Tag: Addiction Treatment

What are the Different Types of Addiction?

What we often don’t think about is the fact that along with substance use disorders, there are other types of addiction as well. Addiction is a dysfunction of your brain’s reward system. When you have an addiction, it also affects your memory and motivation.

These adverse effects on your brain function that occur with an addiction can lead your body to crave a behavior or substance. You may obsessively try and pursue whatever it is you’re addicted to. Even when negative consequences stem from the addiction, you continue anyway. Your addiction is your ultimate priority, above anything else.

Broadly, we can divide the different types of addiction into two categories—chemical and behavioral.

Chemical addiction is the misuse of substances like illicit drugs. Behavioral addictions are those compulsive behaviors that you carry out even when they aren’t beneficial and are harmful. Sometimes you’ll hear references to a shopping addiction or internet addiction, for example.

Addictive behavior often co-occurs with other mental disorders.

Understanding Addiction

Addiction interferes with your brain’s reward system and other elements of its function. When you’re doing enjoyable things, your reward system releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter. Dopamine doesn’t necessarily cause feelings of pleasure. Instead, it reinforces the association your brain makes between certain activities and feelings of pleasure you experience.

That reinforcement leads you to want to continue to seek those things out.

If you use drugs or engage in a certain behavior, you may want to experience the feelings of euphoria they create again. This can lead to cravings for behavior or substance like prescription medications, illegal drugs, or alcohol. Cravings can be one of the first symptoms of addiction.

When you continue to use the substance or do the behavior, your brain keeps triggering a high release of dopamine. Then, eventually, your brain starts to produce lower amounts of dopamine naturally in response to triggers that would ordinarily bring you pleasure.

As this goes on, you need more stimulus to make up for the dopamine your brain isn’t producing anymore, which is tolerance or physical dependence.

When an addiction develops, you might lose interest in things you previously enjoyed since you aren’t making dopamine in response to these activities.

Loss of control is a defining feature of addiction, which can lead to problems in relationships, health, and your career. Many people also experience other adverse consequences of compulsive behavior patterns or substance use, like financial issues.

When you’re in active addiction, you no longer get the pleasurable feeling from the drug or behavior, but you can’t stop doing it without therapy, addiction treatment, or behavior modification.

What is Chemical Addiction?

Chemical addiction is a catch-all term used to refer to substance abuse, addiction, and physical and psychological dependence.

Because of that, it’s often known as a substance use disorder. A substance use disorder or actual addiction is diagnosable and can fall into one of three categories—mild, moderate, and severe.

Symptoms of substance use disorder are:

Intense cravings that make it hard to think about anything else daily
Needing to use larger doses of the substance to get the same effects
Feeling uncomfortable if you can’t get the substance
Risky use, like driving under the influence
Problems managing your daily responsibilities
Relationship issues stemming from substance use
Not spending as much time doing the activities you once enjoyed
Unsuccessful efforts to stop using the substance
Withdrawal symptoms if you cut down your usage or stop cold turkey

Some of the most common substance addictions and addictive substances include:

Alcohol use disorder
Nicotine
Opioids, including prescription drug addictions and heroin
Cannabis
Amphetamine drug addiction
Methamphetamine addiction disorder
Cocaine

Behavioral Addictions

Behavioral addictions can be a little harder to spot and diagnose. There are fewer evidence-based criteria for the diagnosis and treatment of behavioral addictions compared to something like alcohol addiction.

Currently, the DSM-5 does have two behavioral addictions it recognizes.

The first is gambling addiction (compulsive gambling), and the second is internet gaming disorder which is similar to video game addiction.

There’s disagreement among medical experts about when behaviors can potentially become addictions and the particular behaviors that have a predisposition to lead to addiction.
Currently, the American Psychological Association doesn’t include behavior patterns linked to things like exercise, shopping, and sexual behavior in the DSM, because it says there isn’t enough peer-reviewed evidence available to develop diagnostic criteria.
That doesn’t mean that behaviors can’t lead to symptoms of addiction. It just means that as it stands right now, more research is needed to standardize how we diagnose and understand these addictions compared to other types of addiction.

General signs of a possible behavioral addiction include:

Spending an excessive period of time engaging in the behavior
Having urges to keep engaging in the behavior despite its negative effects on your life, responsibilities like school or work, or your relationships
Using behaviors to manage uncomfortable emotions
Hiding what you’re doing or how much time you spend on a behavior
Trouble avoiding the behavior
Experience symptoms of withdrawal if you don’t engage in the behavior like anxiety, depression, restlessness, or irritability
Continuing to engage in the behavior even when it creates distress
Unsuccessful efforts to stop doing whatever the behavior is

Common types of behavioral addiction that often lead people to get professional treatment include:

Exercise
Compulsive shopping
Food addiction
Sex addiction
Social media
TV

Treatment for Substance Addiction

With a substance use disorder, most people need professional treatment. There are complex physical and mental factors and potentially co-occurring disorders that play a role in addiction. If you’re dependent on a substance, you may need a supervised detox first.

During detox, you can receive medical treatment for the physical symptoms of chemical dependence.
Then, you could go to residential or outpatient treatment.
During residential treatment, you stay at a treatment facility, receiving specialized care and support.
Residential rehab can last for a few weeks to several months on average.
An outpatient program is more flexible, and you continue to live at home.

Regardless of the specific type of addiction treatment program you participate in, psychotherapy and counseling will likely be part of it.

Working with a therapist or counselor can help you understand why you started using substances and develop new coping mechanisms.
An FDA-approved medication can also be used for substance addiction.
There are medication-assisted treatments for alcohol, opioid and nicotine addictions in particular.
Medications reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
Support groups like a 12-step program can help people get sober or stay in addiction recovery. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous are two of the more well-known 12-step programs.

Treatment for Behavioral Addiction

The most common approach to treating different types of addiction involving a behavior is therapy, as with other mental health disorders. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy is an evidence-based way to treat behavioral addictions.

When you participate in CBT, you’re focused on paying attention to your distressing thoughts and emotions. You work with a therapist to learn how to reframe those thoughts. You can work on the goal of developing better-coping skills.

Depending on your symptoms, an SSRI antidepressant might be part of the treatment. Participation in self-help groups can be valuable for behavioral addictions.

Often, as is the case with treating chemical addictions, behavioral addiction treatment requires a combination of approaches.

Get Help to Avoid Complications

Different types of addiction can vary, but the one underlying concept is that they are treatable. Without treatment, both substance addictions and behavioral addictions can worsen and complications can develop.

Over time without treatment, the effects on your life become more damaging. Reach out to us to learn more about getting the treatment you need for mental health issues or substance abuse disorder.

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5 Drug Detox Withdrawal Symptoms

Drug addiction and drug dependence are two separate things. They’re often confused as being the same. While they often occur together, they’re different as far as the symptoms and the treatments.

Drug dependence is a physiological response to longer-term substance use. We’ll detail more about drug dependence and how this leads to drug detox withdrawal symptoms. We’ll also cover some of the common withdrawal symptoms people often experience.

What is Substance Dependence?

When you use certain substances like alcohol, opioids, or other psychoactive drugs, they affect your brain’s chemicals. Over time, substance use changes the function and structure of the brain. Your central nervous system also changes in response to the effects of the drugs.

For example, your body, when you first take certain substances, your body releases a tremendous amount of dopamine.
That dopamine is responsible for the euphoric high you can feel.
The dopamine flood triggers a reward response in your brains’ circuits.
Then, you might compulsively start to use the substance repeatedly because of the reward cycle.

There’s something else happening too. Your brain and central nervous system start to rely on the effects of a substance.

The amount of dopamine, for example, that you naturally produce goes down because your body depends on the artificial creation the substance facilitates.
As your brain and body gradually adjust to the presence of substances, the high you once felt dissipates.
You might take more and more of the drug to try and chase that feeling. You’re no longer using drugs because of the high at that point.
You’re using them because you’re addicted and physically dependent.

