| Kathleen 2006-05-08, 1:30 am |
| http://actionlyme.org/THANK_YOU_PROJO_RE_KENNEDY.htm
Okay, NOW you can shut up, becuase this guy is considered to be an
expert, and he says basically the same thing the Psychiatric MumboJumbo
video
is saying, because the latter is VALID SCIENCE.
http://actionlyme.org/SCIENTIFIC_JO...RAIN_DAMAGE.htm
XXXXXXX.
Kathleen
For addicts, the craving is to be normal
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, May 7, 2006
BY DANIEL BARBARISI
Journal Staff Writer
You feel like you have the flu. But it doesn't make sense -- It's been
weeks, verging on months, that you've been feeling this way. You're
run-down, not yourself, dragging through every day. You know you can't
be sick, but you can't figure out what's wrong.
The last time you felt good was when you were taking that medication
for your back, or your knee, or to help you sleep. It seems like this
poor feeling started when you stopped taking the medication; so, you
think, it must be that old injury acting up, bringing you down overall.
AP photo
Rep. Patrick Kennedy speaks during a news conference May 5 in
Washington. Kennedy said he was entering treatment for addiction to
prescription pain medication.
You just want to feel normal again.
You go to your doctor, and convince him to give you another
prescription of that medication, to make the back or knee pain go away.
You take it, and you suddenly feel right again. The back is better,
sure, but more than that, the dragging feeling is gone, and your head
is finally clear.
You may not realize it, but you're a prescription drug addict, and
you've just gotten your fix.
Like U.S. Rep Patrick Kennedy, who admitted a prescription drug
dependency last week and has checked himself into the Mayo Clinic in
Minnesota to rehabilitate, millions of Americans suffer from a
dependency on prescription medications.
Kennedy has not disclosed what drug he is addicted to. But he said he
has been using various prescription drugs for years, stemming from
efforts to deal with back surgery nearly 20 years ago. Kennedy said he
took the prescription drugs Phenergan and Ambien before he crashed his
Mustang convertible into a security barrier in Washington, D.C., early
Thursday.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse estimates that 20 percent of the
U.S. population have used prescription drugs for non-medical reasons
during their lifetimes. According to the 2003 National Survey on Drug
Use and Health, 6.3 million Americans had taken prescription drugs for
non-medical reasons in the past 30 days.
Related links
Video: View Kennedy's announcement he'll enter rehab
Read Kennedy's statement given at the press conference
View a map of the area where the accident occurred
View the police report on Kennedy's accident (pdf file, may require
reader to rotate pages)
Read the Capitol police union official's letter of complaint
About the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn.
Find out more about Ambien, from its distributor
Find out more about Phenergan, from its maker
More about Kennedy from his Web site ...
Prescription drug addiction is usually nothing like the addictions we
see in the movies, where with a drug like cocaine, the user is
constantly looking for the next high. According to Alan Gordon,
director of drug and alcohol treatment services at Providence's Butler
Hospital, a prescription drug addict is just trying to drag himself
back to normalcy.
"It's very, very easy to get addicted without even having any desire to
rebel, to seek pleasure, or anything," Gordon said. "The tragedy of
prescription drug addiction is that you're usually using them just to
feel comfortable."
When a prescription drug is first taken, Gordon said, it can flood the
user with large amounts of endorphins and chemicals normally produced
by the human body. With an outside source available, the body
temporarily ceases production of these endorphins, which are needed to
keep emotions and bodies balanced, he said.
As long as the drug provides these chemicals, the person feels fine.
When the prescription ends and the drug works its way out of the
system, however, in some cases the body fails to recognize that it
needs to start producing these chemicals again, Gordon said.
Suddenly, the person does not feel right, and a protracted feeling of
sickness -- like a bad case of the flu, mixed with a stomach virus --
and mild depression can result.
"You can't get a clear head, can't stop your bones from aching. There
is an urge to feel better. It's 90 percent physical, 10 psychological,"
Gordon said. "Most people are just trying to be like you and I. They're
just trying to get what their body requires or needs," Gordon said.
PRESCRIPTION DRUG addicts come from all walks of life, and unlike with
some drugs, socioeconomic status is no hint of a pattern of addiction.
"From Rush Limbaugh to Patrick Kennedy to the truck driver to the
homeless person," there is little rhyme nor reason to who becomes
addicted, Gordon said.
However, those with other addictions, or a history of mental illness --
such as Kennedy's bipolar disorder, which causes dramatic mood swings
-- are at much higher risk.
