Substance Abuse

The hallmark of substance abuse is that interferes with one's professional, academic or social life. If you or someone you know is abusing alcohol, street drugs or prescribed medications - any or all of these things may be happening:

• Missing work frequently

• Having financial problems

• Feeling sick all the time

• Arguing frequently with friends, family members, or co-workers

• Denying use of substances

• Hiding bottles or paraphernalia

• Building life around the opportunity to use substances

• Symptoms of psychological disorders (such as psychosis, delusion, and suicidal thoughts)

• Having other problems that seem related to substance use

People will tend to minimize the role substances play in their difficulties. Ironically, people will use substances as a way to cope with their problems. The substance, however, compounds the problems: they use the substance more heavily and develop a tolerance that leads to increased use of the substance.

Sometimes people have an underlying psychological disorder, like anxiety, depression, bi-polar, schizophrenia, etc. and they use alcohol or other substances to "self-medicate." The result is that they become addicted in addition to their original problem, which is now compounded by the addiction.

It's very frustrating to watch someone go down this path. The decision to quit is always up to the individual, but other people in the substance abuser's life deserve support in their efforts to help the person.

Call me and I can help you develop a plan for addressing your situation.

Commonly abused street drugs

• alcohol

• marijuana

• methamphetamine

• (aka speed or meth)

• crack or cocaine

• heroin or morphine

Commonly abused prescribed medications

• Benzodiazepines - Anti-anxiety medications

  • Valium

  • Ativan

  • Xanax

  • Klonopin

• Opiates - Pain relief medications

  • Vicodin

  • Percodan

  • OxyContin