With physical dependence, stopping using the substance, whether alcohol or illegal drugs, can suddenly lead to withdrawal symptoms; withdrawal symptoms result from your body trying to normalize itself. Your body is going through a period of imbalance when you suddenly remove the substances it now depends on.

We can compare this to caffeine. If you’re a regular coffee drinker and skip it one morning, you may get a headache. This is a mild form of withdrawal following a lack of caffeine intake.

What Affects Withdrawal Symptoms?

While withdrawal can have similar features, the detox process is also a variable experience.

Some of the factors that can influence withdrawal symptoms and the withdrawal process include:

The type of drug you use
The amount of time you use drugs
How much of the substance do you frequently use
Whether or not you combine multiple substances
Your overall physical health and any medical conditions you may have
Underlying mental health conditions and your medical history

If you use drugs that are pain relievers and central nervous system depressants, like opioids, you may experience withdrawal symptoms like pain hypersensitivity. If you’re going through withdrawal from benzodiazepines, which are for anxiety, you may have intense anxiety during withdrawal.

Typically when you’re going through withdrawal, there’s a paradoxical effect. A paradoxical effect means that the symptoms during that period are the opposite of the effects of the drug. They’re often more severe versions of the symptoms you might have started using the drug to treat or cope with.

Can You Die from Drug Detox Withdrawal Symptoms?

While it’s rare, certain substances with withdrawal symptoms can be deadly if you don’t get medical supervision. When drug detox and alcohol withdrawal symptoms are severe, some medications can help manage them.

Alcohol and benzodiazepine withdrawal are typically the two that can be most severe.

For example, severe alcohol withdrawal can lead to delirium tremens. Delirium tremens can lead to severe seizures and be deadly without medical management, but it’s rare.

Opioid withdrawal isn’t usually life-threatening, but it can be very uncomfortable and challenging. There are medications specifically to help with opioid overdose symptoms.

5 Common Withdrawal Symptoms

The most common drug detox and alcohol withdrawal symptoms can be divided into five general categories. While the specifics vary depending on the person and the substance, these categories do give a general idea of what to expect.

Physical Withdrawal Symptoms

Physical symptoms include:

Fatigue
Lethargy
Sweating
Shaking
Clammy skin
Tingles
Feeling cold
Flu-like symptoms
Changes in appetite
Muscle pain and muscle aches
Tremors
Changes in blood pressure
Dilated pupils
Rapid heart rate or changes in heart rate

Behavioral

Behavioral symptoms are the ones that influence how you interact with other people. You may feel frustrated, aggressive, or depressed, and these feelings can affect your reactions to others. Specific common withdrawal symptoms that are behavioral include:

Depression
Anxiety
Irritability
Agitation
Frustration

Gastrointestinal

Gastrointestinal symptoms are among the most common whether you’re withdrawing from drugs or alcohol. Your digestive system is complex and related to your central nervous system. When you have GI symptoms of withdrawal, it’s because of the response of this system to the lack of substances.

Your appetite is likely affected. Other GI symptoms include:

Nausea
Vomiting
Abdominal cramping
Diarrhea

Psychological Symptoms

When you’re going through withdrawal, it’s going to affect your mood, mental health, and sense of well-being for some time. Common symptoms that are psychological include:

Nervousness
Hallucinations including visual or auditory hallucinations
Paranoia
Delirium
Brain fog and poor concentration
Problems with thinking and cognition

Sleep Disturbances

Finally, another category of withdrawal symptoms is sleep disturbance. You might sleep more or less than usual as your body is trying to regulate itself. Particular sleep symptoms include:

Insomnia
Sleeplessness
Nightmares
Interrupted sleep patterns

The following are some more specific substances that lead to withdrawal and the length of time you might expect symptoms to last:

Alcohol: You won’t automatically have alcohol withdrawal symptoms if you stop drinking. If you have an alcohol dependence, alcohol withdrawal syndrome symptoms can last for days or weeks. If you have symptoms on the severe spectrum of alcohol use disorders, the effects of withdrawal could continue for months after your initial alcohol detox.
Heroin: Heroin is an opioid. Withdrawal symptoms can be intense but not usually deadly. These symptoms for most people last five to seven days and then start to get better. Medication-assisted treatment can be beneficial for physical dependency on heroin in treating unpleasant symptoms of withdrawal and opioid use disorder.
Stimulants: Stimulants are drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine. Mental symptoms of stimulant withdrawal can include dysphoria, which means a low, unhappy mood and dulled senses. Loss of interest, slow movements, and slow heart rate are also stimulant withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms usually peak within a week after the last dose of a stimulant.

Rarely, post-acute withdrawal (PAWS) symptoms may occur. PAWSs are symptoms that last for longer than two weeks. These symptoms include anxiety, depression, fatigue, mood swings, and poor sleep. PAWS is manageable, usually with a combination of medication and therapy.

Treating Drug Detox Withdrawal Symptoms

While it can be scary to think about withdrawal and especially severe symptoms, treatments are available.

During a medically supervised detox program, health care providers can monitor you and provide you with different medications if you experience severe withdrawal symptoms. For example, there are medications help to treat particular symptoms of withdrawal. There are also FDA-approved medications specifically for withdrawal from opioids and alcohol.

You might simultaneously receive treatment for underlying mental disorders, including behavioral therapies, reducing the likelihood that you have PAWS.

Getting through detox isn’t easy, but medical care, it increases the chances that you do so successfully to be on the path to recovery. If you’d like to learn more about program options after you’ve completed detox, call 866-600-7709 and reach out to the Anchored Tides Recovery team.

Addiction Treatment

Is Drug Addiction a Moral Failing?

Is drug addiction a moral failing? Researchers have been looking at addiction and the underlying causes since the 1930s. In that time, we have learned so much about what addiction is and what it isn’t.

First and foremost, no, addiction is not a moral failing. Shame is often so much intertwined with addiction, and you may have low self-esteem, guilt, and a sense of low self-worth. These feelings can all contribute to the ongoing cycle of addiction, making it harder to break.

By recognizing the reality that drug addiction is not a moral failing and is a disease, you can begin to see that you deserve treatment for your illness.

Addiction, also known as a substance use disorder, is an illness as characterized by The American Health Association, The National Institutes of Health, and the World Health Organization.

Evidence-based treatment also tends to be highly effective in treating substance use disorders based on your unique needs.

The Physical Effects of Addiction

Addiction relates a lot to your brain chemistry. Genetics and other underlying biological elements also raise your risk of developing an addiction. These differences are part of why addiction is a disease. The differences are also why someone might use recreational drugs and never become addicted, while others become addicted after using a substance only a few times.

When you use certain substances, they create big, artificially driven dopamine surges.
Those dopamine surges teach your brain to keep seeking out the experience making them, such as drugs or alcohol.
Your brain compels you to seek out the substance at the expense of other things in your life.
When you consistently use drugs or even alcohol, it impacts your ability to feel pleasure.
The reason is that your brain releases smaller amounts of dopamine on its own, without the drugs.
Your brain center is less receptive to healthy rewarding activities like exercise or a good meal. Your brain is wholly altered at this point.

Because of the brain changes, you develop a tolerance. You need more of whatever the substance is just to keep yourself operating at a new “normal” baseline.

Brain Changes Cause Behavioral Changes

Researchers in past decades have begun looking at brain imaging studies of people with addictions. They find that areas of the brain affected by addiction include decision-making, learning and memory, judgment, and behavioral control.

The changes in these parts of the brain can alter the functionality of your brain, contributing to destructive, compulsive behavior.

Addiction creates cravings and physical symptoms as well, known as dependence.

Addiction As a Chronic Disease

Science tells us addiction is not just a disease but a chronic one. We can, in many ways, compare it to heart disease or diabetes.

The similarities between addiction and other chronic illnesses include:

Both conditions affect the functionality of critical organs. For addiction, it’s the brain, whereas it’s the heart in cardiovascular disease.
Chronic illnesses decrease quality of life and can, without proper treatment, shorten your life.
While both are diseases, there are preventable elements. For example, most chronic illnesses have contributing risk factors such as eating certain foods or not getting enough exercise. With addiction, the risk factor is initially using an addictive substance.
Chronic illnesses and addiction aren’t necessarily curable but are highly treatable. By getting treatment as early on as possible, you can reduce or eliminate the symptoms.
You can also prevent further damage because chronic disorders and addiction are both progressive.
The longer your addiction goes without treatment, the more significant the effects and consequences will be.

