Parents should know that recent studies reveal teenagers are at increased risk when using cough medicines containing dextromethorphan (DXM) to get high. And they should sit their sons and daughters down and tell them just how dangerous this seemingly harmless recreational pastime can be. Dextromethorphan is far from harmless, as this article will explain, and is responsible for too many kids winding up needing emergency medical care, drug rehab or the worst scenario, a coroner.

Dextromethorphan is a cough suppressant used in over-the-counter (OTC) cold and cough medicines. The most popular sources are NyQuil and Robitussin, and kids think they’re safe and cool because they’re so easily obtainable at any pharmacy. According to a survey done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) in 2005, an estimated 2.1 million teenagers were abusing OTC cold medicines containing dextromethorphan. Since then, a new survey shows the number has risen 50% to 3.1 million – rivaling the abuse of Ecstasy, LSD and methamphetamines. Although dextromethorphan is rarely seen in drug rehab settings as a primary drug of abuse, it is commonly seen as the culprit behind medical emergencies.

If you discover your kids have tried dextromethorphan cold remedies to get high, ask them if they would willingly take such harmful hypnotic drugs as ketamine or PCP. Most kids say, “Oh, no!” Now tell them that dextromethorphan affects their brain exactly the same way as ketamine and PCP – two incredibly dangerous drugs that have caused thousands of people to need special medical care and lengthy recovery times in drug rehab.

Parents need to know just as much as the kids that dextromethorphan, ketamine and PCP are central nervous system depressants that carry the same risks as opioids like OxyContin and methadone, the nation’s leading prescription drug killers that are also among the most common drugs sending people to drug rehab. Although the World Health Organization (WHO) Committee on Drug Dependence says dextromethorphan does not produce physical addiction, research has confirmed that it can lead to psychological dependence, a situation that often requires drug rehab.

Central nervous system depressants can slow breathing and lower the heart rate to levels that can kill you. The effects of dextromethorphan and similar drugs – if they don’t kill you first – are like a living death: intense feelings of depersonalization, meaning a powerful unreality about your sense of self, and a powerful detachment from the reality around you. These descriptions could easily be used to describe death itself. Even alive, death is in the dextromethorphan picture.

The cure for addiction is drug rehab, but when things haven’t gone that far, the only sane solution is prevention – good drug education, and the good sense to lock up or hide your cough remedies and make sure your kids steer clear of them.

Show your kids the following side effects of dextromethorphan, so they really get the picture:

* dissociation – detachment from reality

* shallow respiration – which can lead to death if serious

* excitation – the crazy, scary unhealthy kind

* nausea

* drowsiness

* body rash and itching

* dizziness

* vomiting

* blurred vision

* dilated pupils

* sweating

* hypertension

* diarrhea

* urinary retention

Dextromethorphan can also cause serious side effects that can only be dealt with in emergency rooms – way too late for counseling and drug rehab:

* increased heart rate

* raised blood pressure

* fever-like rise in body temperature

* gastrointestinal disturbances

* Olney’s Lesions – a form of brain damage

And just so you know what to look for (and hope not to find in your teenager’s back pack) dextromethorphan is an active ingredient in these brand-name cough suppressants:

* Benylin

* Coricidin

* Delsym

* Robitussin

* Triaminic

* Vicks

Mom, dad, sisters, brothers – please take the time to check out what’s going on after school, over the weekends, sleep-overs, dances and parties. There’s no way any of you want to find out that something as easily preventable as abusing a simple cold remedy sent your loved one to the hospital or to the morgue. And if you do discover drug abuse, don’t wait, just get the person in for a serious one-on-one with an experienced and sympathetic drug rehab program counselor.

Rod MacTaggart is a freelance writer who contributes articles on health.

info@drugrehabreferral.com

http://www.drugrehabreferral.com

Robert Ackerman Keynote Address: Mid-Atlantic Addiction Research and Training, IUP

The common belief is that lung cancer only affects people who smoke. The truth of the matter is that even innocent people exposed towards the smoke that is generated from smoking. This is often referred to as passive smoking where the burned tobacco leaves would generate harmful fumes that would immediately affect the open lungs of people who are exposed to them.

Lung cancer is an obvious disease that is spreading all over the world. While immediate smokers are prone to such cancer issues, the fact that non-smokers are inhaling the harmful oxidants offers a more risky setting considering that polluted air is a key contributor in affecting people. Some immediate effects of the harmful smoke exposed to such include that of people with sudden cases of cough, asthma and other respiratory to heart related diseases stemming from such exposure.

