Infrared Light Therapy Runs Ahead of Science
At 90 days after treatment, functional measures were significantly better in the NILT group, with 59% having outcomes rated as "successful" (modified Rankin score of 0-2) compared with 44% of the control group (P=0.021). That led to a 660-patient … Read more on MedPage Today

Electrician gets star-shaped eyes after 14000 volt shock
Dr Bobby Korn, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, told Live Science: "In this case, the extreme current and voltage that passed through this important natural wire caused damage to the optic nerve itself." And medical experts have … Read more on Daily Star

APNewsbreak: Rodman checks into rehab center
13, 2014. Rodman has checked into an undisclosed alcohol rehabilitation center to treat his long-time struggle with alcoholism, his agent says. … The native of Trenton, N.J., also played for Chicago, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas. He … Read more on U-T San Diego

How some young stars have fared after arrests
… she remains on probation for a necklace theft case and lying to police about her role in a crash in Santa Monica, Calif. After several stints in jail and rehab, a judge ordered the "Mean Girls" star to remain in treatment until her probation ends … Read more on U-T San Diego

Drug charges dropped for Calif. treasurer's wife
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Dennis Rodman checks into rehab center
6, 2014. Dennis Rodman has checked into an undisclosed alcohol rehabilitation center to treat his long-time struggle with alcoholism, his agent says. … The native of Trenton, N.J., also played for Chicago, San Antonio, the Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas. Read more on KFMB News 8

40 years later, bonds, pain persist at Saint Elizabeth burn unit
Under the August lights in Wisner, more than 5,000 people watched Matt Kreikemeier and his truck's 2,500-horsepower alcohol-fueled engine catch fire during the Thunder by the River truck pull. The truck's hitch tore off the … Before December 1973 … Read more on Lincoln Journal Star

Lasting Recovery Outpatient Treatment Center's Medical Director Dr. Kai …
Lasting Recovery – http://www.lastingrecovery.com — San Diego's premier outpatient alcohol and drug addiction treatment center — today announced that Medical Director Dr. Kai MacDonald has made the list of San Diego Magazine's 749 top physicians … Read more on PR Web (press release)

5th District Court News: Twin Falls County
Shannon Elizabeth Rios, 30, Twin Falls; DUI, $ 300 fine, $ 150 suspended, $ 152.50 costs, 30 days jail, 30 days suspended, 12 months supervised probation, attend court alcohol school. … Eric Vernon Gatliff, 35, Twin Falls; DUI (excessive), amended to … Read more on Twin Falls Times-News

What's new
Serenity Springs Recovery Center has opened Solution of Serenity, an outpatient drug and alcohol counseling service. Owned by Jimmy Marshall III, the center offers comprehensive outpatient treatment for adults with drug and alcohol addiction and/or … Read more on Daytona Beach News-Journal

Chris Brown ordered to 90 days of rehab, random drug testing after getting …
Judge James Brandlin ordered Brown to complete another 90 days of residential rehab and submit to periodic drug testing. RELATED: CHRIS BROWN OUT OF REHAB, CONTINUING ANGER TREATMENT. The judge said Brown must stay in Los Angeles … Read more on New York Daily News

NJ freezes placements at treatment center tied to private special-needs school
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San Diego Adolescent Eating Disorder Treatment Center Holds Open House
The program provides treatment for male and female adolescents, ages 10 to 19, who are struggling with eating disorders including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. Center for Discovery San Diego is located in a residential home which … Read more on PR Web (press release)

Question by eros_gary: What is addiction? and where can you get help in California?

Best answer:

Answer by mgaribay74
Summary
People who are addicted cannot control their need for alcohol or other drugs, even in the face of negative health, social or legal consequences.
The illness becomes harder to treat and the related health problems, such as organ disease, become worse.
Addiction is a chronic, but treatable, brain disorder. People who are addicted cannot control their need for alcohol or other drugs, even in the face of negative health, social or legal consequences. This lack of control is the result of alcohol- or drug-induced changes in the brain. Those changes, in turn, cause behavior changes.

The brains of addicted people “have been modified by the drug in such a way that absence of the drug makes a signal to their brain that is equivalent to the signal of when you are starving,” says National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Dr. Nora Volkow. It is “as if the individual was in a state of deprivation, where taking the drug is indispensable for survival. It’s as powerful as that.”

Addiction grows more serious over time. Substance use disorders travel along a continuum. This progression can be measured by the amount, frequency and context of a person’s substance use. As their illness deepens, addicted people need more alcohol or other drugs; they may use more often, and use in situations they never imagined when they first began to drink or take drugs. The illness becomes harder to treat and the related health problems, such as organ disease, become worse.

“This is not something that develops overnight for any individual,” says addiction expert Dr. Kathleen Brady. “Generally there’s a series of steps that individuals go through from experimentation and occasional use [to] the actual loss of control of use. And it really is that process that defines addiction.”

Symptoms of addiction include tolerance (development of resistance to the effects of alcohol or other drugs over time) and withdrawal, a painful or unpleasant physical response when the substance is withheld. Many people with this illness deny that they are addicted. They often emphasize that they enjoy drinking or taking other drugs.

People recovering from addiction can experience a lack of control and return to their substance use at some point in their recovery process. This faltering, common among people with most chronic disorders, is called relapse. To ordinary people, relapse is one of the most perplexing aspects of addiction. Millions of Americans who want to stop using addictive substances suffer tremendously, and relapses can be quite discouraging.

“It is devastating to me when I don’t get [recovery] right,” laments Brian, a Portland, Oregon, coffee shop owner who struggles with his cocaine addiction. “Man, I can’t even describe it. It’s just horrible. The guilt. The depression that comes with it because I screwed up again. It’s an indescribable feeling that’s just – man, it’s low, low, low.”

To appreciate the grips of addiction, imagine a person that “wants to stop doing something and they cannot, despite catastrophic consequences,” says Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We’re not speaking of little consequences. These are catastrophic. And yet they cannot control their behavior.”

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Rehab clinics cut off for questionable billing still reaped federal funds
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Free Drug Screening Offered For San Diego County Teens
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