Why Rehab for your Loved One Must Not Wait a Single Day

helping a family member who is addicted

Any person using drugs today could be taking his (or her) life in his hands every time he gets high. This has been somewhat true for a long time but it is easier now than ever before to lose everything to a single dose of drugs.

Yes, people overdosed in years past. As long as there have been drugs like cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine on the market, it was possible to overdose. Stimulants like cocaine or meth could rip apart one’s heart or arteries or damage one’s organs beyond repair. Heroin has always been capable of stopping a person’s breathing. But now, the drugs on the market sometimes possess an unparalleled ability to steal one’s sanity, either briefly or forever, or to kill outright. That’s why drug rehab for an addicted person should not even wait a single day longer than absolutely necessary to make arrangements for your loved one’s arrival.

Even Marijuana Makes the List of Highly Dangerous Drugs

Some people may think they’re safe from any real harm because they “only smoke pot.” First, many people consuming cannabis are smoking concentrates that are as much as 90% THC—the intoxicant preferred by people who want to get high (as opposed to those who wish to use the drug medically). Second, competition for sales of pot has driven growers to develop high levels of THC in all cannabis leaf or bud products sold in medical or retail pot stores. THC levels of 20% and even 30% can be found. Use of high potency products can result in undesirable effects like anxiety, panic, acute psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, and a loss of the sense of personal identity. These effects can and do send hundreds of thousands of people each year to emergency rooms.

New, More Poisonous Drugs

In 2010, a series of new, intensely dangerous drugs arrived on the market. These were the synthetics—given nicknames like “bath salts,” “Spice,” “meow meow,” “Bromo-DragonFLY,” “flaaka” and dozens of others. These drugs could kill through their powerful abilities to cause hallucinations and delusions. Run-ins with police, suicides, accidents, assaults and delusional actions like running out onto highways took lives of some users. And these strong stimulants could take a life simply by causing a catastrophic physical collapse.

These drugs were soon followed by a steady supply of synthetic opioids smuggled in from China and other Asian countries. These illicitly-manufactured painkillers like fentanyl and carfentanil began taking lives in America and other countries. These new drugs are so powerful that just breathing their airborne powder is enough to sicken a person.

These Drugs Aren’t Going Away Anytime Soon

Reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that we have not yet reached the peak of our problems with drug overdoses. Fatal overdoses tripled between 1999 and 2014, and between 2014 and 2015, the numbers rose again.

  • 2014 fatal overdoses: 47,055
  • 2015 fatal overdoses: 52,404

The majority of these overdoses involved a prescription opioid like hydrocodone or the illicit opiate heroin.

These days, the U.S.-Mexico border is not the only source of dangerous drugs. Now, they very often come in direct from Asia via shipping containers or any major package service including the U.S. Postal Service.

Knowing When a Person Crosses the Line to Addiction

When a person is just dabbling in drugs, they can quit if they see they are damaging their own lives or futures. When use gets heavy and consistent, they may not have this choice. Maybe you have appealed to them multiple times to quit. Maybe they have sworn they will, that they can control it, they can cut down or quit whenever they want. Maybe you’ve given them a couple of chances to quit on their own. And then the problems continued. And worsened.

That’s when drug rehab is the right choice. That’s when you should not wait a single day longer than absolutely necessary to help that person walk through the front door of a drug rehab. The next day of drug use could trigger a psychotic episode, catastrophic physical collapse, accident or overdose.

If they reject the idea of help, that’s the right time to bring in an interventionist to help this person contact the desire, deep in their own heart, to leave addiction behind. We can help you find an interventionist to help your loved one.

We understand addiction and we understand recovery. Our fifty years of experience have taught us what it takes to help someone recover—not only to get sober again, but to have a productive life they actually enjoy. Call Narconon Ojai today to find help for someone you love who can’t break free on their own.

AUTHOR

Sue Birkenshaw

Sue has worked in the addiction field with the Narconon network for three decades. She has developed and administered drug prevention programs worldwide and worked with numerous drug rehabilitation centers over the years. Sue is also a fine artist and painter, who enjoys traveling the world which continues to provide unlimited inspiration for her work. You can follow Sue on Twitter, or connect with her on LinkedIn.

NARCONON OJAI

DRUG EDUCATION AND REHABILITATION