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September 2010
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Army Group Counseling

The US Army has recently implemented group counseling to help those related to fallen soldiers move on in the event of a soldier’s death.

This program, known as Survivor Outreach Services, will call army survivors and ask if they wish to join a group of those who also lost relatives in the army.

Like many outreach programs, one call will not convince people to attend group so many calls are are done but in a non-aggressive way.

This program has helped hundreds of survivors make some kind of sense of their loss and move on.

Group counseling can be extremely intense and personal and can help anyone with any kind of problem.  Comfort in a group and acceptance is a powerful therapeutic alliance.

Welcome Back! Thanks for visiting!

Rapid Detox

Rapid Detox is a new method of detoxification that speeds up detox by speeding up withdrawal symptoms from a drug so withdrawal that may have taken weeks will now take only hours.  In case you are wondering, the patient is sedated through all of this so feels nothing.

The beginning of any recovery program for addiction is detox.  Simply stated, the addictive drug is no longer ingested causing withdrawal symptoms as the body adjusts to being without the addictive substance.  Living through detox can be rather painful and uncomfortable.

Drug addiction has always been viewed as a psychological problem and treated as such but the rapid detox approach deals with addiction somewhat differently.

Addiction is viewed as a physical problem; a chemical imbalance in the bain brought about by the addictive drug so addiction is treated as a medical problem.  Rapid detox is performed in a hospital – an ICU or Intensive Care Unit no less.

First the patient is admitted to the hospital at least 24 hours prior to the procedure and a detox ‘plan’ is developed from careful monitoring of the patient.  Next the actual detox procedure is performed with the injection of drugs designed to speed up withdrawal while the patient is sedated.

Last, the patient is monitored for another 24 hours in the ICU for any changes in vital signs.

This form of treatment, known as the Waismann Method, performs a very dangerous procedure within a hospital in case emergency medical care is needed.

The one drawback is the fact that medical insurance will not cover these costs.  In spite of this the long term recovery rate of patients who had undergone this treatment is cited at 75%.

Detox without Drugs

There is a growing trend among drug treatment centers to provide initial detoxification without the use of drugs to minimize cravings.

This ‘cold turkey’ approach combined with sauna baths to release toxins from fatty tissues and life skills therapy is proving to be very promising.

The rate of recovery for this new method of detox is cited at a whopping 70% permanent sobriety.  Mostly this treatment has been used with heroin/opiate users but is gaining popularity as a form of treatment for all types of substance abuse.

I’m sure we will here of this approach in the future.

Alcoholics Anonymous Step 11

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

More Drunk Driving

Yes, more drunk driving stories.  I find it interesting how public attitudes towards drinking and driving are slowly changing.

It seems that an Oregon man left work and started drinking beers in his car from a cooler as he was driving home.  On the way home he managed to get very drunk and slammed into a stopped or slow moving car on the side of the road.

He killed all 4 people in that car but, he himself, was seemingly unharmed.  The police came and found the man had 4 prior convictions for driving under the influence of an intoxicant.

After being brought to the hospital the man refused a blood test to determine his blood alcohol count but submitted to one 3 hours later.  The test registered a blood alcohol level of 3 times the legal limit of .08.

He later pleaded guilty to 4 counts of first degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 43 years in prison.

So do not drink and drive…..

Drunk Driving Error

A ‘drunk driver error’ resulted in the arrest of a Van Buren County, Michigan man.

It seems that the drunk driver was heading home around 2 am and started to get sick.  So he quickly pulls into the nearest parking lot but misses and ends up on the lawn where he got sick and passed out.

The parking lot and lawn he ended up on contained the local State Police barracks…

They merely walked outside, woke him up and arrested him.  His blood alcohol count was twice the legal limit.

Alcoholics Anonymous Step 10

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

From The Big Book

Toxic Meth Labs

I love to search Google News for drug abuse information and today I searched on ‘Meth Labs’.  I was amazed to find 1600 entries in google for the past few days alone…

Anyway, meth labs are extremely dangerous to run; explosive, a lot of toxic chemicals and chemical byproducts and can be contained in something as small as a suitcase.  Did I mention they were illegal?

Most meth labs are found because of their peculiar smell so labs are usually located in remote areas although they have been found in apartments, houses and even hotel rooms – anywhere there is a way to heat a pot.

The latest means of production is a meth lab in a moving vehicle using the ‘one pot’ process or ’shake and bake’.  The ingredients are mixed in a 2 liter soda bottle using lithium as a heat source – lithium heats up when in contact with water.

This method of production only makes small amounts of meth but has the advantage of diffusing the smell easily and making cleanup easy; by merely dumping the used soda bottle and toxic chemicals out the car window. And…a moving lab is harder for the police to raid.

But rapidly expanding gases produced when lithium and water mix may turn the soda bottle into a bomb if it is not ‘burped’.

Alcoholics Anonymous Step 9

From the Big Book – Step 9:

“Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.”

After facing yourself, your past and the wrongs, identifying what needs to be fixed….then time to fix them, if possible.  Unless fixing them would directly injure others further.

Wastewater Drug Detection

Wastewater Drug Detection is a new method of tracking drug use across the nation.  I’m surprised no one thought of this sooner…

Wastewater from toilets sinks, showers and tubs can be analyzed for trace amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine, Ecstasy and other drugs to give an indication of drug use in the community which created the wastewater.  Patterns of drug use can be identified and analyzed.  Tests can also detect caffeine, vitamins, antidepressants and just about any substance you could imagine.

In a sample test several communities in Oregon had their wastewater tested and trace levels of cocaine and meth could be detected and mapped by community by the day.  As expected higher drug levels were found in urban areas than in rural areas which could be because of the greater population concentration.  Cocaine tests from wastewater across several communities also indicated that cocaine use could be at a higher rate than previously thought.

Tests such as this implemented on a nationwide level show a lot of promise.

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