Guide to Ativan Abuse

In some ways, Ativan is a miraculous drug. For people who have anxiety, for example, the drug has the ability to calm the mind and allow the person to feel at ease. As if this wasn’t enough, the U.S. National Library of Medicine also reports that Ativan can be used to treat:

  • Epilepsy
  • Insomnia
  • Nausea due to cancer treatment
  • Seizures due to alcohol withdrawal
  • Irritable bowel syndrome

Since Ativan can do so very much, it’s not surprising that it’s prevalent within most communities. Unfortunately, some people take Ativan for nefarious reasons that have little to do with disease control. These people have an Ativan abuse issue, and for them, treatment is vital.

Understanding the Trigger

abuse triggerPeople with medical conditions are often provided with Ativan on a short-term basis, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. In essence, drugs like Ativan can work as a bandage on a festering wound, allowing healing to begin and new patterns to emerge, and when that process is in motion, the drugs might no longer be needed. People who don’t need their Ativan prescriptions anymore might leave unused pill bottles behind in the family medicine chest, and this is where the real danger lies.

Along with assisting with disease, Ativan can also produce a sensation of calm and happiness in people who take the drug. Sometimes, people develop a niggling preference for the happiness they experienced while under the influence, and when they have a bad day or a major disappointment, they may take an Ativan pill just to make that discomfort go away. It might seem harmless, but people who take the drug specifically to feel euphoria are abusing that drug, even if they once had a valid prescription for the drugs they’re abusing.

Similarly, some people take Ativan without any prescription at all, simply because they like the way they drug makes them feel.

In an interesting study on the topic, published in the journal Behavioural Pharmacology, researchers attempted to determine just how pleasurable Ativan really is for people who take it for recreational purposes. In this study, a whopping eight out of nine participants chose Ativan for future use, when they’d been exposed to multiple types of drugs similar to Ativan. Studies like this seem to suggest that healthy people might just like the drug, and if they live with someone with a mental or physical ailment, they might have easy access to it.

Separating Use From Abuse

ativan pillsWhile it’s true that most medical professionals don’t give clients longstanding prescriptions for Ativan, there are some people who need to take the drug for long periods of time in order to help them deal with a very real medical or mental health issue. As a result, there may be people who seem as though they’re addicted, since they take Ativan each day, but who may not be dealing with an addiction issue at all. Understanding the characteristics of Ativan abuse may help people to make an important distinction between people who take Ativan properly and those who might need help.

Much of what separates an addicted person from a reasonable user concerns the reasons people cite for using the drug. People with valid medical concerns, for example, may be able to outline how the drug helps them to deal with their very real medical symptoms. People who abuse the drug, for example, may cite very different reasons when they’re asked why they take the drug. For example, in a study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers found that people who abused benzodiazepine medications like Ativan recreationally reportedly did so because of the “high” the drugs could produce. They like the subjective feelings the drug triggers inside their bodies, not the treatment of a disease the drug could assist with. It’s an important distinction.

Since people who abuse Ativan do so in order to experience euphoria, it’s not surprising that many of them take the drug in ways that doctors might never approve of. For example, people like this might:

  • Crush up pills and snort them
  • Take double doses
  • Take doses minutes apart
  • Inject doses

People who take the drug for medical purposes might stick to the dosing schedule produced by a doctor, but those with addictions might need to up their doses and rush the effect of the pill in order to circumvent the body’s systems and allow euphoria to sweep in.

Chasing a high might also be easier for Ativan-addicted people to accomplish if they add other drugs to the mix. People might mix almost anything with Ativan, but a study in the Irish Journal of Medical Science suggests that people often blend prescription painkillers with Ativan. It’s hard to know why people blend drugs like this, but research suggests that painkillers can boost signals of pleasure similar to the boosts seen in people who take Ativan. Using both drugs could cause an additive effect, and people might find this experience intensely rewarding.

What to Do

Living with someone who has an Ativan addiction isn’t easy, but ignoring the problem isn’t a good long-term solution. People with addictions like this tend to escalate their behavior, chasing a high that might become more and more difficult to obtain, and they may end up taking doses that could just shut down their bodies.
Their breathing might slow and stop, and they might just slide away without anyone noticing. Even if death isn’t the outcome, people with addictions might also spend all the family’s money on drugs, and they might withdraw from all family activities in the quest for drugs. Everything pales in importance, and a family can fall apart under this kind of pressure.

If an addiction to Ativan is truly in play, an interventionist may provide vital help. People with this kind of training can help a family to design a helpful and productive talk in which they describe the changes they’ve seen that are due to addiction, and they encourage the person they love to accept the help a treatment program can provide. It’s vital for the family to go slowly and be realistic, and they should never ask the person to quit the use of the drug via “cold turkey” methods. The brain changes associated with Ativan addictions can be persistent and tricky, and people often need the help of a treatment team in order to wean off the drug in a safe and healthful manner. Those who don’t get help could experience seizures during a cold-turkey withdrawal, so it’s an important point to keep in mind.

Getting Better

group therapyWhen people with Ativan addictions enter treatment programs, they can get better, but the improvements don’t happen overnight. In fact, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most people with addictions need to spend at least three months in an active therapy program, so they can really learn about addiction and find new ways to live. Some people can go through this therapy while they live with their families, but some people need the help that only comes with inpatient care.

Since Ativan is so readily available in the community, people with addictions might find it easy to seek out a dealer when the recovery process gets tough. They might also order drugs online, and see their addictive substances in their mailbox the very next day. In an inpatient treatment program, this kind of relapse is just harder to accomplish, as there are no addictive substances allowed and people are exposed to nearly constant supervision. They also have access to around-the-clock care that could help them to work through a craving without relapsing. In a program like this, some people can really make great strides against an addiction, where they may have difficulty living at home.

People with mental illnesses as well as Ativan addictions may also have concerns that others don’t share. For example, people with mental illnesses may be concerned about tapering their Ativan doses, as they may worry that their underlying condition will grow in intensity. They may also struggle with symptoms they have been kept hidden due to the influence of Ativan. When the veil is removed, those symptoms may spring to life in deep and troubling ways. A Dual Diagnosis program can help. Programs like this treat the whole person, dealing with both the addiction and the mental illness at the very same time. Therapies are tweaked and modified, allowing people to attack the problem on two fronts, and the treatment team works hard to ensure that people have access to real help, so their mental illnesses won’t spur a relapse to Ativan abuse.

Working With The Oaks at La Paloma

At The Oaks at La Paloma, we specialize in helping people who have mental illnesses complicating their recovery from addiction. We’ve worked with many clients who have dealt with Ativan addictions, and we’re adept at providing therapies that can help. All our programs begin with intensive evaluation, allowing us to develop a clear picture of the addiction issue, and we then provide detoxification and therapy services. We can assist with pain management, family difficulties and even trauma resolution. We can even provide partial hospitalization services for people with extensive difficulties. With individualized programs, you’re bound to get better. Please call us to find out more.