Watching someone you love battle with addiction can be heart-wrenching. You know they need help to overcome their addiction, but whenever you attempt a conversation, they get angry or act like it hurts their feelings that you would even consider that they might be addicted.
The lower 2018 numbers represented the first decline in U.S. drug overdose deaths in three decades and policymakers had hoped the decline marked a turn-around or plateau in annual drug-related deaths.
Not only is the COVID-19-induced stress and depression a potential trigger for relapse for those in recovery, but evidence suggest that greater numbers of people are turning to drug and alcohol consumption as a form of stress and depression relief.
The intertwining of symptoms of chronic pain and substance abuse disorder are sometimes hard to separate. Both can create physical, social, emotional, and economic effects. People who have chronic pain, substance abuse disorder or both may have similar symptoms including insomnia, depression, and impaired functioning.
Any substance use while pregnant can harm the fetus, but of course the longer the substance use continues, the higher the risk becomes. Substance abuse treatment should start immediately if pregnancy occurs while addicted.
Opioid overdose deaths have declined slightly in the last few years, in part because of the availability of Naloxone. Commonly administered in emergency rooms or by first responders when an opioid overdose is suspected, Naloxone is a medication that can quickly reverse an opioid overdose by attaching to opioid receptors, reversing and blocking the effects of other opioids in the system.
The world’s illicit drug usage problem continues to worsen and the global COVID-19 pandemic could serve to compound the problem in myriad ways, according to the latest U.N. “World Drug Report,” released late last month.
Prescription opioids, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine tend to lead headlines with regard to addiction-related news stories, belying the fact that alcohol addiction is not only much more prevalent in America, but also a bigger killer and threat to overall health.
Alcohol and drug use spiked, but not only among those who already faced problems. For many Americans, they suddenly found themselves developing a problem they didn’t have before.
Substance abuse can sometimes be an attempt to self-medicate an issue such as anxiety or depression. Often, they occur so closely together it is hard to distinguish which came first. Like the chicken or the egg, did the substance abuse cause anxiety or depression or did the depression and anxiety lead to substance abuse?