Monthly Archives: January 2017

5 Reasons People are Scared to go to Detox

Nobody in their right mind stays awake at night praying and wishing they would become an alcoholic or a junkie the very next day. It doesn’t happen overnight just like that. Unfortunately, becoming a professional addict or alcoholic generally takes months or years of debauchery indulging and practice in ruining everything in your life and those that surround you. This is a career that is not to be taken lightly. Those of us who are familiar with this rotten path of chemical dependency know the frightening places this disease takes us. Addiction is a demon that may sleep for a little bit, but never ever departs from our sides. As we scuffle through life smelling the roses here and there, often times addiction pulls a “Houdini” and appears out of nowhere. Most of us never really see it coming. We consistently justify our actions and thought processes and explain to ourselves that our usage is normal. We compare and ignore everything as it happens right in front of our eyes. Then it all comes crashing down. We wake up one day and can’t help but wonder, what on earth went wrong. Our alcoholic tendencies are showing up full fledge and we haven’t the slightest clue as to what went astray- or so we tell ourselves. The battle gets ever more intensive, and we sink lower and lower into the powerlessness and unmanageability. It’s apparent that help is needed, but most have built our withdrawals into this gigantic monster and have made it so were scared to go to detox for some reason or another.

The Monsters in the Closet Now Live in our Heads

As age takes ahold of us, fear starts to grow tremendously throughout the course of life and prevents certain matters from progressing. Now, this doesn’t mean that everybody is destined to become Chicken Little or hypochondriacs as we wait for the world to end. This is just referring to our rational and irrational minds growing and more experience building on our lifetime resume. For some, this ever growing fear is what has built their alcoholism or addiction to such towering proportions. Fear of dealing with life on life’s terms and a nice hot spoon or alcoholic beverage quickly becomes a friendly solution. Yet, this solution doesn’t seem to be fixing anything in the blueprints for life but only making them worse as a matter of fact. After some trial and error and this is determined by the person in question, it is often too late and physical and mental dependency has taken a firm grasp folks. Obviously, it’s time to kick the chemicals and start fresh….but how? One of the first ideas that pops into mind is the:

Fear of Leaving That Crutch Behind

When our friends abandoned us and nobody wanted to be in our presence- the bottle was always there. The irrational fear of losing “your friend” alcohol sets in. It sounds a bit off kilter, but it’s a necessity. It’s become our bread and butter- the very lifeline that fills our veins. This torments us, but we learn to overcome it in better situations and those who really want to see the clean side of a day. If we can overcome these thoughts, then the excuses begin for most of us.

I Can’t Take A Leave From Work

One personal reason detoxification was intimidating was because of the career. We get in this mindset that we can’t afford to lose our job, or even “I don’t know how I’m going to tell my boss.” This fear is justifiable but still irrational. The reality of the matter with some chronic alcoholics and addicts is that if they don’t clean up sooner than later, they won’t be around to punch in and punch out their daily clocks anyway.

Responsibilities at Home

We forget in the midst of our addictive single-minded routines that addiction and alcoholism will kill us. Some of us don’t forget even- we just stop caring. Life or death- we’ll take whatever is tossed our way. Same goes for family matters. In the depths of addiction, we alcoholic thinkers tend to be pretty selfish as we put ourselves first in most matters. Once everything is brought to the table, we excuse ourselves as scared to go to detox “because the family needs me.” Well, were not really there mentally as much as we think we are. 9 times out of 10, the family wants their respective member back and unleashed from the deranged mentality they’ve been hypnotized in. Most family members will advocate for the healthy option and suggest going to detox so that the addict in question can be there for the family down the road before unpredictable circumstances occur.

What if People Find Out?

Along with the previous examples come embarrassment and the opinions of others. We realize that if we take this couple day to couple week hiatus, people will know were missing. We get so caught up on what all “the others” will think, but in hindsight, most of the people we surround ourselves with already know of the insanity being displayed. When were out ripping and running, we think we look so good and that were hiding our behaviors so well. Wrong! We’re usually so oblivious to our surroundings and there’s really no more hiding them anymore. The more embarrassing thing is trying to maintain a problem that is being denied as a problem. The judgment from fellow family members and peers is worth the risk when the other direction provides the risk of death. The Greek scale is tipping over on this one.

Fear of Change

Lastly, to sweeten the psychological pot of being scared to go to detox, we throw the fear of change in there. Change and the unknown can be one of the single most horrifying monsters out there and will stop even the strongest of men and women from accomplishing their feats of hope and courage. Getting clean from the booze and dope will require new hobbies, new friends, and a new lifestyle entirely. This gigantic change can rattle even the most grounded of people. Fortunately, as human beings, we are indeed creatures of adaptation and learn to survive by any means. That is one of the best parts of life. We are not destined to thought or one bottle- the world has an innumerable amount of options out there. Don’t let fear win as you settle for less with active alcoholism.