This is one reason that some establishments have put a line between accommodating customers through their choice of smoking and non-smoking areas. This is similar to containing the smokers into one place while protecting the overall interest of people who simply want a clean bill of living.

Passive smoking is known to be more dangerous compared to that of the actual smoker. Reason of the matter is that lungs are a sensitive part of the human body. Inhaling and breathing normally has no known constraints since the air that anyone would breathe will surely be something that cannot be properly disseminated and classified as far as polluted air intake is concerned.

Allergies can be contracted as well, stemming from unknown sources. One of the more common sources is that of polluted air or passive smoking as well. There would be a wide array of possible diseases that a person may eventually encounter, most of the time needing a thorough examination of the medical history of a person to further trim down the issues with regards to the point of origin.

There are long term effects and short term effects with regards to their connection towards passive smoking. The long term effects are that of heart diseases, birth delivery issues, behavioral problems and a number of infections that can spread all over the body. These are risky instances where the body organs will be affected thoroughly.

Hence the belief that smoking would only affect the respiratory and cardiology related parts is only one aspect that passive smoking caters to. It could go as far as affecting the psychological aspects of human life as well. Behaviors and mental attributes can suffer as well, most of which can be seen as inherent from the children of today.

Short term effects can be generalized into allergies and asthma. The effects of the smoke, will affect exposed skin and inhaled fumes that stick towards the organs and damage known cells of the affected part. Smoking each cigarette or tobacco will always contain harmful elements, most of which cannot be seen since they immediately penetrate and to the damage inside the bodies of people.

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Do you want to quit smoking? Visit Smokefree England for further information.

Drug Addiction Music Video: Tellemahooka (Go Ask Alice)

There are many methods to stop smoking, and among the better known ones I can mention:

1. the acupuncture
2. the magneto therapy
3. the hypnosis
4. the mind control

To which should be added the necessary psychological support to face the abstinence syndrome.

And that can be carried out with:

1. Psychotherapy
2. Relaxation and Mind Control
3. Help to the smoker phone lines
4. Family Support
5. Friends
6. Programs to stop to smoke

And possibly a therapy will be needed for the substitution of the nicotine with nicotine substitutes like:

1. Nicotine chewing gums (they can be bought without recipe)
2. Nicotine Patches (they can be bought without recipe)
3. Nicotine Pills (they can be bought without recipe)
4. Aerosols (recipe is required)
5. Inhalers (recipe is required)

When is it the best moment to begin a nicotine substitution therapy? The best moment to begin a nicotine substitution therapy, is when you begin to stop smoking.

What nicotine substitute is better? The statistic gathered so far don’t indicate that anyone is better than the other ones, the substitute that you must choose depends on your choice and habits, but it is important to highlight that all present some kind of inconveniences, reason why even when you choose one of those that don’t require recipe, it is always advisable to consult a doctor, who might even prescribe you some antidepressant, besides the nicotine substitute.

But repeating what I already said before, to be able to stop smoking, it is necessary to have knowledge about what the tobacco addiction implies (this web page has been written for it), and it is also needed help and an appropriate motivation.

If you decide to stop smoking it is good that you remember what Mark Twain said: “To stop to smoke is easy, I have already done it a thousand times”

For that reason, if you want to stop to smoke and you don’t want to go through Mark’s experience, you should know that a sudden and strong desire to smoke, can be presented months or years after having abandoned the bad habit, and to be able to overcome it without falling again in the claws of the nicotine, you need to know that:

Just as it happens to an alcoholic that can not take neither a single glass of alcohol without relapsing, you can not smoke neither a single cigarette without running the risk of falling again in the bad habit. And you can not even practice a single inhalation without putting in danger all that you have gotten

Review the reasons that have taken you to leave that bad habit, and the benefits that you have found for you and your family, and continue enjoying the pleasant sensation of knowing that you are a man that has conquered itself.

What Do You Need To Stop Smoking

A plan to stop smoking is only successful if it contemplates three aspects:

1. You should know very well what is it to be tobacco addict, and which are its consequences.
2. You need a training or help to face the abstinence.
3. You need to be absolutely motivated when attempting it

If one of these three aspects is not contemplated, the plan has few probabilities of success. The percentage of people that are able to stop smoking by their own means is of only 5%, reason why it is always convenient that you accept the help of the ones that know how to do it.