While drug addiction begins with an initial decision, we also know that people don’t willingly want to deal with the destruction addiction ultimately creates. If addiction were as easy as deciding to stop or having willpower, there wouldn’t be many overdose deaths each year or relapses.

Some of a person’s inability to stop using drugs or alcohol is because of problems in the function of the prefrontal cortex in the brain.
The prefrontal cortex controls executive function. Executive functions include monitoring your behavior and delaying reward.
People with substance use disorders often have an overly adverse reaction to stress because of deficits in their prefrontal cortex, putting them at risk for addiction.
When there’s an issue in the prefrontal cortex, a person often has a high threshold for regular types of pleasure. They need something “more” to cause them to feel joy, such as drugs or alcohol.

Substance Use Disorder Risk Factors

There isn’t one specific cause for developing a substance use disorder. Multiple factors often converge.

Around 40-60% of the risk of becoming addicted to a substance comes from biological factors. Biological factors include genes, gender, and ethnicity.
The developmental stage is also relevant. The younger you are when you start using addictive substances, the more likely you are to develop an addiction in adulthood.
The environment can be a risk factor. Environmental factors include family dynamics and relationships, your home environment, and your social group.

Specific addiction risk factors include a family history of addiction and mental illness, a history of abuse, and a chaotic home environment.

What Does This Mean for Overcoming a Substance Use Disorder?

When you have a substance use disorder, first, you need to let go of the shame and the guilt. Those are things you can begin to work through in treatment. When you learn more about the underlying contributors to addiction and the fact that it is a disease, it’ll help you with these feelings.

You also have to realize that you aren’t weak because you can’t simply stop using substances.

As is the case with other illnesses, you need the proper treatment plan to address all of your addiction’s complex components.

For example, talk therapy is a way to recognize your negative thought patterns leading to harmful behaviors. You can learn more about triggers in your life and start to build pathways in your brain that will help you deal with those in a healthy way. We can rewire our brains with time and patience.

Your drug addiction treatment plan might also include medication, and it should integrate aftercare planning.

Everyone is unique, and their treatment plan has to reflect that. People relapse after treatment because their counselor didn’t tailor their program to their needs.

Whether you’ve tried rehab before and relapsed, or you’re considering it for the first time, the only thing to know is that what you’re going through isn’t a personal or moral failure. You should also know that you’re making the best first step when you admit that you have a problem and seek help for it. Reach out to the team at Anchored Tides Recovery by calling 866-600-7709 to learn more.

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Mothers with a Prescription Drug Addiction

Prescription drug addiction is relatively common but also devastating. Being addicted to prescriptions is destructive to individuals, families, and communities. Others who have an addiction to prescription substances, whether they have older children or are currently pregnant, may avoid getting the help they need and deserve. There’s an unfortunate stigma.

In treatment, it’s so important to find a program that speaks to your needs as a woman and mother or mother-to-be, breaking down those walls you may feel about getting help.

Below, we delve into what to know about prescription drug addiction in general and the health effects for babies born to mothers addicted to these substances.

Before doing so, we want to emphasize the message to any mother or soon-to-be mother that no matter where you are in your life, it’s never too late to get help in a drug addiction treatment program.

Understanding Prescription Drug Abuse

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, in 2015, nearly 19 million Americans over the age of 12 reported prescription drug abuse over the previous year. That number is likely higher now in the United States.

There’s often an unfortunate misconception that it’s safe because something is available by prescription or a doctor gives it to you. However, many of these drugs, and opioids, in particular, are more deadly than illegal drugs or street drugs.

Addictive drugs of any kind, including prescriptions, affect your brain’s reward system. These effects can trigger an addictive response.
While you might start taking a prescription drug as prescribed initially for a medical condition, a substance use disorder can develop over time.
Then, the use of the drug is no longer in your control. Developing physical dependence is also common with the use of an addictive drug.

The most commonly abused prescription medications are central nervous system depressants. Central nervous system depressants include benzodiazepines like Xanax and opioid pain medications.

Taking a prescription or illicit opioid can slow your central nervous system down so much that you experience a drug overdose. Breathing and heart rate can slow to a dangerous or deadly level for drug users who take doses more than their bodies can handle.

Opioid Addiction and Abuse

While other prescriptions can lead to a substance use disorder, opioid painkillers are the most significant in terms of addiction and abuse. The use of opioids led to an epidemic in America, with hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths and other adverse effects.

Opioid prescription medicines are for severe pain, including chronic pain.
Symptoms of use may also include euphoria and relaxation.
Other adverse effects of opioid use are confusion, lethargy, drowsiness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and constipation.
Oxycodone is one example of a prescription drug with high abuse potential. Available under the brand name OxyContin, oxycodone changes how the central nervous system responds to pain.
Codeine, fentanyl, and Demerol are also opioids with high abuse and addiction rates, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Opioid medications act on the brain and body the same way as heroin, which is also an opioid, although it’s not legal.

Opioid dependence can lead to withdrawal symptoms, which can be challenging to deal with. When you’re physically dependent and go through opioid withdrawal, you can experience anxiety, sweating, nausea, vomiting, and other problematic symptoms.

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)

If you’re pregnant and addicted to prescriptions or have an opioid use disorder, we encourage you to contact us to learn about treatment programs geared specifically to your needs. Again, it’s never too late in your pregnancy or even your child’s life to get help.

An issue called neonatal abstinence syndrome, or NAS, can occur when a baby is exposed to drugs in the womb before birth.
The drug that most often leads to NAS is a prescription opioid or illicit drugs like heroin.
NAS is a set of conditions that occur when a baby withdraws from drug exposure in the womb.
Along with opioids, benzodiazepines and antidepressants can cause symptoms of NAS.
Medications can pass through the placenta, creating problems for babies born to mothers addicted to prescription drugs.
Most of the symptoms of NAS happen within a few hours after birth, but some may not appear for a few weeks.
These symptoms can last up to six months after delivery.

NAS signs and severe withdrawal symptoms in a baby include

Body shakes and tremors
Seizures and convulsions
Twitching and overactive reflexes
Tight muscle tone
Excessive crying or fussiness
A high-pitched cry
Slow weight gain or poor sucking
Breathing problems
Fever or sweating
Yawning or sleep problems
Throwing up
Diarrhea
Sneezing

NAS’s particular signs and risk factors depend on how much of a drug you used and how long you took it. Individual factors play a role, like how your body metabolizes the substance and whether you have underlying conditions such as chronic pain requiring treatment.

Babies born with NAS may need specialized medical care in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) after birth as they experience withdrawal symptoms. Harmful effects and complications of NAS, especially from opioid medications, may include:

Low birth weight or premature birth, meaning the baby is born weighing less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces
Jaundice leads a baby’s skin and eyes to look yellow and is the result of liver issues
Seizures
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

Long-term effects that can occur because of prescription drug misuse, including opioid abuse, during pregnancy include:

Delays in development milestones, such as walking, talking and sitting
Motor problems, which affect muscles and movements
Behavioral and learning issues
Difficulties with speech and language
Sleep disturbances
Ear infections
Vision problems

Prescription Drug Addiction Treatment

Whether you’re currently pregnant or already a mother, your treatment plan will probably begin with supervised detox if you have a drug addiction.

Supervised detox means a medical team will help you lower your dose of the substance in a safe and controlled way while managing any physical health conditions.
From there, you can begin treatment for your addiction to opioids or prescriptions, including behavioral therapy, and work with counselors.
If you’re pregnant or already a mother, looking for a treatment center specialized for women with children can be a valuable resource to minimize any potential risks and help you feel comfortable.
Along with the treatment for the addiction itself, a program geared toward women and mothers can provide parenting and pregnancy education, individual therapy and family therapy, and help with steps you may need after treatment, such as finding housing and childcare.
When you choose a substance use disorder treatment center that works with a female population, in particular, they’re going to help alleviate the anxiety you might be feeling.
They’re going to understand what it’s like to provide care for you and your unborn child and help you become the mother you want to be and improve neonatal outcomes.

