MDMA, Trauma and Addiction Recovery

MDMA Ecstasy

There is a common theme among addicts and alcoholics, most of us have experienced some type of trauma in our lives. That is not to say that trauma caused the addiction, but rather that addressing trauma could help treat the disease. However, there is a wide variety of opinions on how to treat such trauma to ensure the best outcomes.

It is no secret that some people living with addiction have a hard time working a program of recovery. There could be a number of reasons for this, but one of the more common factors involves an untreated co-occurring disorder. Conditions which can include: anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Research supports the belief that people attempting to recover from addiction fare best when co-occurring disorders are treated simultaneously. Addiction treatment centers that focus on the whole patient typically have the best track-records. But, there are cases when clients do not respond well to practices that work well for others. In turn, researchers are constantly on the lookout for novel approaches.

Alcohol and MDMA

Around the world, people abuse alcohol more than any other mind-altering substance. It makes sense. Think about it, alcohol is legal for adult consumption in the western world. The substance is pervasive and can be found with little effort and be purchased on the cheap. More people die from alcohol-related illnesses than any other drug. The longer one imbibes in unhealthy ways, the greater the risk of health complications. Increasing the effectiveness of accepted treatment methods can go a long way. And addressing trauma may be the answer.

A new clinical study is about to kick off in the United Kingdom involving heavy alcohol users and 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, The Guardian reports. The latter of which you may know as MDMA, the main ingredient in the club drug ecstasy. All the study participants have not responded well to the more common form of addiction treatment, being chronic relapsers. The patients will be given nearly pure MDMA in conjunction with psychotherapy.

“We know that MDMA works really well in helping people who have suffered trauma and it helps to build empathy, said Ben Sessa, a clinical psychiatrist on the trial and senior research fellow at Imperial College London. “Many of my patients who are alcoholics have suffered some sort of trauma in their past and this plays a role in their addiction.” Sessa adds: “After 100 years of modern psychiatry our treatments are really poor. The chances of relapse for these patients are really high—90% at three years. No one has ever given MDMA to treat alcoholism before.”

Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment

We will continue to follow this important story and the outcomes of the clinical study. There is much that is not understood about drugs with hallucinogenic properties. It’s possible that this study will shed some light on the subject.

At this juncture, however, the best opportunity of achieving long-term addiction recovery is go to a treatment facility that focuses on dual-diagnosis. Treating co-occurring disorders is possible. At 10 Acre Ranch, we are fully equipped to address your addiction and other mental health disorders. Please contact us today.

Depression Advocate Michael Phelps

young man with depression sitting near a river during sunset silhouette

At the end of last month and at the beginning of June, we focused heavily on post-traumatic stress disorder. Which makes sense. Considering the passing of Memorial Day and that many people suffering from the symptoms of PTSD also have a co-occurring mental health disorder, such as addiction. What’s more, June is National PTSD Awareness Month, a time for everyone to have an active role in encouraging people to talk about and seek help for the debilitating mental illness; which, left untreated, is a sure path to both substance use and suicide.

PTSD, without a doubt, is a serious problem in America and abroad. But, it cannot be stressed enough how pervasive other forms of mental health disorders that often accompany addiction are, such as depression. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that more than 300 million people worldwide are living with depression. Calling the condition the number one cause of poor health on the planet.

With that in mind, our hope at 10 Acre Ranch is that more Americans will realize the importance of destigmatizing mental health conditions. Only by doing so can we encourage people who need help to get help. It is a fact, the majority of people living with a mental illness of any form have never been diagnosed. Without screening and treatment, people cope with their symptoms by any means necessary, often with drugs and alcohol. When those substances stop having the desired effect (as they always do at some point), suicide often follows.

Screening for Depression

Helping people get screened for mental illness has become the mission of Michael Phelps, who hopes to make waves outside the pool. Phelps was named the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) honorary chairperson of National Mental Health Awareness Day 2017, The Baltimore Sun reports. And now the Olympian, with more gold medals than anyone else in history, is on the board of directors of Medibio, an Australian-based medical technology company that’s developed a comprehensive test to help accurately diagnose depression and other forms of mental illness.

