In Part 1, Suresh Joseph talked about what cocaine is, how it is ingested and its short-term effects. The following talks about the party drug’s long-term effects and more.

The Effects Of Cocaine Over Time

Over time, cocaine use has increased negative side effects both physically and psychologically. Cocaine is highly addictive and repeated use can quickly lead to cocaine dependence which carries a host of negative consequences, and affects all aspects of the user’s life. These can be broken down into physical and psychological effects on the user.

Long-Term Physical Effects Of Cocaine

With long-term use, the following parts of the body will be affected by cocaine:

• Brain
  The brain adapts to cocaine use and changes in its ability to produce and receive neurotransmitters. This contributes to tolerance for the drug and also decreased sensitivity to our natural “feel good” brain chemicals. Cocaine also causes constricted blood vessels in the brain which can lead to strokes, seizures, and sudden death even in young people.

• Heart
  Long-term cocaine use is hard on the heart. Increased heart rate and blood pressure coupled with constricted blood vessels can cause heart attacks. Cocaine can also lead to a deadly abnormal heart beat called arrhythmia.

• Respiratory System
  Smoking crack cocaine can cause irreversible damage to the lungs. It can also cause acute respiratory failure.

• Stomach
  Cocaine use constricts blood vessels in the stomach which over time causes ulcers, and can lead to ruptures in the stomach and intestines.

• Kidneys/Liver
  Like any drug, cocaine use poses a serious threat to the kidneys and liver which have to work extra hard to deal with the poisonous substance. Cocaine can exacerbate long-term kidney failure in people with high blood pressure and can also cause sudden kidney failure.

• Nasal Passage
  Snorting cocaine regularly causes serious damage to the nasal passages. This includes chronic sinus problems, nosebleeds, and nasal perforation.

Long-Term Psychological Effects Of Cocaine

Long-term use of cocaine can cause the following personality changes and effects on mental health:

• Aggression
  Long-term use can lead to angry outbursts and increased aggression, especially when the effects of the drug wear off and the user is left with symptoms of withdrawal.

• Psychosis
  Heavy cocaine use can cause auditory and sensory hallucinations and even full-blown psychosis where the individual displays erratic behaviour and loses touch with reality. Sensory hallucinations are sometimes described as feeling as though there are bugs crawling on the skin.

• Severe Depression
  Prolonged cocaine use can lead to severe depression. Cocaine abuse causes changes in the brain’s reward system which lead to decreased sensitivity to natural reward exchanges in the brain and a need for increased cocaine to produce good feelings for the user.

• Insomnia/Fatigue
  Sleeplessness due to cocaine use can lead to extreme fatigue. Over time, a cocaine user will find that their ability to sleep and rest, as well as feel alert and wakeful, is completely diminished. This, of course, affects the ability to perform daily tasks such as going to work and caring for oneself.

• Suicidal Thoughts
  After prolonged use, cocaine withdrawal can lead to severe depression, suicidal thoughts, and even death by suicide.

As is evident above, the long-term effects of cocaine pose a serious threat to the user’s quality of life and can often result in death. Some people regularly abuse and become addicted to cocaine yet continue to function on the surface by maintaining high-level positions and family obligations. These high-functioning addicts are not immune to the serious negative effects of cocaine and consequences of drug addiction and should seek treatment.

How Is Cocaine Addiction Treated?

The effects of cocaine are extremely powerful both physically and psychologically. While cocaine withdrawal is rarely medically serious, the psychological effects are difficult to tolerate and intense cravings can send someone back to using after multiple attempts to stop. Most people will require either inpatient or outpatient drug rehab to recover from their addiction.

Treatment for addiction to cocaine must be holistic and comprehensive, as the drug not only affects the brain but also creates psychological, physical, and social problems. Currently, effective treatment includes 12 Steps approaches, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), plus one-on-one and group addiction counselling – all of which support intensive relapse prevention planning. The risk for relapse with cocaine is especially high, as users can experience intense cravings even after years of abstinence.

At The Cabin we have two world-class addiction treatment centres: residential addiction treatment in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and intensive outpatient drug rehab in Hong Kong. Both treatment centres provide effective treatment to heal from the effects of cocaine on the body and brain. Contact our specialists today if you or a loved one is struggling with addiction.

Visit the The Cabin Singapore page to find out more about Suresh’s work.

The post Cocaine Addiction: Long-Term Effects Of Cocaine Part 2 appeared first on Connected Women - Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and Professionals..

Despite being glamorised by celebrities, the side effects of cocaine use can often be deadly.