Who Looks Back in the Mirror?

There are plenty of things that are okay to be scared of, but unless something is done about it, you are destined to continue hiding from these frights. Don’t allow yourself to be a victim and live under the tyrant form of your alcoholism. Fight back against the overwhelming fears that prevent the bettering of you and your lifestyle. At the end of the day, sometimes a leap just has to be made because nothing changes if nothing changes. If you or a loved one is struggling with chemical dependency and are ready for help, please call 1-866-802-6848 or visit www.coastaldetox.com. We are ready to give you any suggestions possible and set you or your loved one on a path that we can all be proud of.

How Oxycontin is becoming a Bigger Problem Globally

Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot. Ups, downs, lefts, and rights. This rollercoaster of a life takes us for quite a ride as it barrels around every corner and takes us for this long mysterious journey. At some point or another, for many, life goes into some form of autopilot mode if one is not self-conscious or aware of themselves enough. Eating, sleeping, and working just become this monotonous affair that is second nature after some period of time. So many people start to develop fantasies and let their imaginations spread. They begin craving something besides the norm because normal is boring and boring is normal. For crying out loud- they just want to feel alive! They just want to hide from the harsh realities that the world delivers on our doorsteps day in and day out. They want to numb away and forget about all the stressors and relax! Vacation!

At some point in this slow jog through life, most of us come into contact with alcoholic beverages and various chemicals off the streets or found in pill bottles in the medicine cabinet. What a lot of people aren’t aware of, or they are and just don’t care, it that some of the harshest drugs in America are actually all right in front of your face and packaged with a smile. That’s right, the chemicals that are killing everybody in this country the most are sold legally right in front of our very own eyes. Even stranger is that nobody thinks about it twice or bats an eye at people self-harming themselves like we do. The media and government portray things with the right inflection and dialogue and make the evil in our world seem good as well as vice versa. Oxycontin is just one of these drugs being handed left and right to people who don’t need them. Oxy’s are very strong painkillers full of opiates that only take a little bit of use to become dependent on. They have become a problem and alternative to heroin over the last two decades specifically and the pockets being filled with them seem to keep multiplying.

On the Go

The chances of you reading this article and having known somebody close or a friend of somebody close who has overdosed from some form of opiates are extremely high. The drug epidemic in this country is an ever growing problem that doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. The “war on drugs,” as it’s been so infamously called throughout the years, has been classified as a joke by many members of congress and our own United States government. However, little moves are being made slowly and progress is happening little by little. The small things add up in the battling of this epidemic of course. Dirty doctors and certain medical establishments have been raided and shut down- helping reduce the amount of unnecessary prescriptions being written out. Also, the DEA passed a law to reduce the amount of painkillers produced in 2017 by 25%. It won’t stop the growing number of overdoses continually rising every year, but it will put some speed bumps on the path at least.

At the same time, wherever there is a demand there is a supply. Addiction and alcoholism are a disease that any living human being can carry. Oxycontin abuse and chemical dependency don’t just stop at the shorelines of America. With the pharmaceutical epidemic occurring and people turning blue left and right, the company responsible for the manufacturing of Oxycontin is now taking their medications and spreading their wings to other countries as sales begin to plateau in the United States. Purdue Pharma, as the company is called, is taking its lower corporations and sub companies more or less and relocating and expanding to countries all over Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and other regions around the world. Unfortunately, in a world that is ran by money, there’s not much warning that can be said or heeding to it that can be done.

The U.S. Surgeon General sends warning to such companies across seas in stating, “I would urge them to be very cautious about the marketing of these medications. Now, in retrospect, we realize that for many, the benefits did not outweigh the risks.” That right there is a prime example of the honest truth at the end of the day. Painkillers have been shown to be a treatment to numb the pain but not as a cure or a permanent answer. The unlucky thing is that the media and advertising generally hypnotize human beings. These sub companies of Purdue Pharma are allowed to produce advertisements and market Oxycontin as if it is a final solution to all your problems. Let us reiterate: they most certainly aren’t. Even worse is when Purdue and its affiliations are paying to advertise against how addictive the specific pain medication is. They have paid to train people to speak openly about opiate addiction being remissed as silly and dramatized in some form or manner. Purdue has paid actors, celebrities, and other highly impressionable people to speak up and advocate for Oxy’s in some form or manner at seminars and other public events. The fact of the matter is that it’s false advertising of a drug that is literally taking the lives of millions of people and creating an epidemic that can’t be stopped. Even let’s say with the aid of Purdue themselves reducing production, sometimes there is just very little solution to something like this but to stay informed about these prescription painkillers.

