People with addictions usually believe there are in control of their drug or alcohol use, that there’s no problem at all.  They may come up with smooth explanations and distracting words, but you can often notice their world falling down around them.  If you know someone like this, they may very well have drug and alcohol treatment in their future.

Family Functioning Goes Downhill With Drug and Alcohol Addiction

Unless you keep completely to yourself and have no living relatives that speak to you, you are likely to have some family around.  People with an addiction usually falter when it comes to parenting responsibilities, marital or dating relationships, and connections with extended family.  They defend their addiction behavior and brush off what others want and need.  This hurts families terribly, especially children who don’t understand. 

Keep in mind that if you had a difficult family upbringing, that foundation may be part of your drinking or drugging problem.  Covering up the emotions from painful memories or thoughts can certainly be fuel for an addiction.  Take a look before you try to forget.  Did someone in your family have a drinking or drugging problem?  Is it still going on today?

Addiction Causes Career Problems

Imagine doing a long shift at work on your toughest day (or night).  Now imagine doing this after a serious hangover or while still high.  Yeah, not so good.  Focus would go out the window, conversation skills would be impaired, and productivity would be lousy.  For the employer, this is a really bad deal all around.  There may be many missed days or days where their worker is present but hardly working. 

Going to happy hour once in a while is one thing.  Letting it bleed into the wee morning hours and having regular hangovers at work is something entirely different.  You may think that drinking after work or with the boss is helping you.  But if it gets out of control or turns into a place where you hide from your family and from work responsibilities, then you may be headed for alcohol rehab some day.  How long can that really continue before things fall apart?

Social Connections Suffer With Worsening Addiction

Good friendships can survive a lot of ups and downs.  And for many people, family will be there for you in your darkest hour.  Unfortunately, addiction really changes people for the worse.  It often makes them rude, impulsive, irresponsible, and self-absorbed.  None of these qualities work well in relationships.

Since an addiction presents itself differently from something like cancer, it may be more difficult for family and friends to rally around.  The addicted person might reject offers of help, accuse others of attacking them, and basically burn bridges left and right.  An addicted person really needs drug treatment.  Unfortunately, they might not have many people still around to help them get there. 

Drug Rehab Offers Hope For Dismal Life Direction

Drug and alcohol rehab can be a scary thought.  Being with strangers, talking about life and problems, maybe even staying away from family and friends.  But what’s worse, being a little uncomfortable for a while or allowing a dangerous addiction to get worse and worse?  Drug treatment isn’t a perfect cure, but it can help restore work dependability, family relationships, and supportive social connections.  When someone’s life suffers in those areas from addiction, drug and alcohol treatment can change your life for the better.

Casual drinking and even some drug use is often seen as acceptable.  However, there are ways to tell if someone you care about (or even you) are succumbing to a drug or alcohol addiction.  Addiction is not easily treated by going cold turkey.  It really is best if drug treatment professionals are involved.  Don’t know if drug rehab is necessary?  Take a look at the next two symptoms and see if they fit.

Going On Drinking Benders Delaying Withdrawal Symptoms

In an earlier post I described various physical withdrawal symptoms.  These are essentially the body’s physical responses to the drug leaving the body.  These symptoms can be very uncomfortable such as a bad headache, shakiness, upset stomach, and other strong aches and pains. 

A person who knows they react like this often may start doing “benders”.  This is essentially using more drugs or alcohol to treat their hangover or keep it from coming on.  This may include morning drinks or small breaks from drinking despite still feeling drunk.  It ends up creating a long drinking binge that may span more than one day. 

Of course this would also apply to drug use such as prescription drugs, heroin, and methamphetamine.  The person having morning drinks or drug hits may very well know they are using way too much.  However, their denial and self-medication may seem too important to them to stop.  If they stopped, they may not know how to cope as a sober person.

Loss of Control Using Larger Amount and Longer Period Than Intended

Loss of control is a definite sign of addiction.  They may claim they can control how much they drink, when they can stop, often claiming they could quit anytime.  They don’t need to quit because they know what they are doing and what they can handle. 

However, you may also hear them describe how a few drinks often turns into getting wasted and staying for hours.  They were going to hang out with a friend for an hour and they ended up smoking weed and losing all track of time.  Again, this may be minimized by the person using, but you can often hear the twist of how one intention turned into something much bigger. 