What Can You Do If You’re Struggling with Substance Abuse?

If you are pregnant and dealing with prescription drug abuse, including an opioid use disorder, you can talk to a health care provider right away.

Tell your doctor about what you use, but don’t stop any substance without telling them. There are some prescriptions, including opioids, that can cause dangerous signs of withdrawal.

If you try to stop cold turkey when you have opioid dependence on prescription painkillers, your baby could die. Instead, it’s best to get professional, guided prescription drug addiction treatment so you can wean off of the substances safely and correctly, especially with long-term opioid use.

Medication-assisted treatment might help, such as buprenorphine and methadone for opioid addiction.

You shouldn’t take any medicine, including prescription pain relievers, without first talking to your doctor about your pregnancy. If you’d like to learn more about addiction treatment for women and mothers, call the Anchored Tides Recovery team at 866-600-7709; we’re available to provide you with information.

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Narcotics Anonymous 12 Steps

If you’re a woman struggling with a substance use disorder, different options are available for getting help. The most important thing is to find what works for you. For many women, what works is a 12-Step program. If you’re addicted to drugs, the Narcotics Anonymous 12 Steps might be something you consider participating in.

Often when you attend a drug treatment center, you’ll start working on the 12 Steps of Narcotics Anonymous or Alcoholics Anonymous while you’re there. Then, when you return home from treatment, you can continue that work you started. So how do Narcotics Anonymous 12 Steps work, and how might it improve your quality of life if you struggle with the disease of addiction?

What is Narcotics Anonymous?

Narcotics Anonymous is also called NA, and it’s the second-largest 12-Step organization. Someone named Jimmy Kinnon or Jimmy K. founded the program. NA began after Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous started in the 1930s, while NA was founded officially in 1953 in Los Angeles. Now, the program is available in thousands of cities around the world. Narcotics Anonymous follows the same model as AA, but it’s for people addicted to drugs rather than alcohol.

When you participate in an Addicts Anonymous group, there’s no distinction between the type of drug you use. You can also join in NA if you also have a co-occurring alcohol abuse problem. There are some drug-specific programs, too, like Cocaine Anonymous, but NA isn’t specific. These programs recognize polysubstance addiction and dependence, meaning you abuse more than one substance, whether it’s drugs or alcohol addiction. If you want to recover from substance abuse, you’re welcome to participate. That’s the only requirement for membership.

The goal of participation in this 12 Step program is to help in your recovery from drug addiction so you can reclaim your life or find a new way of life free of addictive behaviors or destructive behavior. NA is a nonprofit community fellowship of men and women, and you can find single-gender meetings if that’s what you prefer. You meet with other recovering addicts, all of whom share the goal of staying clean and sober. When you participate in a 12-Step program, you are abstinent from all substances.

There’s no affiliation with any other organization, no dues or initiation fees, and you don’t have to sign anything or make any promises. There’s no particular religious affiliation, nor is this support group politically associated. You can join a 12-Step program like Narcotics Anonymous regardless of your race, age, sexual identity, religion, or lack of faith.

The program is spiritual, even though it’s not religious. You don’t have to believe in God to attend initially, and the model of the program is that addiction is a disease, and you can treat that disease by staying abstinent from all substances and working the program.

Fundamental principles of NA and Twelve-Step groups include:

You’re committed, one day at a time, to not using drugs or alcohol as part of twelve-Step programs.
Programs often follow a set format, including a serenity prayer or acceptance prayer.
Regularly attending meetings is essential. Meetings typically last for an hour and are held around the world. Meeting schedules vary, and some are closed meetings, but most are open to anyone.
When you participate in a 12-Step program, you might get a sponsor. A sponsor is someone who can help you stay on the path of sobriety, again, one day at a time. They work you through the 12 Steps.
You apply the principles you learn in your everyday life and personal recovery.
12-Step attendance is a chance to fellowship with other addicts in recovery and create a support system of sober people.
12-Step fellowship groups tend to be a lifelong commitment rather than something you do for a brief period.

What Narcotics Anonymous Isn’t

We wanted to clarify that participation in a 12-Step recovery program isn’t the same as going to detox or participating in rehab. No licensed addiction specialists are running the programs. Many members of these programs are licensed counselors or therapists, but this isn’t their role in meetings. While they’re in meetings, they’re just sharing their own experiences and sense of hope. You’re not receiving treatment for your actual addiction or symptoms of addiction like you do in a treatment center in a 12-Step NA Recovery Program.

For someone who requires detox and addiction treatment, you should go to a formal program first. Then when you’re ready, you can find a 12-Step program in your community to continue the work you do while in treatment.

What Are the Narcotics Anonymous 12 Steps?

The 12-Steps Narcotics Anonymous follows include:

Step One: Admitting that you’re powerless over your addiction and that your life isn’t manageable is the first of the 12-Step concepts.
Step Two: A belief in a Higher Power that can restore you to sanity.
Step Three: Deciding to turn your life and will over to God as you understand Him.
Step Four: Search and make a fearless moral inventory of yourself.
Step Five: Admitting to God, yourself, and others the nature of your wrongs.
Step Six: Being ready to have God remove your defects of character.
Step Seven: Humbly asking God to remove your shortcomings.
Step Eight: Making a list of people you’ve harmed and been willing to make amends to them.
Step Nine: Making direct amends to people when you can as part of your recovery from addiction.
Step Ten: Taking a continued personal inventory and, when you’re wrong, admitting it promptly.
Step Eleven: You seek through meditation and prayer to make conscious contact with God as you understand Him and pray for the knowledge of God’s will.
Step Twelve: Having a spiritual awakening as a result of the previous Steps, and then carrying your message to other addicts while also continuing to live the above principles in your everyday life, including complete abstinence from drugs and alcohol.

Who Does Narcotics Anonymous Aim to Help?

Even though the 12 Steps of Narcotics Anonymous tend to focus on God, they also specify that it’s as you understand Him. You don’t have to be religious or even believe in God to participate in NA. If you have a substance addiction, you can participate. There are a few things to keep in mind with NA and 12-Step meetings. While it’s helped millions of people to participate in this nonprofit fellowship, it isn’t for everyone.

Some of the possible drawbacks of participating in a 12-Step program include:

There’s no attention to the physical elements of substance dependence or drug abuse in 12-Step fellowship programs. You need to go to a detox program for this.
You do have to be involved socially with the group, and some people don’t prefer that. There are virtual options if you want to socially distance.
Not everyone believes an abstinence program is the best path forward.
You have to identify as an addict fully, and that can become an ingrained part of how you see yourself. For some people, that’s a positive of a 12-Step program, but it’s not for everyone.
You must adhere to the belief that you are powerless over your addiction as part of the 12-Step program elements. There are alternative programs that position you as being empowered and able to overcome your drug use and signs of addiction through your own will, which some people prefer.
It’s time-consuming to participate in 12-Step groups regularly. Weekly meetings are usually around an hour long but can be as long as two hours each.

Overall, there are many benefits to the 12-Step model. Before you can get to the point where you’re participating in regular meetings, you need to undergo substance abuse treatment for active addiction. Once you’ve received treatment for your addiction and underlying mental health disorders, participation in a support group can help you remain sober, following a 12-Step philosophy.

If you’d like to learn more about detox and addiction treatment centers and what programs we have available for women struggling with drug addiction, please contact Anchored Tides Recovery by calling 866-600-7709.

Addiction Treatment Narcotics Anonymous 12 Steps

Downgrading From Hard Drugs

If someone considers downgrading from hard drugs, it may be one specific approach to dealing with substance abuse that they feel will work for them. Unfortunately, as a society, we tend to view hard drugs as bad and so-called soft drugs as not so harmful. The reality is that a hard or a soft drug can lead to addiction, health problems, and many adverse effects.

