There’s nothing quite like painful and eerie-looking meth sores. When you’ve seen the ugly sores that are a direct result of meth abuse – it’s enough to make you want to steer clear of the stuff. Getting “high” isn’t worth having open sores or rotten teeth and gums. However, it’s not just meth that can create terrible looking sores on your body or in your mouth. Using all kinds of illegal drugs, even just once, can get ugly. Here is a list of illegal drugs and the painful consequences that can be the result of abusing them.

Heroin

Did you know that on its own, the city of San Francisco spends about $40 million each year on treatment for heroin sores? It’s a huge problem in the city and for its communities. Heroin sores are a bit different from meth sores, because the abscesses in the skin are caused by injecting the heroine into muscle tissue instead of the vein. These sores are very serious and bacterial infections can complicate the experience. Hospitalization is often required; many times surgery is necessary and may include amputations. The scarring that often results from these sores is traumatic and life-changing, because it looks so severe.

Inhalants

Huffing or sniffing household chemicals and drugs is yet another way to get gross sores. These sores often form around the mouth area and may have an odor, like bad breath, associated with them. Glue, hair spray, nail polish remover, aerosol deodorants, dry-erase markers, spray paint and other such products are commonly inhaled. Not only can this type of drug abuse cause sores, but it often leads to brain damage and nosebleeds.

Chewing Tobacco

While smokeless tobacco is used less by teens and young adults, it is still being used quite often by older adults. If found these mouth sores can be an indicator of oral cancer. At the first sign of a mouth sore, professional help from a doctor should be sought out. Surgery or other treatment may be needed. Some marijuana users may also complain about cold sores, but there are few studies showing any definitive link between the two.

Drug addiction doesn’t just hurt a person’s body, it ruins their life. Going through rehab and getting treatment won’t just heal the bodily scars; it saves lives by showing people how to make it worth living again.

People across the nation are dying every single day from prescription drug abuse overdoses and illegal substance abuse. It’s a scary situation when addiction hits people in every community. To help our nation get some answers, today is Drug Facts Chat Day. Head on over to the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s site to chat about drug abuse and its impact on your life and community. The chat lasts all day from 8 am to 6pm EST.

Also in the spirit of Drug Facts Chat Day, a recent Washington Post story featured one family’s struggle as they lost their daughter, Nicole, to a heroin addiction. Nicole’s mother and an addiction specialist were on hand for a live discussion on dealing with addiction. They answered questions on a wide range of topics – everything from how to treat someone in recovery and what to do to get help for someone you love who is addicted.

Becoming a resident at a long-term drug and alcohol treatment center is a life-changing process; but, at the same time, you don’t have to let drug rehab change your personality. Addiction treatment centers are realizing the importance of providing vegetarian and vegan food options. Showing their support, PETA has even ranked the top vegetarian-friendly drug rehab facilities in the USA. It’s just one more way treatment can be personalized to encourage successful addiction recovery.

Developing healthy habits, including eating habits and exercise habits, is an important part of the addiction recovery process. That’s not to say you have to become an athlete or a vegetarian to have a successful rehab experience. What’s important is learning how to make positive life choices. Choosing what to eat and drink, what activities to participate in, who to have fun with – all of these choices will have either a positive or a negative effect on your life. People suffering from alcoholism or drug addiction have to learn how to choose the positives and leave the negatives behind. It’s not easy to do, and it takes patience, dedication and time to see that change become a real part of their new life.

The nation’s best drug rehabilitation centers have programs in place that not only have high success rates, but more than that they empower people to make lifelong positive changes to regain control of their lives.

How does a drug rehab facility do that? How does a treatment program successfully show people how to change and inspire them to actually do it? There is no simple answer to those questions, but the top programs do have some noteworthy similarities.

1) Individual Attention – To really break an addiction, changes have to be made on a personal level. If the program isn’t personal, it doesn’t make sense to expect individual results.

2) Social Strength – For many people, social interaction is how they got involved with substance abuse. Making friends and building relationships with people who aren’t interested in binge drinking or getting high is essential to establishing a clean, sober life.

3) Clinical and Therapeutic Services – Addiction recovery requires some degree of medical attention and therapy at the different stages of the rehab process to ensure the best treatment options are being employed.

4) Residential Opportunities – A residential option gives those in recovery, especially for long term drug rehab, a chance to completely focus on their treatment without the temptations of old habits and behaviors.

5) Goal-Oriented, Life Skill Development – It’s always easier to accomplish a task when there’s a goal in mind. Building the life skills that are important in every facet of a person’s life is essential to not only breaking the alcohol and drug addiction, but also to ensuring the person is capable of meeting future challenges in their life. By cultivating personal goals and individual life skills, recovery should be life-long.

An editorial in the New York Times revealed troubling news on drug abuse treatment in America. The editorial cited data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that stated 2,355 young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 died in 2005 from poisoning and drug overdoses. That is more than double the number of similar deaths reported in 1999. They also found research by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration that said less than 10 percent of teens suffering from drug addiction receive the treatment they need. The editor reveals federal funding for state drug treatment facilities and programs are not required to spend any given amount of the money on teens or young adults.

Adding insult to injury, some states are even cutting funding for drug related prevention and treatment programs. In a letter to the editor, Victor A. Capoccia responds and expresses some concern about the reduced funding for substance abuse treatment programs: “. . . cuts like these mean that thousands more adolescents will have no place to go for treatment.” If more young adults are dying from addiction and less funding is available to treat them, how can we hope to resolve such a serious problem?

Gatehouse Academy is an extended care treatment center for young men and women in need of long term drug rehab or alcohol rehab. We offer the opportunity for young adults from the ages of 17-25 to learn life skills, continue formalized education, enhance physical well-being, and recover from the detrimental effects of chemical dependency.

If you have any questions please contact us.