Once the addict has developed a dependency, a regular source for the
drug must be found. Initially, doctors are often hard-pressed to figure
out which patients are just looking for another few weeks of relief
from an ache or pain and which are facing a burgeoning addiction. There
is no brain scan, or blood test, that will confirm the problem.
The addict will press the doctor for as long as is possible, but
eventually the doctor will likely refuse to provide another dose.
"At some point, you've got to start getting crafty by taking some from
your mother's medicine cabinet, or buying it on the street," Gordon
said.
They also start wanting larger doses of the drug, said Dr. Ron
Golinger, an addiction psychiatrist in private practice in Providence.
"Something gets turned on in the brain of the user, that they not only
become dependent on it, but they also start to want more of it," he
said.
But for months or even years, prescription drug users can appear
outwardly normal while they are addicted, Golinger said. Close friends
will tell them they have a problem, but denial is almost a certainty in
such cases.
"The people don't get that they're addicted in the early to middle
stages. They hear it from other people, or the negative consequences
start to add up. But they truly don't see the connection to the fact
that they're using the drug," Golinger said.
Work is often the last thing to fall apart, so many people in the
public eye can maintain a problem-free facade while their private life
deteriorates.
At a certain point, after another relationship lost or car crashed,
users may start to recognize that the drug is damaging their life,
Golinger said
But the fear of life without the drug can be overpowering.
"They think, 'How could I function without it?' " Golinger said.
Very few users have the epiphany where they wake up one morning and
decide to stop. More often, it is a catastrophic circumstance, a great
embarrassment, or the intervention of friends or family that forces the
user to stop.
"Terror, or pain, or both. Pain and terror are what get people clean
and sober almost all of the time," Golinger said.
UNFORTUNATELY, THERE is no quick fix for prescription drug addiction,
as Kennedy's case makes clear. He said he has been battling his
addictions since he was a student at Providence college almost 20 years
ago, and his rehabilitation stay at the Mayo Clinic is his second in
five months.
Upon checking into a rehab center such as the Mayo Clinic, the first
step is to stabilize the patient medically. The user must be weaned off
the drug.
Until recently, with prescription drug addicts, this would likely have
meant the misery of cold turkey -- the visceral images of an addict
locked in a room, curled up in the fetal position, sweating and
screaming as the cravings ravaged the body.
The alternative was methadone, which could reduce the body's cravings,
but could lead to dependencies of its own.
In just the past few years, however, a new drug has come on the scene
that some say is a panacea for drug addicts: Suboxone, or by its
generic name, buprenorphine.
"It replaces the body's craving and physical dependency on prescription
narcotics, but it doesn't have a euphoric or mind-altering effect, so
there's little potential for abuse," Gordon said.
"It's changed the face of treatment options, and the lives of many
people. It's really, in my mind, comparable to the discovery of
penicillin," he said.
With Suboxone, a patient can return to feeling normal within 24 to 48
hours, rather than the days or weeks of withdrawal symptoms common in
the past. "It's very good for people who are determined to stay clean
and need physical help to do that," Golinger said.
Once the patient is medically stable, the education phase of treatment
begins, Gordon said. This can be up to six hours per day of psychiatric
analysis and classroom discussion, where the patient learns to
understand the addiction and tries to identify triggers that may lead
to a relapse.
They discuss potential changes in lifestyle, stressors that can be
removed, and maintenance steps that will keep them in control of their
cravings -- devising an exercise schedule, for instance. In many
programs, family members will join the patient for a week or more, and
participate in the treatment.
But the patient is taught to recognize the reality that this is a
lifelong problem. Even though Suboxone is non-habit-forming, many
prescription drug addicts leave the clinics knowing they will have to
take it for the rest of their lives, and monitor their dosages like a
diabetic does with insulin.
This can mean permanently cutting out friends who are negative
influences, finding other people who may be struggling with the same
problem, and regularly attending counseling and support-group meetings.
"They're told you've got to make it (your) number-one priority in
life," Golinger said. "Nothing comes before it. No relationship, no
activity, because you won't have anything, and you won't do anything
for the people you're close to, or society in general, if you're on
it."
In Kennedy's case, he says he finally realizes he must give up alcohol.
It's these life changes, Golinger said, that will make the difference
in whether Kennedy will keep himself sober or suffer a relapse.
"You don't speak with lobbyists in a bar on Capitol Hill, you speak to
them in your office. You don't put yourself into the lion's den unless
you want to get bitten," Golinger said.
dbarbari@projo.com / (401) 277-8062
Online at: http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_2006050
|