Treating Difficult Addiction Syndromes
Stimulant addiction syndromes are some of the hardest to treat due to there being no medication currently available to assist with recovery.
As stated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, addiction can be treated, but it is never simple. Most patients need long-term or repeated care to stop using completely and recover their lives. It is difficult to treat almost any type of substance abuse disorder, and a persons individual experiences, needs, and severity of condition will all affect their care and how it is administered. However, the addiction syndromes associated with some substances can be difficult in particular to treat.
Methamphetamine creates one of the hardest addiction syndromes to treat, partially because the drug causes intense, long-term effects, both physical and psychological, that can linger long after the person has stopped abusing the drug. In addition, there is no medication currently available to treat this disorder. For these same reasons, cocaine, amphetamine, and any other type of stimulant addiction is very hard to treat.
However, none of this is any indication of how complicated and difficult treating one individual may be regardless of their drug of choice.
Methamphetamine Or Crystal Meth
Methamphetamine meth or crystal meth is a man-made stimulant drug that is injected, smoked or snorted to produce an instant and powerful high. Crystal meth is more commonly used because it has longer lasting effects than meth in powdered form.
Crystal meth causes intense pleasure lasting up to 12 hours but is followed with an extreme crash when the drug wears off. This brings on debilitating depression, anxiety, agitation, extreme fatigue and severe drug cravings.
Which Addictions Are The Hardest To Break
Drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine create addiction syndromes that are incredibly difficult for a person to break. These drugs are illegal, dangerous, fast acting, and intense in their effects. However, nicotine and alcohol are considered some of the hardest addictions to break as well, as relapse rates are very high for these substances even though they are legal. In addition, someone who has smoked for years will often find it harder to stop doing that than to work through a painkiller addiction. Therefore, the answer is relative.
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Hardest Addictions To Kick
There are several factors that constitute addiction, but what incorporates some of the hardest addictions to kick? Addiction to any drug can also be dependent on low family support, genetic makeup, mental illness, and the environment. The path to addiction isnt a straight road and it doesnt happen right away with any of the drugs mentioned. A drugs effects might feel good to the user but that doesnt mean every user will try the drug again or become addicted.
It is the repeated use which develops tolerance and then the dependence. The brain and body become dependent and it becomes challenging to stop. Addiction has taken hold of a person once they are fully aware that its causing them harm but continue to abuse the substance anyway.
Recommended Treatment For Benzodiazepines Addiction
Acute benzodiazepine withdrawal takes so long that benzo abusers are not usually put into hospital for a medical detox. Its more effective to work with a doctor to wean off the benzos youre taking, either as an inpatient or outpatient at an addiction treatment center.
Doctors sometimes will switch from one benzodiazepine to a longer-acting one such as Klonopin to try to make this process easier and then wean the patient off the replacement benzo by about 10% per week.
You can also expect to suffer from severe anxiety, increased insomnia and panic attacks while in benzo withdrawals. Unfortunately, the risk of relapse during this drawn-out period is high because the withdrawal symptoms are so brutal, most patients cant tolerate them and start using benzos again.
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What Are The Hardest Addictions To Break
- About 1 in 20 Australians has an addiction or substance abuse problem. Source: Megan Markham on Unsplash
There are the obvious and very visible, destructive addictions to illegal substances such as heroin and crystal meth, that can take hold of people and decimate their lives completely. But there are also the more insidious, but seemingly innocuous habits involving our phones or caffeine or sugar. So which are the hardest addictions to break?
Rats apparently find sugar more addictive than cocaine.
Alcohol can be more harmful than crack or heroin. David Bowie found cigarettes harder to give up than any other drugs Bowies wife Iman said, It was his last vice – he couldnt stop. He said it was the hardest thing to give up.
There is debate on what the most addictive substances are. American website the Addiction Center has heroin, alcohol and cocaine as their top three, followed by barbiturates and nicotine. But psychologist Stanton Peele writing in Psychology Today insisted everyday vices such as love, junk food and nicotine were worse.
The reason for such disparity is that there are different measures being used: how quickly you can become addicted how strong the cravings are when you try to stop, as well as the damage caused by the addiction.
Many measures also fail to take into account how hard it is to stay off of a substance for a sustained period of time without relapse, rather than to stop in the short term.
Why It’s So Hard To Quit Smoking
The science behind why it’s so difficult to quit smoking is crystal clear: Nicotine is addictive reportedly as addictive as cocaine or heroin.
Yet any adult can stroll into a drug store and buy a pack of cigarettes, no questions asked.
“From a scientific standpoint, nicotine is just as hard, or harder, to quit than heroin but people don’t recognize that,” said Dr. Neil Benowitz, a nicotine researcher at the University of California, San Francisco.
