How to Recognize Prescription Drug Abuse

Sometimes parents are the last to know. Studies show that the average parents whose kids are using drugs don’t know about it for six months. That’s a long time. More than enough for kids and young adults to develop a prescription drug addiction or do other serious damage. In fact, the news is full of stories about kids who died from prescription drug overdoses. And sometimes their parents didn’t even know they were taking them. But there are warning signs, and every parent should know them cold.How can you tell if your kids are popping pills?Grades dropping. It might happen right away or it might take a little while. Unfortunately, this isn’t something you can find out every week; you have to wait for exams. So you also need to keep a very close eye on school performance, interest and participation.Changes in mood or behavior of any sort. These changes could even be for the better. If your kid tends to be sullen or resistive, for example, and all of a sudden is getting much easier to get along with, don’t just think they’ve changed for no reason. It could be that they’re propping themselves up with drugs. On the other hand, the changes they go through could be negative – sleeping longer, staying out later, becoming moody.Being more secretive about where they’re going, what they’re doing, and who they’re with.Making new friends and not seeing their old friends as frequently or at all. Often they’ve met kids who take drugs and are now taking them as well. They’ll gravitate to those new friends.Any physical symptoms. There are literally hundreds of side effects from prescription drugs. You need to be familiar with all of them and how to recognize them.There seems to be fewer pills in your own medicine bottles. Experts advise that if you have the kind of medication others could use to get high, keep them locked up. These include OxyContin and other painkillers, all tranquilizers and sedatives, anti-anxiety drugs, sleeping pills, antidepressants or antipsychotics. If you don’t know what category your drugs fall into you’d better find out. Doctors often prescribe drugs for a condition other than which they were intended. Don’t assume that because you’re taking medicine for arthritis, for example, that your drugs are of no interest to someone without it.Most parents think of prescription drugs as medicine. It never occurs to them that someone who doesn’t have the condition they’re being treated for they would want them or even get anything out of them. Parents, along with their young adult children, also think that because the drugs came from a doctor, they’re safe.Those days are over. The drugs we take are dangerous and we live in a drug culture; people take prescription drugs freely for every problem they run into – physical or emotional. And even if that doesn’t describe your household, it will describe the household of others your kids contact. And some of those kids – whether they’re 13 years old or in college – will be taking them and will suggest your kids do the same. Educate yourself, educate your kids, and know the warning signs of prescription drub abuse.

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Your First Year Of Drug Abuse Recovery: The Need For Self-Acceptance

The first year of drug abuse recovery is extremely crucial. It is during this period when “depressive symptoms” (mental state of sadness, depressed mood, “the blues,” or other related feelings and behaviors can occur). Possibly, women from different cultures and ethnic groups will experience and report symptoms of depression differently. The symptoms of depression, like those of many other illnesses, come and go. However, it is important to mention that every day events, that can lead to feelings of rejection, could trigger those feelings of depression. If one is sensitive to their surroundings, and feel they are judged for whatever reason, harshly, about their perceived intelligence or appearance. This could lead to withdrawal from others socially.When children grow up in a nurturing home and when in particularly the daughters father is present. If indeed he is a good, loving, caring and protected father. This relationship could form and shape healthy relationship patterns that will cause the daughter to be more in-tune with her emotional side. After all, her father is the first example of what compassionate love, and security should look like. When this is missing, there is this sense of a deep-rooted emotional void that cannot be explained. That usually, leads to some serious trust issues.Sometimes, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we may find that we are jealous of other females that have a good relationship with their father. Or at least, wished we had our father available to answer for us, some of life’s important questions. In other words, a father that listens and supports his child when she’s experiencing happiness, fear, rejection, and anger. When the father is absent, we seek comfort in the arms of a male, trying to fill the void of not feeling valuable. Likewise, we could end up having a string of non meaningful sexual relationships, and eventually end up feeling used by men.According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), in 2007, there were 248,000 sexual assaults in 2007. Even worse, there were 5.2 million violent victimizations of residents age 12 or older. About 26% of the victims of violence reported that the offender was using drugs or alcohol.Date rape, drug facilitated sexual assault, partner rape, or any other type of sexual assault experience. No matter, what the event is labeled, you will have to deal with feelings of humiliation, shame, excessive guilt, low self-esteem, or feelings of worthlessness. In addition, the potential for relapse with depressive symptoms could be quite high.If you are in a situation where, things have gotten out of hand, out of control and you are raped. Here are some suggestions that you need to act on-immediately. The “American Family Physician” website-has an article on: What To Do If You’re Raped? It says; the first thing you should do if you’re raped is get to a safe place, away from your attacker. Then you should go to a hospital emergency room to be checked. You can call the police from the hospital. Don’t bathe or change your clothes before you go to the hospital. Just get there as fast as you can.Deep hurts happens-in this life. Ultimately, true real emotional healing will begin when we turn these emotional issues over to God. Some of us are in the process right now of getting through this critical moment. Only God, can heal the paralyzed parts of our hurts-where we are stuck. It is the place where only he has access too.

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