Aberdeen, South Dakota Drug Rehab Information

There is a lot of media and press on the subject of substance abuse intervention these days, there are even television shows covering the topic. What happens in most cases of drug and alcohol addiction is the person ceases to track with reality to a greater or lesser degree. They simply don’t see the situations or consequences that are as clear as day to you or I. Their ability to move their attention away from their own drug induced mental and physical pain and out onto their environments is markedly reduced and they are not aware. This can be quite frustrating to loved ones trying to help, as what is obvious to us is simply not real to the addict in many cases. A substance abuse intervention should be designed to give the addict enough assistance with his external observations that the situations and consequences that his or her addiction is creating once again become real to him or her. When the addict feels the threat of pain and loss from his environment is greater than the threat of pain or loss from drugs he or she usually becomes willing to do something, thought this may be reluctantly.

How does one go about determining when drug use crosses the line into drug abuse and addiction? Drugs are used as a solution to pain, be it mental, emotional, or physical. Fore instance one takes a painkiller and physical pain subsides or one take a street drug and the emotional pain of feeling like an outsider goes away. There are many motivations but they all come under the heading of handling pain in one way or another. Drug abuse sets in when the drug is being used more and more to mask and cover up the pain rather than addressing the actual causes of the pain itself. From abuse one quickly moves on to addiction where tolerance to the drugs builds up to the point where the individual can’t conceive of life without them for fear of unbearable pain of one type or another. Ones life then becomes centered on acquiring and using more and more drugs at any cost or sacrifice. Along with this comes all the cravings, guilt and depression that results from harm done to self, family, loved ones, careers, etc.

The chemical cocaine hydrochloride is commonly known as cocaine. Some users chemically process cocaine in order to remove the hydrochloride. This process is called ‘freebasing’ and makes the drug more potent. ‘Crack’ is a solid form of freebased cocaine. It is called ‘crack’ because it snaps and cracks when heated and smoked. Traditionally, cocaine was a rich man's drug, due to the large expense of a cocaine habit. Now, crack is being sold at prices low enough that even adolescents can afford to buy it. But, this is misleading, since once a person has a crack cocaine addiction, his ‘habit’ often increases, and so does his expense.

At Narconon Arrowhead drug treatment does not include further drugs or medications in an attempt to handle already existing drug abuse and addiction problems. Narconon Arrowhead is a drug free, long-term, non-traditional, residential treatment facility. Narconon Arrowhead believes in fully handling the factors of cravings, quilt, and depression. These three factors have been proven over and over again to be the main stumbling blocks in not only ceasing drug addiction but also in achieving a drug free lifetime that lasts for a lifetime. Substituting one substance for another is not a workable answer or a substitute for actually confronting and handling the underlying mental, emotional, and physical reasons that led up to and then continued the addiction.