Cocaine is a well-known party drug often associated with the elite stratum of society — celebrities, fashion models, even politicians and CEOs. But despite cocaine’s high price tag and celebrity media hype, its use extends throughout society and the effects of cocaine are not so glamorous.

What Is Cocaine?

There is a misleading notion that because cocaine is derived from the coca plant grown mostly in South America, it is, therefore, “natural” and less harmful than other street drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy. But cocaine is far from natural or harmless. Different chemical processes are used to create the two main types of the drug: powdered and crack cocaine.

Powdered Cocaine

Powdered cocaine, or cocaine hydrochloride, is a water soluble form of cocaine. On the street, powdered cocaine is known as “coke” or “blow”. It is often diluted with cornstarch, talcum powder, or combined with other drugs like the local anaesthetic procaine. In most cases, the powder is snorted, but some will mix it with water and inject it. Both forms of use pose serious health risks, including addiction.

Crack Cocaine

Crack cocaine is made through a chemical process of mixing the drug with baking soda to create a rock form that is then smoked. Crack cocaine is also extremely addictive and dangerous.

Short-Term Effects Of Cocaine

The immediate effects of cocaine are often described as euphoric, especially when first used. The short-term effects last between a few minutes and a few hours and include the following:

• Feelings of euphoria or elevated mood

• Increased mental alertness especially to sensations of sight, sound, and touch

• Increased energy

• Sense of superiority

Along with the ‘high’ that these feelings create, other immediate effects of cocaine on the mind and body include:

• Irritability

• Paranoia

• Anxiety/restlessness

• Increased heart rate

• Increased blood pressure

• Constricted blood vessels

• Dilated pupils

Tolerance develops quickly and users often need more and more of the drug to feel any effects of cocaine at all. Even short-term use can cause severe negative health consequences and death.

Part two of this article talks about cocaine’s long-term psychological and physical effects.

Visit the The Cabin Singapore page to find out more about Suresh’s work.

The post Cocaine Addiction: Long-Term Effects Of Cocaine Part 1 appeared first on Connected Women - Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and Professionals..

In Part 1 of this article, we looked at the role of casinos in breeding gambling addictions, and the devastation this causes to addicts, their families, and the community.

Policy Changes Needed To Help Prevent Gambling Addiction

Several measures can and should be taken to improve casino policies in order to help prevent gambling addiction from developing.

1. Restrict Ability To Gamble On Credit

One problem is the ease of access to cash and credit within casinos. Where cheque cashing is allowed, casinos use a third party system that guarantees the casino gets paid even when gamblers write bad cheques. This makes it too easy for people to break the law by writing and cashing bad cheques, while they chase a slot machine they are sure will give them their money back eventually. Slot machines are, of course, designed to make the gambler think they are going to win, but ultimately always go in favour of the house.

Where cheque cashing is not allowed and casinos cannot provide credit, they often have ATM machines that will allow gamblers to take out cash advances on credit cards. In Australia, where more money is lost to gambling per individual than any other country, local gambling institutions freely offer $1000 credit to anyone who will accept it – as long as it is paid back within a week.

Of course, any time people start gambling on credit, problems are sure to arise. Legislation should take away gamblers’ ability to use any form of credit for gambling within casinos and, at the very least, make it illegal to offer credit specifically for the use of gambling.

2. Send Out Monthly Comp-Card Invoices

Casinos often offer comp-cards that track a gambler’s every move in the casino and offer incentives and rewards to regular gamblers. ‘Comp’ standing for ‘complimentary’, and these cards track the amount of money that you play at the casino. Each amount you play, you rack up points. For example, after 90 minutes of playing slots, you may be rewarded with a free t-shirt. But in that 90 minutes, you also would have had to spend close to 100 dollars on the slots – pretty expensive t-shirt, no?!

One proposed provision to combat gambling addiction would be to require casinos to send out monthly comp-card invoices to their patrons, so gamblers and their families can see just how much time and money was lost on gambling, and intervene before serious problems develop.

3. Limit Hours Of Operation

Many casinos are open 24 hours a day. A visit to a casino in the early morning hours will quickly reveal the dark side of gambling addiction. A casino’s hours of operation can and should be restricted. If the place is closing, it will force gamblers to take a break – and hopefully once they are outside in the fresh air, they can reason with themselves and realise it was probably for the best that they have some time to give their wallets (and minds) a rest.

4. Post And Distribute Facts About Gambling Risks

One Massachusetts casino offers brochures that give people information about the risks of gambling and the reality of their odds of winning — but the brochures are placed off the beaten track within the casino. Posting factual information about the realities of gambling addiction, how it develops, and a person’s real odds of winning should be required and readily accessible within casinos.

