Answer Addiction

Tag: recovering from addiction

  • Health Damage From Addiction An Issue For Many In Sobriety

    Health Damage From Addiction An Issue For Many In Sobriety

    A recent study examined the medical burdens that people in recovery face from alcohol or drug abuse.

    For many recovering from addiction, the damage done to their health remains an issue well into sobriety. Massachusetts General Hospital’s Recovery Research Institute in Boston carried out a study that examined the medical burden of people in recovery from alcohol or drug abuse.

    Published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the paper included over 2,000 subjects in active recovery from the 2017 National Recovery Survey.

    Around 37% of this sample had received a diagnosis of one or more of these medical issues: liver disease, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, tuberculosis, and diabetes, cancer and hepatitis C.

    David Eddie, PhD, is a research scientist and the lead author of the published study. He told Medical News Today, “The prodigious psychological, social, and interpersonal impact of excessive and chronic alcohol and other drug use is well-characterized. Less well-appreciated is the physical disease burden, especially among those who have successfully resolved a significant substance use problem.”

    The conclusion of the study was that COPD, heart disease and diabetes all were more prevalent in the recovery sample group than in the general population.

    The type of substance most associated with the respondent correlated with the burden of the disease.

    Some examples listed in Medical News Today include: hepatitis C correlated to the opioid and stimulant groups (versus the alcohol group); HIV and sexually transmitted infections correlated to the stimulant group than the alcohol group; heart disease appeared the least in the opioid group; diabetes was least seen in the marijuana group, and there was no notable difference found in the prevalence of tuberculosis and COPD.

    Chronic inflammation may be an underlying association between drug or alcohol abuse and physical disease. Alcohol is known to be problematic; the World Journal of Gastroenterology states that chronic usage of alcohol can lead to systemic inflammation.

    Certain findings were expected, while others were surprising. Further research is needed to pinpoint the variations between expected cause and effect.

    Eddie noted an example to Medical News Today, “Those citing cannabis as their primary substance did not have lower rates of alcohol-related liver disease than participants who primarily used alcohol. It may be that these individuals had prior histories of heavy alcohol involvement.”

    In this study, the participants had a 4% to 7% higher risk of having two or more chronic illnesses, with factors such as additional substance use 10 or more times, being older when developing a disease, and the time in life when recovery began.

    Not surprisingly, factors like younger age, social stability and economic resources greatly reduced the risk of ongoing disease.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • "Times" Readers Share Stories Of Addiction & Recovery

    "Times" Readers Share Stories Of Addiction & Recovery

    New York Times readers shared their personal experiences with opioid addiction and recovery.

    The opioid epidemic can be covered with statistics and numbers: the 72,000 Americans who died of drug overdoses in 2017 or the five-fold increase in babies born dependent on drugs.

    However, that only captures some of the picture. To really grasp the effects of the opioid epidemic, The New York Times asked readers at the end of last year to share their experiences with addiction and recovery. 

    Charlotte, North Carolina resident Cindy Chandler, 64, reminded readers that the issue of drug addiction has been affecting families since long before it started getting press coverage. Her brother overdosed on heroin in 1997 at age 40. 

    “He took the entire family on psychological roller coaster rides throughout his life. We never knew when the phone rang from then on if it was the end for him,” Chandler wrote. “Turns out it took 28 more years of family torture.”

    Some readers, including Michele Sevik, a 58-year-old from Vermont, described the initial euphoria that kept them coming back to opioids.

    “It was like offering an emotional and social paraplegic a drug that would suddenly allow them to hop out of their wheelchairs and walk and run,” Sevik wrote. “Even knowing about addiction, even knowing about HIV, it was irresistible.”

    Stephen DePasque, a 35-year-old from Pennsylvania, was more productive than he had ever been when he started using opioids, but the new energy was short lived. 

    “Before long, the upkeep of my back-pocket superpower took the top spot on my priority list,” he wrote. 

    St. Louis resident Heather Hudson, 27, found that even facing the heartbreak of addiction head on wasn’t enough to make her stop using. 

    “At age 26, my little brother and I found our big brother dead on the floor from an accidental fentanyl overdose. I actually took the rest of his dope and did it in a McDonald’s bathroom while the coroner was loading him into a van,” she wrote. “As sick and twisted as that is. But that’s addiction. Sick and twisted. It’s like being in an endless tunnel. You can see the light at the end, but you never feel like you’ll reach it.”

    Despite the heavy answers, some readers wrote in to share hope for recovery. 

    “Recovery is not an exact science, or a recipe that can be applied to different people in different ways. But many of us do recover,” wrote Katharine, a 29-year-old from Philadelphia. “I wish I knew the answer to this current crisis. All I can do is keep my hand open and available to the next person who may need help.”

    View the original article at thefix.com