“I have personally experienced Medibio’s technology and believe it can help make a profound impact in diagnosing mental health and empowering people to seek the help and support they may need,” Phelps said in the company’s news release. “In sports, there is so much focus on the physical aspects of performance, and athletes are analyzed from head to toe. But for many athletes, mental health has not been a topic of focus, and the data analysis aspect of it has been missing up until now.”

The Digital Mental Health Platform is the world’s first FDA approved diagnostic test for mental illnesses like depression. The technology is non-intrusive, quick, objective, decisive and will (according to the Medibio) revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of mental health. The company believes that Phelps will be an important asset to the company, and the mental health community.

“His lifelong dedication to excellence in the pool, his advocacy for mental health, and his understanding of data-driven solutions will provide a great addition to our board,” Cosentino said in the release. “Michael’s significant public profile will raise substantial awareness of mental health challenges and the real, tangible solutions that Medibio’s diagnostics can provide.”

Depression and Addiction Treatment

It is quite common for people living with the debilitating symptoms of depression to also have an alcohol or substance use disorder. If you, or a loved one, are struggling with co-occurring mental health disorders, please contact 10 Acre Ranch today.

Alcohol Use, Even Moderately – Impacts Brain

alcoholic person drinking behind bottles of alcohol

Yesterday we wrote for our readers about binge drinking and high-intensity drinking. Binge drinking is associated with men consuming 5 or more drinks and women consuming 4 or more drinks—over a 2-hour period. Whereas high-intensity drinking is defined as men having 15+ drinks and women 10+ drinks per occasion. Both methods of consuming alcohol have been associated with alcohol poisoning, alcohol-related trauma, dependence and alcohol use disorder.

Drinking in the “unhealthy” ways listed above can cause a number of other problems as well. In the short term, those drinking in such ways are apt to experience blackouts, memory loss and anxiety. One can often recover from all of these problems in a day or two. But over longer periods of time, long-term drinking can result in mental health problems, and permanent brain damage resulting in learning disabilities, as well as cognitive and motor function damage. And that is just the damage that heavy alcohol use can have on the brain. A whole other article/post could easily be dedicated to the substance’s effects on vital organs, like the liver and pancreas.

With all the potential harm that alcohol can cause, one may ask themselves how this substance could be legal. Sure, someone could counter by saying that when used in moderation, alcohol is relatively harmless. But is it really? After all, alcohol can remove paint, is flammable and certain combustion engines can even run on the substance. Yet, every day millions of Americans ingest it and many would even argue that they have earned it.

Is Alcohol Worth It?

Over the years, there has been shaky research disseminated, which claimed that alcohol in small amounts may be good for the certain organs, like the heart for instance. However, the little evidence that exists in defense of such research is questionable at best. If you are drinking because you think you are doing yourself a healthy service, you may want to rethink the practice.

Scientists will probably continue to argue over the health benefits of alcohol consumption for years to come, but in the meantime, we should all do our best to continue to learn about the negative health consequences of alcohol use, even in small amounts.

New research out of the United Kingdom has found that alcohol use can have adverse effects on your brain and impact cognitive function, BMJ reports. I know you are thinking, ‘hold on, you’ve already mentioned that that can occur.’ And you are right. What makes this new study so interesting is that the researchers found that the aforementioned impacts can occur from even moderate drinking.

“Our findings support the recent reduction in UK safe limits and call into question the current US guidelines, which suggest that up to 24.5 units a week is safe for men, as we found increased odds of hippocampal atrophy [a form of brain damage that affects memory and spatial navigation] at just 14-21 units a week, and we found no support for a protective effect of light consumption on brain structure,” the researchers write. They conclude that: “Alcohol might represent a modifiable risk factor for cognitive impairment, and primary prevention interventions targeted to later life could be too late.”

You May Not Know You Have An Alcohol Use Problem

It can be easy to rationalize one’s alcohol use as being well within the social norms. But who established the limits on safe alcohol consumption? One can always find someone who seems to have a more insidious relationship with alcohol in order to justify continued use. The takeaway from research like this is that there is probably no such thing as healthy drinking, sure it may not lead one down the road towards alcohol use disorder—but it’s certainly not doing your health any favors.

If you have started experiencing negative effects on your health from alcohol, it is strongly suggested that you talk to someone about your relationship with alcohol. There may be a problem that needs to be addressed, sooner rather than later. Please contact 10 Acre Ranch today to discuss your options.