The distinction between a hard and soft drug for many people is legality. Even this isn’t necessarily a good way to think about things.

For example, alcohol is legal if you’re 21 and older, yet it can be one of the deadliest substances. There are also states such as Oregon that are focusing efforts on decriminalized hard drugs. Under new legislation in Oregon for decriminalized hard drugs, you can’t be arrested for having small amounts of drugs like heroin or methamphetamine, both of which are dangerous, deadly drugs. The best option for most people who struggle with drug abuse is to be entirely drug-free rather than downgrading from hard drugs. Many in the recovery community don’t believe any drug use is conducive to a healthy lifestyle if you deal with addiction.

Below, we go into more about the differences between hard and soft drugs and what you should know about the concept of gateway drugs as well.

Hard vs. Soft Drugs

There are different ways you might view the differences between hard and soft drugs. For example, in some countries, there is a legal distinction made between the two, with soft drugs theoretically being less harmful to people’s health than harder ones. In the Netherlands, soft drugs are not considered harmless, but they have less severe effects. Sedatives, marijuana, and sleeping pills are soft drugs under this model.

Hard drugs in the Netherlands include heroin, amphetamine, and cocaine. The penalties for drug possession of a hard versus soft substance vary from one another. In the United States, we have controlled substance schedules that guide our federal drug laws and laws surrounding drug possession.

A controlled substance is one with a high potential for abuse or addiction. The Controlled Substances Act puts all substances regulated under federal law into one of five schedules. Along with the abuse and addiction potential, whether or not the substance has a medical use is also a consideration.

Schedule I drugs have a high potential for abuse, with no current, federally accepted medical applications in the United States. There is no safe use for these substances. Schedule I drugs include heroin, LSD, and GHB. Interestingly, marijuana is Schedule I in the U.S., yet it’s legal for medicinal and recreational use in many states across the country. We talk a little more about marijuana and its legality below.
Schedule II drugs have high abuse potential but with some accepted medical uses. These illegal drugs include cocaine, methadone, morphine, PCP, and methamphetamine.
Schedule III drugs have a lower potential for drug addiction than Schedule I or II substances, with medical uses in the U.S. Schedule III substances are hydrocodone, codeine, anabolic steroids, and barbiturates.
Schedule IV substances have a relatively low potential for abuse than Schedule III, with accepted medical uses. Schedule IV drugs include prescription medications like Valium and Xanax.
Schedule V substances have the lowest potential for dependence compared to substances on the other Schedules, and cough medicines with codeine are an example of these.

While drug Schedules are one way to distinguish the risks of substances, there’s not a particular scientific or legal distinction that we can point to when we talk about hard and soft drugs.

For some people, it’s not about the legality or the impact on criminal records for something like simple possession. Instead, it might be about how socially acceptable it is to use a substance.
For example, it can be more socially acceptable to use prescription pain medicines rather than heroin in some people’s eyes, even though both have similar effects and risks. Both prescription pain medicines and heroin cause dry mouth, slurred speech, and potentially deadly short-term effects, yet one category includes FDA-approved medications.
A list of hard drugs for a lot of people might include heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. For others, since cocaine isn’t as addictive as heroin, they might not have it on their list of hard drugs.

There are a lot of gray areas when making distinctions like these between substances.

America’s Deadliest Drugs Are Legal

Again, legality and the classification of drug crimes aren’t always an excellent way to separate a hard and soft drug. In the United States, the three deadliest drugs are all legal.

The first is tobacco. More Americans die from smoking-related health problems than drug overdoses, car accidents, and homicides combined.
Cigarette smoking may lead to one in five deaths in America every year.
The U.S. has seen tobacco use go down significantly in recent decades, but it’s still a top killer.

The next-deadliest drug is alcohol.

Alcohol-related health problems kill tens of thousands of people every year, which doesn’t factor in causes like homicide and drunk driving.
Alcohol-related deaths have been steadily going up in the U.S. over the past few years, and official death toll numbers may be significantly undercounting alcohol deaths.
There are so many ways that alcohol can be one of the deadliest drugs. The health effects of excessive drinking are just one type of risk. There are injuries, crime, and violence, for example, that make alcohol use particularly dangerous and deadly.

The third deadliest drug is opioid pain killers.

Since the 1990s, drug companies have been pushing opioid pain medicines on doctors who gave them to patients.
These substances were part of marketing campaigns, and patients got addicted, and many ultimately died as a result.
In the past decade, policymakers have been putting more restrictions on prescription opioid pain killers, but it remains a deadly problem in the U.S.

Hard drugs, while dangerous, are linked to far fewer deaths than the three legal substances above. You also have to consider things like bath salts, which can be a highly dissociative drug but are also a common household item.

Are There Gateway Drugs?

When talking about a hard or soft drug, the idea of gateway drugs also comes up. The theory is that so-called soft substances like marijuana might lead to harder drugs because the gateway drug affects the brain’s pathways.

In some cases, with the use of soft substances, the brain may be more vulnerable to the abuse of other substances, including illicit or harder drugs. These risks are more significant the younger someone is when they start experimenting with substances.

Marijuana is frequently, as was mentioned, what we think of like a gateway drug, and it’s also federally illegal on its own. Much of the prison population is serving time for a criminal offense related to marijuana possession, even as it becomes legal in many states around the country. The criminal justice system hasn’t yet caught up, and there are many drug convictions not yet overturned for the possession, use, or sale of marijuana.

Drug offenders who got jail time for marijuana and are still behind bars often question why they’re being treated differently by the legal system than legitimate businesses in states where recreational marijuana use is legal. Some are currently serving life sentences in prison for drug crimes related to marijuana and felony drug possession. All of this underscores the fact that legality doesn’t always dictate whether or not a drug is harmful.

Is Downgrading from Hard Drugs Possible?

Some people think they can downgrade from more problematic substances and only use soft substances like alcohol or marijuana. While everyone is different, this may not be a practical approach to addiction issues. You may find that you cannot use just one type of drug, and as we highlighted, soft substances have genuine adverse effects.

Sobriety is often the best option for someone with a history of substance misuse because casual substance use might not be something they can maintain. Drug treatment and treatment for any co-occurring mental illness can help you avoid facing a felony offense for using hard substances.

If you or someone you love is dealing with substance use, we encourage you to call Anchored Tides Recovery at 866-600-7709 to learn more about a treatment program that will work for you.

Addiction Treatment Downgrading from Hard Drugs

Is Gender-Specific Treatment Actually Gender-Specific?

In a yearly national survey of treatment centers in the United States, in 2019, more than 7,800 of 15,960 centers reported offering treatment for women and individuals who identify as females. That, on its face, sounds great as far as the availability of gender-specific treatment, right?

Maybe not so much.

There may not be a genuine consideration for gender-specific differences and gender issues in the treatment for substance abuse. Even when it’s not mixed-gender treatment, a program might still not be entirely speaking to the needs of women and gearing treatment to women. We are finding as time goes on that the definitions of what truly gender and women-specific treatment can vary significantly between centers and programs.

When a center reports the availability of programs just for women, it might mean they have a weekly meeting just for women, for example. The broad terminology can mean there are some offerings for women, but they aren’t specific to the needs of women, particularly within the societal and individual context of their situation. There’s a scarce availability of truly gender-specific treatment programs.

Understanding how our language impacts treatment is essential to deliver that genuinely women-centric focus in treatment. We have to learn more about the roots of treatment and the philosophies it’s built on because those continue to drive how we speak about and treat women. We also have to learn to be more curious in our questioning of what’s brought you to the place you’re in now, rather than simply assigning you a label.

All of this is challenging work because it requires that we reframe what treatment is and the concepts it’s built on. This reframing of the philosophy and language of treatment is a top priority for delivering women-centric addiction treatment for drugs and alcohol. This approach is different from programs that simply offer a gender-specific tract or discuss some gender-specific issues.

The Male-Centric Treatment Framework

The concept of treating addiction goes back to the early 1900s.