Another thing that will increase the success possibilities, is that you supplement your plan with some substitution system as chewing gums, nicotine patches or antidepressants (if the doctor prescribes them)

Keep in mind that the strong desire to smoke will be more intense the first days after leaving the cigarette, but it will diminish every week, and to the fourth month you will hardly feel it.

About the Author:

Author of THE SECRET of The Magic Lamp and it’s 42 Self Help CD with Subliminal Messages, that can be found at http://www.drbonomi.com and also author of The Easy Home Business Web Site at http://www.easy-home-business.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Should You Stop Smoking? (Part 4)

As an American psychologist and certified hypnotherapist, I advocate the use of clinical hypnosis for smoking cessation, one of the least expensive and most effective approaches to becoming smoke-free. Since the American Medical Association approved its use, in the 1950’s, hundreds of thousands of people have found hypnosis to be an effective way to stop smoking, lose weight, and otherwise improve their lives.

Since 1992, according to New Scientist magazine, it has been known that “Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking.” Its quote was based upon a study cited within the Journal of Applied Psychology, earlier that same year. These findings appear to hold true, even in today’s healthcare environment that seemingly demonstrates an overemphasis upon pharmacological approaches.

Over 80% of smokers admit that they desire to be smoke-free. Nonetheless, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nicotine dependence causes more annual premature deaths than HIV, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. Smoking robs lifetime smokers of an average of seven years of their lives, with their final years often characterized as painfully debilitating. Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Former Director-General, stated it most succinctly, when she said “A cigarette is the only consumer product which when used as directed kills its consumer.”

The insidious truth, about this profit-driven problem, is that the annual American health care costs of smoking reaches over $50 billion. It is responsible for more than 7% of all deaths, throughout the world. According to the WHO, within about a decade, this same estimate will likely increase to nearly 18% of worldwide deaths. Yearly, an average of over 3,000 American children and adults, will experience disease and premature death, from second-hand smoke. Worldwide, careless cigarette smoking is the number one cause of deaths from residential fires.

Although combining hypnosis with other forms of treatment, which can be recommended by your family physician or pharmacist, can increase its efficacy, it is not a necessity. If you know where to look, the Internet actually offers a place wherein you can download FREE self-hypnosis MP3 audio smoking cessation programs and even FREE ebook copies of best-selling smoking cessation books, like Allen Carr’s popular “The Illustrated Easy Way to Stop Smoking.”

Not surprisingly, clinical hypnosis is an often-misunderstood treatment that is basically an exercise in deep meditation. Once in a deeply relaxed state, one’s mind simply develops a natural, heightened focus. It is this fixed concentration that affords one the unique ability to incorporate the hypnotist’s smoke-free suggestions into everyday life.

Any behavior can be instantly changed, if there exist enough emotional pain associated with the old behavior, and enough motivating pleasure associated with the new behavior. On a subconscious level, in order to create lasting behavioral change, hypnosis can help to reinforce these real positive / negative consequences, like manipulating a dream, but more absorbing. The healthy result is often described as a nearly effortless, permanent change.

Most people are actually quite susceptible to the phenomenon of hypnotic suggestion, if it is consistent with something desired. In fact, it is not uncommon for many two-pack a day, twenty-plus years smokers to quit, after their first treatment. Nonetheless, I recommend reinforcing the hypnotic suggestions, with a self-hypnosis audio program for smoking cessation. Daily listening to your recording, for at least two weeks, should help to ensure a more positive treatment outcome.

Although most smokers attempt to quit using “willpower,” it is the least effective approach, requiring numerous, successive attempts, in order to finally become successful. Most prescription and over-the-counter quit smoking aids are only about 25% effective. The best indicators of success, with using the effectiveness of hypnosis to quit, are one’s prior ability to have successfully quit for at least one month; and one’s desire today to be smoke-free.

About the Author:

Gerald Solfanelli is a PA psychologist and hypnotherapist in private practice, who also hosts www.ThePsychologist.com and www.QuitForFree.com.

FREE Audio Hypnosis MP3 Download for Smoking Cessation – Instantly download your FREE Hypnosis Program for Smoking Cessation and your FREE ebook copy of “The Illustrated Easy Way to Stop Smoking.”

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Psychologist Recommends Ways to Use FREE Internet Tools and Hypnosis Downloads to Quit Smoking Now!