”: you are partially right, and partially wrong. If you are staunchly in that belief, you are just ignorant. The intent of this article is partially to attempt to enlighten you to an absolutely better detox: NAD. The part of the statement that is true, is that NAD, or Coenzyme 1; part of Vitamin B3; that is present in every living cell of your body and responsible for many intracellular, extracellular and nervous system health was what Bill W. and his doctors discovered in the 1930’s. The problem was that, for reasons we won’t discuss here, they used the entire Niacin molecule, and not the pure NAD portion. The pure NAD, only recently available from a limited manufacturing process and administered with concomitant nutritional protocols with care for purity and stability of the pure NAD molecule; results in an incredible benefit for the detoxification process.

In summary: *(Adapted, in part from “The NAD Story—The Big Picture”, by James Watson MD)

1. Alcohol metabolism causes NAD+ deficiency 
2. NAD affects the reward circuits in the brain (nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area) common to all addictions that involve endogenous brain opioids, GABA and Dopamine 
3. NAD affects the stress circuits in the brain, which are responsible for the discomfort known as withdrawal 
4. These stress circuits play into the high occurrence of mental disease, specifically anxiety/depression and the various range of Bipolar Disorders 
5. NAD plays a role in treating the “neuroadaptive” responses in the brain that cause tolerance, sensitization and withdrawal 
6. NAD, through a separate action on brain chemicals known as “Sirtuins” allow the brain to remain “happy” and further reduce withdrawal symptoms 
7. NAD has a profound effect in opiate abuse patients due to epigenetic factors and gene expression. 
8. NAD causes a level of clear thinking (mental clarity), brain rejuvenation and a sense of peace that conduces to hope and a sense of “yes, I can recover” 
9. The use of NAD, combined with nutritional supplementation protocols we have developed, reduces the need for standard detox medications, which have their own deleterious effects. 
10. The NAD significantly reduces cravings over standard detox; almost like the patient had never been exposed to the alcohol or drug—truly miraculous to observe personally. 

This discussion is not the platform for a scientific explanation. And there are many more ways that NAD has been shown to enhance the detox experience. But I have simplified some of these proven scientific discoveries to display that there is real science to what we see in using NAD in clinical detox situation. When I personally saw this, I was so impressed that I have dedicated my life to helping recovering alcoholics and addicts acquire NAD treatment. One of the things I most like is that; the infusions are administered over several days. So I have a captive audience, with a clear brain, to drop a little recovery on them, and hopefully ruin their drinking or using forever, like Johnny Appleseed, except dropping mustard seeds. My favorite thing to do, is to talk with alcoholics and addicts, especially those new in recovery, about the disease and treatment of addiction. My clinic is NAD MD, Inc. and my website is NADMD.com.

I am not saying that NAD is a “cure”, but in my experience NAD is absolutely the best first step in recovery. You still need a program of recovery, guided to the appropriate level of care for that individual, a plan, ongoing therapy, counseling and other techniques to find a new way of living and a lifestyle change, learning to place sobriety as the first priority. We have found that various techniques, such as NLP, and various psychological techniques have a much improved impact on a clear NAD brain. Also nurturing nurses and alternative physical methods such as yoga, stretching, massage, acupuncture, equine therapy, and other techniques create a detox experience that gets the newly recovering patient into a new path, a path to health and self-nurturing different from their previous deterioration into abuse, hopelessness and despair.

With the increasing prevalence of alcoholism and drug addiction in our society, and the informational technology seeming to enhance self-centeredness, isolation, self-directed crazy decisions, and disdain for traditional treatment, we have employed easier ways to enter recovery; such as letting a person live according to their conscience, or a sense of doing the right thing for the right reason and letting go of expectations or control. This is increasingly difficult with Millenials and Generation X patients.

As some of my friends and mentors would say: “Phil, it’s just the same thing packaged in a way for marketing purposes.” This does not pertain to NAD, as NAD will be shown to be one of the greatest advances in alcohol and drug treatment. But as far as rehabilitation, we must fashion recovery into a pill the newly recovering person can swallow, to accommodate those who are reticent to trust anything but their own self-determination and control; a characteristic of most of us already exhibit in early recovery.

Drug overdoses won't stop rising — and that's not even the worst part

• Harrison Jacobs

Flickr/Boots McKenzie

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis