Addiction Retreats

Addiction is a brutal development regardless of the vice. Addiction retreats offer unique treatment programs that are helping addicts recover.

Addiction Retreats

A new weapon in the battle against addiction has emerged recently. Instead of just working through a 12-step program, or being helped medically, a number of people who are having problems with addiction have chosen a different route. Addiction retreats have popped up in several areas of the United States, taking a new approach to helping those who have addictions to substances and other addictive behaviors.

One of the new addiction retreats that has started recently is the Essence Recovery Center, located in Asheville, North Carolina. This retreat offers an all-inclusive vacation-like feel, all while helping you to work through your problems with addiction. There are therapy sessions, which include individual "talk" therapy, as well as music and art therapy. They also offer massage therapy and acupuncture, which help to detoxify your body. Meditation, 12-step group programs, sauna and whirlpools, and even spa cuisine help to round out this holistic spa retreat. Week long programs and 28 day programs are available, and the spa is careful to point out that you should get your doctor's approval before starting this program, as it is not a medical program.

One of the addiction retreats located outside of the US is the Soukya Holistic Health Center in Bangalore, India. This retreat is one that combines many different health approaches, such as Ayurveda, homeopathy, naturopathy, acupuncture and Western (allopathic) medicine, in order to help people beat their addictions. With their approach including counseling, homeopathic remedies, relaxation techniques and more, they have earned the praise of people such as Dr. Deepak Chopra, a well-known doctor and philosopher from here in the US. Bangalore is known for having many English speaking residents and is a city that is often visited by US and British citizens. As with all programs, your doctor should be consulted before you start (or book your stay).

This new group of addiction retreats is sure to grow as more people discover the healing benefits of total body cleansing and relaxation. Whether you are in need of a long stay or just a short trip to rejuvenate your mind and spirit, these retreat centers offer more than just the usual massages and facials found at most other spas. They offer a new way of life and a new way of thinking, along with the luxury of a spa atmosphere.

Addiction is a scary thing and breaking it is a difficult task. Addiction retreats offer people the ability and time to break the addiction curse.

Addiction in Any Form is Abnormal

“Psychological and physiological dependence on a substance or practice” – is the medical definition of the term addiction. An addiction is an uncontrollably strong longing for something -  an abnormal kinky obsession for things.  A person with an addiction is called an addict.

Addiction is in fact a hydra-headed concept having different facets.  Medical researches and studies have divulged that every individual to some extent has an addiction.  People who have an uncanny pining or obsession for anything, are indeed addicted.  Medical studies have also revealed other forms of addiction besides alcohol, nicotine and drugs.

According to the medical community, generally there are two forms of addiction.  First there is the physical addiction, or physical dependence and psychological addiction. The second type is called pseudo-addiction.

Physical dependence: An addiction in which the addict becomes physically dependent on intoxicating substances or drugs.  People dependent on tobacco or smoking suffer from nicotine addiction.  Dipsomaniac people suffer from alcohol addiction.

Drug addiction literally means addiction to certain drugs.  A drug addiction is an extreme state of addiction resulting from drug abuse.  Drug abuse is a common practice where hard drugs are abused – for example cocaine, amphetamines, methamphetamine, opiates (heroin, morphine and codeine) and laxatives - drugs derived from narcotics. There is a debate over the idea that freely-sold substances like alcohol and nicotine should be classified as hard drugs, as the both are linked with high mortality rates.

Psychological addiction: The term literally means getting psychologically addicted to certain things or practices. Sometimes there are people who are highly obsessed with practices like gambling, food, sex, pornography, computer, work, shopping, spending etc.  Therefore as absurd as this may sound, these people actually do in fact suffer from gambling addiction, food addiction, sex addiction, porn addiction, computer addiction, work addiction, shopping addiction, and spending addiction respectively.  People addicted to food consumption are highly preoccupied with overeating and overeating is food addiction. These people are sometimes mockingly dubbed as “food alcoholic”.  Narcissism is also a form of addiction.

Pseudo-addiction is the state in which a patient manifests drug-seeking behavior similar to psychological addiction; however, the patient experiences genuine pain or other symptoms in such cases.  Normal behavior is resumed as soon as the pain has subsided.

The physical dependence on a substance such as drug addiction, nicotine addiction and alcohol addiction can sadly often have direly fatal results.

An addiction in any form is the sign of an abnormality that requires immediate treatment. An addiction is a disorder, but it is treatable. There are numerous addiction help centers or rehabilitation centers providing addiction treatment, all over the world.  Standard drug addiction treatment may include behavioral therapy, medication therapy, or a combination of both.

People experiencing any symptoms of addiction should go forward for treatment before their addiction becomes significantly advanced.

Addiction: When Gambling Becomes a Problem

While most people enjoy casino gambling, sports betting, lottery and bingo playing for the fun and excitement it provides, others may experience gambling as an addictive and distractive habit. Statistics show that while 85 percent of the adult population in the US enjoys some type of gambling every year, between 2 and 3 percent of will develop a gambling problem and 1 percent of them are diagnosed as pathological gamblers.

Where can you draw the line between harmless gambling to problem gambling? How can you tell if you or your friend are compulsive gamblers? Here you can find answers to these questions and other questions regarding problem gambling and gambling addiction.

What is the Meaning of Problem Gambling?
Problem gambling or compulsive gambling is defined as an uncontrollable urge to gamble despite the destructive effect of gambling on the gamblers life and despite feelings of guilt and remorse. Problem gambling tends to have a negative effect on the gamblers financial state, relationships and daily life. Severe cases of problem gambling can be defined as pathological gambling.

Am I a Compulsive Gambler?
1) Do you gamble until your last penny runs out?
2) Do you gamble to win back your former losses or debts?
3) Did you ever had to borrow money to continue gamble?
4) Did your gambling habit ever made you lie to your friends or family?
5) Did you ever skip work or other obligation to gamble?
6) Do you tend to gamble to forget about your personal problems or to celebrate happy occasions?
7) Does gambling have a negative affect on your daily life or relationships?

If you have answered yes on at least one of the questions listed above, then you have a problem.

Can Anyone Become a Compulsive Gambler?
Theoretically, yes. Any gambler can develop gambling problem regardless to the type of gambling he is occupied with, the amount of money and time he is spending on gambling. Researches show that slot machines that can be found in bars and convenient stores are the most addictive type of gambling activity, while lottery draws and bingo games are located on the other end of the scale. Gambling addiction is an emotional problem; its symptoms, causes and treatments are similar to any other form of addiction.

How Can I treat Gambling Addiction?
1) Group Therapy:
Gamblers Anonymous offers a 12 step self help program similar to the one offered to alcohol addicts in Alcoholics Anonymous.  Group therapy also offers gambling addicts advice and support from professional counselors and other gambling addicts in different phases of their recovery process. Gambler Anonymous centers are available in more than 1,200 locations statewide.

2) Individual Therapy:
Cognitive or behavior therapy can help gambling addicts to identify their unaware thinking and acting patterns, which led them to gamble compulsively, and to replace them with controllable and healthier ways of thinking.

3) Psychiatric Medication:
It has recently been proven that antidepressant medications from the family of SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can be affective in treatment of gambling addicts.

A Step Closer to Drug Addiction and Phobia Treatment

Scientists are now looking into solving drug abuse cases by studying on a certain medication that could possibly be the most effective drug for treating addiction. This specific drug is also known to control phobias. The US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory provides further evidence that a drug known as D- cycloserine could play a role in helping to extinguish the craving behaviors associated with drug abuse, or specifically, with the addiction to psychotropic drugs. Their study found that mice treated with D-cycloserine were less likely to spend time in an environment where they had previously been trained to expect cocaine than mice treated with a placebo.

A graduate student from Stony Brook University working under Brookhaven Laboratory, Carlos Bermeo said that since the association between drugs and the places where they are used can trigger craving and/or relapse in humans, a medication that could aid in the reduction or even extinction of such responses could be a powerful tool in the treatment of addiction.

