I recently read an article asking why we just don’t understand drug addiction. As if that lack of understanding was the source of the problem. I think drug addiction is quite well understood – the real problem is that we don’t know what to do about it. In fact, even finding a drug rehab facility that understands the real solutions is difficult.

Why are people addicted to drugs? There’s a list – but, surprisingly, it’s not too long.

• Poverty
• Frustration and worry in life
• Emotional trauma caused by association with those who don’t have our best interests at heart
• Low self-esteem and feeling like a failure in some way or other
• Physical dependency on prescription drugs
• Lack of education and the resulting inability to get ahead in life
• Feeling a lack of purpose in life, or having that purpose thwarted
• Growing up in an environment where illicit drugs and alcohol are accepted
• Growing up in an environment where prescription drugs are considered to be a remedy to life’s problems
• Taking dangerous drugs for kicks and becoming addicted

There may be more, but they would probably be versions of the above.

What we lack – on a broad scale – is the ability or wherewithal to do something about those problems.

Among those listed above, however, is one item that, if it can be resolved, may lead to a resolution of many of the other problems. And that item is feeling a lack of purpose in life.

When an individual has a purpose in life, and that purpose is constructive, and it is THEIR purpose, not a purpose instilled in them or forced upon them by family members (like the classic example of a family that wants their creative son or daughter to become a lawyer, like their father and grandfather, instead of a musician or artist), and the person is taking meaningful (in their estimation) steps to accomplish that purpose, that tends to override almost anything we go through.

You hear great stories about people who overcome incredible obstacles in order to ‘follow their bliss,’ and that same thing that makes them want to get up in the morning, ready to go, interested in and enthusiastic about the day ahead of them, can also keep them away from drugs and alcohol.

If you want your children to grow up without drugs or alcohol, do whatever you can to support them in those things they are passionate about. And if they’re already into drugs or alcohol, get them into a good drug rehab program that will help them work things out so they then feel able to achieve something that truly interests them.

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Most people I know are saying that Amy Winehouse’s early death was inevitable. Several have said they didn’t even know anything about her as a musician – her alcohol and drug escapades, along with several arrests and trips to drug rehab, completely overshadowed her talent – a pity, since she was remarkable and had been compared to Billie Holiday and other greats. It’s hard to say whether it was inevitable or not but on thing is for sure – she never got the alcohol and drug rehab program she really needed.

Her serious alcohol and drug abuse seemed to start when she married Blake Fielder-Civil in May 2007. Even though they divorced within a couple of years, I would venture to say that the relationship left her very scarred – she continued her drug and alcohol abuse until the day she died.

One of the major problems, as I see it, is that she never really did a full alcohol or drug rehab program. Also, it was reported more than once that she was still drinking and taking drugs even while she was in the various programs she did. How this happened, I don’t know. She also never really appeared to complete a program – her stays were very brief, sometimes lasting only a few days.

A good program, for someone in her condition, would have taken several months.

They would first have gotten her off the drugs and alcohol – safely, and in an environment where there were definitely no drugs or alcohol available to her.

Next, they would have worked on physical recovery. Getting all the drugs actually out of her system and, through a good nutritional program, restored her health to the degree possible.

They would also have addressed why she got into drugs and alcohol in the first place and worked with her on these problems until she was no longer overwhelmed by them.

She would have received the tools necessary to prevent her from getting involved in similar problems in the future.

And a program, with follow-up, that enabled her to go back into the world and live without alcohol or drugs.

This takes months. Not days, not weeks. But, it would have saved her life and she would be happily fulfilling her dreams as an artist and in life.

No one really knows why she did not enter such a program, or, if she did, why she did not persist with it.

If someone you care about is in trouble with drugs or alcohol, make sure you get them into that type of program and make sure they stick with it. It is known that that can be hard to do, but  successful drug rehab programs are designed to enable the person to persist. Drug Rehab Referral can help you find one.

It’s too late to save Amy. But it’s not too late for others.

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Finally, the problem of alcohol abuse, drug abuse and addiction in colleges has become the focus of White House Drug Control strategy. I don’t know if it will work – the War on Drugs hasn’t been any big success – but at least it will probably make parents and college kids aware of the problem. And it will lead to more college kids getting into and alcohol or drug rehab program.

Did you know, for example, that …

• More than one in five kids who drop out of college do so because of something related to alcohol?

• Each year there are nearly 2,000 college students die from alcohol-related incidents?

• Over 600,000 college students are unintentionally injured due to alcohol?

