Topic: signs and symptoms

People have abused opiates for 5,000 years. As much as medicine depends on them, they’ve always created problems for a percentage of users.

The way the “interven-ee” feels about the intervention changes a lot, from the beginning of the intervention, by the end of the intervention, during treatment and after, and years into recovery.

As a judge once put it: it was clear to him that psychiatrists got together and defined various disorders, and a few years afterwards, they got together and redefined them.

Another common criticism is that the diagnostic system dehumanizes clinical care, leading us to think about disorders rather than people.

If something contradicts his/her experience, they’ll believe the experience. However, if we’re able to provide information in such a way that it better explains that experience, we gain credibility that extends to other positions we may take.

We’re brought up to view a pattern of problems with alcohol or drugs as the result of a variety of other factors— psychological issues, or lack of willpower, or moral weakness, or some terrible past experience. That makes it difficult for most of us to switch over to the view of addiction as a chronic illness.

If we could reach them now, the process might well be interrupted. Preventing a host of more serious problems — some of them fatal to other people, or the user himself.

One large survey of alcoholics found that some 14% had actually become dependent within a year of the first drink. The percentage almost doubled when the time period was extended to two years.

That doesn’t mean you need a program that treats senior exclusively. It does suggest that you should concentrate your efforts on programs with access to physician care beyond simple detox.