Your friend is progressing to the next level in his disease. This is the natural order of events when a person is addicted to methamphetamine. How much is too much when using a needle? Any, is too much. At his age, making this choice could have deadly circumstances. Use of needles causes physical problems, abscesses, rapid deterioration of the veins, but injecting a stimulant can cause a young person to suffer from heart problems. Your friend could easily suffer from a heart attack. Methamphetamine over time causes your brain to shut down dopamine receptor sites. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that create feelings of excitement and energy. With your friend using for the past ten years, he has created a situation where he is using a great deal of the drug just to be awake and to function. He will think that he is using less to get the same feeling, but quickly his brain will shut down more receptor sites and he will have to increase the amount he is using. It is a viscous cycle and it will kill him. Methamphetamine addicts get to a place where they suffer from Anhedonia. This is a syndrome that creates in a person the "inability to experience joy". The hug of a loved one is not felt as it should be. Your accomplishments in life no longer bring you satisfaction. A person gets to the place where only the initial feeling after the use of the drug is the only positive feeling they can experience. This is why the drug is so powerful and hard to quit. Please get him help! -Lora Larsen, CADC II - Program Director of New Dawn First off, your friend has advanced his use not because of quantity but due to administration. He is now placing his drug directly into his bloodstream, which can cause a completely new set of problems. The long-term effects are anemia, Hepatitis C, possible HIV infection, wound sores, collapsed veins and a stronger dependence. Long-term effects for nasal injection are deviated or collapsed septum, loss of teeth or gum disease and potential of long-term sinus problems. Given your friend’s age, he may be medicating another condition and I’m pretty certain he is not seeing a doctor. One co-existing condition we tend to see with methamphetamine addicts is undiagnosed ADD or ADHD. Given that he is “functioning”, this may be true. Before a doctor or psychiatrist will see a patient, they should be drug free for at least one to two weeks, although some physicians may see him sooner. One thing we do know for certain with any type of drug addiction, jobs, houses, family and health eventually are lost. Some people just get there faster. The best-educated advice would be to quit, seek treatment and enjoy the things he still has. -Laura Lagge, CADC II – Counselor at New Dawn 1st-- there is no social way to use a needle. You just do not socially shoot dope on Saturday night and not on Sunday morning. Graduating to the needle means one thing and one thing only: the snorting or smoking quit working for him! 2nd -- People who are 53 yrs old and still using 'Meth' are addicted. They didn't JUST start using it. Please consider an intervention and direct him to a path of sobriety. He WILL LOSE EVERYTHING if he continues! He will use less at first but as every other addiction, it will cause higher and higher tolerance and he will need more to gain the same effect and the dependence will worsen. The thinking that less is better is the first clue that this person is on a downward spiral. -Steve Carver, CADC II - Counselor at New Dawn Needles are not good; it makes me think it might lead to other things like Heroin, which is highly addictive, and the reason I know this is I have lost two family members to this drug! It is highly addictive and when you drink with it, it can become fatal. Is he willing to seek help? Try asking him to see an interventionist to assist the family and him in what steps need to be taken. I saw this with my family and it is really hard for an addict to quit without professional help. My uncle stole from us, he always asked for $$$ which it was the worst thing we could do cause it only supported his cause and we were enabling him by giving him $$$. He passed away last year and I miss him dearly… please get your friend help! -Arlene - friend of New Dawn    « less

Laura Lagge, CADCII- One suggestion is to hold her accountable for her behaviors - if she's stealing, call the police. If she's not following through, what are the consequences? An intervention can be being arrested or loss of finances, or loss of a place to live, etc. A formal intervention can also be done with an interventionist. The family members would benefit from Al-Anon to help learn how to set & hold boundaries. Schedule an appointment for an assessment with a professional - this could perhaps help break denial as well. But for the family members, don't let your love and anxiety for her prompt you to do what she should be doing for herself. Get out of the way of natural consequences - maybe that would prompt her to seek help. You can help her if you help yourself first. You and your girlfriend can look up Alanon/Naranon meetings on the internet; there you will get support and ideas from people who have gone through it before. Be honest with her, do an intervention, have literature available for her regarding the 12 step program or recovery process, come to New Dawn! Please see the website http://www.stopteendrugaddiction.com/ It is run by a Sacramento woman named Christy Crandell whose son was addicted to drugs and alcohol and is now serving time in prison. Her well received book has a no-nonsense action plan if you discover your child is using drugs or alcohol.    « less

