Currently viewing the category: "addiction"

Addicted to Evolution

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, brain, dopamine, evolution, Facebook, internet, reinforcement, reward system, technology, texting, The Digital Diet, Twitter

Are you addicted to technology? How about social media? It’s a real thing, you know–virtual monkey on the back. Here are the sure signs you are addicted (at least according to one author who has written a book called “The Digital Diet” about when too much is not enough):

  • The urge to pull out a cellphone even when someone you’re with is in the midst of a conversation with you.
  • Texting even while your child is telling you about his or her day at school, and realizing later that you can’t remember the details of what your son or daughter has said to you.
  • Having the vague feeling that something hasn’t really happened until you post it to Facebook or Twitter.
  • Feeling isolated and anxious if you are offline for an extended period of time.
  • Noticing that even when your family is all together in one room at home, each person is gazing at his or her own screen and tapping at a miniature keyboard.
The author Daniel Sieberg says that some people even create status updates or tweets in their heads when they are experiencing things (Who doesn’t?).  He says, “It’s as if they have lost the ability to live in the moment, and have become conditioned to feeling that they have to instantly share it electronically while it is still going on.”
Ha ha ha…I am only posting this to take enjoyment in what is a natural response to all new and world-changing phenomena. Whether talking about the light bulb, television, rock & roll or the internet, there will be some people that focus on the downside, freak out at where it’s leading us, and perhaps even try to prevent the change from happening.
No doubt that every phenomenon has a negative side. In our new technological world, where information is just a mouse-click away, of course, there will be some detriment. And whenever our brain processes something as pleasurable, like multiple responses and comments on social media sites, it will release dopamine, the neurotransmitter “associated with the reward system of the brain, providing feelings of enjoyment and reinforcement to motivate a person proactively to perform certain activities.”
Dopamine is released in response to experiences such as food, sex, drugs, and neutral stimuli that become associated with them.  It is believed that this system is responsible for the physical aspects of addiction. So in that regard, there is no doubt some people will struggle with the symptoms of addiction in the early years of the social media explosion.
Saying that, Mr. Sieberg, there is nothing in need of changing.  As I’ve said before in this blog, the human species will continue to evolve with machine–that is, with our informational systems. This symbiotic growth will not be stopped, so striving for separateness from our cyber-existence is futile. And why would we want to? Sure, neglecting your family for Facebook is lame, but for some it’s welcome refrain from family strife and tensions. Some people that are isolated socially from the real world, find acceptance and a forum for their thoughts on social media. You see, it all depends on which perspective you are looking from. 
So don’t fear your relationship to social media–I guarantee no matter how absorbed you are now, it will even out over time. And if it doesn’t, so what? It just means you’re popular…in cyberspace.

Wasting Away From the Inside-Out

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, drug abuse, Duff McKagan, Guns and Roses, It's So Easy: and other lies, party drugs, recreational drugs, vitamin deficiency
Although prescription drugs are getting most of the press these days, recreational drugs aren’t off the hook.  Lots of people are still addicted to these bad-boys, so discussing ramifications here is worthwhile.  It’s not that knowing the physiological effects of party drugs will stop anybody from partying, particularly not an addict, but plenty of people struggle with the decision to quit everyday.  Sometimes getting scared straight is just the habit-kicking potentiator needed.

Take former Guns and Roses bassist, Duff McKagen: In his upcoming book, It’s So Easy: and other lies, he discusses what his body turned into from years of chronic, high-volume drug use:

“My hair began falling out in clumps, and my kidneys ached when I pissed.  The skin on my hands and feet cracked, and I had boils on my face and neck.  I had to wear bandages under my gloves to be able to play my bass.”

Rock stars are the perfect subjects for health research, because the years of heavy drug abuse by some creates a sort of rapid-progression case study, a walking laboratory of sorts.  Although it might be tempting to believe that rock-star drug loads are simply outside the realm of your average, everyday user, many people abuse drugs even longer than McKagan had, so what happened to him can definitely happen to any drug abuser that manages to stay alive long enough to witness the self-destruction.

McKagan goes on about his deterioration:

“I felt as sick as I ever had.  My hands and feet were bleeding.  I had constant nosebleeds.  I was shitting blood.  Sores on my skin oozed.  The house was awash in the fetid effluvia of my derelict body.”

He does a good job of describing what happens to a body from repeated and long-term drug use.  It essentially wastes away from the inside-out.  Vitamin deficiencies, liver overload and breakdown of the kidneys (McKagan today is on permanent dialysis) is what we risk when we take drugs.

Lots of people think it won’t happen to them, or they try not to think about it at all.  Ignoring the occasional worry about the damage drugs must be doing is a temporary solace to the realities every drug user understands.  But if you are thinking about quitting, or you’ve just recently quit, then perhaps McKagan’s words will serve as a deterrent to a relapse.  Or maybe you can use the information to strategize your comeback, or plan your healing regimen.