Give Serenity a Chance

Sometimes when were deep in the thick of addiction and alcoholism, we get attached to the chaos and drama that unfolds everywhere. We start getting to a point of pitying ourselves and thinking we deserve to be a slave to the drugs and alcohol. Nobody deserves to be slaved underneath chemical dependency. If you or a loved one is struggling with chemical dependency and are ready for help, please call 1-866-802-6848 or visit www.coastaldetox.com. We are ready to give you any suggestions possible and set you or your loved one on a path that we can all be proud of.

College: The Breathing Ground for Adderall Addiction

Constantly running around day after day and can never seem to catch up? Been assigned a boatload of homework and have a lot of focusing to do? Generally enjoy doing things quicker and sleeping very little? Well, my oh my, have we got the substance for you. Adderall is a very easily accessible drug that is a much friendlier version of speed than some of its cousins such as cocaine, crack, and methamphetamines. It seems so much less menacing because it comes in a cute little pill form and the pharmacists and doctors gladly hand it over with no questions asked. What’s to worry about if the clinicians and physicians are all saying it’s okay to consume? Cigarettes are safe and legal to consume and those have been proven to be life threatening and debilitating right? The main focus here today is that something so unthreatening can have one of the largest impacts on your life if you let your guard down, and that’s why we’ll be discussing the quickness of Adderall addiction and the random cracks and crevices it crawls from out of.

Looks Weak but Still Packs a Punch

Adderall is a stimulant that is typically prescribed for mild forms of ADD or ADHD- Attention Deficit (Hyperactive) Disorder. This is a case where mentally, the individual has an exceptionally difficult time focusing on the subject or topic at hand and gets distracted very easily. Well, in today’s day of age, it seems that everybody has some form of ADD or distracting disorder or another. Maybe it’s in the food…. Anyway, so what happens time and time again is when a child starts exhibiting these traits at a young age and the parents want him/her to be “normal”- they pop them on the medication. Most of the time, the kid gets introduced to this stimulant at a young age and thus making them dependent and creating Adderall addiction and other forms of addiction at a very premature age. It’s either that or the kid gets old enough to know better and know they don’t want to take it and where there is a supply, there is usually a demand beforehand. The kid then starts giving it to friends here and there who are unfamiliar with the substance, and for somebody not struggling with ADD or ADHD, it is a nice little pick me up that gets you high. Yet at the same time, it gets you high but to a degree that seems reasonable to most. It goes hand and hand with the morals, values, and stigmas we’ve paved the way with over the years. It would be a huge red flag if somebody said they needed to go do a bunch of cocaine and finish their homework. Yet if somebody says the same with prescription Adderall, most people wouldn’t even think twice about it. We’ve been taught to believe it’s not as serious a compound of chemicals as some of these other legal drugs are. Right.

Generally speaking, it seems that most Adderall addiction for college students starts out the same. To reiterate one of the problem starting reasons is the fact that having too much on your plate can be very detrimental. Often times, somebody has so many obligations they are trying to keep up with and accomplish while the stress just keeps building up and overwhelming them, that taking something like Adderall seems like the best solution. There’s just simply not enough time in the day for some people like myself. It will increase productivity while raising dopamine levels and taking away some of that stress that’s been riding your shoulders all day. What’s not to like about that of course? Well, just like any combination of chemicals, there comes a toll with the solution Adderall provides. Of course, the person’s tolerance will continue to rise with the drug if ingested on a regular basis. With the rising tolerance comes physical and mental obsession– and then it’s off to the races as normality becomes a thing of the past. Dependence then picks up the pieces and leaves the person with only the tiniest inkling of what went wrong and why.

Addiction and alcoholism will find their prevalence in anybody and have no limitations at all. As with most junkies and heavy boozers out there and their drug of choice, Adderall has no boundaries specifically and will take down even the most self-aware people. Most students start taking the pill with prior knowledge of knowing Adderall addiction to be a real thing but still shrugging off the warning and caution signs. Adderall’s ability to help users focus and stay awake for longer than normal makes the concoction of chemicals seem most attractive to students. It helps them face the ever-increasing demands at school and work while attempting to maintain. College students, in particular, make up a significant population of those abusing Adderall as they are often in a different mindset than that of somebody with full blown addiction staying blatantly prevalent. They start getting into the mindset of “I can’t enjoy this without Adderall” or even “I won’t able to pass that test or finish that paper without a little help from Adderall.” The onset mind of alcoholic thinking takes over and catches most off guard. The Adderall abuse then starts slowly getting coupled with other aids that help make the comedown easier or the withdrawals less severe. Unfortunately, your average college student in their 20’s doesn’t realize what an alcoholic is. Most don’t realize that addiction and alcoholism have no bounds and can be genetically displayed in any being, it just matters what you’re doing at the end of the day to wake the monster or to actually keep the beast of addiction at bay.