Courtenay Baylor is one of the names that come to mind as a pioneer in addiction treatment.
Baylor essentially wrote the first textbook on how to be a substance abuse treatment counselor.
Baylor’s work is vital in how we do things even today. He based his treatment approaches primarily on men, which continues to influence substance abuse counseling in a larger sense.
In his book, Baylor only had one chapter on the treatment of women.
Samuel Ashwell was similarly a thought leader in this area, yet he spoke that men didn’t want to treat hysteria, linking it primarily to women.
The idea of women struggling with addiction as being hysterical is one that’s stuck around, even if we don’t realize it.
The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book includes language primarily for alcohol-dependent men.

So, where does this leave women? What are the lingering negative consequences for females who have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, such as an opioid use disorder? Much of this reinforces some of the primary reasons women don’t get help in the first place—namely, shame is a big one, as are relationships and family commitments. Women-focused treatment and women-only programs need to realize what their shortcomings are to address differences in treatment outcomes.

Why Aren’t We Asking More Questions?

At our gender-specific treatment center, we are rethinking the traditional ideas of addiction and how we can best treat it.

Many women who have a history of substance abuse also have a borderline personality disorder (BPD) or similar co-occurring disorders.
A diagnosis of BPD is closely associated with a history of trauma, yet for men, we might diagnose them as having post-traumatic stress disorder instead of a personality disorder.
As a woman with this diagnosis and a substance use disorder, the message becomes “you are the problem,” rather than talking about what happened to you to get you to this point.

Using labels is the prescriptive language often found in outdated gender-specific models not considering sex differences.

When prescriptive language is part of your treatment program, you become your label, even in a gender-specific environment.
You may internalize that label as who you are, which again goes back to the idea that you’re the problem rather than the concept that you have a problem that needs treatment.
Often, the labels created as part of prescriptive language models in a rehab program prevent the actual problem from being treated.

Another issue with prescriptive language and labels?

There’s no sense of curiosity on the part of your mental health providers, which ultimately leads to unfair treatment.
A treatment provider may believe that because you have the label of BPD, to go back to the above example, they know all of your problems and how you should be treated.
That eliminates the questioning and curious element of treatment. Therefore you’re not receiving addiction treatment as the individual you are.

With this problem of prescriptive language in mental health status, providers aren’t asking relevant contextual questions.

Labels lead to the same treatment for everyone, yet we know that what’s most effective for addiction is to treat everyone with an individualized treatment plan.

Treatment language doesn’t tell us what we need to know, as it stands currently.
Instead, we say the person needs to “be fixed.”
When we don’t account for context and experience in the treatment process, we also don’t consider how society influences substance use disorders.

For example, women in treatment are often victims of trauma, violence, sexual abuse, and inequality, which play a pivotal role in mental health and substance abuse disorders. Trauma-informed care and specialized treatments should be an integral part of treatment for individuals, leading to differences in the addiction recovery process.

Moving From a Deficit to Strength-Based Perspective

Along with taking out prescriptive language and labels, our rehab center’s treatment of substance use moves from a deficit perspective to one of strength. So what does this mean?

Using the borderline personality disorder example, we build you up based on your inherent strengths. With BPD, you may have a focus on your alliance with others. In our approach, we might want to ask what continues to give you strength and a sense of resilience despite your past. We also consider the social context that you’ll return to in our treatment method. Other treatment options that aren’t genuinely gender-specific programs or women-specific might help with job placement and rebuilding family relationships. Still, they don’t consider broader societal elements that will affect your recovery.

What societal messages will you receive?
What power differentials will you experience, and how can we internally empower you to deal with those?
Are you returning to a supportive environment, or is it one where something like domestic violence could be an issue?
What is your marital status, and is there a history of abuse? How can we create a foundation despite the traumatic events you’ve dealt with for complete treatment effectiveness?

Individualized mental health care is about asking what your story is rather than creating stories we believe are relevant to you.

We work to exchange labels for curiosity in the addiction community and our mental health settings.
We want to ask questions instead of making assumptions or adding a label where we see a problem.
We also strive to externalize the situation outside of who you are to help you take accountability differently.

Our treatment team will move away from the perception of “I am the problem” to dealing with the problem for our female patients. We can look at core issues and gender-associated differences in patients and how particular situations such as physical abuse could have led you to where you are.

So with all of this in mind, if you’re seeking treatment or looking for something individualized to who you are, you want to ask whether a program is a gender-specific treatment or if it just has a gender-specific tract.

Anchored Tides Recovery’s ongoing commitment to ensure that gender-specific treatment in all ways means we avoid outdated language in treatment that doesn’t consider the unique elements of what it is to be a woman and how that plays into your individualized treatment needs. Anchored Tides Recovery believes there are tremendous benefits of gender-specific treatment when looked at in the ways above, improving clinical outcomes and retention in treatment. If you’re interested in learning more about how we offer a truly inclusive gender-specific approach to treatment, call our helpline today, 866-600-7709.

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Signs of Heroin Use in Teens and Young Adults

The signs of heroin use can be obvious eventually, but early on, not as much. Heroin is a highly addictive, deadly drug for many people, and it’s at the center of the opioid epidemic occurring in the United States. Heroin and other opioids are a big part of a growing substance abuse problem in the United States, and unfortunately, opioid use disorder can be deadly.

What Are the Signs of Heroin Addiction?

The physical signs of heroin use vary depending on personality, genetics, and other individual factors. Physical symptoms of heroin addiction or use include:

Constricted pupils when under the influence
If someone smokes it, they may have an ongoing cough
Dark circles around the eyes
When going through withdrawal, a person could have large pupils
Heavy eyelids or a droopiness in the face
Burn marks on the fingers or mouth, if it’s smoked
Nose bleeds if heroin is snorted
If injected, track marks on the arms which are needle marks
Weight loss
Scabs and signs of skin picking
Flu-like symptoms if going through withdrawal
Drowsiness or increased need for sleep
Slurred speech
Mood swings
Wearing long pants or sleeves, even if the weather is warm or hot
Dry mouth
Nausea or vomiting
Shortness of breath
Itchiness

Some of the behavioral symptoms and psychological symptoms of heroin use or a heroin addiction include:

Engaging in risky behaviors
Inability to make good decisions
Concentration problems
Seeming disoriented
Unpredictability in mood
Euphoria
Lack of enjoyment
Loss of self-control
Anxiety
The presence of drug paraphernalia like aluminum foil
Sexual dysfunction
Changes in menstrual cycles

When someone has a heroin use disorder, it can have many adverse effects on their entire life. Complications and negative outcomes from ongoing heroin use can include:

Job loss
Problems at school
Poverty
Homelessness
Problems in relationships or divorce
Legal problems
Domestic violence
Child neglect and abuse
Infectious disease exposure
Kidney failure
Liver disease
Collapsed veins
Lung damage
Damage to other vital organs
Overdose or death

It may be a gradual process where you piece together various signs of drug abuse. For example, it can be challenging to know at first in a teen because teens are known for mood swings and generally erratic behavior. For many people, behavioral signs of heroin abuse might be the first indicator. For example, isolation, deceptive behavior, changes in friend groups, or seeming easily agitated or overly fatigued can all be possible symptoms of heroin use or the use of illegal drugs in general.

How Heroin Affects the Body

When you take heroin, it activates specific receptors in your brain, creating short-term effects. Your body has neurotransmitters, which are natural chemicals. These neurotransmitters bind to receptors in the brain and body, regulating pain, feelings of well-being or euphoria, and hormone release.

When your opioid receptors activate in your brain’s reward center, they stimulate dopamine release. Dopamine creates the high you feel if you use heroin. Unfortunately, what also happens is that the reward center’s activation causes a reinforcement of drug-seeking behavior and usage. When someone takes heroin, they get a pleasurable rush. How much of a rush they feel depends on how much heroin they take and how quickly it binds to their opioid receptors.

Immediate effects of heroin might include flushing of the skin, a feeling of heaviness in the arms and legs, and a dry mouth. Sometimes, you could experience severe itching along with nausea and vomiting. Right after using heroin, drowsiness can occur and last for several hours. Mental functioning is cloudy, and the heart function and breathing slow down.

