Animals have been incorporated into therapies for a variety of conditions. Therapy dogs, for example, are common in senior citizen centers, nursing homes, and hospitals, where they are used to brighten the days of patients confined to their beds or hospital rooms for extended treatments. The use of horses in equine therapy is currently a
It goes without saying that addiction comes with consequences. However, the results of substance abuse are often subtle at first, before developing into the more well-known addiction symptoms and side effects. Drugs cost money, reduce productivity, and create disarray in one’s life. General disorderliness and chaos tend to follow in the wake of drug abuse.
Alcohol normally depresses a person’s central nervous system. When a person consumes large amounts of alcohol for a longer period of time, his brain and central nervous system adjust and rewire themselves to speed up and to accommodate that excessive alcohol consumption. When that consumption suddenly ends, the alcoholic’s central nervous system reacts
There are certain risk factors which contribute to the likelihood that someone will use drugs and subsequently abuse them. We call these “risk factors” because when they are exhibited by an individual or group of individuals, they are said to be at risk of developing a drug abuse habit or persistent addiction. Some of these
Individuals who are addicted to heroin and other opiate products, including oxycodone, will experience severe and often-dangerous physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms when they stop using these drugs. Those symptoms are cited as a primary reason for relapses when heroin addicts are in rehab. Methadone is used to ease the worst of those symptoms and
The first and foremost thing to emphasize when discussing heroin addiction is the importance of seeking help. Heroin is a very dangerous drug to abuse and quitting can be equally dangerous. It takes hold of the body and doesn’t let go without a fight. Heroin is an incredibly powerful painkiller in the opioid family
In their hard rock song, Hurt, the Nine Inch Nails sing the lyric “I hurt myself today, to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real.” This lyric accurately depicts self-harm as a mechanism to cope with numbness and buried pain. If you have adopted this coping mechanism
Anxiety feeds on our concerns for what we don’t know and can’t control. In life, there are many things we don’t know, uncertainties that haunt or beguile us. This sense of worry about the future or things beyond our immediate control is what vexes so many that contend with anxiety. Things like giving a speech,
Traditional 12-step addiction recovery programs have been endorsed by numerous public health organizations, including the U.S. National Institute of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the American Psychiatric Association, and the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs, as a cost effective approach to addiction treatment and recovery. They have been proven effective to
There are no expectations in the wild. When you’re alone in the woods, there is no one there to need something from you, no one waiting for you, and no one asking you questions. You are completely removed from any sense of obligation or duty to other people or society as a whole. There is
