The holiday season is here again. As much as we try to put the drug problems of our family members aside for the holidays, they always seem to surface at family gatherings. Either the person doesn’t show up, or shows up stoned, or leaves early, or slips outside for some drugs during the get-together – and it’s usually painfully obvious that they have a problem. If you want things to be different next year, you need to get them into a good drug rehab program now.

But how do you know it will work? How do you know which one to choose?

Kentucky recently passed a bill allowing prisoners guilty of non-violent drug offenses to leave prison early and, instead, check into drug rehab. The first 1,000 will arrive in drug rehab facilities early January. One of the people who runs a rehab center spoke to the press and said that, realistically, only one in ten of those people will actually make it through drug rehab and stay off drugs. Is that really true?

Absolutely not – IF you choose the right drug rehab program. Unfortunately, not enough people do. They do not do thorough research.

It’s understandable that in that situation, parents, spouses and other family members are pretty desperate. Sometimes they don’t even ask about success rates when they’re contacting a drug rehab for help. They don’t ask about the specific procedures that are used to rehabilitate the person, they don’t personally evaluate whether or not those procedures could actually work. They just want to get their son, daughter, husband or wife to get help. And they think that, no matter what the program is, if it’s called ‘drug rehab,’ it will be helpful.

But it is essential that parents know the difference between a successful drug rehab and one that has miserable results – like one in ten.

What parents don’t understand is the degree to which a drug addict is messed up. They think that their son or daughter got into trouble because they started hanging out with the wrong people, that those people introduced them to drugs, or alcohol for that matter, and that the drugs actually caused the problem.

While it’s true that those things did have an influence, the real question is why was that person drawn to hang out with those people in the first place. And why they were willing to experiment with drugs.

Some stories are about kids who were high producers – they were stars on the football team, or they got straight As, and so on. Then things ‘changed.’ The parents may or may not have noticed the changed, but they usually have no idea that their kid is on drugs until the trouble starts.

But when things start to change, there’s a reason. And it’s usually pretty deep-seated. They already had the problems, however hidden they were from loved ones, and it’s those problems that led them to start with drugs, the ‘wrong people’, and so on.

The reason why many drug rehab programs don’t have high success rates is that they don’t actually find out what those problems were, get down to the bottom of them, and help the individual solve the problems so they no longer need or want the drugs.

That’s what successful drug rehab is all about. After the addict has gone through withdrawal, after they’ve started restoring their physical health, they need to work with someone who can help them figure out what led them to drugs and help them resolve those issues.

Every time someone fails at drug rehab and gets back on drugs, their confidence in being able to stay off drugs is shattered. They think THEY are the problem. And with every failure, they’re closer to really giving up.

Would you go to a doctor for surgery when only one in ten of his patients survived? No, you would choose a doctor with better success. The same goes for drug rehab.

Drug Rehab Referral had helped thousands of people find the best drug rehab program for their situation. Rather than trying to figure it out yourself, seek help from experts. People who are familiar with every type of program going, which methods work, and which don’t. For the best chance possible, contact Drug Rehab Referral. Do you want next year to be different? Call now.

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According to a new report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMSHA), the number of people going into drug rehab for prescription drug addiction has increased by 430 percent over the last ten years.

That’s pretty amazing when you think about it. Where one person out of ten may have gone into treatment for prescription drugs 10 years ago, there is now 4.3 out of ten.

And that’s only the people who go to drug rehab, not the people who are addicted to or dependent on prescription drugs but don’t get help for it.

SAMHSA says the prescription drug addiction problem is largely due to ‘pill mills.’

Pill mills are basically so-called pain management clinics that don’t do anything to address the problem; they just give out drugs. Since there are few questions asked, it becomes known that getting drugs from these doctors is a piece of cake. That attracts people who are already addicts.

However, the worst thing about pill mills is probably that they don’t offer any other solutions to the pain people are suffering. There’s no attempt to get them the treatment they need to get rid of the pain so, of course, they become addicts. There’s really no way to avoid it.

It’s hard to say how many people get addicted to prescription painkillers (OxyContin addiction, for example is really widespread) by first being given the pills by their doctor, but it’s considerable. Many of the people getting prescription drug rehab are in that situation.

That’s really criminal medicine.

What can you do? The solution is to first find a drug treatment program that will help get the person off the drugs, and then find alternative solutions to the pain. Chiropractic, acupuncture, natural medicine – they all offer possible solutions.

If these types of treatment were used, prescription drug addiction would be far less a problem.

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When I was much younger I thought that if something that got you high was legal then it must be safe. After all, if it wasn’t safe the government would ban it, right? Or restrict it in some way. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, some of the ‘legal’ drugs people are using are not only sending the users to drug rehab, they’re also making them go crazy.

A person using ‘bath salts’, for example, stabbed a priest. Another, also using bath salts, jumped from a third-story window.

I think a lot of people still think that the substances they’re using are safe if they’re legal. Same with prescription drugs. Most people think that if a doctor would prescribe a drug, then it, too, must be safe.