• One in four people aged 18 through 34 binge drink – five drinks or more in one sitting?

• Alcohol is involved in 90% of college rapes?

• 70% of college kids say they had unplanned sex because of alcohol and that 20% did not use protection?

• 22.9% of college students meet the medical definition for alcohol or drug abuse or dependence. The rest of the population averages 8.5%.

• That the number of kids using prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet non-medically is rising dramatically?

• That more than 20% of college kids use Adderall as a study drug or to party?

• That 90% of the students who use Adderall also binge drink and are heavy drinkers?

• That full-time college students who use Adderall are 3 times more likely to use marijuana, 8 times more likely to use cocaine, 8 times more likely to use tranquilizers, and 5 times more likely to use pain relievers?

This is pretty serious stuff – and not at all what parents had in mind when they sent their kids off to college with the money the family had been saving for years.

These kids aren’t just having a good time – they are doing things that are very dangerous.

If you have a son or daughter that’s drinking or taking drugs, don’t take it lightly. It’s easy to think that something bad won’t happen to your kid, or that your kid’s drinking or drug taking won’t get worse – some parents even think that going to college will straighten them out. But, statistically, that’s just not true. Get them through a drug rehab program – they also address alcohol – before they go to college. A good program will help them resist the temptation when college comes around.

And, remember, 25% of college students say that drinking alcohol has adversely affected their performance as a student. Don’t be afraid to take your college kid out of college for a while to sort them out. They have far more chance of getting the education and having the future both they and you envisioned.

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If you have a son or daughter who is a musician, or aspires to be one, you might also have heard from them that drugs and alcohol get their creative juices flowing. The MusiCares MAP Fund, which has save the lives and careers of many musicians by getting them through drug rehab, dispels that idea.

Parents, family members and friends sometimes struggle for years to get the musicians in their lives into drug rehab. As long as a musician thinks their creativity depends on it, the pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears. But if they hear it from another musician – especially musicians who are undeniably successful – it might get through.

The 7th Annual MusiCares MAP Fund Benefit Concert welcomed many of those musicians, and honored Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan. Gahan, who after years of drug abuse survived a suicide attempt and a heroin overdose, lived to pick up his career and has now been sober for years.

“To be honest,” said Gahan, “If you go down that route, drugs are going to take command over everything you’re doing anyway, and that’s been my experience anyway,” said the U.K. born vocalist. “I went through a period before I got clean where I don’t think I played a record for like two years. I just didn’t care.”

In the end, that’s what drugs can do to you. All you care about are the drugs.

Take it from the many artists who have fought their addictions and won: Steven Tyler, frontman for Aerosmith, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, Grace Slick – the list goes on and on.

And, you will notice, many still have illustrious careers.

But hundreds have been lost. Here’s a short list:

• Elvis Presley
• Janis Joplin
• Jimi Hendrix
• Tim Buckley
• Tim Hardin
• Alan Wilson (from Canned Heat)
• Brent Mydland and Ron McKernan (from Grateful Dead)
• Dee Dee Ramone (from The Ramones)
• Gram Parsons (from The Byrds)
• Gregory Herbert (from Blood, Sweat & Tears)
• Hillel Slovak (from Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• John Belushi (from Blues Brothers)]
• John Bonham (from Led Zeppelin)
• John Kahn (from Jerry Garcia Band)
• Jonathan Melvoin (from Smashing Pumpkins)
• Keith Moon (from The Who)
• Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield (from Butterfield Blues Band)

and many, many more. If you check out the full list, just of well-known musicians, their average age when they died was 31.

Ask your musician friends if they want to risk ending their careers at the ripe old age of 31. Or would they rather still be playing to sold-out venues in their 60’s, like Steven Tyler and Eric Clapton?

Use this type of information to get your musician friends or relatives into drug or alcohol rehab. You may save their lives and careers. And, as many of the most successful musicians in the world will attest, it will also make them better musicians.

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I hate to say anything bad about football – it’s an American institution, and a good percentage of our population would give up food before football.  And it’s true that if you wanted your kids to stay away from drugs and alcohol and lead a productive life,  you would get them involved in sports as an extra-curricular activity – all in all, a good thing.  But more and more, football is turning into a drinking sport instead of a healthy team activity. And many guys involved in football wind up in drug or alcohol rehab. Just read the news, you’ll see it every day.

Drinking after the game, and between games, going to parties, being a football star, getting into a college that’s better known for its football team and tail-gating parties than for its education seems to be as much as part of the game of football as the physical activity.

