A Rehab Center Provides Services to Those That Are Sick Or Suffer From Addiction

A rehab center is not the same as a nursing home since the focus on nursing homes is long-term health care for the elderly or severely ill, but rehabilitation centers are for short-term treatment in order to help the individual through various addictions. Other ways in which rehabilitation centers help people are those suffering from illnesses or individuals that have been in accidents that need help in regaining the ability to walk or speak.

Addicts require a drug rehab or an alcohol rehab in order for the person to go through detoxification and learn to live without the substance. Many of the rehabilitation centers support group and individual therapy so that fellow addicts together can help each other understand why they fall victim to abuse in the first place. This is a crucial aspect of the rehab centers because if an individual does not know the reason they have the addiction, they are likely to return to their drug of choice once released.

Children of alcoholic or substance abuse parents often fall into the same pattern. Researchers believe that addiction is two-fold. First, it is environmental; the child may learn early to depend on a substance to make it through the day. Secondly, it can be genetic as far as the child inheriting an additive personality. Children of addicted parents normally hate what their parents are doing at the time, but exposure to drugs and alcohol at such a young age, introduces the child to the road to abusing drugs that can continue into adulthood.

A staggering trend in today's society is that children make up a large percentage of those entering a drug or alcohol rehab center. In 2000, it was estimated that of the 14 million Americans abusing drugs or alcohol, 6.3 percent of those were 12 years of age or older. A staggering 9.7 percent of youths between the ages of 12 and 17 years of age have used illicit drugs at least one time. Men appear to have the higher rate of illicit drug use consisting of 7.7 percent compared to women at 5 percent. However, prescription drug abuse in the form of pain medications, tranquilizers, sedatives and stimulants were comparable between men and women.

Another drug that is often overlooked by parents is inhalants. Kids of any age can purchase these legal substances at a variety of stores. For instance, compressed air and spray paints are often abused. Females are more likely to use compressed air since it leaves no residue on their mouths and no one can detect the smell when in their presence. Inhaling compressed cans of substances intentionally is called huffing. The high lasts only moments, so the abuser continues huffing many times throughout the day to maintain the high, which can quickly cause brain damage or death.

A drug rehab center for such abusers of illegal and legal substances is many times the last hope because if the abuser continues using, death will follow at some point. Alcohol rehab centers are also often the last chance for alcoholics to become sober, because abusing alcohol over a long period will eventually cause cirrhosis of the liver and ultimately a premature death.

To discover more about rehab centers visit http://www.paxhouse.org/

The Art of Paying Attention to the Troubled

No man is an island. Everybody needs a listener, a comforter, and someone who can assist him in life, and being that somebody that many people trust with their secrets and problems is more satisfying and rewarding than anything else.

The art of paying attention is not just about being with the troubled person physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, as well. It is not only hearing his words but actually listening to them. In a California detox center, the four basic rules of paying attention include the following.

1. Learn to listen deeply. The art of paying attention involves stretching out your mind and heart and focusing on the other person with all the intensity and awareness that you can command. Focusing is not only about hearing the words the other person says, but feeling his emotions, as well.

2. Teach your ego to hold its breath for a while. All of us are self-centered in our own little ways. However, paying attention comes with setting our hungry ego aside and teaching it to stop striving for the spotlight for a while. Remember, during this time that somebody asks for your help and guidance, you are not the actor playing the lead role but the support guiding the lead actor play his part successfully.

3. Practice patience. Paying close attention is not a matter of offering snap judgments. Often, it requires waiting, listening, and standing by until the person you are paying attention to works out his own salvation.

4. Be concerned. There's no use in paying attention – or pretending to pay attention – to a person unless you honestly care about him and you are willing to share his pains and problems. Professional counselors must maintain an air of detachment and impersonality, but must also care. The troubled person must sense that care; otherwise, nothing can be accomplished. This capacity to project concern lies at the heart of all deep and lasting human relationships, and the marvelous thing about it is that once the unhappy person feels that somebody cares about him, he is often able to begin caring more about others.

The golden coin of attention is to learn to pay it graciously and gladly, and the dividends will come pouring back to you. For more information about recovery programs in a California detox center, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/Residential-Treatment.html.

