When working with individuals who have had addiction in their lives, we have found that, after the initial rehabilitation process, feelings and emotions come to the surface. If left unaddressed they have the potential to affect lives in unhealthy ways.
One of the strongest of these feelings is anger. In principle this is a neutral feeling but how we express it makes it healthy or unhealthy. Unhealthy anger can be expressed passively by being internalised or externally through aggression.
In our experience there are two main triggers of anger in rehabilitating addicts. These are
What plans do the Home Office and other important Departments of State like Health and Work and Pensions have to ensure the active involvement of the Private Sector in the implementation of its policy?
The reasons for our questions stem from the fact that there is little if any, involvement of private sector organisations in the regional and local bodies charged with overseeing your strategy and policy. The Government is running down or closing the RDA, the PCTs and the Regional Health Authorities and it is anticipated that the remaining public sector agencies, joined, possibly, by selected third sector agencies will be running the show alone. Bearing in mind that the Governments drug and alcohol policies will, surely, rely on the private sector to create jobs, to influence sales of alcohol, to provide services and to direct both current and future trends, can this be right? The active involvement of the private sector in local partnerships is going to be essential to its successful delivery and future success.
Addictions UK have been disappointed with the attitude of the various Drug and Alcohol Public Sector Agencies over the last several years with those such as the Drug and Alcohol Teams (DAATs) excluding us completely in spite of our being able to demonstrate innovative and effective treatment as a home-based Addictions Treatment Agency the leader in its field in the UK. Our Agency is consistently getting high success rates and our costs are well below that of other agencies. We have proved that we can reach clients that cannot be reached by traditional means.
Most of the time, Intervention is something that a family considers only when a crisis occurs. Our loved one ends up in jail, overdoses, or causes major wreckage and THEN the family decides that it is time to do an intervention. An addiction intervention is a carefully controlled process where a trained professional sets up a meeting to mediate a controlled confrontation with the addict. The direct result of this meeting is that the addict immediately enters treatment.
Families often try to facilitate this process themselves and it turns into a screaming match where everyone feels attacked and it ends up causing more damage the family system. Another problem with families doing an intervention themselves is that
Picture a summers evening, warm & peaceful. You’re sitting in a pub garden and in front of you is a pint of golden liquid with a pure white froth on the top, perspiration beads run down the cold glass on a warm evening. You raise it to your lips, take a long drink and when you put the glass back down, smile and let out a sigh of satisfaction.
Enjoy that? Of course you did, everyone drinks for the same reason, they like the effect it produces.
Now picture a person, woman or a man, it makes no difference, sitting on the end of their bed at 5:30 in the morning. The bedroom stinks of the rancid smell of stale booze and sweat, sometimes worse than that. They have the dregs of a bottle of vodka in one hand and a bucket in the other. They raise the bottle to their mouth trying not to split their lips because they are shaking so violently, manage to get some in their mouth and immediately retch and vomit so hard in the bucket, their eyes stream with tears and they choke for breath.
Still enjoying it?
That is what alcoholism looks like, hardly a photo shoot from a glossy magazine is it?
Change the bottle for a syringe, line of cocaine, pack of tablets the picture is similar, the end results the same.
As an “Anonymous” Member of Alcoholics Anonymous – and Narcotics Anonymous too – I am planning to join a group of other Recovering Addicts and Alcoholics on a “Learning Journey” to Southern India organised by Addictions India – a Social Enterprise based in Chennai (Tamil Nadu).
I am really looking forward to joining other members from anonymous groups and taking part in a “Spiritual” Journey of discovery. We will be meeting Academics, Doctors, Recovering Addicts and Alcoholics and we will have the chance of studying and experiencing different examples of Indian Spirituality.
Attending Fellowship Meetings in India and making contact with new friends from the Indian Sub Continent is my priority. I am keen to learn about meditation – and where better than in India. I am so excited – I cannot wait!
The Learning Journeys are being organised by www.addictionsindia.com an Indian Social Enterprise based in Chennai with contacts here in the United Kingdom. If anyone wants more information – just respond / reply to this blog.
Addictions India are seeking to replicate the success of Addictions UK – the Home-based Treatment Agency – www.addictionsuk.com and will be commencing work during the middle of 2011.
Rising numbers of the over 50s contact Addictions UK for help with a variety of problems with alcohol dependency, and drug addiction. It is a common myth that elderly people grow out of drug addiction – many treatment centre clients have been using drugs (and alcohol) since their early teens. Elderly clients often confess that they drink more after retirement and claim to miss the structured work environment – many blame this change of circumstances for increasing their alcohol and drug consumption.
Prescription drugs, illegal drugs and alcohol dependency are all significant problems facing our elderly population. Many people find themselves socially isolated due to various factors within their lives. Circumstances may include
I began a twelve step programme with Addictions UK. I have daily sessions with my worker and have a 24 hour helpline I can use when I need. I have spent many years using drugs and alcohol and had come to the point of losing everything. My life was in a mess and all the promises I had made were wearing thin. I knew I had to make a change. The programme has not been easy but with the help of my family and Addictions UK I made good progress. I now have regular contact with my young daughter and have got myself a full time job. In the five months I have been drug and alcohol free life has become worth living. Addictions UK have given me a new chance of living a normal fulfilling life.
My life coach was always there or would ring me back. I have lived a violent life and the coach understood this. My coach understood where I was coming from and helped me to make sense of it all. I am clean now. For ten months I had been clean nearly all the time but relapsed. It made me aware of how much I needed the programme. I am working now and I have faced up to my responsibilities. It is a lifeline for me and many others. I have never worked much before recovery or being able to hold down a job for long.
I have been in Borstal or Prison for most of my adult life till I got recovery. My mam and dad were addicts and alcoholics. I was subject to their illness from a young age and this lead me to foster homes and kids homes borstal and then to prison. I knew no better for a long time and repeated the mistakes that they had made. I had endless excuses why I used drugs and could see little possibility of a life outside what I knew. The 12 Steps have taught me that I don’t have to repeat the mistakes of my parents and though I loved them I did not want my kids to follow in my footsteps. They have helped me to cope with my past and deal with the present and look forward to a future!
Posted by Admin | Posted in Drug Addiction | Posted on 17-03-2010
Drug tests can involve taking samples of blood, urine, breath or saliva for analysis. All of the tests are designed to detect small concentrations of metabolites in the sample that will indicate if a specific substance has been used recently.
The body stores metabolites in fast growing cells and fatty cells, and eventually over time these metabolites leach out into the bloodstream and are excreted usually via the urine.
Different metabolites will stay in the body for varying periods of time, and other factors which can influence the rate of excretion are activity level, metabolism and the amount of fat a person has in their body.
In recent years, hair has received a lot of attention because it also stores metabolites and these cannot be removed by washing or bleaching. It normally takes 5 days for metabolites to show up in the hair.
No drug test is perfect, but the most commonly used drug test is
As an organisation, the British Association of Anger Management has counselled many people when anger has been affecting their lives.