Smoking is the world’s leading preventable cause of death. More than 1.1 billion people smoke worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. And more are continually joining the ranks. Every day in the U.S. alone, more than 3,200 youth 18 and younger smoke their first cigarette, while another 2,100 youth and young adults move from smoking occasionally to having a daily habit.
In 1964, the U.S. surgeon general’s famous report, “Smoking and Health,” linked smoking to cancer. Two decades later in 1988, another landmark surgeon general’s report on nicotine addiction declared nicotine to be as addictive as cocaine or heroin.
“Every drug of abuse, including nicotine, releases dopamine, which makes it pleasurable to use,” said Benowitz. “And when you stop smoking, you have a deficiency of dopamine release, which causes a state of dysphoria: you feel anxious or depressed.”
Nicotine also acts as a stimulant, said Benowitz. “It helps people concentrate, and if they don’t have a cigarette, they have trouble focusing.”
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Methadone Is One Of The Hardest Drugs To Withdraw From
Withdraw may be a good indication of some of the hardest addictions to kick. It is ironic that many addiction treatment programs use methadone to help people come off the withdrawal effects of hard drugs. While this may seem to solve the issue in the short-term, it only causes a different form of addiction. It is meant to be a tapering program where someone addicted to a harder opioid can slowly withdraw to avoid intense symptoms of abstinence.
Withdrawing from methadone can take anywhere from three to six weeks. Like with many hard drugs, it is not advisable to attempt withdrawing from methadone on your own. With over 5 million people reporting that they have abused methadone in the past, this is not an uncommon issue.
Methadone can cause a physical dependency even though its not as addictive as other opiate-based drugs. It does have a strong effect on the central nervous system so people will abuse it in an attempt to feel the euphoric high.
Methadone affects the same brain structures and function as any of the addictive opioids do. It is similar to OxyContin and heroin. Though it does help people abstain from addictions to more dangerous opioids, it cant be a cure-all for stopping drugs altogether. While a person is gradually taken off methadone, they should also be getting therapy. In this way, it can be effective. When someone abuses methadone, however, dependency can form.
Why Is Alcohol Harder To Quit Than Other Drugs
If you have ever struggled with quitting alcohol and drugs, then you know how difficult it can be, especially around the holidays. Overcoming an addiction and staying sober are essential to leading a healthy and fulfilling life. For those who do not know, addiction is considered to be a disease of the brain that can permanently alter the brain’s circuitry patterns and affects how the brain functions on a daily basis. It is often characterized by the inability to stop using drugs or alcohol despite the user having experienced severe and negative consequences throughout their lives. While any addiction is hard to overcome, there are some that are more difficult than others.
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Recommended Treatment For Heroin Addiction
Going cold turkey where you stop using heroin on your own is not recommended if you are a heavy user. The withdrawal symptoms are harsh and you shouldnt try to handle them on your own.
First you need to be admitted for a medical detox. Medication will be administered to help manage the drug cravings and opioid withdrawals symptoms. Methadone and Buprenorphine are most commonly used to treat heroin withdrawal symptoms.
Then preferably, you should go to an inpatient addiction treatment center where you will receive an individualised addiction treatment plan that includes intensive therapy and dual diagnosis for a co-occurring mental disorder.
Hardest Drugs To Quit
An ongoing discussion in the recovery community, the exact arrangement of the top five most difficult drugs to quit is constantly up for debate. People agree, however, that the drugs that come with severe physical withdrawal symptoms and intensive, long-term cravings for the drug are the most difficult to combat. Here are the top five toughest drugs to quit:
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The Gateway Into Addiction
Like cocaine withdrawal, quitting crystal meth also has a honeymoon stage. Stage 2. You may feel great. And you may feel that youve shattered the addiction. Unfortunately, this feeling can result in relapses. You havent overcome your addiction yet. Then youll hit the wall.
Stage 3. The honeymoon is over now and you feel like youll never get past the wall. You feel depressed, bored, and lonely. You cant leap over it. You cant crawl under it. This stage happens about 45 days after quitting. And it can last for up to three months! Again, relapses are common here. If you make it past this stage, youre on to Stage 4. The adjustment phase.
You must now adjust socially, physically, and emotionally to sobriety. Its time for a revolution. Stage 5, the last, is the ongoing recovery. Youve achieved success. Multiple attempts are often necessary to get to this stage. But once here, you have a better chance of continuing a fulfilling life of sobriety.
Which Addictions Are The Hardest To Treat
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to conclusively state which addictions are the hardest to treat because all individuals are different, all addictions are at different levels of severity, and all programs treat the issue a little differently. However, there are many ways to consider the subject.