And many of the young football players in high school and college no longer look like the fit Adonises of yesteryear who take pride in their physical condition – they’re overweight and blubbery. I don’t know how some of them make it through a game without having a heart attack.

If your kid is going to play football, make sure you educate him about the sport – what it used to be – the pride of being a fit athlete and good team member – and encourage him to be that kind of football player, someone who takes the game and their physical condition seriously.

And let him know he can still get the chicks if he doesn’t drink. In fact, most girls would prefer a guy who isn’t binge drinking and then falling down drunk , who doesn’t smell like alcohol, who doesn’t feel he has to drink to prove himself or be one of the guys, and who doesn’t associate celebrating with booze. That’s admirable. Pouring pitchers of beer over someone’s head, vomiting, passing out, driving while drunk and risking your life, and that of your friends and innocent other drivers and pedestrians, or having to get someone else to drive you somewhere, is not. What kind of man is that?

Ask any girl – she’ll tell you that kind of stuff is not very attractive. Even if the guy is a ‘football star’.

In fact, if you want to keep your football player son away from alcohol, that argument may meet with more acceptance than any other.

If you can prevent your kids from drinking and they play the game well and take pride in themselves as an athlete, you’ve may have a winning combination. And your kid could have a much longer, more productive career that is not interrupted, or ended, by having to go to rehab.

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In the last little while there have been several articles and news items about how kids who start drinking when they’re young have a good chance of eventually winding up with an alcohol problem and needing alcohol rehab as an adult.

But a new study now also shows that, not only are those kids more likely to need help when they grow older, they’re also having their brains damaged.

Alcohol is not easy on the body – and that includes the brain. From 12 to 20 years old is a very important period for brain development. If someone that age is binge drinking, for example, they’re damaging themselves for life.

According to the researchers in an animal study, MRIs revealed a smaller forebrain in those who have had a lot of alcohol.

Interestingly enough, the specific parts of the brain that show damage are exactly what anyone associated with an alcoholic would expect – those parts of the brain are related to being able to make correct decisions, allowing us to “predict consequences of our actions, control our impulses, refine our reasoning, and evaluate long- and short-term rewards.”

Amazing because, really, those are usually the exact problems parents of drinkers observe. And the same is obviously true for some adult drinkers.

The researchers also said “While these subtle brain changes are not making you a monster, they’re making you a less talented person or a person more prone to do stupid things whether you’re drinking or not.”

Just what we need.

Kids drinking in their teens, at college, and so on, not only seems to be accepted by the majority of Americans, it’s a right of passage. But what is it doing to our kids, and the future of the country?

If your kid is drinking and won’t stop, realize that it’s not just a kid thing. You’re dealing with alcohol addiction. Get help for them now by contacting a drug and alcohol rehab facility. It means a better future to them, for you, and for everyone. In fact, it could save their lives.

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Charlie Sheen has gotten himself into quite a mess. He’s been living hard – lots of drugs, lots of alcohol, and partying for days on end. It’s hurting his career but, more importantly, it really seems to be taking its toll on his mental and emotional state. He’s on a home-based drug rehab program or, at least, he was. But is that really going to work for him? I doubt it.

A successful drug rehab program takes months, and you need a team of professionals to help you through it. Getting off the drugs or alcohol is the first step, which in itself can be painful, sometimes dangerous and definitely needs supervision, then there’s getting all the residual drugs out of the body and getting healthy, thoroughly identifying and addressing the reason the person needs drugs and alcohol in the first place, and then setting things up so when the person leaves the rehab facility they can go back into the environment knowing they’ll be able to stay on the path.

With Sheen’s condition right now, I’d say that’s the least he needs.

But there is another possibility that might work – joining Sean Penn in Haiti. Sean went there a year ago planning on staying for a few days or weeks and is basically still there. On a recent TV show, he was referred to as the mayor of a 55,000 strong tent city. According to recent news reports, Sean and Charlie are friends. And Sean would welcome Charlie’s help.

Joining his friend in Haiti might be just what Charlie needs. It can really change a person to leave their cushy environment and spend some time helping others – not just with money, but actually getting involved in the physicality of it all. And, in Haiti, there’s no end to the physicality needed.

An experience like that can really change a person’s values and priorities. They come out of it seeing life differently. Whatever is bothering them and causing their drug addiction often pales in the light of what others have to live with every day. And it might bring Charlie back to earth.

Let’s hope, for Charlie’s sake, and his family’s, that he takes Sean up on his offer.