Effective Ways to Manage Anger

Anger management is a part of drug treatment programs in some rehab centers in California. This is included in their program list, because victims of drug abuse and addiction may feel angered most of the times due to their condition.

Here is a list of some things, which may be done to avoid and control anger as suggested by rehab centers in California.

1. Use simple relaxation tools such as breathing deeply and creating relaxing images in your mind. For example, breathe deeply from your diaphragm. Picture your breath coming up from your "gut." While doing this, slowly repeat a calm word or phrase such as "relax," "take it easy." Use your imagination to create relaxing imagery inside your head.
2. Change the way you think and react. Instead or cursing and swearing, why don’t you just say to yourself, “It is very frustrating, but hey, it will not do any help if I get angry.”
3. Do not justify your anger by making yourself feel that there is no solution to the problem. Avoid the words “never” or “always”.
4. Believe that every problem has a solution. Focus on finding the solution than frustrating over the problem.
5. When angry, do not say the first words you think of. Slow down and think carefully of your responses and listen carefully to what the other people is saying.
6. Use humor. It can ease the tension and the anger itself. However, do not use humor to just “laugh off” the problem instead of facing it more constructively. Also, do not resort to sarcastic humor because it is not a way of dealing with anger. Instead, it is just another poor way of expressing anger.
7. Change your environment if it causes the irritation. Find alternatives.
8. Maintain a hostility log to monitor and learn about the things that cause you anger.
9. Learn to forgive. Forgiving the person who caused your anger removes your reason to be angry.
10. Get it off your chest. Tell a friend. Or tell the person who caused your anger but calmly, politely and constructively.

For more information about anger management and how it helps patients in rehab centers in California, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

Lifesaving Tips for the Desperate

Many individuals, when faced with life’s trials and difficulties, resort to drug and substance addition, thinking that these illegal substances can solve their problems and even save their life. On the contrary, resorting to this bad habit can even cut their life short when the negative effect of drugs takes over their body, mind, and health.

Here are some lifesaving tips as suggested by a California rehab center.

1. If you find yourself down in the valley, remember that the next sets of your journey must of necessity lead you up the mountain, possibly even to the top. No matter how far we slide, there comes a time when we want to climb back up again.

2. Never keep your troubles to yourself.  Let go to a sympathetic friend or a support group. This sort of mental catharsis will do you good. Explaining to another how you feel will help you obtain a perspective of yourself. In other words, it will get you outside yourself so you can see yourself objectively. It may even aid you in appreciating how much you have been exaggerating your misfortunes.

3. Your life, what you think of it, what to do with it, depends not so much on what is but rather upon your reactions to it. In short, life is primarily a point of view. Reality – what happens in the world outside of you and over which you have precious little control – is one thing; the way you look at reality is quite another.

4. Finally, ask yourself if "getting down" has taught you anything? If, thereby, you have learned to conserve your resources, your health and strength, or if it has made you more practical and given you more common sense, or if it has made you feel more tolerant, understanding and forgiving of others, or if in other way it has improved you – well, that will thank your stars for the opportunity that was given you. To profit by experience has always been considered the hallmark of a truly intelligent person.

Hence, instead of wasting your life with substances that wouldn’t do any good to your body, simply face your problems head on and solve them the best way you can. For more information about California rehab, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

You May Be Alcoholic If…

No matter how much you deny that you are an alcoholic, if your body and behavior towards alcohol say so, then you might really be one.

Alcoholism refers to a psychological and physiological dependence on alcohol, resulting in chronic disease and disruption of interpersonal, family, and work relationships. When a person is under the serious influence of alcohol, his brain, central nervous system, liver, and heart are affected.

Alcoholism occurs four times more often in males then females as the former are more exposed to alcohol drinking and gets more easily influenced by the media and other people than the latter. It may develop at any age after adolescence, when drinking begins.

A person’s decision to engage in grave alcohol drinking is not completely understood, even by expert psychologists. However, possible causes may include personality factors such as dependency, anger, mania, depression, or introversion; family influences where one or both of the parents are alcoholic; social and cultural pressure; and body-chemistry disturbances.

According to a substance abuse California company, you can identify if you are already an alcoholic through the following signs and symptoms.

