In the past, stereotypes about drug addiction and those who suffer from the disorder often threw up an insurmountable obstacle in providing treatment for those who needed it at a community level. Many small towns and neighborhoods would protest and block plans for new methadone clinics or sober living homes on their streets out of fear of an increase in crime, violence, and other unsavory activities that they felt were associated with addiction – even when that addiction were being actively treated.

It appears that, due to widespread education and increased awareness about the issue of heroin addiction and opiate dependence and treatment, those attitudes are changing. In small town Rutland, Vermont, a methadone clinic that was previously proposed was opposed by local law enforcement, the medical community, and locals alike. Ten years later, those opinions appear to have shifted: the new methadone clinic proposed for the town have been met with approval.

Changes in Attitude

Over the past decade, it has become clear that opiate abuse and addiction to prescription drugs like Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet and other painkillers have become more and more prevalent. The one thing that seems true across the board about those is that there are few unifying characteristics of those who develop this type of dependence. There are no class barriers, race and gender is not an issue, and few Americans have been untouched by the epidemic. The reality of how devastating and debilitating opiate addiction can be has increased the urgency to get help where it is needed –and if that means creating a local methadone clinic or allowing for sober living services within the town limits, then people are opening their minds to the possibilities.

Heroin Addiction Help

Heroin addiction is the main form of opiate addiction treated at methadone clinics, and even small towns like Rutland, Vermont, have been exposed to the health problems and crime related to its spread. Back in 2000, only 49 patients sought treatment for heroin addiction in Rutland. By the following year, that number had almost doubled to 96. By 2008, the number of patients in search of heroin rehab would reach 315.

The best way to lower this number is to provide services that include more than just medical detox through methadone. A comprehensive heroin rehab program that provides detox as well as intensive psychological treatment will help patients to stop abusing their opiate of choice and learn how to live without drugs of any kind, including alcohol.

If you would like to learn more about the woman-centered heroin addiction treatment options we provide here at The Orchid, contact us today

Prescription painkiller abuse is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States today causing doctors to enter uncharted territory with pregnant addicts. As we’ve seen the death rates associated with painkiller abuse triple over the past ten years, there has been a ripple effect of ethical dilemmas throughout the medical community without any easy answers. One such issue, is the best way to treat women who become pregnant and have a pre-existing prescription painkiller addiction.

Many doctors outright refuse to treat painkiller addicts who are carrying a child because of the potential ethical and legal fallout of this touchy situation. On the one hand, a physician may help their patient withdraw from their addiction, but the outcome of correcting the mother’s health could be the loss of the fetus. Another option would be to prescribe the mother methadone, so the baby will not have to try to survive withdrawal in utero, but instead will have to go through this agony once they are born and hopefully strong enough to handle it.

Research is Difficult To Perform on Unborn Babies

Doctors today are in a similar situation from 25 years ago when they had to figure out on the job how to deal with cocaine and crack addicted babies. The medical research is few and far between when it comes to pregnancy and drugs because of the risk to both the mother and the fetus. For any type of research, scientists must stick to very stringent ethical guidelines, but in this situation the lines become blurred. Physicians at the National Institute for Drug Abuse freely admit the knowledge on painkiller addiction and pregnancy is sorely lacking and that no doctor exactly knows what the best course of action is for the addict or the baby.

Buprenorphine May Be Part of the Solution for Pregnant Addicts

The treatment of choice for years has been to give the pregnant mother methadone, which keeps withdrawal symptoms at bay, but in itself, can cause addiction and extreme tiredness. Instead there is a growing trend of prescribing buprenorphine to keep cravings low and runs a smaller risk of any obvious addiction signs in the newborn baby.

The New England Journal of Medicine published a research article that found babies who had been exposed to buprenorphine need less medical intervention after birth. However, it is important to note that buprenorphine is not a panacea. Not all babies with opiate exposure need medical intervention (although the majority do) and buprenorphine does not work for all women. Nonetheless, it appears to be one potential solution for a medical community struggling for safe and effective ways to provide many unborn babies the best possible entrance into the world despite less than ideal circumstances.

What do you think about the doctors dilemma in treating pregnant addicts? Your thoughts, opinions and ideas are all welcome below.

Melanie Griffith has struggled with alcohol and drug addiction for years and years, famously going to rehab on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts at treatment, Griffith says that her ultimate triumph over painkiller addiction that developed after an accident on a ski trip in 2007 was due in part to a confrontation with her daughters.

Griffith’s Daughters Helped Her Enroll in Treatment

Griffith says that her 14-year-old daughter with husband Antonio Banderas and two grown children from previous relationships were all very concerned about her before she agreed to enroll in treatment in 2009: “I started on pain pills when I hurt my knee skiing and just kept taking them. The kids knew; Dakota and Stella called me on it. Antonio was in London at the time. I went away to rehab for three months; it took 10 days just to detox.”

Her daughters’ interest in her recovery and their concern for her wellbeing was enough to convince her to take the action necessary to recover.

For many, a child’s sincere wish for them to get better is enough of an intervention to make a difference. The fear and worry of a child is often more poignant than that of anyone else.

