How To Quit Smoking Using Nicotine Patches

 

There are several ways to quit smoking. One popular method is using nicotine patches. These patches eliminate the urge to smoke all day. With commitment, you can stop smoking.

How They Work

Nicotine patches are designed to help you to manage yourto smoke. Patches help with cravings and withdrawal symptoms. The patches start to release nicotine as soon as you apply the patch to your skin. The patches release nicotine throughout the day for 24 hours. Each day you attach a patch to your skin. For six to 12 weeks you use the daily patches to reduce the cravings for a cigarette. The amount of nicotine in the patches is gradually reduced over time to wean you off nicotine.

Each day, preferably upon waking up in the morning, you attach a new patch to your skin. You keep the patch on for the next 24 hours. If you prefer, you can remove the patch before bedtime. However, for best results, keep the patch on for at least 16 hours each day.

The Step Down Program

Nicotine patches are available in three different strengths. This helps smokers to gradually reduce their cravings for nicotine.

The initial treatment depends on how many cigarettes you smoke a day. If you smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day, you need to start with patches containing 21 mg of nicotine. Use a patch every day for six weeks. The next step is to use a 14 mg nicotine patch for two weeks. The final step is to use a 7 mg patch for two to four weeks to completely end your cravings to smoke.

For people who smoke less than 10 cigarettes a day, start using a patch with 14 mg of nicotine. Use a nicotine patch daily for 2 weeks. The next step is to use a 7 mg nicotine patch for two to four weeks until you no longer have a desire to smoke.

It's important to read the instructions of the nicotine patch you use. By reading the package label you get a good idea of how the patches work and how much nicotine is in each patch.

Nicotine patches are a discrete way to end your dependency on nicotine. With patches, you can quit smoking in about 10 weeks.

What Addiction Really Costs

Drug abuse can be very costly not only because of the high cost of drugs, but because of lost opportunities, time spent in jail, fines, medical expenses, legal fees and myriad of other costs. The real cost of addiction can be insanely high. Take a look at the following costs:

i) Court Fines

DUI is perhaps one of the most common crimes in the country with millions of cases reported nationwide every year. If you are found to be driving a vehicle while intoxicated (blood alcohol level over 0.08%), you can be arrested and charged with driving under the influence. Depending on whether its your first, second or third DUI offense, you can easily spend over $10,000 to cover the court fine, cost of legal representation, court fees and court-mandated alcohol prevention classes. If the court orders you to wear an alcohol monitoring bracelet, you will spend an extra $12/day.

ii) Medical Expenses

Addiction can damage some of your organs and affect your brain function. Assuming you do not do anything that may lead to contraction of or STI's, you will still find yourself making endless trips to the emergency room. From respiratory illnesses to liver and lung problems, you can easily max out on both the inpatient and outpatient coverage limits on your health insurance. In fact, you may find yourself paying cash for medical treatment before long. Pregnant women who are addicted to drugs, on the other hand, can cause both short and long term complications to the child.

iii) Loss of Employment

For many people, employment is the only source of income, but addiction can take that away. Most people who are addicted to drugs often lose their jobs because of incompetence, absenteeism or failing a drug test during mandatory drug screening. Chances of getting another job in the future can be very low due to a smudged record.

iv) Legal Representation

A decent lawyer will charge between $2,000 to $5,000 for a retainer on a misdemeanor drug offense and $5,000 to $15,000 for felony charges. Furthermore, you may still end up in jail. If found in possession of a gram or less of heroine or cocaine, you can spend a minimum of two years in state prison (in Texas).

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Mental Illnesses And Loneliness

 

Although people become lonesome for many other reasons, loneliness can be a symptom or a cause of mental illness. Disorders of the mind often occur as a result of a person's attempts to replace human connection with objects, substances or illogical behaviors. Four common disorders related to loneliness include drug addiction, depression, hoarding and anxiety in social situations.

Addictions

When a person becomes addicted to illegal drugs, medications or activities like overeating, he or she frequently does this to replace something they are missing in life. Researchers have discovered a link between addictions and a lack of close connections with family members or friends. Sadly, some people bond with liquor or cocaine in the same way they would otherwise connect with a best friend.

Depression

Many people become depressed after feeling lonesome for substantial periods of time, according to study data. Sadness is frequently associated with a lack of friendship. When individuals have no significant relationships with family or friends, this sadness often develops into depression and makes them less likely to try meeting new people.

