Prescription drugs and health care

To make a lasting recovery, drug addicts need to understand and be able to recognize the symptoms of Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome, or PAWS. Though PAWS is responsible for more relapses and failed recoveries than any other condition, most treatment facilities and rehabilitation programs do little to mitigate its frustrating and crippling effects on recovering addicts. PAWS symptoms are normal and even expected for addicts who have completed detoxification and overcome the obstacles of their initial withdrawal. However, the ways in which addicts experience these symptoms are highly individual, so it can be difficult to clinicians and patients to recognize exactly when they occur. To maintain clean and sober lives, recovering substance abusers must learn to constantly self-reflect and monitor their behavior patterns for signs of this dangerous condition.

PAWS typically sets in as soon as addicts complete detoxification. Detox is a painful but necessary five to fourteen-day process of purging their bodies of drugs. The symptoms can affect the bodies, intellects, and emotions of its sufferers, and they range from mild to severe. They can even cause addicts to abusively self-medicate in an effort to relieve their pain, thereby continuing their cycles of addiction. Some of the most common symptoms are as follows:

Physical Problems:

Those familiar with PAWS often refer to its sufferers as “dry drunks” because of their apparent lack of motor skills. The visible, physiological symptoms of this condition include impaired balance, poor depth perception, and chronic dizziness. Even when they are still sober, recovering addicts with PAWS may stagger and stumble as they walk, speak with slurred speech, or have trouble seeing properly. These problems often make an addict’s recovery more stressful, as many people who observe these symptoms assume him or her to still be actively using.

Mental Impairments:

Although the physical signs of PAWS are the most easily recognizable, many recovering addicts say that the mental aspects of the condition are the worst. People coming out of detoxification often experience difficulties thinking clearly or performing simple mental tasks. An addict may feel constantly cluttered and disorganized, and these feelings can lead to panic and an utter inability to deal with daily stressors. Compounded, these symptoms can make it extremely difficult for PAWS sufferers to positively engage their treatments and establish new, drug-free lives.

Emotional Difficulties:

PAWS endangers many recovering addicts with its emotional symptoms. Many sufferers have reported severe depression and even suicidal thoughts. However, many of the same people have also reported emotional numbness. These kinds of severe mood swings produce damaging thought patterns which can make it nearly impossible for patients to take advantage of their treatments. Reality-based therapies, in particular, rely on recovering addicts’ abilities to engage other people in emotionally productive ways and form meaningful relationships.

For drug addicts to make lasting recoveries, Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome treatment needs to begin immediately after detox, but it also needs to continue for the rest of their lives. Most of the symptoms are reduced or gone completely after a few months, but some have been known to last for years. Good rehabilitation centers will therefore provide support groups, additional counseling, and other forms of ongoing therapy for addicts who have completed their initial treatments.

Many people live under the assumption that they are not susceptible to addiction, and that substance abuse only afflicts the weak-willed and morally degenerate. Negative stereotypes of alcoholics and drug addicts may contribute to these assumptions. Even many of those who do suffer from addiction deny their problems and continue to view drug dependency as something that only affects “other” people. Addiction is a physiological condition, however, and because humans all share the same basic brain chemistry, anyone can become an addict.

While mental or emotional conditions may lead to an addict’s first use of a substance, a full-blown addiction is a clinical, neurological disease. Just like other clinical diseases such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, addiction can afflict anybody. The physiological processes that take a person from casual use to tolerance, to dependence are the same for everyone. Here are the steps a person’s brain takes in developing an addiction:
Dopamine Release
Most drugs cause the human brain to release dopamine, a neurotransmitter which creates a euphoric sensation, relieves pain, and provides a sense of well-being. Dopamine is part of the same feedback mechanism which compels humans to seek food, sex, and most other pleasurable things. When a person has an experience that leads to a dopamine release, the brain creates physical, neurological pathways which compel similar behavior in the future. Unfortunately, this happens even when that experience is as harmful as drug use.

Tolerance
Users may be compelled by their neurological pathways to continue taking a drug, but they will eventually develop a tolerance to it. In its attempts to mitigate the effects of a foreign substance, a frequent user’s body will down-regulate its dopamine production in response to a given drug. Therefore, that user must take higher and higher amounts to feel the same euphoric effect. A chemically altered brain still seeks that powerful euphoria, however, so a cycle of ever-higher dosage sets in.

Dependence
Though the human body at first “fights” a drug by developing a tolerance, brain chemistry will eventually change. If the use of a drug is repeated frequently enough, the central nervous system begins to accept it. Dopamine production is again down-regulated, and the brain now relies on the drug to stimulate certain receptors necessary for normal bodily functioning. In fact, the brain of a drug user at this stage actually starts to perform “normally” while under the influence of the foreign substance. Removing the drug from the body shocks the brain and leads to strong compulsions for the drug.

Addiction
What many people call a full-blow addiction is simply a severe case of dependence, characterized by certain behaviors. Addicts constantly crave drugs to the point that they lose control of when and where they get high, and they will ignore the physical, social, and emotional consequences of their abuse.

Relapse
Since addiction is a permanent neurological condition, relapse is common and even expected among recovering drug abusers. Many addicts struggle through seemingly endless cycles of drug use, intensive treatments, and relapse. People who have never experienced an addiction may view relapse as a sign of weak will, but it far more akin to the often unpreventable relapses experienced by cancer patients.
Everyone from every walk of life is susceptible to drug and alcohol addiction. If you or someone you love is struggling with substance abuse, make the decision to confront the problem and seek help. Click the links below for a toll-free, confidential consultation with one of our trained specialists. We are standing by around the clock to help you.