Opioids like heroin depress breathing because they change neurochemical activity in your brain stem. The brain stem controls automatic bodily functions, including not just breathing but your heart rate. If you take a dose of heroin that’s more than what your central nervous system can handle, breathing can slow down to a dangerous level. When breathing slows too much, it’s an overdose. An opioid overdose can cause permanent brain damage, coma, and death.

The Effects of Heroin on the Brain

With repeated exposure to heroin, the brain’s structure and physiology change, creating long-term effects. Those changes can cause imbalances in your hormone and neuron systems. These are difficult, although not impossible to reverse.

Researchers have found your white matter may deteriorate in response to heroin use. A decline in the brain’s white matter may impact your ability to make decisions, respond to stress, and regulate your behavior. Dependence is a significant risk factor with heroin, as well as developing a tolerance. Even after using heroin a few times, you may create tolerance and need higher doses to get the same effects. When you’re tolerant, you can also become physically dependent on the opioid. If you’re dependent on heroin and stop using it abruptly, you’ll experience withdrawal symptoms, which is one of many effects of heroin abuse.

Symptoms of withdrawal tend to occur within a few hours after the last time you use heroin. Heroin withdrawal symptoms can include:

Bone pain
Muscle aches
Restlessness
Insomnia
Diarrhea
Vomiting
Goosebumps and cold flashes

For most people who use heroin, the withdrawal symptoms peak within 24 and 48 hours after their last dose; they get better over about a week. Some people experience longer-term symptoms over a few months.

What Are the Signs of a Heroin Overdose?

If someone you love is experiencing a heroin overdose, it can be challenging to know if that’s what’s happening or they’re very high. Learning to recognize the differences can be lifesaving. If someone is high on heroin, they might seem out of it and have slurred speech, but they can still respond to stimuli such as loud noises.

Signs of an overdose, on the other hand, can include:

Loss of consciousness
Not responding to stimuli
Awake, but not able to speak
Slow, erratic, or shallow breathing
Stopped breathing
Weak pulse
Low blood pressure
The skin might turn bluish-purple in someone with a lighter skin tone. In people with darker skin, it could be gray or ashen.
Choking or gurgling sounds
Limpness
Clammy, pale face
Vomiting
Lips and nails turn blue or purplish
Slow, erratic, or stopped heartbeat

If someone is overdosing on heroin, you should administer Narcan right away if possible. Even if you have it available, you should also contact 911 or your local emergency services provider. A heroin overdose is a dire and often life-threatening situation.

What Can You Do?

If you believe someone you love is using heroin or suffering the effects of heroin use, it’s a difficult situation. Heroin is a hazardous and addictive drug. Once someone is addicted to heroin, they’re probably also physically dependent. Getting professional treatment as soon as possible is the most crucial thing for heroin users or anyone with a substance use disorder.

Most people will need a professional detox if they’re dependent on heroin. During this time, a patient receives close observation and medical care to reduce withdrawal symptoms. Going through withdrawal can be one of the most complex parts of stopping heroin, so a supervised detox can reduce the risk of relapse and alleviate some of the challenges during this time. Once a person fully detoxes from heroin and any other substances, they can begin addiction treatment.

Along with types of counseling, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy, there are medication-assisted treatment options with FDA approval to help people with heroin addiction and dependence. Often, heroin users also have another co-occurring mental health disorder that can be made worse by the effects of heroin addiction. A treatment program should address co-occurring disorders like bipolar disorder and treat the symptoms of heroin abuse and addiction.

If you’re interested in learning more about maintaining sobriety, treatment, and recovery from heroin addiction, we encourage you to contact the team at Anchored Tides Recovery by calling 866-600-7709.

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Is Drug Addiction Genetic?

Is drug addiction genetic? Is there such a thing as an addictive personality? These are common questions you may have, and while there is a genetic component, which we talk about below, we also urge caution here. Genetic predisposition factors are just one risk factor for substance abuse, as other chronic common disorders are actual. Genetic studies are increasingly shedding light on the science of addictive disorders.

Just because a close relative struggle with addiction doesn’t mean you automatically will as well. Having a genetic factor doesn’t make addictive disorders any less treatable either. Understanding the role of heredity and vulnerability to addiction is essential from a scientific and research standpoint and uncover the root causes of addiction. However, genetic risk factors don’t have to be a deterrent to you getting effective help if you are active in addiction.

What is Addiction?

A substance use disorder or SUD means you uncontrollably use a substance despite harmful consequences. Illicit drugs, alcohol, or tobacco are substances that lead to addiction. Some of the most common types of addiction include cannabis use disorder, alcohol addiction, cocaine addiction, and opioid addiction.

Over time, as the addiction continues without treatment, it affects your daily functionality. The SUD creates problems in your relationships and most other areas of your life. You may experience changes in your behavior and thinking. The brain’s structure changes, and you may have intense cravings for the substance you have an addiction to. Your personality might change. Imaging indicates addiction can lead to changes in the parts of the brain that relate to decision-making, learning, behavioral control, memory, and judgment.

Symptoms of addiction or SUD can fall into one of four categories. These are:

Impaired control: Hallmarks of this set of symptoms include intense cravings to keep using drugs or alcohol. You may try to stop using or cut down on your drug intake but find that you’re unsuccessful.
Social issues: When you abuse substances, you may experience problems in your daily life. For example, you could find that you’re increasingly giving up things you once enjoyed to use drugs or alcohol. Substance use can affect school or work performance, and it tends to impact relationships.
Risk-taking: Drugs of abuse can lead you to do dangerous things. These risk-taking behaviors might happen to get more drugs or because of their effects on you. You’ll continue to use substances even though you realize they cause problems.
Drug effects: Physical effects stem from addiction. For example, you may notice you develop a tolerance. When you have a tolerance, you need more significant amounts of drugs or alcohol to get the same effects on your genetic predisposition you did initially. Another physical component of drug or alcohol abuse is withdrawal. If you stop using a substance suddenly and depend on it physically, you might have side effects.

Risk Factors for Addiction

The saying goes that addiction doesn’t discriminate. No matter your background, you can experience a substance use disorder, but some people are more likely than others to develop an addiction.

Environmental Risk Factors

Environmental factors can and do raise a person’s risk of developing a SUD. For example, if you grow up without parental involvement, you are more likely to experiment or take risks. If you experience neglect in your childhood, you might turn to drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism.

The risk of addiction could go up if you experienced trauma in your childhood, such as sexual abuse or physical abuse. Other ways your environment can raise your risk of developing a substance use disorder include:

If you face peer pressure from friends or your social circle, it can lead to experimentation with psychoactive substances.
When you’re in a group of people with access to substances, you might be more likely to try them.
The environmental aspects of addiction are essential to understand if you’re in recovery. You may find that you need to find new friends and avoid specific environments to reduce your risk of relapse.

Other Co-Occurring Disorders

A dual diagnosis means you have an addiction and another mental health condition. If you struggle with psychiatric disorders, like depression, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, or anxiety disorder, it can be a factor for addiction or raise your addiction risk.

Addiction can also increase the severity of symptoms you experience from a co-occurring disorder. It becomes a progressive and challenging cycle when you have a mental health disorder and an addiction since both are complex diseases.

Early Use

The earlier you use drugs or alcohol, the more likely you will develop alcohol use disorders or dependence on addictive drugs. When you’re young and expose your brain to drugs or alcohol, it affects its development. You may also be more prone to developing mental health disorders because of how substances affect your reward centers, levels of serotonin, and other parts of your brain chemistry.

If you’re young and you begin experimenting with drugs or alcohol later in life, you could struggle to experience feelings of pleasure without substances. The early history of substance abuse shows a strong association with drug addiction later in life.

Type of Drug and Method of Use

Certain drugs tend to put you at higher risk of the development of addiction. For example, addictive substances like heroin and methamphetamines have a higher risk of physical addiction than marijuana or alcohol. How you use drugs is relevant. If you smoke or inject drugs, addiction is more likely to occur than taking a drug orally.

Is There a Genetic Predisposition To Drug Addiction or Alcohol Addiction?