Hoarding

Although many physicians look at hoarding as an obsession, it frequently stems from loneliness. Some individuals gather objects and use them to replace close relationships. Everyone does this to an extent; people normally keep photos, gifts or belongings left behind by friends or relatives who pass away. Hoarders take it to an extreme as a result of their isolation.

Anxiety

Socially anxious people have difficulty meeting others and forming relationships with them. This does not always occur as a result of poor social skills. In many cases, it is linked to a strong fear of social errors. Individuals with this type of anxiety become more and more isolated because they are afraid of making mistakes when talking to other people.

Mental illness often leads to a cycle of increasing loneliness as patients with these conditions avoid other individuals and acquaintances shun them due to their unusual behavior. Anyone who experiences one of these disorders should recognize greater socialization as a potential solution. Few people succeed in resolving mental health conditions in total isolation.

What Is Ibogaine Treatment For Addiction?

Of the many treatment methods that are currently used to treat heroin addiction, none has substantial effect on a psychological level. They majorly serve to treat the addiction or help victims manage it, but never really treat the addiction with the intention of reducing or completely curing the disease. However, among the many unconventional and experimental treatments that have been tried, Ibogaine has indicated some promising results.

What is Ibogaine?

Ibogaine is a psychoactive substance derived from certain trees and shrubs found in native African rainforests. The natural psychedic is cited to have been used by African pygmy tribes (and other tribes) for ritual and medicinal purposes.  

Ibogaine Treatment for Addiction

Several separate researches that have been carried on Ibogaine (since 1960s) have indicated that the substance can effectively treat various forms of addictions: heroin, cocaine, alcohol, methadone, methamphetamine, steroids, and other drugs. When used as type of interruption therapy, the psychedelic induces dream-like visions to the patients (while they are awake) followed by feelings of instructive replays of the various pivotal life effects that may have contributed to their addictions. Some are also confronted by negative emotions and fear that in a way drive the addiction disease.  If used for addiction treatment, it's recommended that supplemental treatments such as intensive counseling, therapy, and aftercare are applied to achieve maximum results from the Ibogaine treatment.

Side Effects

Although Ibogaine has been implicated as treatment for various forms of addiction in unprecedented number of studies, it's been associated with a number of negative side effects, including loss of motor coordination (making it difficult for patients to walk or stand without assistance), vomiting, nausea, and dry mouth. Ibogaine can also agitate certain types of heart conditions and can cause fatal reactions with certain foods (such as foods that contain citrus and bergamot oil). What's more, the psychedic can have detrimental effects when administered alongside other psychotropic medications and is therefore not recommended for dual-diagnosis (simultaneous treatment for addiction alongside mental or emotional disorders).

Bottom Line

For Ibogaine treatments to be universally accepted in the healthcare fraternity, there must be enough evidence that its benefits surpasses its potential to cause harm, which currently necessitates continued research and clinical experiments. Nonetheless, preliminary results regarding the development of the Ibogaine into clinical, therapeutic, and medicinal treatments are quite promising.

Help To Quit Using Medical Or Recreational Marijuana

Quitting marijuana use is not an easy task for most people. Study shows that 100,000 people living in the U.S. seek help quitting weed and pot every year, and not all of them are successful. In order to properly learn how to stop using pot or weed, professional help is needed.

Medical Help

While treatment from a medical facility isn't always needed in order to quit smoking weed, the evaluation from a professional can be a good first step towards helping break the habit. Long term marijuana use will have both physical and psychological effects on a person. Having a professional doctor look into such cases can help determine whether the patient is having withdrawal symptoms, a mental illness or other medical conditions when trying to quit pot.

Most people abusing more than one type of drug will have more difficulty quitting. A qualified doctor will be able to evaluate issues that exist or those that may arise in the future when a patient is trying to stop substance abuse.

Withdrawal Symptoms

Study shows that not every patient experiences withdrawal symptoms when trying to quit weed. The same also goes for chronic users who have been abusing drugs for an extended period of time. However, there are those who will experience one or more withdrawal symptoms based on levels of addiction, lifestyle and how their individual bodies react to treatment. Some of these symptoms include; sleep disorders, headaches, sensitivity to light, depression, anxiety, paranoia, aggression and irritability among others. Most of these symptoms will be experienced in one to three days after stopping the substance abuse.

Treatment

While there is currently no medication for marijuana use, aids from a professional doctor can help patients quit smoking. In most cases support groups, drug programs and therapy will be recommended in helping those with substance abuse problems. In order for a patient to successfully quit smoking weed and pot, they will need to be surrounded by people facing the same problems, where they can share their own experiences and eventually come up with a solution to the problem. Support groups will help these patients understand that they are not alone and motivate them to quit using marijuana and other drugs.

