Cocaine, often called "coke", "snow", "flake," or "blow," is a powerful stimulant directly affecting the human brain. It can be addictive for individuals predisposed to addiction through a combination of genetic and environmental factors. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, cocaine abuse is still a prevalent issue in today's society: "In 2007, according to the NSDUH, nearly 1.6 million Americans met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders criteria for dependence or abuse of cocaine, in any form, in the past 12 months. Further, data from the 2005 Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) report showed that cocaine was involved in 448,481 of the total 1,449,154 visits to emergency departments for drug misuse or abuse."
The disease of addiction is not a direct result of bad parenting or poor choices. It's not a matter of will power or moral standing. Addiction of any kind is a serious disease. It is recognized as a disease that affects all aspects of its victims; an obsession of the mind, a spiritual sickness, and a physical allergy. For those who are addicted to cocaine, they may feel that they are beyond help. However, there are treatment options that exist, most notably in the form of drug treatment facilities. Inpatient drug treatment programs address the physical, spiritual and emotional toll cocaine addiction takes on a person. Staff members of such facilities are educated on cocaine addiction and its ramifications. Trained clinicians are on staff 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to serve and assist clients. Most clinicians and staff members are in recovery themselves with several years of sobriety under their belts. They understand better than anyone how the addictive brain operates and they have experience dealing with addictive personalities. Thus, someone who enters the treatment facility with an addiction to crack cocaine will be welcomed warmly and feel "understood".
Treatment centers are important tools that families of cocaine addicts should utilize in order to ensure the addict is medically detoxed from cocaine in a safe environment. Medical detoxification from cocaine involves the implementation of counter-indicative drugs to wean the cocaine addict off of cocaine until there is no longer a need to ingest any chemicals. Other than medical uses, there is no safe way to use cocaine. Regardless of the administration route, absorbing large amounts of cocaine can lead to possible acute cardiovascular or cerebrovascular emergencies, and seizures-all of which can result in sudden death, the National Institute on Drug Abuse warns us. This makes it even more crucial to send a cocaine addict to a renowned drug treatment facility where he/she can rest, rejuvenate, and recover in a safe environment.
Cocaine abuse takes a toll on the human psyche as well -- treatment facilities offer patients the opportunity to attend group sessions where they share their stories of courage and despair with other addicts. The ability to exchange information with people who have gone through the same thing empowers the addict. Cocaine abuse and crack addiction are impossible to tackle alone. With the help and support of others, the addict has a 90% better chance of successful recovery.
Research has shown involved parenting and reduced drug and alcohol abuse in teens are correlated. Studies have continued to reveal that parents influence how their teenagers conceive drugs and alcohol. Essentially, "parents affect their children's behaviors by influencing two key thought processes: their images of the typical 'smoker' or 'drinker' which the adolescent associates with the behavior, and their willingness to smoke, drink, or use other drugs if they find themselves in circumstances in which such substances are available," says a recent article in Medicine Net online. Essentially, parents have the ability to mold the way their teens view drugs and alcohol. They can help shape their teen's perspective of cocaine as unappealing, unwarranted, and un-cool. Although nobody can predict the onset of addiction, as the variables behind the disease are too complex, certain steps can be taken to reduce the likelihood of a teen becoming addicted to cocaine.
Sometimes adolescents are offered drugs by friends and assume they are safe to take simply because other people are taking them. In terms of long- and short-term consequences of cocaine abuse, uninformed adolescents may not grasp the magnitude of dangerous side effects and outcomes cocaine abuse can create. Absorbing as much knowledge surrounding cocaine addiction is another key benefit of attending an inpatient drug treatment facility.