Now, we come back to the question of is drug addiction genetic? What is it in our genetic predisposition that could create an addiction vulnerability? Why do some people develop addictions and others don’t?

Family studies and identical twins show that as much as half of your risk of developing a substance addiction depends on your genetics. As we learn more about the role of heredity in addiction, it helps us understand the best ways to target treatment. It’s also helpful to overcome the stigma of addiction. For example, addiction in humans is a complex intersection between genetics and other risk factors, but it’s not due to a lack of morals or willpower.

However, there’s not necessarily a single gene that we can pinpoint right now that determines addictive behavior. If you’re the child of an addict, you are eight times more likely to develop an addiction.

At the same time, we have to remember that if genetics make up 50% of your risk for drug abuse or addiction, the other 50% comes from things other than your genetic predisposition makeup, like your choices and how well you develop coping skills.

This complexity highlights the fact that genetics isn’t your destiny. You’re more than your genetics. You can increase your protective factors against addiction, like a healthy stress response and beneficial coping strategies. As there are growing advances in genetic testing, we may learn even more about heredity and addiction in future studies. We may also learn more about brain chemistry and how this leads to the chronic disease of addiction, impulsive behaviors, and drug-seeking behavior.

For example, researchers recently uncovered that D2, a type of dopamine receptor, may eventually be used as a way to predict if you’ll become addicted to drugs or alcohol. Current studies show if you have fewer D2 receptors, you’re more likely to develop an addiction. The more we understand biology, the more personalized addiction treatments can become. This understanding of the predisposition to addiction is a big goal of addiction research overall right now.

Never let yourself get caught up in the thought process because you come from a family with a history of addiction that you have to repeat or remain in those same patterns.

We also want you to know that while your genetic predisposition could have increased your likelihood of becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol, there are steps you can take in your life to achieve recovery. No matter your genetic vulnerabilities or background, addiction treatment can be effective. We encourage you to contact Anchored Tides Recovery at 866-600-7709 to learn more.

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Diagnosis, Epidemiology, Prevention, and Treatment

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is also known as a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASDs). FASDs include conditions occurring when you drink alcohol during your pregnancy leading to prenatal alcohol exposure. Effects of drinking alcohol during pregnancy can include physical problems and issues with learning and behavior. While it’s devastating for your child to receive a diagnosis of FAS, it is preventable.

With that in mind, below, we’ll talk about fetal alcohol syndrome, diagnosis, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment.

An Overview of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

When you drink alcohol during pregnancy, it can pass to your baby through the umbilical cord, potentially leading to alcohol-related birth defects and fetal alcohol brain damage. There’s not a known, safe amount of alcohol you can consume during pregnancy. If you’re trying to get pregnant, you should also stop drinking.

If you’re pregnant and drink, the fetus can’t process alcohol through the liver or other organs. The alcohol exposure is the same as the amount in your bloodstream, but exposure lasts longer for the baby. Prenatal alcohol exposure in human populations affects fetal development, especially in the brain and central nervous system.

Some of the ways prenatal alcohol exposure can lead to alcohol-related birth defects include:

If you drink alcohol, including hard liquor, beer, and wine, it can kill cells in the fetus that lead to problems with physical development and secondary effects.
Prenatal alcohol exposure impacts the development of nerve cells, including how they travel to different parts of the brain.
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy constricts blood vessels, slowing blood flow to the placenta. The result of restricted placental blood flow can be a shortage of oxygen and nutrients to the baby.
While your body processes alcohol, it produces toxic byproducts. These toxins can accumulate and cause structural brain abnormalities and other types of brain damage.

Even before you know you’re pregnant, your alcohol intake could affect your developing baby or lead to secondary disabilities like alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder.

How Prevalent are FASD and Prenatal Alcohol Exposure?

Getting an overview of fetal alcohol syndrome diagnosis, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment relies on understanding the prevalence.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we don’t know how many people have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. We use varying approaches to estimate how many people in our population might be living with the condition.

Using medical records primarily, studies from the CDC show a rate of 0.2 to 1.5 infants with FAS for every 1,000 births in the United States.
Recently, an epidemiological study by the CDC found FAS in 0.3 out of 1,000 children between 7 and 9.
According to studies from the National Institutes of Health using physical exams, the actual range of FASDs in the United States and some countries in Western Europe could be as high as 1 to 5 per 100 children—around 1% to 5% of the population.
A study from 2020 published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found patterns of maternal alcohol exposure and binge drinking in pregnant women between 18 and 44 in the U.S. went up from 2011 to 2018.
Having at least one alcoholic beverage among pregnant women in the past 30 days went up from 9.2% in 2011 to 11.3% in 2018.
Binge drinking (four or more drinks in a sitting) increased from 2.5% to 4% in that same period.

Symptoms of FASDs

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are a collection of diagnoses. These represent a range of things that can occur when a mother drinks during her pregnancy. The symptoms affect everyone differently. FASDs symptoms can also range from mild to severe.

Symptoms of fetal alcohol effects can include:

Poor coordination and motor skills
Hyperactivity
Short attention span
Poor memory
Low birth weight
Problems in school or with social skills
Increased likelihood of defiant disorder or other mental health problems
Learning disabilities
Poor impulse control
Low IQ
Intellectual disability
Sucking and sleep problem as a baby
Hearing or vision problems
Problems with the kidneys, bones, or heart
Being shorter than average in height
Small head
Facial abnormalities including a smooth ridge between the upper lip and nose, known as the philtrum

Diagnosing FAS

It can be difficult to accurately diagnose fetal alcohol exposure because there aren’t specific medical tests available or set guidelines for diagnosis. There’s also the issue of a differential diagnosis since many symptoms of FASDs overlap with other conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

To make a diagnosis, a doctor might consider:

Prenatal alcohol exposure
Lower-than-average height, weight, or perhaps both
Abnormalities in facial features
Central nervous system problems like poor coordination and hyperactivity

Can FAS Be Treated?

The effects of fetal alcohol syndrome are lifelong, but early intervention can help a child’s development. Treatments include medications and medical care for symptoms, behavioral and educational therapy, and parental training. Researchers also identified protective factors. These reduce the adverse effects of FAS on children and include a diagnosis before the age of six, a loving environment during school years, and an absence of violence in a child’s life. Using special education and social services is also a protective factor.

If you believe your child has symptoms of FAS, but you aren’t sure, talk to your health care provider, who can then refer you to a specialist for intervention services. Specialists include developmental pediatricians and mental health professionals like child psychologists. There are clinics throughout the country with staff specially trained in FASDs and can create individualized treatment plans.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Treatment for Adults

Unfortunately, as we talk about above, there is no treatment for adults or children. FAS is lifelong. Many times, adults with FAS will have mental disorders and legal problems. Adults with FAS are more likely to be in jail or a mental health facility, facing unemployment. Depending on the severity, it can be difficult for an adult with FAS to live independently.

The earliest intervention possible in childhood is the best treatment for FAS that we have available now, although it’s not a cure.

Preventing FAS

Since there isn’t a cure for FAS, prevention of maternal drinking is the only available option. When you use alcohol during pregnancy, it’s the top cause of preventable congenital disabilities, learning disabilities, and developmental disabilities. The only way to prevent your child from being born with FAS is to avoid drinking alcohol during your pregnancy altogether.

If you’re sexually active and not using birth control, you should also avoid alcohol. If you’re pregnant, it can take four to six weeks for you to know that, and during that time, if you’re drinking, you could be exposing your baby to alcohol.

It’s not too late to stop drinking if you’ve already had alcohol during your pregnancy. Your baby’s brain growth and development continue throughout your pregnancy, so stopping as soon as possible is crucial. You should avoid alcohol during breastfeeding also because it can cause development, sleep, and learning problems, although there’s no direct link to FAS.

If you’re a woman thinking of becoming pregnant, or you could already be, and you have an alcohol addiction, help is available. Again, we want to emphasize it’s never too late to stop drinking; Anchored Tides Recovery can help. Please reach out today at 866-600-7709.

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