You’ve done it before you used. You can do it again.
What? My brain chemistry was in disequilibrium before, I was confused, but then I recovered?
When? When you went through puberty.
Girls usually begin puberty during the:
- 5th Grade
- 6th Grade
- 7th Grade
- 8th Grade
- 9th Grade
Boys usually begin puberty during the:
- 7th Grade
- 8th Grade
- 9th Grade
- 10th Grade
- 11th Grade
Therefore, emotional-hurricane puberty does not show until 5th through 11th Grades. Perhaps, that is why transition from kindergarten to 1st Grade, 1st Grade to 2nd Grade, 2nd Grade to 3rd Grade, and 3rd Grade to 4th are not as confusing as the potentially mind-altered transitions from Grades 5 through 11.
The relatively lesser confusion associated with transitioning from K through Grade 4 is similar to the lesser confusion associated with detox for people who have been in detox before.
The relatively greater confusion associated with transitioning from Grade 5 through 11 is similar to the greater confusion associated with detox for people who have never before been in detox.
Puberty is a Drug Use/Detox Mind/Body-Flight Simulator
Natures unannounced primordial infusion of sex hormones in to our brains and minds can feel p-r-e-t-t-y nasty. And dude, did we let everyone know we were hurting or what? That’s because at that age we had insufficient acting lesions and radiated our scary and not very wholesome feelings to those around us like an un-holy dark aura.
That’s because hormones in general and sex hormones specifically, can act like neurotransmitters, chemical messengers and as neurotransmitters, much like if not identically to drugs of abuse. In this manner, hormones and drugs of abuse influence the mind via the mind’s throne, the brain.
Ah … the Not So Good Old Days
Brain chemistry influences feelings, thought processes and perspectives. A little caffeine bumps mental acuity, focus, concentration, ambition, physical energy and productivity. Too much gets one irritable, impatient, intolerant, angry, anxious, erratic, and inefficient. Abstinence or withdrawal is characterized by emotional and physical fatigue, poor concentration, lack of ambition and drive, and reduced productivity. We condition ourselves to be better mood-optimizing “prescribers.”
But, when the puberty emotional-storm surge hit, most of us were totally caught off guard, most of us didn’t even know it began, many of us suppressed the memories into oblivion and many of us didn’t truly know we were in puberty until it was over.
Perhaps just like when we were first warned about how nicotine, alcohol, weed and drugs are easy to start but difficult to stop. Many of us did not appreciate the prophecies pitched regarding puberty and drug abuse. Many of us thought: “I don’t think that’s going to happen to me. That may happen to others, not me. I feel fine. What are they talking about? What, do they think I’m stupid? What, I’m going to go crazy? Stop, I can’t. Seriously?”
Puberty and the First Meaningful Detox Feel Similar
They both start with the regular infusion of a mind/brain-altering substance that alters mind/brain chemicals and mood in the following ways:
- Confusion
- Attention deficit
- Self-pity
- Lazy
- Underproductive
- Poor concentration except regarding ideas regarding ways to feel better
- Annoyed by everything
- Annoyed by everyone
- Pumped up one minute and sleepy the next
- Confident one minute and irritated the next
- Happy then suddenly or gradually depressed or unhappy
- More sensitive than before
- More defensive than before
- More oppositional than before
- More tearful than before
- More violent thoughts than before
- More unsure than before
- More insecure than before
- More mistrusting than before
- More withdrawn than before
- More combative than before
- More critical than before
- More pessimistic than before
- Tougher on yourself than before
- Obsessed with ways to magically or instantly feel better
- And many others
Puberty is the Gateway to Crisis Management
We believe that puberty is the gateway to crisis management. Perhaps its nature’s way to spring a crisis on pubescent children and adolescents by administering unannounced infusions of crisis-simulating-sex hormones.
A virtual test so see which kids and their associated loved one’s choose oxidized foods, natural supplements, over-the-counter medicines, prescription drugs, legal drugs, and/or illegal drugs. Which will choose cognitive and behavioral ways to weather the emotional storm, and which will choose a combination that is food and/or pill-top heavy, and which will choose a combination that is cognitive and behavioral-top heavy.
We project that the children and adolescents, and their associated support systems, who choose the mainly cognitive and behavioral approach to pubescent mood-storm management, with a side of medication assisted treatment, have the best chance of dodging the need for detoxification and rehabilitation, or optimizing the time it takes for them to get the recovery program within the first admission or first couple of admissions.
