Posts Tagged ‘Drug’

Drug Use And Abuse

Ninety-nine percent of us use drugs, which can be prescribed like penicillin and Prozac, over-the-counter medicine or recreational drugs, both legal and not—and all have some level of side effects and risk. So where does drug use go wrong?

Prescription Drug Abuse
A growing concern, prescription drug abuse is more common than you might think, with 20% of Americans estimated having used drugs for non-medical purposes, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Modern medicine is rightly celebrated for its contribution to curing and treating countless diseases, from polio to cancer, but even properly prescribed medication is susceptible to abuse and addiction.

Prescription drug abuse is a growing epidemic, and part of the reason for this is the ease with which these drugs are able to be obtained. Shockingly, the amount of people prescribed painkillers has risen from 40 million to 180 million in just 16 years from 1991 to 2007. Drugs containing hydrocodone, such as Vicodin, and painkillers, such as oxycontin, and are more likely to cause addiction, and some people who get addicted to these prescription drugs will go to the same lengths to get them as people who are addicted to illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine.

Many people feel embarrassed to bring up the topic of drug abuse with a doctor, but keep in mind that this problem is not so uncommon. So for your own sake don’t wait to address a problem with prescription drugs. Your doctor will likely ask you about the duration of your problem, the severity of the symptoms and any history of drug abuse. Depending on the various factors, your doctor make prescribe therapy, drugs (yes, drugs to help you with addictions to drugs) or support programs such as Narcotics Anonymous.

Drug Abuse
For most people, drug use starts with experimental use in social circles or casual settings, and for a minority it won’t escalate beyond that. However, for the majority, using drugs can turn into a habit, one in which you’ll want to use more drugs and more frequently to get the same high, regardless of the harm it may cause you. This is when addiction comes into play, and the sad truth is that most people can’t quit on their own. Drug addiction is defined by dependency, and one of the primary characteristics is withdrawal symptoms.

Regardless of what you may have heard, drug abuse and addiction does not have anything to do with willpower. They change the way your brain works, creating new neurological wiring that causes you to physically crave the drug and in many cases to build a tolerance that demands more drugs to reach the same high.

Symptoms of drug abuse vary widely from drug to drug, but can include excessive sleeping, periods of restlessness, heightened energy levels and sudden weight loss or gain.

Recovery
So how are you supposed to deal with drug addiction? Studies show that you’re most likely to be successful in recovery with support. Furthermore, it can be extremely dangerous to quit strong addictions to certain drugs, such as alcohol and benzodiazepines, without medical supervision because the withdrawal symptoms are severe. Sometimes an especially strong addiction can necessitate residential treatment.

In many cases, substance abuse is a symptom of an underlying problem, in which we forget to remember our dreams and what we want to be, and recovery, counseling and support pave the road back to this clarity of vision. Ask yourself what your ideal life would look like, and if you really want the life you described, you are going to get it.

However, you can do certain things to help you with addiction. Keeping a journal logging the amount and frequency of your drug use, for instance, can help give you, and your doctor, a realistic evaluation of your level of drug abuse. Exercise, an activity we can all do on our own, also happens to be the best mood stabilizer and can help with drug cravings and withdrawal in many cases—go for a jog and see for yourself.

That being said, it’s important to reiterate that most people have trouble quitting drugs on their own, and if you are suffering from an addiction, seek counsel from a medical professional. The sooner you do, the better your chances are of recovering in the long term. You don’t have to hit rock bottom before undergoing professional treatment.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

The Worst Medicinal Drug of Our Society

Painkiller addiction is common nowadays. It is heard here and there often. Since painkillers are used mainly as medicine, it is not hard for addicts to get them. Causes of painkiller addiction are mainly of two types, sometimes it can be intentional and sometimes, people who are prescribed with painkillers by doctors get physically dependant on it. Whatever the reason of addiction may be, the effect is same for all. And since painkillers are easily available and legal, the painkiller addicts do not have to face any problem getting their pills. According to surveys it has also been confirmed that, people nowadays get addicted to painkillers more than cocaine or heroine. It is surely shocking, isn’t it?

Addiction to painkiller starts mainly from the doctor’s prescription. Due to injuries or illness, people often end up having chronic pain and the treatment is done by prescribing painkillers. The addiction starts when the initial dose does not work anymore and higher dose of painkillers are given to the patient. Slowly, the person gets physically too much dependant on painkillers and that leads to its addiction. People who realize that they are slowly addicted to the painkillers take necessary steps to get away from it and for the others who are totally under the control of painkillers; the only way of cure is getting treatment from a rehabilitation center.