• You have a low tolerance for anxiety.
• You feel the need of alcohol first thing in the morning and during stressful events.
• You are insomniac; and when you finally fall asleep, you experience nightmares.
• You are suffering from habitual hangovers, causing absences in school or work.
• You are preoccupied with obtaining alcohol and hiding drinking from family and friends.
• You feel guilt and irritability when other people suggest that your drinking is becoming excessive.

On the later stage of your condition, the following occurs:

• You suffer from frequent blackouts and memory loss.
• You suffer from delirium tremens including hallucinations, tremors, confusion, sweating, and rapid heartbeat.
• You get infected with other diseases such as liver disorders, bloating, internal bleeding, and jaundice.
• You suffer from neurological impairment and feel numbness in the hands, tingling in the feet, declining of sexual interest, potency, and even coma.
• You suffer from congestive heart failure including shortness of breath and sweating of feet.

Hence, even if you constantly deny that you are not under the influence of alcohol, your body and behavior will tell the truth. For more information about substance abuse California, visit http://www.paxhouse.org.

Avoiding Drug Abuse and Addiction

Whether there is an outside influence to use and abuse drugs or none, it is still the individual’s full responsibility when he accepts to do so. To prevent being trapped by the harmful effects of drug abuse and addiction, it is your obligation then to say “NO” to drugs at all cost. Otherwise, you may end up in a Los Angeles rehabilitation center, hospital, or worse, in a funeral home.

Here are simple ways on how to say “NO” to drugs and avoid substance abuse and addiction.

1. Don’t give in to peer pressure. Just because your friends are doing drugs, doesn’t mean you have to take it, as well. Remember that there are far more important things you can do with your time rather than waste it consuming drugs that are bad for your body and health.

2. Do not accept anything from strangers, especially food and drinks. Bars and parties are popular venues for drug use. If someone hands you a brownie, for example, just politely refuse and move along. Even if it is a plain gesture of welcoming you to the event, It is better to be safe than sorry.

3. Avoid people who use drugs and places they hang out in. If you continue spending time with them, no matter how strong your self-control is, chances are you will still eventually be persuaded to use drugs. It is best to simply avoid them.

4. Keep smoking and drinking alcohol in moderation. Too much of something is bad for the health, including smoking and drinking alcohol. Remember that cigarettes contain nicotine which is a form of drugs. Make sure to keep these habits at bay, so quitting won’t be too hard.

5. When stressed, depressed, or problematic, talk your worries out to a friend, family member, or someone you trust. You can even resort to blogging, shopping, or even spiritual healing. But never attempt to use drugs thinking that it will solve your problems. No, they won’t and will never do. If anything, drugs will even make your life more complicated.

Follow these guidelines in avoiding drug abuse and addiction so you won’t end up in a Los Angeles rehabilitation center. For more information, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/Los_Angeles_Rehab.html.

Alcoholism: Dispelling Myths from Facts

A California rehabilitation center dispels these myths about alcoholism. Go find out!

Surely we’ve been told time and again that alcohol destroys our brain cells, but it would be more apt to state that moderate consumption of alcohol will not destroy brain cells. On the contrary, when taken in the right amount, it is known to improve cognitive functioning. 

Some of us also are of the belief that drinking white wine would enable one to cheat breathalyzer. The fact really is that a glass of white wine, a bottle of beer, and a shot of whiskey are all of the same amounts to a breathalyzer. 

Most of us believe that a “beer belly” is a product of beer drinking. Actually, it is not so because what we label as ‘beer belly’ is actually caused by excessive eating.  

Similarly, most drinkers would tell you to avoid mixing your drinks to contain your intoxication, but in reality switching from one type to another would be immaterial. What is at work though is the level of blood alcohol content in your system. 

Others, in an attempt to force them to sober up, would instantaneously ingest coffee. Actually, only the lapse of time can cure alcohol intoxication and not cold showers nor black coffee. 

How about the myth that if one would drink long enough, he will become alcoholic? What is the truth value of this? Studies have shown that on the contrary there simply are not existing factual and scientific basis for this.  

Moreover, some are of the actual belief that drinking and weight gain are inevitable cause and effect. However, studies have shown that drinking does not cause weight gain. In fact, it has been discovered to be corollary to some instances of weight loss in women. 