Good luck to those of you still carrying the monkey–I feel fer ya.  But understand that even if you don’t overdose, you’ll die a slow death from the inside-out…unless you make a decision, now, to kill your appetite for destruction, and start living instead.

Group Therapy Drug Rehab Counterproductive

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, addictive personality, Body, Mind

Quite a blow being dealt to group therapy for drug rehab: Studies show it leads to greater drug use by teen abusers. Go figure. According to one study, teenagers at high risk for drug use were more likely to smoke cigarettes and have disciplinary problems at school later in life if they had been enrolled in a teen focus group about drugs. In other words, the environment influenced behavior. Wow, groundbreaking!  In academic speak the phenomenon is known as deviancy training—the negative influence of friends on teen behavior or simply bad influence.

Researchers and some former teen group drug therapy members say that sitting in groups talking about drugs caused the teens to want to do more of the drugs they were abusing at the time. Even more counterproductive is that it made many of them want to try drugs they had never done before but had just heard about in therapy.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….comedy.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) says, “Just putting kids in group therapy actually promotes greater drug use.”

Okay so what’s a better solution? Experts suggest that private counseling for teen drug abusers with their families in tow may be a better option.  I couldn’t agree more. In 2000 one researcher from the University of Miami department of epidemiology and public health found that among teens assigned to peer-therapy groups (in treatment for a minimum of four weeks) 17% reduced their marijuana habit, but 50% ended up smoking more. Hmmm…and 57% of teens who were assigned to family therapy showed a significant decrease in drug use, while 19% used more. I’m sold, how ’bout you?

Experts believe that part of the problem is inherent in the philosophy of group drug therapy in general, as advocated by twelve-step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The first step encourages participants to admit they are “powerless” over their addiction and to surrender to a higher force.

Although this approach does help many addicts overcome their addictions, some experts believe that teens have difficulty interpreting this message and see it as being doomed to a life of addiction; in other words, some teens may feel defeated and labeled, so they give in to their urges believing that attempted abstinence is futile.

Despite individual and family therapy trumping group rehab in studies, the twelve-step model is still favored by institutions. Why? The obvious reason is economics. Group sessions just bring in more money: when 10-20 individuals can be seen in one hour, it doesn’t take an accountant to add up the dollars. Add to that the wide-availability of 12-step programs, as well as the fact that many drug counselors are former drug abusers and stay true to the method that worked for them, it’s no wonder that it is the method of choice to break teens of their drug-abusing habits.

Oh well, just another story showing the inefficiency of the familiar. It’s so hard for people, institutions, societies and nations to change even in light of a proven better way.  That’s what this blog, Optimal Health, is all about—change—so I know how slowly it can drag sometimes. But I appreciate studies like these, and the unsung heroes that try to spread the word. It’s the only way.

I have been and continue to be critical of twelve-step programs, because I see them as just a substitution for the addicting substance. I guess if you have to choose an addiction, AA is a little less hard on the body, but definitely not easier on the mind, as the addictive personality often gets hopped up on meetings. Just my observation. I am certain without question that individual work can break an addiction, and having families participate should only solidify the benefit. Putting teens in a group with their drug-using peers only makes for a short term dry party—once released, they’ll be back to using with a vengeance. At least that’s what the data shows.

Heroin, Best Treatment for Addiction

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, Canadian, crime, heroin, methadone, socialized health system, treatment

Yes, you’ve read the title right: Heroin is the best treatment for heroin addiction. Duh! Who doesn’t know that? Heroin addict, no heroin–big problem. Heroin addict, heroin–no problem!  Every-ting irie, man.

According to Canadian researchers, injections of the active ingredient of heroin work far better than oral methadone for keeping addicts in treatment, away from illegal drugs and out of trouble. You don’t say…and they call this science? May I point out that a heroin addict will sit in a bucket of live crabs if there’s heroin in there.

Even better is the warning by researchers that administering heroin as treatment increases the risk of overdoses and seizures. Ha ha ha ha ha…oh sorry, but sometime I just can’t believe it myself.

So let me get this straight: To keep a heroin addict in treatment, simply give him or her heroin. They’ll stay put, commit less crimes, and it will cost less–$10,000 vs the $50,000 it is estimated to cost a heroin addict on the street. Why that’s a great idea, but is it treatment or is it a subsidy?

Either way, I don’t care. I just marvel at the absurdity of the discovery. I wonder how much the research cost? Must be that awe-inspiring innovation coming out of socialized health systems. Yes, Canada, keep wowing us with your cutting-edge medical science. Can’t wait for some more up-and-coming Canadian breakthroughs like pedophilia aversion training with room full of six-year-olds, and the ever-favorite “tough love” suicide hotline recorded message. We strive to be just like you, O Canada: humanitarian, progressive, and down-right brilliant.