Addiction: Stop Enabling Behaviors

Regardless of how you feel about addiction, when someone you love is addicted to drugs or alcohol, you may experience feelings of sympathy, guilt, and self-responsibility. All of these are normal emotional responses. However, those feelings often lead to enabling behaviors, which do everything to support the addiction instead of the addicted. In order for the loved one to gain and keep their sobriety, families and friends have to recognize and put an end to detrimental behavior.

Enabling Behaviors

* Taking or assigning responsibility for the drug addiction.
Constantly placing blame on past experiences, current stresses, and other people reaffirms the addicts behavior and keeps the addict from recognizing that drug use is a choice. Those who are addicted can choose to get treatment and live better lives.

* Giving an addict money for life expenses
Drug use is the cause of an addict's inability to pay for housing, food, utilities and other bills. When you pay an addict's bills, you are effectively paying for their drugs. Some drug users will not pay their expenses and will use the money to buy drugs.

* Allowing an addict to live with you
Nobody wants to see a loved one on the street, but when you take them in because they "have nowhere else to go", you are inviting their choices and behaviors into your home and denying them the chance to fall. Most addicts have to hit rock bottom in order to seek out the help they need.

* Taking responsibility for their legal problems.
Some of these enabling behaviors include posting bail, offering false alibis, paying for legal and court fees, or allowing them to live with you while on probation.

Work Together to Stop Enabling Behaviors

The only way to help an addict is to let them deal with the consequences of their actions. For this to work, every family member and friend must agree to stop the enabling and they must be steadfast in their agreement.

The final step is to call an intervention specialist and set up a time for all close friends and family to discuss details. This meeting underlines the significance each loved one has in a successful intervention and prepares them for the confrontation that will follow. Each person will let the addict know they are putting a stop to enabling behaviors so he or she will take advantage of all the benefits of addiction treatment.

Injecting Opana and Its Hidden Dangers

Prescription medication, especially painkillers, abuse has increased in the US in the last few years. Painkillers not only delay pain signals from injured body parts to the brain, thereby numbing pain, but they also induce an increased production of dopamine (the feel good hormone) by the brain, in essence inducing a high/ rush. Opana, morphine, Oxycontin, oxycodone and buprenorphine comprise some of the pain medications that have similar effects to that of heroin and other depressant drugs. In the absence of heroin and other potent depressants, some people ingest high quantities of analgesics/ painkillers, or alter the prescribed dosage form to a form that gets the drugs directly into the bloodstream for an instant high.

Injecting Opana

Opana is a painkiller whose prescribed mode of intake/ ingestion is oral. Oral intake of Opana takes the drug hours to get released into the bloodstream, and even then, the drug seeps into the bloodstream, from the digestive system, in controlled quantities. Abusers of Opana crush the pills, dilute the powder/ or heat it into liquid, and directly inject the liquid into the bloodstream. The effects are immediate and deadly.

Deadly blood disorders from injecting Opana

Clotting: Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura

The human blood circulatory system is composed of the blood, blood vessels (capillaries, veins and arteries) and the heart. The heart receives and pumps blood from and into other body organs through the blood vessels. The highly potent injected Opana causes the conglomeration of platelets (the blood's clotting component) inside the blood vessels, in essence blocking those vessels. Blocked blood vessels limit blood flow and force the heart to overwork to pump blood throughout the body. Clotted platelets and blocked blood vessels can lead to an instant and massive heart attack or the damage/ death of organs that do not get oxygenated blood supply.

Internal bleeding

The human blood is made up red blood cells, platelets and white blood cells. The platelets conglomerate on injured tissues to stop bleeding. When Opana induces platelets clotting inside the blood capillaries, it limits the number of platelets that other body tissues receive. Inadequate platelets lead to internal bleeding, and or excessive bleeding from injured external tissues. Insufficient blood flow to the brain can cause stroke and death, and low blood pressure (from reduced volume of blood in the capillaries) can lead to a heart attack.

A high American population has turned to prescription medicine for recreational use. Since prescription medications are made to be ingested and released into the bloodstream gradually, abusers of these drugs alter their (drugs) forms to release high quantities of the drugs into the bloodstream instantly. Crushing and injecting Opana into the bloodstream causes massive blood vessels clotting and blockage, as well as internal/ excessive bleeding that result in stroke, heart attack and instant death. Follow us for more information and resources on drug abuse and treatment.