Women Drug Addiction Report on Opiate Dependency

Part III: Percentage of Women Seeking Anesthesia-Assisted Detoxification for Painkiller Dependency on the Rise According to Waismann Method Survey

According to The Waismann Method Opiate Dependency Survey, the percentage of female patients seeking treatment for opiates, which includes Vicodin ®, OxyContin ®, Lortab ®, Norco ®, Percocet ® and Suboxone ®, rose 12 percent in the past year. Seventy percent of female respondents confirmed that their dependencies began after taking legitimate doctor-prescribed medication. Oxycontin ® and Vicodin ® remained the most commonly abused opiates for the third year in a row and Suboxone dependency is also on the rise, according to Dr. Clifford Bernstein, medical director for Anesthesia Assisted Medical Opiate Detoxification Inc. (A.A.M.O.D.) and practitioner of the Waismann Method.

“We are seeing an increase in female patients seeking treatment for dependency to painkillers, and our statistics show these patients are wives and mothers that unwittingly developed a physical dependency to painkillers after seeking assistance from their doctors for pain,” said Bernstein. “The increase doesn’t come as a surprise as these potent pills are prescribed for anything from back pain to migraines headaches. In these cases, the prescribing physicians need to educate patients about the dangers of opiate dependence. In turn, patients need to ask themselves if their pain warrants the use of prescription medication or if an over-the-counter pill would provide adequate relief.

”Because their dependencies are often a physical reaction to the prolonged use of opiates, a medical treatment that is going to remove that reliance and allow them to begin anew without opiates in their system is an appropriate last step, explained Bernstein.

“Anesthesia-assisted detoxification cleanses the opiates from the body and reduces the cravings, allowing these women to return to their normal lives in a short time,” he said.

Additional findings of The Waismann Method Opiate Dependency Survey include:

* An overwhelming number of women, at 92 percent, said that the directions for taking the opiates were clear and easy to understand, but only 38 percent indicated that their doctors enforced those directions.
* Fifty-five percent of women who answered the survey received prescriptions from only one doctor, while 31 percent sought treatment from multiple doctors.
* For 50 percent of female respondents, withdrawal symptoms were the number one reason they were not able to stop taking the drug without help.
* Thirty-one percent of women obtained prescription medication by ordering over the Internet.
* Of female respondents, 52 percent were married at the time of treatment, and 64 percent had children.

Drs. Clifford A. Bernstein is the medical director of Anesthesia Assisted Medical Opiate Detoxification Inc. (A.A.M.O.D.). A.A.M.O.D. uses the exclusive Waismann Method of Rapid Detox to treat opiate dependency. Performed in a hospital intensive care unit, the Waismann Method involves cleansing the opiate receptors in the patient’s brain of the narcotics while the patient is under anesthesia, reversing the chemical imbalance. During the procedure, the patient will experience minimal conscious withdrawal, and will be able to return home within days. 75 percent of the prescription drug dependent patients who are treated with the Waismann Method remain drug free after one year. StatCounter - Free Web Tracker and Counter

Internet Called 'Biggest Culprit' in Prescription Drug Abuse

Prescription drug abuse is being fueled by easy access to pharmaceuticals on the Internet, often facilitated by shady doctors and pharmacies, CNN reported May 21.

Rusty Payne, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said pharmaceutical abuse "is one of the biggest drug problems we are dealing with. "The Internet is the biggest culprit," Payne said.

"These pharmacy people that are doing this and these doctors that are doing this, they don't give a dadgummit about people. It's just the almighty dollar; that's all it is," said one Wichita, Kansas women whose husband died from an overdose of the muscle relaxant Soma, which he bought online without ever visiting a doctor.

CNN reporters were able to easily buy the antidepressants Prozac and Elavil online by filling out a health survey and providing a credit-card number, even though an e-mail from the linepharmacy.com site said that "all orders made are still subjected to Doctor's evaluation." The drugs arrived with a doctor's name and a pharmacy name on the label, but the reporter never spoke to a doctor.

In another example, a women who tried to commit suicide with drugs bought online received a prescription for Soma written by a doctor on Long Island, Kareem Tannous, who she had never met. The doctor, who runs three health clinics, refused to answer questions about the prescription, as did workers at Roots Pharmacy in American Fork, Utah, which filled the prescription.

The DEA says that investigations of Internet pharmacies yielded $39 million in cash and other assets last year, up from $11 million in 2004.

Carmen Catizone, the executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, likened illicit online pharmacies to drug dealers but said Congress has been reluctant to beef up enforcement. "'Show us the dead bodies,'" has been the typical response from lawmakers, said Catizone, "and if that was me or my family, that's a pretty sad statement for our legislators to give."