The truth of the matter is that people are inventing synthetic drugs all the time, and many people are getting hurt before anyone figures out what’s going on, and before the government catches up and actually makes the substance illegal, or illegal under certain circumstances.

What are these ‘legal’ drugs?

They have some pretty strange names – bath salts, K2, Spice, Meow Meow, Molly’s Plant Food, 2C-E – and there are plenty more.

They sound pretty innocent. But as you can see from the bath salts examples, that’s not the case.

It’s hard to believe there are people around who would do this – invent these substances that make people crazy, then pass them around, and sell them, with no concern about how much damage they’ll do.

One biochemist named Alexander Shulgin, a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley and former research chemist at the Dow Chemical Company, re-discovered the synthesis for MDMA (Ecstasy) in 1976 and is ‘credited’ with making it popular. He also published the syntheses for more than 170 designer drugs of his own invention. He was a school teacher, so was his wife.

Thanks, doc.  Perhaps your intentions were good, but it didn’t work out in the end. Did it?

Fortunately, the government has caught up with a few of these drugs. A few days ago the House voted to classify several synthetic drugs as Schedule 1. That’s so restrictive that even researchers will have a hard time getting them. Perhaps it’s better that way. Haven’t we proven that drugs are not the answer to life’s problems?

Watch out for these drugs.  And if someone you care about is into drugs at all, get them into a good drug rehab program that will put an end to any desire they have to continue taking them. Really, that’s the only guarantee that their lives will not be ruined.

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Are your college kids taking ‘study’ drugs? Have they told you that everyone in school is taking them and that it doesn’t get them high, it just helps them focus so they can get better grades? Have they told you that they don’t take them all year, just at exam time? Have you been worried about it and wondering if they need drug rehab?

Whatever your kids have told you about these drugs – which are primarily Adderall and Ritalin – here is what you as parents should know, and should look into further.

Here are the side effects for each drug – taken from drugs.com. The lists are long, and there may be things on them you don’t understand. You can look them up online. But, even if you didn’t look up anything, there’s enough there that you will understand to make you realize that these drugs are nothing to fool around with. And if your kids are taking them, it might be time to contact a drug rehab program and speak with a professional to see if there’s a problem.

Adderall

Cardiovascular: Palpitations, tachycardia, elevation of blood pressure, sudden death, myocardial infarction. There have been isolated reports of cardiomyopathy associated with chronic amphetamine use.

Central Nervous System: Psychotic episodes at recommended doses, overstimulation, restlessness, dizziness, insomnia, euphoria, dyskinesia, dysphoria, depression, tremor, headache, exacerbation of motor and phonic tics and Tourette’s syndrome, seizures, stroke.

Gastrointestinal: Dryness of the mouth, unpleasant taste, diarrhea, constipation, other gastrointestinal disturbances. Anorexia and weight loss may occur as undesirable effects.

Allergic: Urticaria, rash, hypersensitivity reactions including angioedema and anaphylaxis. Serious skin rashes, including Stevens Johnson Syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis have been reported.

Endocrine: Impotence, changes in libido.

Ritalin

Nervousness, insomnia, hypersensitivity (including skin rash, urticaria, fever, arthralgia, exfoliative dermatitis, erythema multiforme with histopathological findings of necrotizing vasculitis, and thrombocytopenic purpura); anorexia; nausea; dizziness; palpitations; headache; dyskinesia; drowsiness; blood pressure and pulse changes, both up and down; tachycardia; angina; cardiac arrhythmia; abdominal pain; weight loss during prolonged therapy, Tourette’s syndrome, toxic psychosis has been reported, abnormal liver function, cerebral arteritis and/or occlusion; leukopenia and/or anemia; transient depressed mood; aggressive behavior; scalp hair loss, neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS).

So, now your kids are going to say they’ve already taken it and nothing like that has happened to them. But, that doesn’t mean it won’t. It’s probable that they won’t have some kind of severe physical allergic reaction to it if they’ve already taken it and nothing has happened – but it’s not true that none of the other things will happen. They could happen at any time.

Another really worrying thing is that kids often get their drugs from other kids – not from doctors. Their friends either sell them to them or give them to them free of charge. And your kid might do the same – give someone a few of their pills to ‘help them out’ during exams time.

But they never know how that person is going to reaction. What if they did have a severe reaction? What if they wound up in hospital or, heaven forbid, dead. Your child would feel horrible about that for the rest of their lives. It might even ruin their life.

Also, if your son or daughter knew about the possible effects of these drugs, continues to take them and also doesn’t tell others about how dangerous the drugs can be, and then someone they know is injured while taking these drugs – that’s another guilt trip.

Don’t take your son or daughter’s word for what is safe and what is not – no matter what their friends have told them and how many of them are doing it. Learn the information you as parents need to have to make certain that something is safe for yourself.

And don’t get fooled into thinking “Oh, that could never happen to my son!” I’m sure you could guess that that’s what most parents of kids who’ve gotten into trouble with drugs or alcohol told themselves.

If you’re not successful at getting your kids to stop taking drugs by reasoning with them and giving them the full and correct information – they need drug rehab.

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