Laura Lagge: Nicotine products have the ability to “hook” someone within the 3rd administration. That means by the 3rd cigarette, a person (despite their age) can become nicotine dependent. The younger a person is when they become dependent, the harder it will be for them to quit. Statistically speaking, if a teenager doesn’t smoke by the age of 19, they stand a good chance of never starting. So start talking to your kids about tobacco early. If you as the parent smoke yourself, the best course of action you can take is to quit yourself. Nine out of ten teenagers stated in a survey that they wished they had never started, and many of those same kids reported wishing their parents had also never started. As the old saying goes, children mimic adult behaviors. Once started, its tough to stop. Dr. Cull: Teens who tried cigarettes during an international study got hooked within weeks of starting -- a result that contradicts the common wisdom that it takes years to become addicted. It only took a few cigarettes a day to get the teens dependent on nicotine, the international team of researchers found. "I expected that some kids would get hooked quickly, but I thought that the average kid would have to smoke for a few years to get hooked," said Dr. Joseph DiFranza of the University of Massachusetts, whose study is published in the September issue of the journal Tobacco Control. "This study has overturned a lot of conventional wisdom." "Some of these kids were hooked within a few days of starting to smoke," DiFranza said. This study shows that girls get addicted faster than boys. Scientists already know that addiction to smoking has a genetic component. Some researchers also believe that, because the brains of adolescents are still developing, they can become addicted more quickly. DiFranza's study, done with colleagues at Harvard University and the University of London, suggests this mechanism kicks in quickly in those predisposed to addiction. The teen smokers they studied were only smoking, on average, two cigarettes a day, one day a week. Previous research has shown that it takes the average person who starts smoking as a teenager 18 years to break the habit for good. The study, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, involved 679 seventh-grade students, typically aged 12 and 13, who were followed for 30 months. The students were interviewed repeatedly. Of them, 332 tried cigarettes or other forms of tobacco and of these 332, 40 per cent showed some sign of addiction. Other research being published suggests that peer pressure can help teens stop smoking, just as it can persuade them to start. Ross Morton: It only takes one cigarette or one hit of tobacco for the neurotransmitters in the brain to be thrown off, and for nicotine receptors to be created in the brain, which will cause the “withdrawal” symptoms when these receptors are not receiving the nicotine molecules that they were created to bind with.    « less

I can certainly understand your concern for your friend. Her obsession with food and always feeling that she is overeating, as well as her purging behavior do sound like they may be signs of an eating disorder. Eating disorders can often start off as a diet, but soon may become more serious as the individual intensifies their focus on weight and shape and starts to engage in risky behavior (fasting, over-exercising, vomiting, laxative use, diet pills, etc.) to avoid gaining weight. If she has already purged a few times it is likely that your friend may be feeling like her behavior is spiraling out of control. Sharing with your friend that you are concerned about her, and letting her know she has your support can be very important in helping her get help. An excellent resource for more information on eating disorders and resources for getting help is the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA, www.nationaleatingdisorders.org). NEDA also provides information on how to find treatment professionals specializing in overcoming eating disorders and describes different treatment options. People struggling with eating disorders do need professional help. While you can't make someone get help for an eating disorder, often sharing your concerns and support for them can help them reach out to get help for themselves. Please let us know if you have any more questions or concerns. -ANNE HAHN-SMITH, PH.D.    « less

Laura Lagge: By all means, seek out help yourself – again Al-Anon is extremely helpful. One good rule of thumb, don’t try to deal with a person who is under the influence. Don’t nag, lecture or blame – they feel bad enough about themselves. If you can talk to this person from a place of care and concern, you may see better results. Learn all you can about alcoholism and drug addiction and how it can affect others. Al-Anon is one of the best support groups available, and certainly counseling for yourself could not hurt.    « less

Dr. Cull: Ask your child about their lives. Know who their friends are, meet them, get their parents phone numbers and meet with them. Notice their academic reports and any changes. Remember that adolescence is a time of constant physical and psychological change for them; not all changes are due to drug use. Set up a forum for “Open dialogue” with the child where they feel safe enough to talk about anything without fear of redress.