Alcohol:The Low Life

When you first start drinking, you are like a lot of people. You're smart and you have a lot to offer. You are looking forward to a good career, finding your significant other, getting your own house, driving the nice car.

Then, as the social drinking continues, alcohol suddenly becomes more important. You are drinking after work, on the weekends, and after enough time, every chance you get.

With enough drinking your family and friends start to protest. You are going over the edge, you are drinking way too much. Your family may issue the ultimatum that you are no longer allowed to drink in their presence. Your significant other may leave you, and your friends stop returning your calls as your behavior under the influence becomes more embarrassing.

So there you are. You, the one who had so much potential. You have your priorities and because you have developed an alcohol addiction, alcohol has reached the top of the list.

Because the people in your life have run interference with or completely banned your drinking, you now have to either drink alone, or find people to spend time with who have a high tolerance for the volume and frequency of your drinking. And these new friends are not going to be of the same caliber as your old friends, because they have the same priority - alcohol. So they will probably have more time to drink on their hands, most being unencumbered by employment or other normal responsibilities. Now you have friends you can drink and waste your time with, pretty much around the clock. Every drunk's dream. Whittling the days, weeks and months away drinking. No ambition, no accomplishments, no contribution, no life. Sometimes it's all you can do to get up in the morning. You don't clean anymore, and you don't keep up your appearance like you used to. But that's o.k., because your new friends don't mind, if they even noticed.

This is why it can be lonely after you stop drinking, at least for awhile. After some time sober has passed and you have regained some of your mental capacity, you don't want to spend any more time with these people - the people who because of their addiction helped you to keep your own addiction to alcohol alive. You are newly sober and have begun, once again, to start moving up in the world and making a new, better life for yourself. You are going to have to leave the low life, and your companions on the fast track to nowhere, behind.

If you have a drinking problem that is dragging you down, there is an easy 5 step plan that is helping people to stop drinking right away:

http://HowIStoppedDrinking.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samantha_James

Fighting Alcoholism Online

The rise of online large scale intervention for alcoholics is gaining ground. Given that alcoholism is beginning to be a major cause of disability, and the fact that alcoholics do not get adequate treatment, it is high time to take help to a higher level.

Online intervention is changing the face of coping with and treatment of alcoholism. Since the internet is more accessible and more people are becoming netizens by each day, it is a change that is gladly welcomed by many. The internet has also great potential to deliver self-help intervention in a global basis, to people who do not seek or receive enough help for alcoholism, or simply to those who find it hard to do so. For some people, internet help is merely a supplement to their regular face-to-face meetings with other people, but for most, online help and intervention is the only meeting they could attend to.

In an age where time is of the essence, some people would rather let themselves whither away with alcohol than take the time to seek out professional help. Most Americans keep more than one job, and at the end of the day, they are too tired to go out and find someone who can help them and instead take comfort in nursing a bottle of whiskey. With the internet revolution, people can just sit on their computers and interact with similar individuals with similar needs – right in the comforts of their own home.

Online help has also been very helpful for a particular group of alcoholics with special needs. People with hearing disabilities or those who can’t get around without a wheelchair greatly benefit from online interaction to seek help. Others who want to remain anonymous can do so with little or no threats to his privacy.

There are many different ways for people to find online help. They can conveniently take part in online meetings, email discussion groups, real-time chat meetings, forum and bulletin board discussions and even voice-chat are now readily available in the web. All they have to do is find the right group that they are most comfortable with and they can start getting help from there.

Online intervention for alcoholics is convenient, fast and reliable. The steady rise of the Internet and its fast development has brought support for alcoholics and consequently, recovery to many people worldwide

Natural Treatments for Alcoholism

Alcoholics cannot resist the urge to drink alcohol, and then drink more alcohol. They are not stupid people (not always, anyway!). Most are aware of how bad excessive drink can be for the human body, but despite their knowledge they have lost their ability to control the amount of alcohol they drink. They drink beyond socially acceptable limits and are often a burden and embarrassment to their friends and family. This still does not stop them from drinking.

Ongoing alcoholism has dire effects on the body. It interferes with the normal function of all organs. It is especially hard on the liver, brain, kidneys and heart. Cirrhosis of the liver is one of the most serious effects of prolonged alcoholism. This is a scarring of the organ that is almost irreversible. It is rare that a cirrhosis-affected liver can ever be returned to full health and functionality. Alcohol interferes with digestion, which starts to starve the body of needed nutrients. Each time alcohol is imbibed it dulls a little more of the senses. Over a long period of time these sensory losses can become permanent.

