Caring for a child with special needs is never easy. Caring for the needs of a child with autism can be especially tough for parents and other constant caregivers. In fact, the intense stress of caring for an autistic child can lead parents to substance abuse—and the need for addiction treatment.
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We often hear advice for parents who want to get a child into alcohol or drug rehab, but what happens when the situation is reversed and it’s the parent who needs treatment? It’s not as uncommon as you might think. Many adult children find themselves dealing with a parent who abuses substances or has a serious addiction. In one study, more than 4 million adults over the age of 50 had used illicit drugs in the previous year.
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Addiction is a terrible disease. It is one that is both mental and physiological. Like other diseases, it has its roots in genetics and environmental factors. Many people are susceptible to becoming addicted to drugs, nicotine, or alcohol because of a combination of these factors along with their own unique circumstances. When a person becomes addicted to a substance, the brain literally changes its chemistry, making it extremely difficult to give it up.
Like essentially all substances of abuse, cocaine alters normal function in the brain’s pleasure/reward circuitry, commonly known as the limbic system. According to findings reported in 2011 by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, people who habitually use cocaine distort the function of more than 1,000 limbic system proteins. Alteration of at least some of these proteins apparently accounts for much of the transition from voluntary to involuntary drug use that marks the onset of cocaine addiction.
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About 10 years ago, pain specialists were engaged in a controversy about the use of narcotic painkillers such as levorphanol that are typically prescribed only to the terminally ill. These drugs in the morphine family are similar chemically to heroin and just as addictive, but the new thinking was why should people with arthritis, back pain and other chronic pain have to limit their lives when these remedies are available? As Seattle pain specialist Dr. Jane Ballantyne told the New York Times: “We were on a mission to help people in pain.”
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Scientists and mainstream society often have differing points of view on key medical issues, including the nature of substance abuse and addiction. In some corners of society, abuse and addiction are viewed as moral, intellectual, or emotional failings on the part of the affected individual. However, over roughly the past 20 years, doctors and researchers have developed another view of abuse and addiction that centers on long-term, substance-driven changes in normal brain chemistry and brain function. Evidence for this point of view is so strong that scientists in the field commonly refer to addiction as a chronic brain disease.
Crystal methamphetamine is a synthetic drug most commonly created in illegal labs, which often concealed in normal houses within nondescript neighborhoods. It’s a blend of various amphetamines-a nervous system stimulant-and myriad other chemicals, mostly poisons, to boost potency. These additives can be anything from rat poison to drain cleaner, to antifreeze and worse. Each batch can vary in strength and ingredients, from a proprietary blend to a haphazard concoction of battery acid and phosphorous, usually mixed by people high on meth themselves. It doesn’t take a genius to understand the dangers inherent in both using the drug and making it. More than one innocent life has ended in a fireball explosion when a meth lab, masquerading as a neighboring home, turned into a blazing inferno. Crystal meth is as life threatening to create as it is to abuse.
Marijuana is the most common term for a drug made from the leaves and flowers of three related plant species, called Cannabis sativa, C. indica and C. ruderalis. These plants contain the mind-altering substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), as well as several other active ingredients known collectively as cannabinoids. In their various forms, cannabis products rank as the third most popular recreational substance used in America, lagging only behind alcohol and tobacco. For a variety of social and cultural reasons, many drug users and potential drug users consider marijuana essentially harmless. However, use of the drug can produce a number of minor or major negative health effects, including the onset of long-term drug dependence and addiction.
A new definition for addiction has initiated a lively discussion among experts as to where emphasis ought to be placed when describing the condition. The American Medical Association categorized alcoholism as a disease over 50 years ago, but until recently, addictions have been defined largely in behavioral terms.
Following four years of consideration by 80 experts, our American Society of Addictive Medicine (ASAM) now defines addiction as “…a primary, chronic disease of motivation, brain reward, memory and related circuitry … with characteristic bio-psycho-socio-spiritual manifestations.”
The son of “Diff’rent Strokes” actress Dana Plato has committed suicide at age 25, almost 11 years to the day after his mother took her own life in May 1999. Tyler Lambert is said to have suffered from drug addiction and depression, and the anniversary of his mother’s dead was always the hardest time for him. Four years ago, Lambert filed a wrongful death lawsuit against his mother’s former fiancé, claiming that he didn’t act quickly enough to prevent her death.
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