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Personal Patient Needs Affect Treatment
How long a person has been abusing a certain drug as well as the doses they were taking and the severity of their addiction will certainly affect the ease with which medical professionals can treat them. In addition, a persons needs, mental and physical state, gender, age, culture, ethnicity can all affect this as well because they all must be taken into account when a person is in rehab for addiction. The particular drug usually doesnt indicate the amount of difficulty doctors and nurses will have caring for the person but rather the entire person and their situation as a whole, something that is assessed as soon as treatment begins.
If you would like to learn more about addiction treatment or find a rehab program near you, call today.
The Impact Of Quitting
Those who come off of cocaine feel like theyre thinking slowly. They get hungry. Some go through a period where they lose interest in sex. They feel exhausted, pain, and tired. Deaths related to cocaine withdrawal are rare. But individuals can experience bouts of paranoia. This can lead to attempts at suicide or acts of violence. Heart attacks are also possible.
Some people experience a honeymoon stage. For a few days, you may feel fine and believe that youve kicked the habit. But strong cravings come to burden you again. Within the next week or two, the cravings come back hard as the brain adapts to life without cocaine.
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What Is Samhsas National Helpline
SAMHSAs National Helpline, , or TTY: is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations. Callers can also order free publications and other information.
Also visit the online treatment locators.
The Benefits Of Quitting Porn
Porn may be an easy way to get a quick dopamine fix, but with anything in life, there are adverse effects that we need to be aware of.
As weve already discussed, porn literally changes the way your mind functions and modifies your behaviors negatively. When you eventually quit porn, youll be able to enjoy great benefits, some of which are listed below
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Why Alcohol Is The Hardest Drug To Quit
When most people think of alcohol, they dont think of it as a drug. Part of the reason for this is that drinking is so socially acceptable that many dont second guess it. The other reason is that it is legal so it is often assumed that it isnt as bad as say, heroin. Im not here to have a debate between heroin and alcohol but I do want to point out they are both pretty dangerous when they are abused. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , excessive alcohol use was responsible for more than 95,000 deaths per year in the United States between 2011-2015.
Having worked in the addiction field for eight years Ive seen my fair share of addiction. Ive seen the damage it has caused and I have seen how difficult it can be for some people to regain control of their lives. While each drug has its own difficulties and every drug is difficult to stop, in my opinion, alcohol is perhaps the most difficult of all. There are several reasons for this which are listed below.
Porn And Drugs Have Similar Effects
Scientific literature is clear on this. This meticulous study by T Love, C Laier, M Brand, L Hatch, R Hajela makes that all clear.
At the base level, porn addiction is not much different from drug addiction. In fact, they both trigger a response from the brains natural reward system. Our brains produce two hormones namely dopamine and serotonin.
They are responsible for making us feel good, regulating our eating and sleeping patterns. They make sure we do things that give us pleasure. Naturally, our brains produce dopamine and serotonin every time we eat good tasting food, rest well, and have sex. They are produced in specific quantities at specific times so that we remain healthy and carry out life functions appropriately.
This is a reason why an otherwise effective practice such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy falls short in helping quit porn.
Drugs and Porn Mess with the Brains Reward System
Drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine trick the brains reward system. They cause it to produce an excess of dopamine and serotonin even when it is completely unwarranted. This may seem like a great thing at first. Reason being it allows us to feel happy and energetic without needing to earn it. Unfortunately, this can soon lead to severe problems and addiction.
Replacing watching porn with other activities such as exercise like running, weight training and swimming, can be beneficial to you. Breaking the cycle and rewiring the brain to crave new sources of stimulation.
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Heroin May Be The Most Addictive Drug In The World
According to a professional panel, heroin is at least among the top five most addictive drugs in the world. It may not be the worst addiction to kick, but it is up there.
Heroin hits the addiction trifecta: It causes the brains dopamine levels to increase by up to 200 percent, it causes brutal withdrawal symptoms and has a cheap street value.
~ Samuel Osborne, writing for The Independent
As an opioid, heroin blocks pain and gives a feeling of euphoria. This is because the drug binds to opioid receptor cells. When heroin is used, the body converts it into morphine which gives a person a rush of pleasure and extreme relaxation. This is what causes people to use heroin over and over again. Once a person is chronically abusing heroin, the brain begins to adjust. This is known as tolerance where the brain gets accustomed to a higher level of opioids.
The user will then need more heroin to get the same high as before. The signs of dependence avoiding a sick feeling, restlessness, and shakiness. Stopping too quickly could include pain in the bones and muscles. The person may also experience:
- Cold sweats
- Anxiety
- Agitation
Not only is heroin one of the most addictive drugs in the world but it is also one of the most dangerous drugs in the world. Taking just five times a normal dose can become lethal, and heroin has a wide range of devastating physical and psychological side effects for users. Heroine will continue to be listed among the hardest addictions to kick.