Finally, the prohibitory myth that states that drinking alcohol will in effect cause retardation and stunting of the growth of children has no proven evidence yet. Scientific and medical researches simply did not yield results of this kind. 

For more information about substance abuse, consult with the experts at Pax House California rehabilitation center. Visit its official website at http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

Second-Hand Smoke Kills: Learn the Harmful Effects

If you think that you’re safe just because you’re not smoking, think again. Do you know that second-hand smoke also kills? Learn about the harmful effects of second-hand smoke as explained by a California drug treatment facility.

Smoking kills.

And we get information on the harmful effects of smoking everywhere – from television to wall posters to cigarette packages. But non-smokers should also be forewarned because they may be inhaling as much nicotine and tar as a smoker does.

Second-hand smoke has a string of adverse effects for both the young and old. Young children are especially vulnerable because they breathe more air relative to body weight. They are also less able to complain because of their age when they feel limited and ignored. Their immune systems are also relatively less protective. For children under 18, the following are just few of the adverse health effects that second-hand smoke brings:

• Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

• Additional episodes of asthma

• Decreased lung function

• Meningococcal infections

• More fluid in the middle ear

• Upper respiratory tract irritation

• Lower respiratory tract infections

• Severe asthmatic symptoms

• Minimized flow of oxygen to tissues

• Tonsillectomy

• Cancers and leukemia

• Slower growth

• Upper respiratory tract infections

• Adverse neurobehavioral effects

• Higher cholesterol levels and heart disease

Pregnant women should not only quit smoking, but also avoid inhaling second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke has different adverse effects on pregnant women, especially to the fetus. It deprives the fetus of vital nutrients and oxygen, which could lead to the following conditions:

• Intrauterine growth retardation or low birth weight

• Behavioral problems

• Deficient intellectual ability

• Miscarriage

• Stillbirth

• Reduced lung function

• Pregnancy complications

So, the next time the person next to you lights a cigarette, always politely assert your right to clean and fresh air. Stay away from smoking areas. Keep in mind that you have every right to protect your health in as much as they have their right to destroy their health.

For more information about curing and preventing substance abuse, seek for the advice of professionals at Pax House or visit their official website at http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

Depression from Drug Abuse

One of the harmful effects of drug abuse and addiction is depression, especially during the patient’s withdrawal stage.

Depression is usually hard to detect.  Some persons are more hesitant to be diagnosed; some are just really difficult to ascertain.  Where there are symptoms of depression found in a person, the first step to do is to have him undergo a physical examination by a physician.

The help of a physician or therapist in a treatment center in California is important because it could be that the signs of depression are caused by other factors. For example, certain medications as well as some medical conditions, like viral infections, can cause the same symptoms as depression. Thus, a physician could be helpful in ruling out these possibilities through appropriate medical examinations, interviews, and laboratory tests. Should the results of the physical examination show that the cause is a physical ailment, then there is no cause to worry about depression. On the other hand, where the physician finds that there is no possible physical cause for the depression, then there is a need for a psychological evaluation.

The diagnostic evaluation should include a complete history of symptoms. The patient would be asked when the symptoms started manifesting themselves, how often they occur, their severity and frequency, and whether they have been treated before. The questions on history should also include questions about the occurrence of the ailment within the family, and whether the patient is exposed to drugs or alcohol. In addition, the diagnostic evaluation should also include a mental status examination. This is important in order to determine if speech or thought patterns or memory have been affected, since such sometimes happens in the case of a depressive or manic-depressive illness.

The diagnostic evaluation will shape the treatment process. The choices will usually boil down to either the use of antidepressant medications and psychotherapies. The decision to use either of the two or both would depend on the severity of the disorder. For people who have mild forms of depression, psychotherapy alone could do the trick. On the other hand, in the cases of people with moderate to severe depression, there might be need for the use of antidepressants. Combined treatment have also been found to be effective, meaning medication is given to give the patient quick symptom relief and at the same time psychotherapy is applied in order to help the patient learn more effective ways to deal with life's problems.

Most of the treatment centers in California recommend that individuals who suffer from drug abuse and are undergoing depression should seek the help and expertise of professionals for fast treatment and recovery. For more information, visit http://www.paxhouse.org/CA_Drug_Treatment.html.

Los Angeles Rehabilitation

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