WHAT IS SUBSTANCE ABUSE OR SUBSTANCE DEPENDENCE?
Substance abuse/dependence is characterized by consequences.
- Arguing with family or friends or employers about your right to drink or use drugs. Having excuses for being late to work or for leaving early. Rationalizing to justify your use: example; it’s legal, or I’m not hurting anyone but myself, I need a drink or two to calm down, I’m under a lot of stress.
- Spending more money on alcohol or drugs than you intended.
- Drinking or using more than you intended or more often.
- Being late for work. Leaving work early, with or without an excuse, usually pretending to be sick.
- Stopping at a bar on the way home for a couple of drinks and drinking more than a couple. Being scared on the way home that the police may stop you and find you have been drinking and driving; or, actually getting an OUIL.
- Having more physical problems than usual such as hangovers, cold and flu-like symptoms for more than two weeks in a row such as throwing up or feeling like you are going to, slight hand tremors, usually in the morning after a drinking episode the night before, headache, dizziness, double vision, a poor appetite.
- Legal problems, OUIL, public intoxication, drunk and disorderly, or other more serious problems directly attributed to the use of alcohol or drugs.
These are common signs and symptoms of abuse and/or dependency. If you have any of these occurring in your life, seek professional help. Often these problems can be helped if identified early enough, without long-term treatment. Often two or three individual educational/counseling sessions can help identify the severity of the problem and can help identify possible corrective measures. If the severity identified requires treatment, then treatment options will be discussed and referrals will be made.
Substance abuse assessments are free if you are Native American and can identify a problem before it becomes expensive.
If residential treatment is recommended, insurance companies may pay 50% to 80% depending on the company. Adolescent treatment is paid for by Indian Health Services.
Substance abuse does not have to become dependency. It can be arrested before it becomes dysfunctional. Dependency can be arrested with treatment and support from organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous. If left untreated, chemical dependency can be fatal.