The painkiller addiction symptoms are however very pleasing for the addicts. Some known symptoms are sleeping for long period, feeling high, hallucination etc. All of these effects of painkiller draw the person towards addiction more and more. Without getting proper dose the addicts feel restless, they suffer from insomnia. Withdrawal effects can also cause diarrhea, anxiety, muscle pain etc. Some other withdrawal symptoms are hot and cold sweat, excessive yawning, depression and watery eyes.

The best way to get rid of this addiction is to get admitted in a painkiller rehab. A rehab can provide all the proper treatments necessary for the withdrawal. While the treatment procedure, the medical staffs of the particular rehab must treat the addiction along with the pain that forces the person to take painkiller. Rehabilitation experts have also confirmed that the withdrawal effects of painkiller can be lethal. Proper care of the addicts must be taken during the treatment period. The treatment must be conducted very slowly using the right kind of medicine for the patients.

One of the most important factors for proper rehabilitation is the patient’s mental strength. During the withdrawal period of this drug, various mental and physical problems show up. The medical staffs should give immense support to the patients while rehabilitation.

Hundreds of painkiller rehabs have grown up all over the world. There are some free painkiller rehabs and some private rehabs. The free rehabs cannot provide all the facilities that are needed for proper rehabilitation; whereas, painkiller addiction treatment in the private drug rehabilitation centers are done very carefully. Most of the private rehabs consist of world class, experienced medical staffs and the treatment programs conducted in those rehabs are also exceptional.

A Vaccine For Anxiety? The Real Reason Why Drug Companies Are Pushing More Vaccines

(NaturalNews) There’s a new vaccine for nicotine addiction, and another one for drug addiction. There’s an AIDS vaccines (which doesn’t work) and a vaccine for cervical cancer that’s been approved for use on boys (boys don’t have a cervix). Through the pharmaceutical industry, the big push for vaccines is on!

But why, exactly? Is there suddenly a new rash of epidemic disease requiring vaccine treatments? No, not really. What’s new is the way Big Pharma is latching on to these diseases as new opportunities to sell more drugs.

There’s a huge shift underway from drugs designed for sick people to a whole new class of drugs manufactured for healthy people. The new paradigm is that people need drugs before they get sick, as a sort of “protection” against sickness. Drugs, in essence, are being positioned as nutrients — things the human body needs in order to be healthy. And from the moment you’re born, you’re considered deficient in these drugs. That’s why babies are injected with vaccines within minutes after being born. There’s a strong belief in the medical industry that babies are born deficient in vaccines and that such deficiencies must be “corrected” as soon as possible.

This simple but powerful shift in the marketing strategy of Big pharma has expanded the potential customer based from a subset of the population (people who are sick) to the entire world population. Now, everybody needs a vaccine for something say the drug companies. All that’s necessary for the financial success of these scheme is to convince sick people that they need more drugs (or vaccines), and that’s easily accomplished through disease mongering campaigns (like the current fear push over H1N1 swine flu).

Bypassing the need for scientific evidence

There’s another important shift taking place alongside the big vaccine push: A shift away from “evidence-based medicine” to a new medical paradigm of “dogmatic belief.”

Medicines that treat sick people, you see, have to be proven to work. There have to be clinical trials, and some percentage of those sick people (only 5% or so, typically) have to show some sort of improved response after taking the medicine. This is the so-called “gold standard” of modern medicine. But with vaccines, no proof of efficacy is required. No placebo-controlled studies need to be conducted at all. Vaccines can be openly marketed and prescribed without any evidence that they actually work.

This is the new “free pass” for Big Pharma — a class of medicine that requires no proof! They merely need to be injected into a few hundred people who are observed for as little as two weeks to see if anybody died or collapses into a coma. That’s all the testing that’s required (and sometimes even less). No long-term safety tests are required or pursued, and, importantly, there is no requirement that the vaccine proves it actually works to reduce flu infections (or HPV infections, etc.).

In essence, by pushing for a vaccine approach to virtually everything, including nicotine addictions, the pharmaceutical industry has transformed itself from a small industry that only served sick people with scientifically-proven medicines to a huge global industry that sells vaccines to everyone and needs no proof that they even work. By any assessment, it’s a brilliant strategy for increasing pharmaceutical profits.

