How to Get Off Prescription Drugs
At one time, medical drugs were mostly seen as aids to the healing process. Gradually over the last seventy years, overprescribing of drugs like painkillers and anti-anxiety formulas has put massive amounts of these drugs and others on the market. People with more of the pills than they needed would share them with others, resulting in uncontrolled use and addiction by the illicit users. Even those who used them properly wound up being addicted in many cases, and those looking for a thrill would try them and find that they satisfied some need and so continued to use them.
Where Do I Start?
First the person must realize that the dependency on the drug has become an addiction and want to stop.
Next they should seek help from a drug rehabilitation program that treats prescription drug abuse, ideally one that does not administer substitute drugs as the offered solution. The drug rehab facility can help determine to what extent a medical detox or wean down is needed as in many cases it can be dangerous to come off prescription drugs cold turkey.
Once a person has been withdrawn from drugs, a person should complete a comprehensive rehabilitation program where they can fully eliminate any drug residues from their system and gain the life skills need to rebuild their life and stay sober. The Narconon program can help a person achieve this.
It is essential that the millions of people who suffer from addiction to these drugs have a reliable way to create a new sober life for themselves. Narconon can help by providing an effective method of recovery from addiction to prescription drugs.
Prescription Drugs Sending Hundreds of Thousands of People to Rehab Annually
According to statistics released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than 170,000 people needed rehab for painkiller addiction in 2010, and another 23,000 needed help with addiction to tranquilizers, sedatives or stimulants like Adderall or Ritalin or even over the counter drugs like cough medicine. These figures only include those who found rehab help at publicly funded facilities—those going to private rehabs, private practitioners or support groups would increase the numbers even more.
Addiction to opiates like OxyContin or Vicodin is often treated with the substitution of a synthetic opiate like buprenorphine (found in Suboxone and Subutex) or methadone. These substitute drugs satisfy the cravings to some degree but the person is still taking an addictive drug. And some people still abuse other drugs while taking these medications. The drugs do not provide relief from the addiction itself and the person does not get to experience life without drugs. There are better methods of treating addiction.
How Can Addiction be Overcome?
When treatment consists of substitute drugs, endless support group meetings or short, 30-day programs, there is little to no provision for getting to the root of the reasons a person began abusing drugs. The Narconon program is a long-term, residential program that enables a person to fully focus on recovery. Away from one’s usual problems and stresses, it is easier for a person to learn the skills needed to make drug-free decisions and then look at how these skills need to be applied in his (or her) life.
For most people, this is a three to five month process. For seven out of ten of them who graduate from this program, it is the route to their getting off prescription drugs (and illicit drugs) for good.
Some People Need Help Making the Decision to Get Sober
If you were to talk to an addicted person about getting help through Narconon, in some cases, there would be an immediate desire to be helped. But the nature of addiction is that some people get ground down by the drugs, the horrific events normally suffered by an addicted person, the harm they have done to themselves and the way they have neglected their families. They very often feel that they don’t deserve help or that nothing would help them get clean. Some want to relieve their families of any further burden or expense. For these people, it will take more patience and more communication to turn them around to wanting help.
This is what interventionists are for. In these cases where nothing seems to work, an interventionist has experience helping these people realize what life could be like if they were sober. He can trigger that person’s own desires to come back from a devastating addiction.
If you find yourself in this situation, a Narconon rehab center can help you find a competent, professional interventionist who can help you.
No one wants to be an addict. Ever. When a person says he doesn’t want to change, it is simply the addiction talking. It’s as though the addiction itself wants to continue to control the person—he or she is so buried underneath the compulsion to drink, use illicit drugs or abuse prescription drugs.
To bring the person you knew back to the light, to enjoy his sense of humor and his caring once again, learn more about how Narconon can help. It is possible to leave prescription drug abuse behind and build a lasting sober life. Tens of thousands of people around the world have benefited from this help.
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