Many people delude themselves that they haven’t really had that much alcohol or drugs and they are OK to drive.  Nearly every community has a sad story about someone seriously injured or killed by a drunk driver.  Loss of control is not only harmful to the drug addict or alcoholic, it is often harmful for others.

Loss of Control Means Drug Rehab Is Necessary

When you hear stories about someone who can’t remember how many they drank or how a drug user lost track of how long they were using, you have a person who needs drug and alcohol rehab.  The same is true for someone who goes on extended drug and alcohol benders, often using for many days in a row.  No matter what they say, this kind of use is not social drinking or safe controlled use. 

People who use drugs and alcohol like this are ticking time bombs, putting themselves and others in danger.  If you see these trends in yourself or someone you care about, don’t hesitate to talk about drug and alcohol rehab.

Alcohol and drug addiction does more than impair a person’s body and brain for a few hours.  It gradually erodes the basic life skills every well-functioning person needs to live life every day.  With effort and determination, drug rehab can help a person restore their daily life skills.   

Here’s a review of some daily living skills common to everyone.  They may seem simple or even obvious, but they are very important to master.  If not, a person can feel like their life is in perpetual chaos with no end in sight.

Drug Addiction Leads to Money Problems

Money is a resource everyone needs for daily living.  Using money wisely requires some ability to plan and hold back immediate desires.  Drug addiction keeps a person tuned in to their most immediate wants and needs.  This allows planning skills to fade away or never be built in the first place.

Temptations Too Much For Drug Addicts

Resisting temptation is something an drug addict struggles with.  They develop habits of instantly gratifying their urge to drink or use.  Before long, they have little left to hold them back from anything that seems tempting - food, sex, money, excitement, etc.

Drug Addicts Lose Ability To Be Patient

Patience may be a virtue, but it is also a finely honed skill.  Learning patience requires that a person resistant to impulses from moment to moment over a period of time.  This can be taxing even for someone who is fairly healthy and mentally aware.  For a drug addict, it is a true challenge.

Daily Organization and Priorities Fall Away With Drug Addiction

Daily organization is an important skill for so many reasons.  It requires you to prioritize daily activities and resist temptations to get off-track.  For example, you would need to be sure you had clean clothes and gas in your car the before you went  to bed.  Leaving that to the morning would most likely create enough chaos and last-minute activity to make you late for work.  A drug addict or alcoholic is likely to have chronic disorganization because mental abilities are deteriorated and priorities are mixed up.  

Drug Addicts Do Not Know Limits Well

It takes maturity and humility to understand your own limits.  Everyone wants to think of themselves as capable of all sorts of things.  However, if you have poor judgment and you overestimate your abilities most of the time, you can get into difficult or even dangerous situations.  Drug addicts would be likely to misjudge their physical abilities or make important decisions while high.  They often act without taking time to think and decide what would really be the best choice.

More About Drug Addiction and Life Skills

Coming soon - a post about more life skills breaking down when a drug addiction develops.  Clearly, there isn’t room enough in this post alone to describe the different ways a person’s life falls apart when they become addicted to a drug.  Drug rehab isn’t a cure, but it is a solid starting point for someone with a drug addiction.  It can help someone take back their life one small step at a time.  Often, a drug addict doesn’t completely appreciate the amount of destruction their addiction has caused when they are still in it.  They often get a more complete vision when they go to drug rehab and begun to build it back up again.

Drug addiction is a complex problem.  It is a condition that deeply affects the individual’s mind and body.  Addiction also has wide sweeping affects on that person’s social connection and functioning.  Unfortunately, many addicts don’t realize the social impact of their addiction until much of their functioning has greatly deteriorated.

Stigma From Addiction Interferes With Extension of Help

It’s easy to see how a mail carrier with a broken arm would have problems performing their job properly.  They may also have trouble cooking dinner and doing many normal daily tasks.  However, very few people would shake their head in disappointment or feel like this person was ruining their life from this injury. 

A person with an addiction has an unfortunate stigma along with their very legitimate problems.  The addict with problems with work and home gets little sympathy or offers for help.  The social problems that result from an addiction are often more dangerous, stemming from a poor judgement and extreme behaviors.