Addiction- the Greatest Magic Trick

Addiction and alcoholism are cunning, baffling, and powerful. Dependency on any form of chemicals or substances can appear from out of nowhere if one is not mindful of what they are putting into their bodies. Don’t be a victim to the toils and troubles that substance abuse handcuffs you to. You can be a senator’s son from the big city or peasant from a small village, but addiction will snatch you both up. If you or your loved one is in need of detoxification due to substance dependency, please call 1-866-802-6848 or visit www.coastaldetox.com. Our teams of specialists are waiting by to help figure out what options are best for sending your life is a comfortable direction that you can proudly stand behind.

What HIPAA Does to Protect You

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.” These were immortal words written by the infamous Dr. Seuss himself. His imagination was vivid and he was quite the character, but everybody on this planet who has ever lived and/or is currently living is completely different than the last. Sure we all share similarities, instincts, and what not- but we are all genetically different beings and therefore think and react to situations differently and have different preferences. This is why there is chocolate and vanilla. Strawberry was decidedly not important in such matters. The point to the statement is that I believe some things in life are neither easier nor harder but more so it is a case by case basis. We all go through this list of trials and tribulations in life only to find some of us gaining riches above our wildest imaginations and some of us with mental disturbances landing us in places like psych wards and detoxification facilities. If it’s any consolation, I’m the latter of the two. It takes a lot out of you when somebody starts letting the narcotics lead their life and dictate which direction they will step in next. Fortunately and unfortunately, depending which side of the coin you’re looking at, a large portion of us chemical dependents wind up in some institution or another when our alcoholic thinking starts getting the better of us. As mentioned, this can be a blessing and/or a curse. Making your way into a detox or treatment program can not only help guide you with tools to be on the other side of addiction, but it can be done in a way that allows you to keep your anonymity and privacy. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is just exactly that. This is a federal legislation that mandates confidentiality at its finest.

The Doc Protects Your Neck

HIPAA is essentially a large privacy rule in which all medical practitioners have to abide by. Not just practitioners, but anybody working in a medical facility, such as a detox center, that has a client to superior relationship or is a subcontractor in any form having to do with the medical issues or patients at hand. This well received federal law gives you rights over your health information and sets rules and limits on who can look at and receive your health information. It gives patients more control over their health information and sets boundaries on the use and release of their health records. The act itself applies to all forms of protected health information, whether electronic, written or oral. What this helps to ensure is a closed mouth policy in open door policy establishments. This bill has changed a lot in the health fields of America. It was signed in 1996 and has changed the game as far as confidential records go. With established Health Institution laws in place, we the patients, are protected in a comforting manner in regards to our personal information. Any information that doctors, nurses, or other healthcare providers put into a medical record is only allowed to be viewed by that specific physician. This includes conversations had with the doctor or conversations the doctor has with another doctor in regards to your file. This vulnerable information is confined along with your billing, insurance, living or any other information regarding personal details.

So how is this law implemented nationally? It seems as if there is a lot to uphold in order to not break any federal laws. Well, there is a lot to pay attention to, but it’s a matter of being able to address specific situations only when appropriate. For starters, this federally regulated consent takes more than just giving your word. On the medical aspect of things- most practices, rehabilitation facilities, and health facilities require some form of special training to adhere to the law. This is to ensure that HIPAA laws are not broken and unnecessary prison time isn’t sentenced upon anyone. More so, it establishes appropriate safeguards that health care providers and others must adhere to in order to protect the privacy of health information. It also holds individuals who violate such laws accountable to federal or state charges and is not looked at too lightly when disregarded.

This idea here covers the transference of any personal health info to any other medical personnel- hence explaining the “Portability” part of HIPAA. To top that little bit of protection off, there is the fact that any information to be released outside of medical officials must be signed by the patient in question. This means that if John Smith gets in a car accident and winds up in the hospital, the practitioners on the scene cannot contact anybody but emergency contacts only. Even in a state of emergency, your privacy is your privacy. Making sure your personal information is not disclosed without your permission is the driving force behind the act. It gives patients the right to examine and obtain a copy of their own health records and request corrections. In other words, HIPAA allows individuals to control the uses and disclosures of their health information at their own discretion. Who the patient wants to be involved with their case and how many people to be involved is entirely up to them at the end of the day. All the basic rights as human beings are covered at any time while being under the supervision of such institutions and there is a level of comfort that comes along with it.

Time to Protect Yourself

We all lead different lives, but at the end of the day, a lot of us deal with similar issues. Addiction and alcoholism are big ones, and if this is the case for you or a loved one, you are not alone. If you or your loved one is in need of detoxification due to substance dependency, please call 1-866-802-6848 or visit www.coastaldetox.com. Our teams of specialists are waiting by to help figure out what options are best for sending your life in a comfortable direction that you can proudly stand behind.