Ritalin, Cocaine, the same

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, ADHD, cocaine, medication, methylphenidate, National Institute on Drug Abuse, personality, Ritalin
Giving Ritalin to your kid may be much the same as giving him an eight ball. Yes, you’ve got it: The popular ADHD medication causes the same brain changes seen in cocaine addiction. What? Don’t believe me? Check it out.

A recent study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse showed that healthy mice exposed to daily injections of methylphenidate, or Ritalin, caused changes in the reward centers of their brains, and some of these changes resembled those in mice given cocaine.

This study was prompted by reports that more than 7 million people in the United States have abused methylphenidate, using it to get high or to improve academic performance. This shouldn’t come as any surprise to my regular readers; in fact, I said just that in my book, The Six Keys To Optimal Health:

“For some of these drugs, like Ritalin, abuse has reached epidemic proportions. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) lists Ritalin as one of the top ten most stolen drugs in the country. The frightening thing it isn’t just adults who are abusing these meds, children as young as twelve years old are becoming regular users. As much as 2.5 percent of eighth graders abuse Ritalin…“

If your child has been diagnosed with ADHD, don’t accept it as a helpless situation and succumb to the pressures of drugging him. Your kids will have plenty of opportunities to damage their own brains–why be a part of that equation. Don’t get brainwashed into believing your child has a problem. ADHD, a labelled disorder in one child, is another child’s special gift. All personality traits–good or bad–exist with other aspects (we all, in fact, express every personality trait at various times); it’s up to you to see all aspects of your child’s personality. So you can nurture and encourage the positive aspects of your child’s personality, or you can drug ’em–it’s your choice.

More on the positive aspects of ADHD
Advantages of ADHD
The 151 positive traits of ADHD

Academia on Speed

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, brain, brain-boosting, drugs, Provigil, Ritalin, speed, stimulants

Who are the biggest up-and-coming speed freaks of the 21st century? Academics!

Yes, our nation’s literati are doing legal speed to boost brain power. Or so they say. According to a recent report, the production and supply of “brain-boosting” stimulants like Ritalin or Provigil has increased 300% between 1995-2006. But not all people use these easy to get drugs for intellectual prowess. Some, no doubt, use it simply to get high.

This latest drug abuse trend has some in health care worried–and rightly so. When altered states of consciousness become tolerated, even desired, in our institutions of higher learning, there is cause for concern. Primarily because most controlled substances have the potential for abuse and a high risk of addiction–the last thing we need in our universities, seeing how much power academia yields in politics and public opinion.

The concern has been sparked by a recent commentary in the journal Nature on Sunday that argues for use of the drugs in healthy adults as a legitimate way of improving brain power, much like education, the Internet or other helpful tools. Doesn’t this echo Timothy Leary’s turn on, tune in, and drop out ethos of the 1960s? Damn if things don’t come back full circle. The problem is that these pharmaceuticals have a much higher probability of leading to dependence than Leary’s LSD. And as you know if you’ve ever been dependent, drugs have a way of running one’s life.

So, increased brain power or not, I wouldn’t recommend playing this dope game. But if you must, just remember…I told you so.

Chocolate Gut

By On · Add Comment · In addiction, bacteria, chocolate, food cravings, food sensitivities, good bacteria
Would you feel better about your chocolate addiction if I told you that it might be related to the make up of your gut bacteria? Well this is the word from scientists who have found different bacterial colonies in the digestive systems of people who crave chocolate. And you thought it was a lack of discipline.

Researchers at the Nestle Research Center in Lausanne, Switzerland (yes, the makers of Quick and Crunch) found that the men who ate chocolate regularly and the weirdos who didn’t (no, really, they were labelled “weird” in the study) had different metabolic byproducts show up in their blood and urine, and these were related to the different bacteria in their intestines. We all have a vast array of bacteria in our digestive systems–called “good” bacteria–some necessary for the digestive process itself and some to prevent the overgrowth of opportunistic organisms, like fungi and other “bad” bacteria (see my post on the appendix’s role in all of this).

What scientist conclude from this study is that our particular gut bacterial make up determines our food cravings. I find this study and its conclusions interesting because I am fully convinced that most everyone has foods that they are sensitive to. This is the principle in Ayurveda; and many other healing systems have been studying these links too. I, in fact, have been treated by a fabulous acupuncturist who gave me a decent guide to my particular food sensitivities by evaluating me and categorizing me into a “body type.” I have to say–he was pretty right on.

In any case, I think this is definitely an area worth studying. For the researchers of this recent work, they felt it might be a way to manipulate the digestive system’s bacterial make-up and help reduce obesity by decreasing food cravings. I don’t know about that, but if they can find a connection between bacterial composition and food sensitivities, I think it can help people stay away from those foods that bother them. Who knows, maybe the endemic proportions of heart burn (acid reflux), gas and bloating could be relieved by such information. We’ll see where they take this one.

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