Until recently, nobody would accept that people showing signs of substance addiction (whether it was alcohol or drugs involved) had a real problem at their hands. It was generally the same situation with the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which was only accepted as a mental condition in 1978, after years of research on the matter. At America’s Rehab Campuses, we know that, just like PTSD, drug addiction manifests itself in various degrees, with the worse stage necessitating urgent specialized assistance.
The programs of drug rehab in Orange County have been developed to deal with substance addiction in all of its forms, regardless of the manifestations or the advancement of the disease. And this is the challenging part – identifying the disorder before it ends up inflicting lethal side-effects. Drug addiction is a slippery slope, a tragedy waiting to happen, either due to accidental overdoses or as a repercussion of the patient’s erratic behavior and inconsistent thinking.
What makes it so difficult to fight with the condition, however, is the fact that those ending up at rehab are always in advanced stages, for the most part. Patients will almost never enter a rehabilitation program on their own, and the loved ones will fail to bring them in time, mainly because they can’t recognize the stages constituting the disease’s progress.
How to recognize the signs of drug addiction
Probably the most dangerous aspect of substance addiction is that it is taken so lightly by the people uninformed about its nature and its consequences. The good part is that the signs are there and can be easily identified when you know what you’re looking for. Before ending up in a program of drug rehab in Orange County, patients go through several phases:
Phase 1: Casual consumption
Ideally, it is before this phase that everything should stop. That’s because there is no such thing as casual drug consumption, especially not when we are talking about heavy opioids like cocaine and methamphetamine. This stage can be easily deciphered by noticing the patient’s spending behaviors, as well as analyzing his entourages.
Phase 2: Getting better at it
Whether we talk about peer pressure, the wrong entourage, or self-treatments, the bottom line is people repeat the experience shortly after trying it once, setting the stage for worse things to come. And those who escape phase 1 without dying or becoming addicted to the substance, will fit in one category or the other shortly. This is where the addict will begin to show poor results in education or their job, as well as to grow more irritable and apathetic at the same time.
Phase 3: Dependence and addiction
Although dependence and addiction are separate stages, the demarking line is fragile. Addiction will manifest itself through a wide range of symptoms, including aggressive, incoherent thinking, the intense drug craving, severe financial problems and complete disregard concerning social and familial duties.
At America’s Rehab Campuses, we stress the importance of bringing the patient to drug rehab in Orange County. It is the addict’s only chance of finding redemption from a disease that has the potential of destroying his life for good.