Addiction Causes Problems At Work and School

Absenteeism is a huge problem with addiction.  When someone’s hung over or still feeling high, going to work or school is often the last thing on their mind.  And if they do attempt to go, they often get strange looks and might get tested for drugs.  If that happens, an adult could lose their job and a student could face big trouble at school. 

Aside from showing up drunk or high, a drug addiction clearly interferes with good brain functioning.  A student can’t focus or problem solve well enough to get good grades when they are frequently high or dealing with withdrawal.  An employee might be performing dangerous or highly responsible jobs with serious impairment to their judgment. 

Financial problems From Addiction

Financial problems associated with addiction can come from many directions.  Drugs and alcohol cost money, which could easily put a strain on a family or personal budget.  If a person is caught stealing to support their habit, they can look forward to fines and hefty legal fees.

Of course, when someone loses their job because of their addiction, they may have some real difficulty securing another job.  Unless they go directly to drug treatment after getting fired, they are likely to have the same difficulties in the next job they get. 

Problems With Family and Friends From Addiction

Relationships thrive on personal attention and kind behavior.  A drug or alcohol addict typically devotes a lot of time and attention to their drug seeking and using behaviors.  This leaves little time to cultivate and keep up positive relationships.  When one person in a relationship drifts off, the other person often feels abandoned or like they did something wrong. 

Unfortunately, this is often why marital conflict and divorces are fairly common among drug and alcohol addicts.  Sometimes drug rehab can help, but other times it is too late.  Too much trust has been lost, and the spouse or partner has been hurt too many times.  Children are often on the raw end of the deal as well.  The absence (emotional and/or physical) of an addicted parent can have devastating effects for a lifetime.

Drug Rehab Can Turn Around Social Problems

A drug addict’s social functioning may get so bad that the only choice is drug rehab, if not jail.  If a person gets to drug rehab before they begin getting into legal trouble, they can save themselves a great deal of time, money, and suffering.  They can learn healthy living habits and ways to live without the influence of drugs and alcohol.  They can replace social problems with social health.

DUI charges, cocaine rehab, car accidents, being late or just not showing up for work.  Does this sound like a person who needs drug rehab.  LindsayLohan even thought so.  Her journey with drugs and alcohol has become famous, or infamous, over the last two years.  Lindsay even checked herself into drug rehab voluntariliy.  She managed to do better in 2008 regarding her drug and alcohol problem headlines.  She continues to prove the point that money and fame do not protect against drug addiction. 

Lindsay Lohan Faces Drug and Alcohol Problems

photo credit: Hot Rod HomepageDUI

Lindsay Lohan Faces Addiction Problems

Lindsay had a problem with cocaine that plagued her legal record.  She was twice charged with cocaine possession and even tested positively for cocaine in her blood.  It was only a few days later that she spent almost a month and a half in a drug rehab center to get her life on track again. 

As of August 2007, she announced publicly that her life had gotten compleltely unmanageable because of addiction to drugs and alcohol.  She had been giving excuses for missing work like “exhaustion”, even though people she was working with knew about her partying lifestyle.

Drug Rehab Can Make A Difference For Drug Addicts Famous Or Not

Drug rehab really can change lives.  Lindsay certainly just one of many celebrities who’ve been there.  But drug rehab doesn’t have to seem like a celebrity luxury.  It is available to people all across the country, with financial options to make it work.  If there’s one thing you can take from Lindsey’s ride with drug and alcohol problems, celebrities need drug rehab like anyone else with addiction.

However, her legal woes have not yet come to an end.  She was sentenced to three years of probation just one year ago.  Also, she was recently (October) sued by the men who were in a car chase with her resulting in her 2007 DUI arrest (and suspended license).  Like many others with drug and alcohol addiction, legal and money issues often drag on for months and years.

Drug Rehab Three Times Not Uncommon

Three times in drug rehab and it seems she has moved away from drugs and alcohol, at least enough to escape damaging headlines.  Certainly hope she’s had enough drug treatment to really find some personal growth and relapse prevention.  Again, her experience shows that it sometimes takes several difficult events and multiple times in drug rehab to really create change in your life. 

Doesn’t  matter how rich or famous you are, drugs and alcohol wrecks people’s lives.  Unfortunately, many celebrities go through this process with the world’s eyes watching.  Best wishes for your continued recovery, Lindsay.