The D-cycloserine was originally developed as an antibiotic. But this drug has also shown to extinguish conditioned fear in pre-clinical (animal) studies, and has been successfully tested in human clinical trials for the treatment of acrophobia or fear of heights. This finding led the researchers to wonder whether D-cycloserine could extinguish drug seeking behaviors as well. Last 2006, a group of scientists not associated with the Brookhaven Lab tested this hypothesis in rats. They found out that D-cycloserine facilitated the extinction of “cocaine conditioned place reference”-- in which the tendency for the animals to spend more time in a chamber where they had been trained to expect cocaine than in a chamber where they had no access to the drug whatsoever. This study builds on the previous work and adds information on the drug dose effect, the lasting properties of the treatment, and the locomotor effects of this compound.

In the study, the group worked with C57bL/c mice. The animals were first trained to receive cocaine in a specific environment. Once conditioned, place preference was established (animals willingly spent more time in a cocaine-paired environment than in a neutral environment), the mice were treated with either D-cycloserine or saline and were allowed to spend forty minutes in either the previously cocaine-paired environment in which the drug was no longer available, or the neutral environment. According to one of their researchers, this paradigm would be analogous to a clinical approach where the addict is returned to their natural environment where drug use was done, but this time with no drug available. He added that reduced seeking of the drug in the same environment—that is the extinction behavior—is a great indicator of future success in treatment and reduced chance of relapse.

However, these researchers said that it is important to remember that these are very preliminary results from a small animal study, and much further research will be required before testing this drug in humans. Nonetheless, it is inspiring to know that this drug may show promise in treating cocaine addiction that continues to take a toll on society and for which no pharmacological treatment currently exists. Such research studies would take us a step closer in treating phobias, as well as drug abuse.

4 Tips For Smoking Cessation

Tip 1: Rise above the cravings

Imagine the cigarettes as crutches. You’ve always had these crutches to lean on and soon, it becomes impossible to walk without them. The important thing to learn is that as soon as you walk on your feet again, they’ll quickly regain strength. It may be a little known fact, but about half of what a smoker inhales from his cigarette is pure air. The next time you’re hit with a craving, take some deep breaths and relax. You will soon be able to rise above the craving, feel refreshed, and move on.

Tip 2: All the reasons to quit

Why do you want to quit? Do you have children? Do you want to live to see your grandchildren? Are you sick of the smell? Whatever your reasons are, write them down. Keep a daily journal of how you feel and in the very first entry list in bold letters every reason you have for quitting. List things like health reasons, expense, inconvenience, bad breath, or other reasons and make the list as long as possible. Also be sure to list how you WILL feel when you’ve kicked the habit.

Tip 3: The good, the bad and the ugly

After you complete your lists of reasons you want to quit and how you’ll feel after you’ve quit, make a list of the consequences of not quitting. Have other smokers in your family gotten cancer? Have they died? Do they have to speak through a hole in their neck? Will you be unable to pay off debt because you’re always buying cigarettes? Whatever you consequences, be sure to list all of them. As above, be sure to list the consequences (good consequences, of course) of quitting. Keep them to look forward to.

Tip 4: Break time!

Most smokers agree: a cigarette is a break. When quitting, give yourself breaks, but do something. Go for walk, eat a piece of fruit or drink some juice. This is critical because the body will be going through changes expelling all the accumulated poisons. The fruit will aid this process in many ways.

Good luck!

20 Signs that you may have a problem with booze.

You know that you have got a problem with booze when:

1 before every party or social occasion your partner asks you “not to drink too much tonight”.

2 you feel that everyone in your company drinks too slowly or doesn’t know how to let their hair down and have a good time – like you.

3 you are having extra drinks when you go to the bar, because (see number 2).

4 you hate going to any social occasion if there is no opportunity to drink.

5 you think about drinking constantly, can’t wait to finish work to go and have a drink, can’t wait to be finished ..anything.. to go and have a drink.

6 you hide alcohol around the house, garage, office, wherever.

7 you lie about how much you drink and how often you are drunk, always minimising the amount.

8 you can’t, or find it difficult, to set a limit on the number of drinks and keep to it.

9 you drink too much at inappropriate times, embarrass your family, friends and self.

10 you feel guilty about the night before and have difficulty looking people in the eye.

