hbo.com addiction

[bowhunter71064]

1. Most people completing addiction treatment are fragilely balanced between sustained recovery and resumption of alcohol and drug use: more than half will consume alcohol or other drugs in the year following discharge from treatment.

2. The window of greatest vulnerability for relapse after treatment is the first 30-90 days following discharge.

3. Between 25-35% of people who complete addiction treatment will be readmitted to treatment within one year, and 50% will be readmitted within five years.

4. Recovery is not fully stabilized (point at which future risk of future lifetime relapse drops below 15%) until four to five years of sustained recovery.

5. Sustained addiction can be lethal: relapses following addiction treatment produce high death rates from accidental poisoning/overdose, liver disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, AIDS, suicide and homicide.

[bowhunter71064]

FIVE THINGS TO DO ABOUT CRAVING
When you have an episode of craving:

1. Try to view the craving in a matter-of-fact way. Having a craving does not mean that you are unmotivated - or that you are doomed to relapse.

2. Learning about your craving triggers, and how to manage them, will be an important part of your recovery in addiction.

3. Try anti-craving behavioral strategies, such as the 5-minute contract (making a contract with yourself not to act on the desire for the next five minutes, and then engaging in a distracting activity in the meantime.) Many urges are short-lived - you will find they are weaker if you can "surf through" the first few minutes.

4. Call upon the guidance of a trained treatment professional may be needed for successfully implementing any of a number of well-described behavioral techniques that can be helpful in managing cravings. Treatment manuals detail these strategies.

5. Consider an anti-craving medication. Craving can erupt quickly and feel overwhelming, making it difficult to put to use behavioral anti-craving strategies, even well-learned ones.
An anti-craving medication may give you a better chance to use the tools you have learned. Some FDA-approved medications for alcohol and heroin addiction may have a beneficial effect on cue-triggered craving; medications for cue-induced cigarette craving and cue-induced cocaine/methamphetamine craving are the focus of many ongoing research studies. Several medications are already under study or in the research phase which may work for more than one type of craving, offering "one-stop-shopping." Anna Rose Childress, Ph.D., is a research associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. She directs the Brain-Behavioral Vulnerabilities Division at the Center for the Study of Addictions, where she has conducted federally-funded research projects for more than two decades. Dr. Childress tests potential new medications with potential impact on both substance and non-substance addictions. Her addiction research has focused on the motivation for drug use/relapse, with an emphasis on understanding and treating the profound craving states elicited by heroin, cocaine and nicotine drug cues. Her early work characterized the subjective and physiological responses to drug cues, developing behavioral anticraving strategies.


  

[DAnthrope]

Hey Brother THANKS for posting that!
I haven't seen the show yet but I'm going to watch this weekend.

PS: Does #3 sound familiar to anyone who's endured my long-winded posts? :-)
Told you I didn't invent it! LOL :-)
But sure as heck, it's kept me clean for 10 freaking days now! w00t!
I use this at LEAST twice a day even still.
I only have about 3.9 years to go before I'm safe I guess! LOL :-)

Peace!
/D

[Marce4]

When is this special on HBO again???

[bowhunter71064]

i dont when on again but go to hbo.com click addiction all kinds of imfo

[ScottQuit021907]

NOTE: the following statement does not necessarily reflect the opinion(s) of anyone but its author and may be disregarded as a rant from a lunatic.

"Consider an anti-craving medication"

I call BS on that one. Is methadone the answer? I think history suggests that it is not. What about suboxone? Maybe, but the history isn't there. What about nicotine replacement? My experience is that it doesn't help at all.

Here's my concern: will an addict take an anti-craving medication with the false (maybe even subconscious) expectation that this med will take away their addictive behavior? I think so.

I would propose to replace "consider an anti-craving medication" with "consider educating yourself on addictive behavior and relapse prevention".

Let's say you are nicotine-free for XX period of time and you get a strong crave for a cigarette. Do you:

1) Take a cigarette OR

2) Chew some nicorette (anti-craving med) and once again become chemically addicted to nicotine OR

3) Wait it out for a few seconds / minutes until the crave passes and get on with life?

Does anyone else see a trend here? Family practitioners, obstetricians, dentists, most everyone in the medical community telling us that this new medicine will fix your problem. How many times have you gone to a physician with a problem and they just wrote you a script for it and said, "This should fix you."

Huh???

Now if you have real pain, you may NEED narcotics to function. Me, I'm just a junkie drug addict, and I certainly don't need an "anti-craving medication" to offset my addictive behavior. Is that really gonna solve my problem or will new ones be created? How can I know for sure?

What I need to stay drug-free is education and support.

OK, I'm done. I apologize in advance if I have offended anyone.

Scott - morphine-free for 24 days!

[addict10]

Good advice scott ( my opinion ), I used heroin for many years ,,got abstinant for a few years ,, had back surgery and was put on lortabs. In no time I was taking them like candy. Dont know about pain cause I wasnt taking em for that, they sent me to a pain management Dr and he gave me oxys. In 3 months I had tripled my dose and in 4 was back on heroin AND oxys. Its like I never had a chance. I went thru wds,,ct,,yea it was hell. I joined a program and stayed clean for 5 years,,,didnt do everything the program suggested just the easy parts. Operation # 4,,,1 plate, 2 screws, and a cage built around my lower spine. Guess what,,,,,back on lortabs, trying to quit and still dont know about pain,,just using cause thats what I do. I have no doubt I"ll be successful in quiting ,,I"ve done it a 100 times. Maybe this time if I really change me I"ll have a better chance