Drug Identification

Drug identification is necessary if you have found unknown pills in your medicine cabinet or in your child's room. As misidentifying drugs can have serious consequences, making sure you know what narcotics it is you possess is necessary. In the situation of the pills in your child's room, it can tell you whether or not your children have begun to explore illegal narcotics.

Not all narcotics are illegal. With so many forms of Tylenol, aspirins, and similar painkillers, drug identification is required to prevent punishing a child that may not have done anything sinister. Taking the few minutes to find out what kind of pills you have stumbled upon is necessary!

There are several things that you should look for when identifying a over the counter drug. Drug identification is a careful science, requiring a good eye for size, shapes, colors and textures. All of these things need to be researched in order to make a positive identification.

Size and shape are necessary details in drug identification. Medications that are professionally manufactured come in standard sizes and shapes depending on what the drug is. These are the first thing that you notice when you find a stray capsule. If you are not good at guessing the size of a capsule, find a ruler that measures millimeters, centimeters and inches and measure the width, height and length of the capsule. These numbers can be used to identify them.

Next, the color of the pills can be used to help figure out what they are. As an example, Viagra comes in a very noticeable blue color, which sets it apart from the brown color of standard Advil. Once you have identified the size and shape of your capsule, the color will further hone what the capsule actually is.

Texture is something that can be noted at a look, or by carefully feeling the capsule with your fingertip. While texture is not as necessary as the color, size and shape of the pills, they may give the final clue to have a positive drug identification.

If you are lucky, there will be an label on the capsule. This is done by major manufacturers to promote proper identification of pills in case they are mixed with other narcotics with similar size, shapes and colors.

Many illegal narcotics do not follow set size, shapes and colors. If you find a suspicious narcotics that you cannot figure out, you may need to take it to a pharmacist or lab for identification. If you suspect that the capsule is an illegal narcotics, you should contact police immediately.

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Virtual Reality Game Treats Addiction

Virtual Reality brings to mind teens behind closed doors for hours on end locked in mortal combat with images flashed on hi-tech screens. The technology used produces life like videos which mesmerize the viewer or participant. Could this same technology be used to treat mental health disorders and addictions? Researchers at Duke University have developed a Virtual Reality Video, they believe, can reduce the cravings of addicts in search of recovery. Controlling the cravings would greatly improve the addicts' chance at recovery and reduce the number of those that relapse.

The Virtual Reality Game would actually (virtually) allow a therapist to place a patient in a situation that represents a real life interactive drug encounter that produces the same cravings felt in reality. The Therapist will then use behavior cues and cognitive therapy to teach the patient how to not crave. The patient having successfully withstood the test in the game now takes the same cues into the real world. An Audio Cue used in the game can be used to control cravings when they arise. Ultimately an addict will be able to stop craving altogether.

The research is promising but much work still needs to be done before addiction treatment centers close their doors. Many will find it hard to believe that the same cravings they have felt can be simulated in a game.

Drug Rehab Centers may augment their treatment programs with the Virtual Reality Game. The application would be endless and certainly would be attractive to any teens or other young adults brought up in a virtual reality world.

skin care 2009 news

Advice on How to Quit Marijuana - Avoiding Roadblocks

How to quit marijuana can seem to some people to be a very simple question and to others an incredibly complex one. Some may think this difference of opinion simply comes from peoples varying levels of commitment to their attempts to stop smoking pot and this is somewhat correct but the circumstances people are in have some of the greatest effects on people chances of kicking their weed addiction and many of the problems I like to call roadblocks.

A roadblock is something we think we cannot pass, an insurmountable obstacle set before us that stops our attempts to move forward and appear to a marijuana user trying to quit to be a point they cannot go past so they simply turn around and head back on down the same path because that roadblock is not going anywhere. Some examples I have seen include:

Becoming extremely stressed when ceasing to smoke weed Panic attacks Anxiety Depression Nightmares Lack of support from friends and family Social ostracism ... and many more!

These roadblocks I like to think fall into two categories and need different approaches.

Speed humps

A speed hump does not stop you going forward they simply slow you down, they are rough and sometimes fro a distance they look like you can't get over them until you get closer and attempt it and realize they are not so bad! The only way to determine this is to look at the situation up close and work out can you just push on through it and it was fear of failure holding you back from giving up smoking weed not any real danger.

Barriers

A real barrier is something that you cannot get past, or if you do try you end up wrecking yourself or something else (or someone else). Often sever issues of mental health or extreme social issues can become real problems when you are trying to work out how to quit marijuana and it looks like the end. Obviously you cannot just power on here but there are other things you can do. Following the roads analogy I might be laboring a little bit we might see our path to quitting marijuana as a straight line with speed humps and sometimes a barrier ending our journey, but what if there was another path? What if we could go around that barrier or remove that barrier in a different way that just trying to drive on over it? The real secret to avoiding roadblocks is to not tackle them head on if you are going to lose but instead try to find a different path, think of new ways and approaches to the problem or sometimes realize that this roadblock might have to be removed by getting our of the metaphorical car and solving this issue first.

