If you or someone you love has a problem with meth addiction, it's important to know that help is available 24/7. Meth addiction can have serious physical, mental, and emotional health consequences, and it's important to get the right kind of treatment to ensure a successful recovery. Pathways Real Life Recovery outpatient treatment center located near Salt Lake City, uses a detailed approach aimed at targeting three areas involved with the path to recovery from meth addiction.
- Our highly trained counselors help you uncover the underlying causes of your drug addiction.
- We work through the complete process your meth addiction disease has taken.
- Then we build customized treatment plans focused on battling your addiction's below-surface causes and real-life consequences.
Methamphetamine Addiction in Utah
Methamphetamine has several identifying characteristics, including alternate names and ways it's put into the body. Also, know as a tweak, or speed, meth presents itself in a white or light brown color. It's an odorless crystalline powder with a bitter taste. Ways that Individuals take this drug by smoking, injecting, inhaling, or swallowing. This stimulant is highly addictive no matter how it's taken into your system. Meth affects the striatum of the brain, an area of great necessity to your memory and body movement. It takes away the individual's need for sleep, at least the body's regular sleep requirements to function well. The meth abuser can do an unusual amount of activity at one stretch of time without resting; in effect staying awake and hyperactive far past what is normally possible. Meth does this by affecting the dopamine in your brain's striatum, dramatically reducing the dopamine's binding to its dopamine transporters.Crystal Methamphetamine
Crystal meth is methamphetamine in a crystalline form. It powerfully affects the body's central nervous system and is a stimulant with incredible addictive qualities. Some of its alternate names are crystal, glass, ice, and shards.Signs of Methamphetamine Abuse
If you're attempting to determine whether a friend or loved one has become a meth abuser, there are some physical signs to search for. Signs of methamphetamine abuse include the following:- Small quantities of white powder, crystals, or syringes
- Small, crumpled pieces of aluminum foil
- Soda cans that have a hole in their sides
- The remains of ball-point pen shafts, used for inhaling the drug through the nose
- Skin Picking: The effects of picking their skin in an obsessive-compulsive manner leave what may appear to be an excessive case of acne. Open, "popped" sores may appear to be pimples at first glance.
- Complaints of Skin Crawling: This is known as formication, which means basically that the abuser feels their skin crawling, literally, and may often complain of such.
- Tooth Loss and Decay: This condition is known also as "meth mouth." It refers to just what it sounds like, the deterioration of the teeth to an unpleasant level.
- Loss of Hair: The meth abuser is ingesting an extreme amount of unusual chemicals. This along with the lack of proper nutrition experienced by this behavior results frequently in noticeable hair loss.
- Addiction
- Loss of memory
- Aggressive behavior ... violent behavior
- Unexplained mood disruptions
- Repetitive motor activity
- Changes to the brain's actual structure and function
- Even paranoia and hallucinations
Co-Occurring Disorders
Unfortunately, meth addicts may be suffering from additional disorders that co-exist with their debilitating addiction. These mental illnesses are often undiagnosed or under treated (or not treated currently). Some of these illnesses are the following:- Depression
- Anxiety
- Bipolar Disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Antisocial personality disorder
- Conduct disorders
Treatment for Methamphetamine Addiction
Being addicted to meth is one of the hardest addictions to break. Meth addiction represents a medical disease with serious consequences to navigate. Here at Pathways Real Life Recovery, we believe that complete rehabilitation involves more than breaking the desire to ingest meth. It also factors in the whole experience we humans live under -- the emotional, physical, and spiritual. Addiction of any kind usually affects not just the abuser but also the family, which is why Pathways Real Life Recovery involves both in its rehabilitative approach to therapy. Our therapy treatments include the following:- Family Therapy: The fact is that problems in the family may often lead to the addiction itself or its continuance throughout life. This is why we believe in taking on these issues with the whole family present. In fact, we believe this approach is key to the patient's recovery. Each member of the family will learn how to contribute to a healthy, happy family atmosphere that encourages addiction recovery.
- One-on-One Counseling
- Core Belief Restructuring
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Detox Services
- Genetic Testing for Medication Management