5. Place Limits On Slot Machines

Slot machines are the most addictive and popular of gambling methods. In Australia, people can lose up to AUD1500 in an hour on the pokies, and some legislators believe slot machines should limit how much money people can lose before they are kicked off the machine. Some suggest that if a gambler loses more than $150 in one hour, they cannot get back on a machine for 24 hours. This would give them some time to think about whether or not they should continue betting.

The bottomline is that gambling is an addictive form of entertainment and gambling addiction ruins lives just like alcoholism or drug dependence. Casinos unfortunately profit from people’s compulsive gambling and currently do little to address or acknowledge the problem.

At The Cabin addiction treatment centre we provide treatment for all substance and process addictions, including gambling. Contact us today if you are struggling with compulsive gambling and need help.

Visit the The Cabin Singapore page to find out more about Suresh’s work.

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They have come out top in their industry, continue to grow on a global level, and they maintain the highest standards in their region. Most importantly, they restore people and give them hope and a future after battling addiction. The Cabin Singapore is part of The Cabin Addiction Services Group, the world’s first truly global addiction treatment group with centres across three continents. 

In this special business spotlight interview we get a peek into how they overcame, their rewards, and lessons learned, and what they have in store for the future of young people facing addiction.

Tell us about you and your business?

The Cabin Singapore opened in 2015 but the parent company, The Cabin Addiction Services Group, started in Thailand in 2009. Over the past six years we have grown into different markets, as demand has required. We are now the most international addiction treatment group in the world, with centres across three continents and a team of close to 200 people.

Was this business the long-time dream of one person, a team of people, or how else did the idea/concept behind the business come to be?

The idea was initiated by the four original owners who recognised the need for quality addiction treatment in Asia, as the facilities at the time were either minimal or of a poor quality. We combined experience in the field of addiction treatment with experience in marketing, hospitality and medical care to ensure that we could present an unforgettable experience to each and every client.

Over the next 12 months, we are opening new centres to treat younger clients with a specialist Youth Programme, and we are also treating obesity in a more scientific way than has ever been done before.

Addiction Without Preference

Addiction is an illness that is no respecter of age, ethnicity, culture or wealth. It may differ from country to country in terms of what drug is the most abused but treatment should be the same. There were thousands of addicts in the region who simply had no access to effective care without travelling across the globe to centres in Europe or the USA.

Our clients are able to access the highest standards of care in either their home cities via our network of outpatient programmes in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Bangkok, or they can take a short flight to Chiang Mai for a period of inpatient treatment.

Intangible Rewards

Fortunately, the whole team at The Cabin Addiction Services Group gain a great deal of satisfaction in what they do: working with people who are at rock bottom when they arrive for treatment and seeing them grow and improve during their stay.

Breaking new ground in Asia in an industry that was very much in its infancy was certainly challenging and, at times, frustrating, but watching it grow into an organisation that is now respected on a global level has been amazing. For clients to choose to travel across the globe for treatment with us is a testament to that.

Overcoming Ineffective Treatment

Regionally, addiction and how it should be treated is very much misunderstood as well as stigmatised. There are many misconceptions that addiction is due to bad behaviour or lack of willpower, rather than a disorder that requires effective treatment. As a result, some patients and families are receiving poor advice and ineffective treatment.

We are overcoming this by providing training throughout Asia to practitioners, government organisations and families so that they have more understanding of the causes of addiction and what they should be doing to effectively treat it.

What has been your business’ biggest lesson learned?

If we could do things again, I think we would have lobbied harder for more regulation and licensing in the industry in Asia. As a provider that actually performs and goes beyond what is required for local licensing and meets international levels of care, we find it frustrating that other centres in the industry largely ignore licensing and regulatory requirements. This could lead to the image of the whole industry being affected.

Maintaining a level of quality and regulation that is higher than any competitor has enabled us to achieve a reputation that always makes us the first choice for clients, if their budget permits. I would recommend that any business owner should not look to cut any corners; the added expenses of ‘doing things the right way’ will more than pay off, in terms of reputation and brand quality.

The Cabin Singapore
Suite 11-02, 11 Floor
Novena Medical Centre
10 Sinaran Drive
Tel. 3158 9949

Visit the The Cabin Singapore page to find out more about Suresh’s work.

The post In The Spotlight: The Cabin Singapore, Providing Effective Addiction Treatment Services appeared first on Connected Women - Entrepreneurs, Freelancers and Professionals..