In the next section on how to quit smoking marijuana will get a few examples I have seen for a better understanding.

In the first part of this article we discussed how problems in our life can present what may seem like barriers that we cannot overcome and force many people to turn around and give up on their attempt to quit smoking pot. This advice on how to quit marijuana will continue on with some common and not so common examples of how former pot smokers have handled these situations.

Social obstacles

Many marijuana addicts are social smokers as well as on their own and many have a culture that is based around smoking pot and all their friends do and often their families too. Recently I heard of a girl who was stressed out because all of her close friends smoked pot but she really wanted to stop and felt that if she revealed this to her friends there would be social consequences. This may have been understandable but the stress and anxiety over losing her friends nearly broke her resolve until she was advised to look at the issue a little closer and found that the problem in her mind had become a lot bigger than it really was. By simply talking to her friends about how she felt it was best for her without judging her friends she found that most actually supported her and some decided to join her in her efforts! This was a classic example of a speed hump where the obstacle only seemed impassable and became smaller only when she had the courage to go over it.

Family Obstacle

Sometimes a social problem is not as easy to overcome however as another common problem is when your family all smoke and you cannot move out, and even worse they do NOT support your efforts to quit. A lack of freedom and space can make if very hard and if you can not change those around you and receive no support the stress can be very high and drive you back to smoking as it can be too hard not too. This is more a of a road block as you are caught between a rock and a hard place and it feels like there is no solution. In these times you have to be a little more creative and find a new way, the individual in question here fond a way forward by realizing that the roadblock that was his living conditions and addicted family was the only reason he kept smoking, not only this but a fairly abusive relationship with his father was sapping his will and all this stress and anxiety simply meant it was easier to smoke and fall into line even though he knew it was destroying his chances at a better life. The solution ... to move out despite the horrendous difficulties this posed. It was a new path, a rocky path but it was this or return to the same problem. I head from this guy a few months later and now that he had quit smoking he had moved into a clean share house and while money was tight the benefits of being free was worth the hardship. This may not be possible for everyone but it shows how a rougher path can sometimes be the only way forward if you identify the crucial base problems for your continuing dependence on smoking weed.

Masking Problems

Another reason some people continue to smoke weed is that it is a way to mask another problem such as depression, anxiety or even rage and psychosis. Some feel that the effects of marijuana help them cope with these conditions but know that they need to quit, and then fall back to smoking because they feel they cannot handle whatever other problems they have. With this in mind the roadblock is the other condition they suffer from that stops them moving forward but the problem most face is that they think this other problem is unsolvable and often use it as an excuse to continue smoking because masking their problems is easier than fixing them. The answer? Treating the underlying problem of course! If this means going to therapy or buying medication designed to specifically deal with brain chemical imbalances then so be it but only by removing this roadblock will you ever move forward.

In the end all of these problems are about analysis, honesty and a motivation to do things other than just stopping smoking which is sometimes the easiest bit. By finding a path you can follow these stressful difficulties can be avoided and overcome making the road to find out how to quit marijuana that much easier, better and lasting too.

skin care 2009 news

Primary Causes of Drug Abuse - Gaining Tips For Prevention and Information

There are a lot of theories that discuss genetics in terms of drug abuse. I find genetics can be tricky as we often use our parents as models psychologically which is not the same as inheriting a genetic pattern or tendency.

If our parents were abusive towards us or had a lot of emotional problems, we may have found ways to drown out the pain as children. This could involve imaginary friends, absorption in science fiction or video games and excessive sleeping. As people get older, alcoholism and drug temptation appear as ways to block out painful feelings.

As a therapist I see many from dysfunctional families deal with pain through some form of excessive behavior. This can be a cause of drug abuse, but also it may manifest as an eating disorder, promiscuity, constant job changing or thrill seeking.

Personally I think nothing actually can "cause" us to do something . If we've been fortunate to have some good role models or mentors in our lives from neighbors, relatives or teachers then a challenging situation may be met with a certain degree of will power and stamina. This is why education, positive influences and inspiring books can be helpful in changing our lives. On the other hand, when we've been around people and family with poor coping mechanisms who use anger, alcohol and drugs, blame and avoidance to face adversity, we aren't shown ways to transform tough situations into personal growth.

It is liberating to know we don't have to repeat patterns we've observed in family or ourselves, but that we can step out of our history. Even if you don't have a personal mentor, finding an inspirational book can put you in a new direction. Sometimes it only takes one sentence to make a significant change where we take a different fork in the road. Never feel it's too late to transform your life.

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