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When I first saw the headline of a recent news story – Study supports call to allow addicts to shape treatment – I thought it was a pretty crazy idea. If addicts were capable of determining their own treatment, wouldn’t they already be off drugs or alcohol? Then I read the story and couldn’t see how it was possible to do a successful alcohol or drug rehab without the basics they were talking about.

The story started with a man who, years ago, finally got up the courage to go to his doctor to ask for help with his drinking problem. The doctor simply told him to “pull up his socks and stop drinking.” If that’s all there was to it, the number of alcoholics and drug addicts in society wouldn’t even be a problem. Most addicts and alcoholics want to quit. But they can’t, without help.

I would hope that doctor has now learned that when a drug addict or alcoholic finally asks for help, you better jump on it. It takes a lot to get to that point.

Finally, without the help of his doctor, the man got help. And he is now helping others in cooperation with a U.K. charity.

What’s the difference between his program and others? In addition to 24-hour support and other community back-up, the program also has a small fund from which recovering addicts can borrow to tend to basic needs like having enough money to take the bus to work.

It’s amazing that something this trivial can prevent someone from successfully recovering from drug or alcohol abuse. But, really, it’s sometimes the little things that trip us up most.

All drug and alcohol rehab programs, to be successful, have to take into consideration all the aspects of a person’s life that could possibly trip them up once they complete their time in rehab and get back into the stream of life. If you’re helping someone through recovery, make sure you ask about and pay attention to the little things.

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People from all walks of life can very easily get sucked into a life of drug and alcohol addiction. It’s not a problem that any one group of individuals is more prone to experiencing. But, have you ever thought that your own doctor could be addicted to drugs or alcohol?

Unfortunately physicians can also fall into the grips of addiction. They not only wreck their own personal lives and those of their families, but what do you think this does to their ability to effectively treat patients? Scary thought, huh? I certainly wouldn’t want a doctor who is high on drugs managing my health, especially if I was sick with a major disease that required critical thinking. And what about surgeons who are operating on patients?

There was a recent survey done that showed some pretty alarming information, most notably, that doctors are not likely to report their colleagues if they know about or suspect drug abuse. The survey found that only one in three doctors would report the problem. The reasons being that they feared retribution by the offender or that they would be getting their colleague into trouble.

In Florida, a program has been put in place for this type of scenario to be avoided. They offer a reporting program for doctors to be able to report their colleagues or themselves, with a solution to the problem being offered, rather than revoking their license and turning them away. Doctors have the opportunity to clean up. They are required stop practicing medicine and attend a drug or alcohol rehab program, but once they’re clean, they can go back to practice.

What a concept! Why is this only available for doctors? Most of the time, you not only lose your job, but chances are, you could wind up in jail if you’re doing drugs. This gives people a great opportunity to regain their lives and live sober again. I’m in full agreement and think this is a great program. Give people a chance to make the right choice!

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A California judge is fed up with Lindsay Lohan’s inability to comply with her probation requirements. Lindsay got into trouble in 2007 for a number of offenses. She drove drunk twice, had cocaine in her system and drove recklessly.

Lindsay is no stranger at this point to the world of alcohol and drugs, or the court system. She was put on probation for a three year period and has been wearing an alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet since May, and well before that, ordered by the court to attend alcohol treatment classes. But, she keeps pushing her luck. She’s been caught drinking with the alcohol bracelet on and she’s missed several of her treatment classes.

Well, it looks like her luck ran out. She’s been sentenced to 90 days in jail and has to go to an in-patient drug rehab program. When the judge came down with that sentence, Lindsay started to cry and plead with the court not to do that to her, but it was too little, too late. The judge basically looked at the apology as insincere and the tears as those of a crocodile.

News has also surfaced about Lindsay being prescribed a very strong painkiller called Dilaudid. This is a drug that has been compared to morphine and even heroin. She’s also prescribed Ambien (to help her sleep) and Adderall (to combat anxiety). There are too many bright, young stars being prescribed whatever drugs they want with tragic outcomes like overdose and death.

Honestly, I think the judge is doing right by Lindsay to up the ante in terms of her consequences. So far, probation and an alcohol-detecting ankle bracelet haven’t worked. And, with doctors being willing to prescribe whatever drugs she wants, coupled with the idea that she’s basically untouchable, she obviously doesn’t have a clue about responsible behavior and moral values. If she’s not willing to help herself, the law will.

Hopefully she actually dives into the drug rehab program portion of sentence and gets a clue. It would be awful if she wound up dead like so many of our favorite celebs and singers in recent years.

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