Support from Spouses

Though the support of your spouse can be a significant help during an intervention, these relationships are often so complicated after long-term addiction that it’s not always simple. Oftentimes, there is quite a bit of mistrust and anger on both sides. Any words of encouragement for treatment may be taken in a negative way; an avoidance of the issue may be viewed as cold and uncaring.

Though Banderas has been vocal in his support of Griffith during her long lasting struggle with substance abuse, Griffith feels as if he could have done more: “Antonio was supportive to the extent that he can be, but if you’re not an alcoholic or drug addict, and you find out that your wife is a bad one, it’s hard to deal with… I wish he would go to a meeting with me or to Al-Anon, but it’s very foreign to him. Addiction runs in my family but not in his.

“I don’t mean that against him. I would like him to do more, but it’s a difficult thing to have happen in any family, and in that way he has been totally by my side. He really is the greatest guy.”

Helping Yourself

If you are living with drug and/ or alcohol addiction, you don’t have to wait for loved ones to step forward and point you in the right direction. Get the help you need now at The Orchid. Call for more information.

Opiate painkillers are opioid-based medications prescribed to treat moderate to severe pain. When taken as directed with a monitored exit plan that allows you to stop taking the medication when you no longer need it, they are safe. However, some who begin a legitimate prescription will end up with an addiction that can ruin their life – and in some cases, end it.

Some of the most common opiate painkiller medication that end up causing an addiction include OxyContin, hydrocodone, morphine, codeine, hydromorphone, and others.

How Opiate Painkillers are Abused

Most who abuse opiate painkillers do so by using their prescription in a non-medical fashion. This can mean taking more than the prescribed dose or increasing the number of doses per day. It can also mean taking the pills not as prescribed (e.g., crushing them first, snorting the crushed pills, or dissolving in water and injecting the pills after they’ve been crushed). In some cases, patients abuse their prescription by mixing them with alcohol and other illicit substances. The more rapid release of the medication through alternate forms of ingestion and/ or the combination of prescription painkillers with other drugs of abuse can mean a more intense high and an increased risk of overdose and addiction.

How Opiates Affect the Brain

Opiates attach to the opioid receptors in the brain, kicking your pleasure response into high gear and blocking your experience of pain. The high that results can be addictive and, if chronic pain is an issue, it can decrease your ability to fight pain naturally thus increasing your experience of pain when not under the influence. When chronic opiate painkiller abuse becomes an issue, it’s easy for both a psychological and physical dependence to develop – an addiction that is difficult to break away from without chronic relapse.

Opiate Addiction Treatment

Opiate detox is the first step in opiate addiction treatment and focuses on the physical dependence part of opiate addiction. Medical treatment – even medication – may be a part of this process that will last as long as dictated by the patient’s experience of withdrawal symptoms. When those symptoms are under control, work on the psychological part of addiction can begin. For some, this can mean a focus on traumatic events or underlying mental health issues that were a problem prior to the use of prescription painkillers. For others, the focus is on learning how to cope with life and upsets without turning to drugs and alcohol.

If you or someone you love is looking for a drug rehab for women, contact us at The Orchid today. Learn how you can begin the healing process after prescription drug addiction.

People do desperate things when they are living with an active drug addiction, and one mother in Florida did the unthinkable in order to get $2000, potentially to feed her prescription drug addiction: sell the parental rights to her 5-year-old son.

According to reports, Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies arrested Jessica Marie Beers for allegedly attempting to sell her 5 year old child for $2000 to a couple who had been helping her with childcare and giving her money. It was the couple who tipped off police, telling them that the woman had offered them the money in return for parental rights of her child. The couple said that they had been helping Beers with childcare and money for months and had noticed that she had a prescription drug addiction. Over time, they said they watched her child more and more often. When Beers made them the offer, they were concerned that she would spend the money on drugs and contacted police.

The arrest happened when Beers met with the couple in order to make the exchange: the boy for the money. Beers was arrested and charged with sale of parental rights and violation of probation for grand theft, and her son was taken into custody by child protection services.

Desperation and Drug Addiction

It’s a story that flew across the country when it first broke and while many were shocked by the nature of the crime, others see it as more proof of how desperate an addiction to drugs can make anyone. Children are often the first victims when a parent is living with drug abuse. Though the incidence is more often neglect, it’s not uncommon for kids to be hurt when their parents are addicted to drugs. The only benefit of this story is the fact that it brought to light the addiction that the boy’s mother was living with and provided him with an exit to safer home while also putting her in a position to recognize the need for and to accept treatment. Many mothers live for years covering up their drug addiction to the detriment of their child. In this case, at least there is hope for the future.

Drug Addiction Treatment for Mothers

Many mothers avoid enrolling in drug rehab because their children need their care. The fact is that childcare provided from someone under the influence of drugs is not acceptable. The child will always be much better off staying with a relative until the mother is well again, then coming home to a place that is truly home where the child can feel safe and learn to respect their parents because their parents are behaving in a manner worthy of that respect.

If you would like to learn more about our drug addiction treatment program here at The Orchid, contact us today. We can help you determine the best place for your child while you get the help you need to be the mother you want to be.