At the same time, it’s a hazardous approach to public health. Even while vaccines provide little or no benefit to the people who get them, they do present very real risks of serious harm. Teen girls have died horrible deaths following HPV vaccine injections and routine vaccines for children continue to inject them with levels of mercury so high that even the EPA considers vaccine liquids to be toxic waste.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars are being spent on seasonal flu vaccines and H1N1 vaccines without a shred of evidence that they actually work. The profitable sale of these vaccines to world governments was so easy and so lucrative that it’s gotten the attention of drug companies. We’re onto something! Vaccines are Big Pharma’s new gold. They rake in the big dollars, they need no proof that they work, and as an added bonus, drug companies have been granted full legal immunity against all side effects by the U.S. governments!

From the point of view of the drug makers, there’s no risk involved in vaccines. There’s no risk of scientific failure since no studies are being done to even question the efficacy of the vaccines. And there’s no risk of being sued over side effects since these companies enjoy blanket immunity. It’s all pure profit with no downside. This is the real reason why drug companies are looking for more vaccines to push.

A vaccine for boredom?

Ten years ago, the idea of mandating a cervical cancer vaccine to teenage girls would have seemed ludicrous. But today, it’s the law in many states. It’s easy to push, too, since they can always say it’s being done for “public benefit.” (Although, in reality, the primary beneficiary is Big Pharma.)

Now, the drug companies are pushing theories that diseases like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome are caused by a virus or that prostate cancer is caused by a virus. These are attempts to establish a justification for future vaccines against such conditions. If drug companies can convince the medical authorities that a virus is responsible for heart disease, or cancer, or diabetes, then they can promote vaccines for those things, too.

Before long, every human being will be targeted with a hundred or more vaccines for diseases they don’t even have!

It’s only a matter of time before Big Pharma decides to start pushing vaccines for psychiatric disorders. Feeling bored? There will be a vaccine for boredom. Having trouble concentrating? Watch for a vaccine to be announced for ADHD. Afraid of public speaking? You’ll probably see a vaccine promoted for “social anxiety disorder” sooner or later.

Although this sounds utterly ridiculous right now, don’t discount the ability of the pharmaceutical industry to reshape the entire dialog about mental disorders and vaccines. They’ve already proven their ability to turn normal human experiences into psychiatric disorders requiring pharmaceutical intervention, and most conventional health professionals have bought into it. Pushing vaccines for psychiatric disorders is the next great untapped market for drug companies. All that’s required is to first convince the public that viruses or chemicals are involved in brain disorders.

Believe or it not, this line has already been crossed with the recently announced nicotine vaccine. Nicotine isn’t a virus, obviously. So how can drug companies claim a vaccine works to stop the nicotine habit?

It’s easy: Instead of targeting a virus, the nicotine vaccine targets a molecule (the nicotine molecule). So now, drug makers can claim their vaccines can grant immunity to virtually any chemical or substance. And since psychiatric disorders are already blamed on “chemical imbalances in the brain,” the groundwork has already been laid for the pushing of vaccines for such “chemical imbalances.”

In fact, to take this one step further, keep in mind that according to the psychiatric disease “bible” (the DSM-IV), the very act of defying conventional wisdom is, all by itself, a psychiatric disorder. It’s called “Oppositional Defiant Disorder” or ODD. (I’m not making this up.) You can be diagnosed with ODD simply by arguing with your psychiatrist over the validity of whether the disorder itself actually exists. If you frequently disagree with authorities (like the FDA), you might also be labeled ODD.

If the current health regime is allowed to continue in America, I can easily imagine a day when anyone who disagrees with vaccinations is immediately “diagnosed” with Oppositional Defiant Disorder and injected with a psychiatric vaccin
e designed to “cure” the “disorder.” Effectively, it will be a chemical lobotomy.

To fully understand where this can lead, I urge you to visit CCHR’s museum called Psychiatry An Industry of Death (http://www.cchr.org/psychiatry_an_industry_of_death_museum/) where you’ll tour the horrific history of so-called “psychiatric medicine.” It’s free. Just tell ‘em you’re a reader of Natural News and Mike Adams sent you. Reserve about 2 hours for the tour, and don’t eat much beforehand because you just might lose your lunch. When you see what psychiatrists have done to human beings in the name of medicine, you’ll be absolutely outraged. The street address of the museum is 6616 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90028. Call 1-800-869-2247 to make a reservation for yourself or a group.

Vaccines are the new holocaust. And just as drug companies were once involved in the Nazi-era experiments conducted on human beings, those same companies are now engaged in poisoning humans for profit.