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Pillars of Wisdom
“Worldwide, the UN estimates that as of 2005, there are more than 50 regular
users of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs.”
“World | Drugs Trade”. BBC News. Retrieved 2012-07-20
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”
Kate Moss, Model
“Drugs don't really fix anything, except for everything.”
Ashly Lorenzana
“Smoking is suicide by instalments.”
H.M. Forester, Game of Aeons: A short novel
“Tobacco use is the second cause of death worldwide.
Tobacco addiction has huge human, social and economic costs.
It is the poor who smoke the most, compounding the negative impacts of tobacco
use. Limited family resources are spent on tobacco instead of essential needs
such as food, schooling and nutrition.”
General Assembly of the United Nations
Remarks at the lunch marking World Tobacco Day
31.5.2011, New York
“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly
indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation
and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from
a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”
Edgar Allan Poe
“You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in
the other direction.
Junk wins by default.
I tried it as a matter of curiosity. I drifted along taking shots when I could score. I
ended up hooked.
Most addicts I have talked to report a similar experience.”
William Burroughs
“An intelligent person can rationalize anything, a wise person doesn't try.”
Jen Knox
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/addiction
“While most illness and death from tobacco today occurs in the developed world,
within a few years, tobacco’s toll will be far greater in the developing world.
“Tobacco products are a drag on national economies all over the world. Their
presence creates more harm to economies in terms of adverse impacts on health of
the nation’s citizens and on costs of illness than they contribute towards growth and
development.”
American Society of Addiction Medicine Statement for WHO on The Framework Convention
on Tobacco Control. 25 August, 2000.
“Of the treatment options examined,
opioid agonist maintenance treatment, combined with psychosocial assistance, was
found to be the most effective.”
Guidelines for the Psychosocially Assisted Pharmacological Treatment of Opioid Dependence.
World Health Organization 2009
“The total costs of drug abuse and addiction due to use of tobacco, alcohol and illegal
drugs are estimated at $524 billion a year.
Illicit drug use alone accounts for $181 billion in health care, productivity loss, crime,
incarceration and drug enforcement.”
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/addiction-science-molecules-to-managedcare/introduction/drug-abuse-costs-united-states-economy-hundreds-billions-dollars-inincreased-health.
“Since 2008, the EMCDDA has collected data annually on the total number of clients
who have received drug treatment in Europe.
In the most recent data collection, 14 countries provided reliable minimum estimates of
the total number of people in contact with treatment services in 2010, which resulted in
a total estimate of 900 000 clients.
For the remaining 16 countries, a data subset was used of either the number of
treatment demands or clients in opioid substitution treatment in that year, whichever
total was highest. Thus, data on those receiving opioid substitution treatment were
used for seven countries (171 000 clients) and data from the treatment demand
indicator were used for nine countries (48 000 clients).
Taken together, these data indicate that at least 1.1 million individuals were in contact
with treatment services in Europe in 2010.”
http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_190854_EN_TDAC12001ENC_.pdf
“Withdrawing physically from alcohol and drugs is, in most cases (but not all), a fairly
easily medically managed procedure.
The much more difficult bit is withdrawing psychologically and socially. You have to
untangle your mind – your entire thinking and emotional life – from its minute-byminute preoccupation with consumption of that drug of choice, which is where
addiction leads.
You have to find something else to do with your time and the space occupied by the
relentless obsession with using or drinking. It is in that vacated space and time that
you fall prey to re-emerging emotions. Then there are the social networks that were
bound up with the addiction. These have to go. A lifestyle that was defined by and
sustained addiction has to be abandoned in favour of attachment to new social
networks; those that support recovery.
The process of withdrawal and adjustment to a life that is not governed by the
destructive control of addiction starts as soon as the person reaches out for help.
Those of us who offer addiction treatment need to understand all the dimensions of
withdrawal and be prepared to provide integrated programmes that provide for these
simultaneously.”
Nick Barton, Chief Executive, Action on Addiction
http://www.actiononaddiction.org.uk/Blogs/AOA-Blogs/February-2013/Supporting-Recoveryfrom-Addiction.aspx
To get away from addictive behaviour it is necessary to understand two things:
1. The way these reward mechanisms work, and
2. The way life should be constructed in order to receive the natural rewards that make
addictive activities less attractive.
http://www.hgi.org.uk/archive/addiction.htm
“Between 2011 and 2012, an estimated 8.9% of adults in the UK used an illegal drug.