11 your hands shake in the morning

12 you feel sweaty on waking and for most of the day

13 the previous night’s drinking is a bit of a blur, or worse still a blank.

14 your partner increasingly criticises your drinking

15 your friends increasingly criticise your drinking

16 your co-workers and/or boss increasingly criticise your drinking

17 you don’t count your money in dollars or ponds but in the number of drinks that it will buy

18 you are always the last of your group to leave the bar and the first to suggest another bar or another drink somewhere else.

19 you find it increasingly difficult to talk to people or socialise without having had a drink.

20 you want a drink as soon as you wake up

If you experience a couple of them occasionally it does not necessarily mean that you have a problem with booze.  It is when these signs are regular features of your drinking that they are significant.  We can all overindulge on occasion but if these occasions are becoming more frequent and you are experiencing an increasing number of these signs then maybe you need to take a hard look at your lifestyle and your drinking.  Also you do not need to be experiencing all of these signs to have a problem, a few of them is more than enough.  If you do feel that you need help check with your family doctor sooner rather than later.  Like most problems, drinking problems are easier to treat when they are detected early.

3 Simple Factors to Beating Cocaine Addiction

3 Simple Factors to Beating Cocaine Addiction
Ok, someone you love and care about has a Cocaine Addiction Problem.  Now what?

At this point many thoughts will go through your mind.  Most people actually follow a common series of thoughts, believe it or not.  The first thought is denial.  The addict actually goes through this several times as well.

When the actions of the Cocaine Addict make this impossible to consider further, the next thought is that there is only a minor problem, not a drug addiction.  This is where the majority of Cocaine Addicts fail to get the help they really need.  It is the extreme exception that someone is a true casual cocaine user.  There are no casual crack users as this is clearly the most addictive drug known to man.  So the answer is clearly a cocaine addiction program.  But how to you choose the right one?

Ultimately, you want your loved one back. You want that person free from drug addiction. You want that person to live a healthy and productive life.  The answer is the right drug rehab program.  But how do you find that one?  The answer is actually much easier than most people think.

The majority of people do look into a number of drug rehab programs before making a selection.  However, no one really knows the right questions to ask.  In fact, because most people really have no understanding of effective drug rehabilitation, they actually eliminate the right program very early in their search.  This is unfortunate simply because all that time and money invested then becomes a waste.

There are only 3 issues you need to address for any drug rehabilitation program to make sure your loved one is getting the best and you are getting not only your money's worth, but your loved one off drugs for good.

#1.  What is the Program Success Rate?

This is clearly the most obvious question to ask.  What few people know is that the very best programs have a better than 75 success rate and try to convince you that this is somehow the best that can be done.  Obviously, these programs are a waste of time and should be avoided.  All you need to know is to look for the program with a 75% success rate or better.

#2.  What is the Drug Detoxification Method?

Any Drug Rehab Program that you would choose simply must have some sort of drug detoxification method.  This is an absolute requirement if there is to be any serious chance that the addict will really get off drugs for good.  The single greatest cause of relapse was drug residuals remaining in the body.  This is why a drug detox program is required.

All drug detox methods are not the same.  There are many detox methods that are very expensive, but no better for the addict.  There are several hospital monitored detox methods that are not only very expensive but may also put your loved one into a coma-like state for a day or more.  You want a simple, risk free drug detox program and the best of this is the time-tested sauna based detox method.  This is not only the lowest cost method, but offers nearly zero risk to the addict.  The drug rehab program that uses this approach is more concerned about getting your loved one off drugs permanently than trying to make a profit from you.

#3.  What Guarantee do you offer with your Program?

Only the best programs will offer a rehabilitation result guarantee.  Most people have never heard of this simply because so few programs actually offer it.  You know that a program that will offer not only a medically safe drug detox, but extensive life skills training plus a long term follow-up program really cares about addicts.  But a program that offers all this and a guarantee where the relapsing addict is re-treated at no additional cost really has the best interests of your loved one in mind.  This is a program that is more concerned about the full rehabilitation of your family member back into the family and society than making profits.

If you simply use the above three questions in your rehabilitation program search, you will find the right program for your loved one, simply, easily and quickly.