In other words, the people who weathered puberty without self-medicating with large amounts of oxidized food or pills are more likely to not be as confused in detox as people who weathered puberty mainly by self-medicating with large amounts of oxidized foods and/or pills, medicines and drugs by the time.
This is because quality recovery programs are mainly based in recovery sensitive cognitive and behavioral therapy. People who are accustomed to dealing with ill feelings by overeating oxidized foods and/or taking pills, medicine or drugs get substantially confused and taken back with the notion that cognitive and behavioral therapy also help correct chemical imbalances and aid both stages of detox, the initial serious chemical imbalance and the moderate to mild chemical/behavioral imbalance that can linger for up to 12 months.
Here’s How Recovery-Sensitive Cognitive & Behavioral Therapy Detoxes People from Drugs
Mood stabilizing medicines and mood altering drugs can alter feelings, thought processes and perspectives by virtue of their influence on brain chemistry. Hence the terms “mood stabilizing medicines” and “mood altering drugs.”
Research and experience show, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that recovery-sensitive cognitive and behavioral therapy can alter feelings, thought processes and perspectives by virtue of its influence on brain chemistry.
This is key in understanding why detox is a confusing time recovery. First timers especially want prescription detox drugs and avoid attending the entrée of recovery, recovery-sensitive cognitive and behavioral therapy. They quietly think talk therapy can’t possibly work for me. “Just give me my meds, feed me, give me a place to sleep, let me watch TV and eat snacks, and I’ll be on my way, thank you very much.”
Often it takes several more near-deaths and several subsequent admissions before many substance abusers realize that detox with medication is only a small part of the detox process.
There are countless studies that show how recovery-sensitive cognitive and behavioral therapy is a useful and necessary part of detox and rehabilitation.
Let’s look at a fun example, Pavlov’s Dogs.
Pavlov’s Dog & Brain Chemistry
Drugs and detox medicine are not the only things that alter feelings, thought processes and perspectives. Feelings, thought processes and perspectives also influence brain chemistry.
Pavlov rang a bell, and then fed his dogs. In fact, He rang the bell and fed the dogs at every meal. He did that for a while. Then, one sadistic day, Pavlov rang the bell and withheld their food. Not very nice, but very instructive.
The sound of the bell entered the auditory canal and stimulated the auditory nerve, which transmitted messages down countless neuronal wires or pathways. The electro-chemical signals in turn projected satisfying mind-images of tasty food (even in the absence of food), which triggered the salivary glands. Pavlov’s dogs were dueling over empty bowls.
Pavlov labeled the dogs’ anticipatory salivation “psychic secretion”. Indeed, “implanting” memories of food taste, smell, and texture and the resulting surge in the feel-real-good dopamine within each dogs pleasure center happened without giving a dopamine enhancing substance.
Pavlov’s dogs’ feelings, thought processes and perspectives resulted in a surge of feel-real-good dopamine without the use of a drug. Dopamine surges regularly occur simply by turning on the mind’s positive-imagery-projector.
Therefore, recovery-sensitive cognitive and behavioral therapy, with a side of medication assisted treatment will help bring your brain’s chemistry back to equilibrium, when you sit in the back seat and let us drive.
Detox
Detox marks a time for your brain chemistry to balance itself back to an equilibrium. Detox is a confusing time in recovery mainly because patients minimize the importance of recovery-sensitive cognitive and behavioral therapy, and because they are experiencing their second, third or more puberty which is characterized by:
- Confusion
- Attention deficit
- Self-pity
- Lazy
- Underproductive
- Poor concentration except regarding ideas regarding ways to feel better
- Annoyed by everything
- Annoyed by everyone
- Pumped up one minute and sleepy the next
- Confident one minute and irritated the next
- Happy then suddenly or gradually depressed or unhappy
- More sensitive than before
- More defensive than before
- More oppositional than before
- More tearful than before
- More violent thoughts than before
- More unsure than before
- More insecure than before
- More mistrusting than before
- More withdrawn than before
- More combative than before
- More critical than before
- More pessimistic than before
- Tougher on yourself than before
- Obsessed with ways to magically or instantly feel better
- And many others
Reach Out
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse problem, please reach out to our addiction specialists for guidance and support, at (877)-RECOVERY or (888) 559-5109. Our addiction specialists make themselves available to take your call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Because We Care.