For young people aged between 16 and 24, the figure was 19.3%.
Although this is the lowest level of drug use since we started collecting figures in
1996, drug misuse continues to have a negative effect on the health, wellbeing and
quality of life of too many people. It also drains public resources. For example, crimes
related to drugs cost the UK £13.3 billion every year.
Prison isn’t always the best place for offenders who misuse drugs. Our Drugs
Intervention Programme refers offenders to treatment services as early as possible in
their contact with the criminal justice system.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/reducing-drugs-misuse-and-dependence
“Krivanck (1988) believes addiction is best seen as a process rather than a behaviour
or entity and also best explained on a spectrum of severity.
However, loss of control is subjective and raises ethical issues since it suggests a
certain level of culpability and blame.”
http://psychology4a.com/addictive%201.htm
Educational psychologist Anne Staunton warned that research had to begin "sooner
rather than later", saying she had noticed evidence among schoolchildren that gaming
and playing on devices "can become an addiction".
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/technology-gadgets/warning-over-child-addiction-tosmartphones-and-gaming-devices-29214026.html
• The belief that you can change is the key to change. This is not the powerlessness
message of the 12 steps but rather the message of self-efficacy. Addictions are
really no different from other behaviors - believing you can change encourages
commitment to the process and enhances the likelihood of success.
• The type of treatment is less critical than the individual's commitment to change.
People can select how they want to pursue change in line with their own values
and preferences. They don't need to be told how to change.
• Brief treatments can change longstanding habits. It is not the duration of the
treatment that allows people to change but rather its ability to inspire continued
efforts in that direction.
Life skills can be the key to licking addiction. All addictions may not be equal; the
community-reinforcement approach, with its emphasis on developing life skills, might
be needed for those more severely debilitated by drugs and alcohol.
Repeated efforts are critical to changing. People do not often get better instantly - it
usually takes multiple efforts. Providing follow-up care allows people to maintain
focus on their change goals. Eventually, they stand a good chance of achieving them.
Improvement, without abstinence, counts. People do not usually succeed all at once.
But they can show significant improvements; and all improvement should be
accepted and rewarded. It is counterproductive to kick people out of therapy for
failing to abstain. The therapeutic approach of recognizing improvement in the
absence of abstinence is called harm reduction.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200407/six-principles-change
Educational psychologist Anne Staunton warned that research had to begin "sooner
rather than later", saying she had noticed evidence among schoolchildren that gaming
and playing on devices "can become an addiction".
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/technology-gadgets/warning-over-child-addiction-tosmartphones-and-gaming-devices-29214026.html
For most porn and cybersex users, the Internet simply provides a fascinating new venue
for learning about and experiencing sex.
Some users, however, perhaps 8-10 percent, become hooked on the neuro-chemical
arousal produced by repetitive involvement with cybersex and experience significant
life problems as they compulsively engage in online sexual activity.
These people can be considered cybersex addicts. For those who become hooked on
the intensity of the cybersex experience, the consequences can be serious; some
resulting from the many hours the user spends on the Internet and specifically the
sexual content of the user’s activities.
http://www.robertweissmsw.com/cybersex-vs-intimacy-when-is-it-a-problem/
But according to the latest data from the CDC, inappropriate use of prescription opioid
drugs in the U.S. in 2010 led to an estimated 16,650 deaths, a 313 percent increase over
the past decade.
And for each death, there are an additional ten treatment admissions, 32 emergency
department visits, and 825 nonmedical users of these drugs. While much of the problem
is attributable to illicit use which can include sharing medication with family and friends
or theft of the drug from home medicine cabinets, legitimate use of medications for pain
may also lead to unnecessary adverse events, addiction, and death for some patients.
Indeed, look beyond these grim statistics and you will find individuals and their families
whose lives have been shattered by prescription opioid abuse misuse and addiction. I
suspect that all of us have a relative, a friend, a colleague who has been directly — and
tragically — affected by this problem. None of us, on a personal level, is immune...no
matter who you are, where you live, how well-educated you are, or how much money
you make. All of us need to care...and all of us need to act...and act now.
2013 National Rx Drug Abuse Summit. Remarks by Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D.
Commissioner of Food and Drugs. 2013 National Rx Drug Abuse Summit
Champions Gate, Florida. April 2, 2013
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Speeches/ucm346315.htm