Laura Lagge: Talk to them openly about what is out there in the schools these days – primarily pot, alcohol in junior high and additionally, Oxycontin in many high schools. Next, take a serious look at how you or your spouse may use alcohol in your home. Pay attention to your prescriptions and check to see if you are missing any. Some young people are not taking their parents pills themselves, but selling them to friends at school. Any type of opiate prescription (Vicodin, Norco, Darvocet, Percodan, hydrocodone) needs to be monitored and not be accessible to your children. Know your children’s friends and get to know their friends’ parents. Get as much education as you can on drugs, the process of addiction and the symptoms.    « less

Dr. Cull: Any substance that causes the following is addictive by nature:

1. An overpowering desire or need (compulsion) to continue taking the drug and to obtain it by any means;
2. A tendency to increase the dose;
3. A psychic (psychological) and sometimes physical dependence on the effects of the drug,

Most tests now have signals built into them that indicate/hint that “Water Logging” may have been done. Most drug/alcohol test today done by federal/state licensed labs have several indicators built into the test to signal the use of dilatants and “Washers”.

Laura Lagge: Marijuana is highly psychologically addictive and I have known people to experience physical withdrawals too. An early addiction scientist once said, “Addiction is habitual use that limits the freedom of human desires.” An anti-motivational drug such as marijuana can certainly interfere with a human beings’ ability to seek out and meet their dreams and goals. There is a reason marijuana is illegal – it serves no mental or physical health benefits and is used primarily for effect – that is, to get high.

As for getting around tests with water consumption, Marijuana is a fat-soluble drug that stays in a person’s fat cells. If we could flush out our fat cells with water alone, Jenny Craig would cease to exist! Some smoke shops or health food stores claim to have solutions to flush out a person’s system, however if a person is a chronic user, our modern day testing devices can pick up as little as 4 nanograms of THC. Most flushing products are colon cleansers and we have many other fat storing areas in our bodies. I have known some people to pass a test with some of these products, but that is an EXTREMELY small percentage    « less

Laura Lagge: Several things can help – marriage counselors will usually not work with a person or a couple if there is active drug or alcohol abuse going on. We see many people come into treatment because their therapist won’t work with them while they’re using, but if they quit, counseling can resume. Another very helpful tool for the family is a 12-Step support group called Al-Anon. Just as we require our clients to begin attending AA or NA, family members are just as strongly urged to begin attending Al-Anon. There are meetings every day of the week as many different times. You can find meeting schedules online. No one deserves to be abused, either physically or emotionally. Take steps to protect yourself and/or your children.    « less

Laura Lagge: More often than not, drug and alcohol use is the catalyst that launches many problems or simply exacerbates them. Ceasing the drug/alcohol use can help “fix” many problems, usually because a person can see their solutions more clearly. One thing is for certain, if a person is using drugs or alcohol as a coping device, that in and of itself is a problem.    « less

Dr. Cull: There is a high level of mental disorders within our teens. Research has shown a strong association between mental disorders and substance use disorders. There is evidence that this linkage may be bidirectional: depression may be associated with an escalation of substance use, and chronic substance abuse may be a factor in the development of depression. The association between depression and the initiation of alcohol and other drug use among teens is currently under investigation.

Laura Lagge: Many times, it is simply because alcohol is available in the teen’s home and they may view their parents drinking as “normal”. Unfortunately, some teens are encouraged by their parents to drink at home as a way of supervising them or preventing driving intoxicated. The third example we see is a teenager that has parents that present pot as “not that bad of a drug”, or the parents use pot themselves. Parents need to be educated about the true nature of pot, its seriousness and how often pot can lead to other drugs. Some parents view opiates, cocaine, meth, etc as “real drug problems” and discount pot and alcohol. These drugs are problems and very dangerous; these “real drug problems” tend to be occur after first experimenting with pot and alcohol.    « less