There are some natural remedies and herbs that can be helpful in the treatment of alcoholism.

Herbs:

- Aloe vera helps to strengthen the liver and prevent cirrhosis, one of the first effects of alcoholism noticed by many sufferers.

- Ashwagandha helps strengthen the alcoholic through reducing vata vitiations. Vata is instrumental in the health and strength of the brain. It stimulates natural physical coordination.

- The gotu kola herb is also a brain revitalizer. It is an important ingredient to anyone suffering from alcohol withdrawal.

- Musk, or jatamansi, is also good for vata vitiation. It has a cooling effect and helps your body recover from the effects of alcoholism.

Ayurvedic Treatments:

Ayurvedic treatments come in different levels, depending on how entrenched the alcoholism is in the body.

If one has just begun to recognize alcoholic signs, methods include irrigating the head in cold water, eating only cold food, and the use of cold packs of mud for the body.

The more severe sufferer of alcoholism who may have been drinking for many years may require a more stringent treatment involving inducing vomiting, taking medicines to assist digestion, and fasting.

These are just two examples of a wide variety of Ayurvedic treatments.

Home Remedies:

Fruits are very good at lowering the negative effects of alcoholism. Juice from citrus fruit is very good at relieving hangover symptoms. Apples and bananas help remove toxins from the bloodstream.

Grapes and dates have the ability to reduce one's urge to drink alcohol. In fact, if you eat only grapes and dates and nothing else for a couple weeks, your drinking temptation will be gone.

Start drinking more and varied types on non-alcoholic beverages regularly. This, too, will reduce the need to drink alcohol. When you feel the need to drink, grab a glass of carrot juice instead. It will help remove that urge.

A hard-core drinker will undoubtedly fail when trying to completely stop drinking all at once. Instead, phase out alcohol from your diet slowly and steadily. Things that will help you on this goal are:

- Slow down with wine or beer instead of hard liquor. Eventually these, too, can be quit.

- Take an interest in a hobby or sport to take your mind of the times you would have been drinking before.

- The love and support from family and friends goes a long way to helping the sufferer rid himself of his alcoholism.

- Alcoholics Anonymous meetings give the alcoholism sufferer hope and support from others with personal experience with the same problem

Whatever you do, if you even think you might be leaning towards alcoholism, start taking action.

Michael Russell

Drunks By Jack Mc.

DRUNKS
for my father, and the people who almost saved his life

We died of pneumonia in furnished rooms
where they found us three days later
when somebody complained about the smell
we died against bridge abutments
and nobody knew if it was suicide
and we probably didn't know either
except in the sense that it was always suicide
we died in hospitals
our stomachs huge, distended
and there was nothing they could do
we died in cells
never knowing whether we were guilty or not.

We went to priests
they gave us pledges
they told us to pray
they told us to go and sin no more, but go
we tried and we died

we died of overdoses
we died in bed (but usually not the Big Bed)
we died in straitjackets
in the DTs seeing God knows what
creeping skittering slithering
shuffling things

And you know what the worst thing was?
The worst thing was that
nobody ever believed how hard we tried

We went to doctors and they gave us stuff to take
that would make us sick when we drank
on the principle of so crazy, it just might work, I guess
or maybe they just shook their heads
and sent us places like Dropkick Murphy's
and when we got out we were hooked on paraldehyde
or maybe we lied to the doctors
and they told us not to drink so much
just drink like me
and we tried
and we died

we drowned in our own vomit
or choked on it
our broken jaws wired shut
we died playing Russian roulette
and people thought we'd lost
but we knew better
we died under the hoofs of horses
under the wheels of vehicles
under the knives and bootheels of our brother drunks
we died in shame

And you know what was even worse?
was that we couldn't believe it ourselves
that we had tried
we figured we just thought we tried
and we died believing that
we didn't know what it meant to try

When we were desperate enough
or hopeful or deluded or embattled enough to go for help
we went to people with letters after their names
and prayed that they might have read the right books
that had the right words in them
never suspecting the terrifying truth
that the right words, as simple as they were
had not been written yet

We died falling off girders on high buildings
because of course ironworkers drink
of course they do
we died with a shotgun in our mouth
or jumping off a bridge
and everybody knew it was suicide
we died under the Southeast Expressway
with our hands tied behind us
and a bullet in the back of our head
because this time the people that we disappointed
were the wrong people
we died in convulsions, or of "insult to the brain"
we died incontinent, and in disgrace, abandoned
if we were women, we died degraded,
because women have so much more to live up to
we tried and we died and nobody cried