Binge Drinking Among Young Adults Increases

Binge Drinking Among Young Adults

It is probably fair to say that drinking alcohol socially is an American pastime. Or, at the very least, involved in many activities that Americans take part in. Teenagers and young adults across America congregate every weekend to imbibe at parties and sporting events. For a lot of people, a ball game would not be a the same without a cold beer. While in many cases, drinking alcohol can be a benign, or relatively harmless, experience there is a significant number of young adults who consume alcohol in far from healthy ways.

Alcohol and the use of the substance is pervasive in the United States. It can be purchased at grocery stores, restaurants, sporting events and concerts. Just to name a few vendors. It can become easy to forget that liquor can severely disrupt the course of one’s life, wreaking havoc on people’s health. For a substance that is so addictive, with an impact on the body which kills far more people every year than any other substance, (including the deadly opioid narcotics which have been in the spotlight for nearly two decades)—it is hard to understand why prevention and treatment efforts are not emphasized more.

Sadly, and because young people are not generally given all the facts about the dangers of alcohol consumption, unhealthy relationships with liquor often develop. It is quite common for young men and women to “binge drink” alcohol on regular basis. That is, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), when men consume 5 or more drinks, and when women consume 4 or more drinks—over a 2-hour period.

Binge Drinking Among Young Adults

The National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) funded a study that looked at binge drinking and high-intensity (10+, 15+ drinks per occasion) drinking among U.S.12th graders and young adults from 2005 to 2015, Newswise reports. The findings indicated that binge and high-intensity drinking was highest for young adults aged 21/22 to 25/26, increasing the highest among people in their late twenties. The research was published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Both binge drinking and high-intensity alcohol consumption can cause serious harm to one’s health, and is a sure path to dependence and/or addiction. It is absolutely vital that these trends are acknowledged and that prevention experts and addiction treatment professionals respond accordingly with efforts to educate young people about the inherent risks of these methods of consumption. Setting the long-term health effects aside for the moment, people who engage in binge drinking are at greater risk of traumatic accidents and alcohol poisoning—which are often deadly.

Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment

Young adults are often unaware of the potential harm of the aforementioned manners of drinking alcohol. They are usually drinking that way among their peers, and justify the behavior as something that everyone is doing. Sure, some people binge drink socially in the early twenties and don’t progress to alcoholism, but that is not the case for others.

When such people seek help by way of addiction treatment, one that utilizes the social model, much emphasis is placed on adopting healthy ways of living surrounded by peers working towards the same goal. Recovery is a process, but over time one learns how to have fun with others without the social lubricant that is alcohol.

If you are young adult male, or have a loved one who is, and has formed an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, please contact 10 Acre Ranch today. We connect young men together in a safe environment and teach them how to live a life in recovery, and form healthy relationships with their peers, without alcohol or any other mind-altering substances.

Addiction Signs On Facebook

iphone 6 with facebook login display Social Media

In today’s world, practically everyone uses social media of some kind. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to name a few. Even people who dislike Facebook (no pun intended) tend to at least scroll through their timeline, from time to time. After all, social media can be a great tool for keeping in touch or checking in with friends all over the world. Given the fact that people will share anything from wedding announcements to what they plan to have for breakfast tomorrow, it stands to reason that they will also reveal their emotional state, whether knowingly or not. In some cases, your friends may be constantly posting about partying with drugs and alcohol or that they have been isolating a lot lately. Both of which may be signs of dis-ease.

Over the last year, Facebook announced that they have begun “spidering” their platform with an algorithm to help identify troubled users in order to determine people who may be a risk to others or themselves. The goal is to identify troubled users, potentially open the door for intervention before something tragic happens. Many people who are struggling with mental illness, like addiction or depression, are usually pretty guarded as to talking about it. This is generally out of fear of judgment or social stigma. Both of which can deter people from seeking the help they need. Which is why there is an inherent value in “combing” social media for users in distress, who may be subtly crying out for help.

Spotting Substance Abuse on Facebook

At the Addiction Recovery Research Center in Roanoke, Virginia, a team of researchers may have found a way to identify users struggling with addiction by looking at social media messages, MIT Technology Review reports. The findings come from mining millions of “status updates,” looking for various keywords that were associated with substance use.

