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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Growing up, kids constantly hear messages about how they should “just say no to drugs.” They assume that these messages warn them against drugs like heroin or marijuana. Most never hear that there’s an equally dangerous, and even riskier path to addiction: their doctor. American doctors prescribe more sedatives to patients than the rest of the world put together. Benzodiazepines alone are prescribed 94 million times each year.
Valium and Xanax, two of the most popular drugs of the benzodiazepine class, help with short-term sleep troubles or stress. While these drugs do help millions, they also introduce them to their addictive effects. Most use these drugs with no adverse effect; many, though, tend to be genetically vulnerable to the effects of addictive drugs, and tend to suddenly find themselves battling addiction. Prescription drug abuse is a terrible tragedy that takes the lives of so many, including some very well-known celebrities. Heath ledger, Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson were all victims of benzodiazepine addiction.
How do benzodiazepines addict?
Mind drugs like Xanax, Valium, Klonopin and Ativan work on the brain to raise the levels of a neurotransmitter called GABA. While the brain naturally produces GABA in small quantities to help lower stress, raised levels come with a dangerous effect — they raise levels of another neurotransmitter called dopamine that both triggers euphoric feelings, and creates deep-seated addictive habit.
Why it’s nearly impossible to overcome addiction on your own
When a person is addicted, the general assumption of those around him is that he would want to get better, because who would want to see their life fall apart, after all. It’s this assumption that is behind the anger that people often feel towards the addicted. It’s important to understand here, though, that addiction is an actual mental disorder. When a person becomes addicted, deep within the brain, dopamine actually creates profound love of the drug that is no less real than romantic love or love of one’s child. The drug changes the brain to make drugs appear positive, wholesome and beautiful.
Addiction cannot be addressed with logic and reason, because it is a mental disorder where the patient no longer understands. Other approaches do work, though.
Scientific methods do help patients
While some people do manage to get out of their habit on their own, such cases tend to be rare. Most people do not stand a chance against the permanent, mind-altering effects of prescription drugs. The challenge of quitting doesn’t simply lie in the addict’s love of his drug of choice, either. It’s also about the withdrawal symptoms. Like narcotics, benzodiazepines create permanent changes to the brain’s chemical imbalance. When an addict attempts to withdraw, the brain can no longer function correctly on its own. The result is extremely painful, and even life-threatening withdrawal symptoms. It takes professional care to overcome such circumstances.
Detoxification is only the beginning
No successful one-time treatment plan exists for addiction of any kind. The detoxification services that most clinics offer are only an important first step — they help take away the withdrawal symptoms that come with ceasing drug use. Once withdrawal symptoms cease after a few weeks of treatment, though, the addiction still exists deep inside. Not only is the mind still in love with drug use, there are hundreds of mental channels in place that constantly remind the patient of his craving for drugs at every turn. It takes deep, long-term psychological work to help the patient handle these cravings and overcome them.
Psychological help
Benzo addiction support systems designed to scientific principles can take years to create the effect that they are built for. Psychological support programs can be slow, painstaking work. These are the programs that form the backbone of any effective drug help system, though. Unfortunately, many clinics simply try to take advantage of patients by offering minimal support after detoxification. More than 90% of those who do not receive long-term psychological support quickly slide back into addiction.
Not only is it important for the family of the addicted person to ensure a great deal of focus on post-detox psychological care and counseling, it’s important that they work hard to find a program run to truly scientific principles. It’s their only hope. With a good program to look to and committed support by family members to depend on, sobriety is always possible.
Mark Johnson has worked as an addiction counselor for many years. Though the stories he hears are sad he finds his job very rewarding when he can help squash an addiction, whether it be drugs, alcohol or something else. He reaches out to those who need help by writing for health and addiction related blogs.
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