And the very worst thing
was that for every one of us that died
there were another hundred of us, or another thousand
who wished that we could die
who went to sleep praying we would not have to wake up
because what we were enduring was intolerable
and we knew in our hearts
it wasn't ever gonna change

One day in a hospital room in New York City
one of us had what the books call
a transforming spiritual experience
and he said to himself

I've got it
(no you haven't you've only got part of it)

and I have to share it
(now you've ALMOST got it)

and he kept trying to give it away
but we couldn't hear it

the transmission line wasn't open yet
we tried to hear it
we tried and we died

we died of one last cigarette
the comfort of its glowing in the dark
we passed out and the bed caught fire
they said we suffocated before our body burned
they said we never felt a thing
that was the best way maybe that we died
except sometimes we took our family with us

And the man in New York was so sure he had it
he tried to love us into sobriety
but that didn't work either, love confuses drunks
and he tried and still we died
one after another we got his hopes up
and we broke his heart
because that's what we do

And the worst thing was that every time
we thought we knew what the worst thing was
something happened that was worse

Until a day came in a hotel lobby
and it wasn't in Rome, or Jerusalem, or Mecca
or even Dublin, or South Boston
it was in Akron, Ohio, for Christ's sake

a day came when the man said I have to find a drunk
because I need him as much as he needs me
(NOW
you've got it)

and the transmission line
after all those years
was open
the transmission line was open

And now we don't go to priests
and we don't go to doctors
and people with letters after their names
we come to people who have been there
we come to each other
and we try
and we don't have to die

Alcohol Becoming Equal Opportunity Destroyer

Alcohol dependence was once much more common among men than women in the U.S., but the gender gap is closing, Reuters reported May 5.

Researchers Richard A. Grucza of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and colleagues said that alcohol consumption and dependence have been rising among white and Hispanic women since the end of World War II, with women born between 1954 and 1963 much more apt to drink and have drinking problems than those born between 1944 and 1953.

"This is particularly disturbing because women with alcohol problems face more severe health-related consequences and possibly more years of life lost than their male counterparts," the study noted.

"We found that for women born after World War II, there are lower levels of abstaining from alcohol and higher levels of alcohol dependence, even when looking only at women who drank," Grucza said.

A changing cultural environment that saw more women going to college, entering the workforce, gaining purchasing power and defying gender stereotypes has played a role in alcohol-related trends among women, Grucza added. "They were freer to engage in a range of behaviors that were culturally or practically off-limits, and these behaviors probably would have included excessive drinking and alcohol problems," he said.

The research appears in the May 2008 issue of the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

So You Think You Can Drink

The human civilization has reportedly been drinking for around 15,000 years. And in today’s society, alcohol drinking is undeniably more socially acceptable than its scorned counterparts – smoking and drug abuse. But does this make alcohol much safer?

Alcohol, as some of you might NOT know, is created when fruits, grains or vegetables are fermented. Fermentation can refer to the use of yeast to change sugar found in natural substances into alcohol. It might or might not taste closely like them, but alcohol come from organic foods such as grapes, barley, wheat, rice and others. Now, that doesn’t seem so bad after all. But wait until we get to the juicy parts.

When people consume alcohol, it is absorbed into their bloodstream. From the blood, it travels up from the spinal cord to the brain which controls virtually all bodily functions. Alcohol contains a significant amount of ethanol, a depressant, which slows down the functions of the central nervous system. It blocks some of the messages trying to get to the brain, giving the drunken person slow responses, faulty perceptions and alters his emotions, visions, movement and hearing.

Though in very small amounts, alcohol can help a person calm down, too much of it can make him relax too much. People who overuse alcohol become intoxicated. They stagger, lose their coordination, slur their speech and even have memory gaps or blackouts. Reaction and response times are dramatically slowed – making drunken people unable to drive efficiently and think that they’re moving fine when in reality they are not.

When large amounts of alcohol are consumed in a relatively short period of time, alcohol poisoning can happen. Alcohol poisoning is apparently just that – the poisoning of your system by huge amounts of alcohol you can’t tolerate. This is the state that is characterized by violent vomiting which happens to be its first symptom. Other signs also include extreme and uncontrolled sleepiness, unconsciousness, a dangerously low blood sugar, seizures, difficulty in breathing, and ultimately, even death.

Though in moderation, alcohol has noteworthy health benefits, frequent use and abuse can cause short and long term side-effects. Alcohol can do so much more to your body than shoot you to tipsy heaven. It can get you in trouble with the law, make you look really silly and stupid, and it can make you a threat to yourself and to the people around you.

Drink responsibly. If you think you can contain your alcohol, think again.
Copyright 2008. C.King, M.Ed.