The researchers also looked at myPersonality, a project on Facebook which more than 4 million users participated, according to the article. The project involved a series of psychometric tests.

“Our best models achieved 86% for predicting tobacco use, 81% for alcohol use and 84% for drug use, all of which significantly outperformed existing methods,” say researcher Warren Bickel and co. “We believe social media is a promising platform for both studying SUD-related human behaviors as well as engaging the public for substance abuse prevention and screening.”

Getting Help for Addiction

Sometimes you personally can spot signs of trouble among your Facebook friends. If you think that your friend is struggling with drugs or alcohol, you might try to encourage them to seek help in a compassionate way. Ignoring the signs, or passing it off as just a little too much partying could have disastrous consequences. We can all have a hand in looking out for our friends and loved ones, just showing that you care can be immensely important.

If they intimate that they need help, please contact 10 Acre Ranch today. We can help them break the cycle of addiction, and learn how to live a life in recovery.

PTSD Awareness Month: Encouraging Treatment

photo of psychologist and despair soldier with PTSD

In the last weeks of May, we covered what we believe to be some very important topics. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), co-occurring mental health disorders and keeping your recovery intact during the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Regarding PTSD, we discussed what is at stake for individuals whose condition is left untreated, specifically substance abuse and suicidal ideations. Many veterans who have such thoughts make attempts on their own lives and many of those individuals succeed. With that in mind, it is of absolute importance that everyone showing signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress be encouraged to seek assistance—without fear of social stigma or professional consequence. If you are looking for veteran disability benefits, you should find a recommended increase va disability attorney Kentucky to help you in your pursuit.

At this point, if you are regular reader of this blog, you may be wondering, ‘why all the talk about post-traumatic stress?’ Other than the fact that the disorder is quite common among addicts and alcoholics from all walks of life—military background or not. And given that without a concerted effort to treat both the addiction and the co-occurring mental illness concurrently, recovery is next to impossible; June is PTSD Awareness Month and the 27th is PTSD Awareness Day.

Throughout the course of the following month there will be events held across the country to promote wellness among those affected by this most serious mental health disorder. Even though the Veterans Affairs Department having resources available for the afflicted to access treatment, the majority do not utilize it. A relatively recent study from the RAND Corporation found that 50 percent of veterans who have PTSD do not seek help, of those that do accept treatment, only half of them get “minimally adequate” treatment.

Encouraging Treatment

It should go without saying that the statistics cited above are wholly unacceptable. People who put life and limb at risk for a cause should be afforded the best treatment possible. And everything that can be done, should be done to encourage those who are reluctant to seek help. No easy task, to be sure, yet it is still a goal worth working towards.

“Greater understanding and awareness of PTSD will help Veterans and others recognize symptoms, and seek and obtain needed care.” – Dr. Paula P. Schnurr, Executive Director of the National Center for PTSD.

During the month of June, please join 10 Acre Ranch in the effort to break down the stigma that has surrounded mental illness for too long. Treatment works, it is available, but those who are suffering from any form of mental health disorder need reassurances that they have the support of their community when they make the brave step to recover. There are number of things you can do to propagate the value of seeking treatment, and continued maintenance.

If you click here, you will find a number of materials that can be shared on the various social media platforms in your digital quiver. Once there, you can find information on hosting your own event to further the cause. Below is a short PSA titled, “I have PTSD,” that can be shared on Facebook, Twitter et. al:

If you are having trouble watching, please click here.

“Raising PTSD awareness is essential to overcoming the myth, misinformation and stigma surrounding this mental health problem” said the former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Robert A. McDonald. “We encourage everyone to join us in this important effort.”

PTSD Treatment

If you are male, or have a loved one who is struggling with untreated PTSD along with an alcohol or substance use disorder, please contact 10 Acre Ranch. Drugs and alcohol may, for a time, calm some of your post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, but in the long run mind-altering chemicals only make the symptoms worse. And they can actually make the afflicted more reluctant to seek help. Which is why we implore you to seek assistance before the condition worsens and the symptoms lead to irreversible decisions.

Recovery is not an easy task. The road will be trying, but it will be worth it. You can reach out to our treatment center 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. We are here to help.