WHAT ARE BARBITURATES?
Barbiturates hail from a sedative-hypnotic drug group. They are known to induce sleep as well as alleviate anxiety.
There is, of course, an inherent danger of barbiturates if the incorrect amount of the drug is prescribed to individuals.
Also known as relaxants, exact doses of barbiturates are often difficult to administer, which is the root cause of overdose with barbiturates.
In fact, a very small overdose of the drug can cause death.
To worsen matters, barbiturates are also addictive and can cause life-threatening withdrawal symptoms.
HOW CAN BARBITURATE REHAB HELP?
While going through your recovery, a solid support group and a high quality rehabilitation center can be a great help.
Along with helping you quit, the full rehab experience will help you identify the triggers that could lead you to relapse. Once you know your trigger scenarios, you’ll be able to lean on your support group to help keep you on the path to recovery.
Most alcohol and drug treatment facilities fall under two categories: inpatient and outpatient.
BARBITURATE INPATIENT REHAB
Barbiturates are strong, even when their age is held up against newer and more powerful drugs. Addiction can take place in a matter of weeks. Plus, they are also very difficult to detox and recover from.
It’s for this reason that we suggest any patient who arrives with a barbiturate addiction seek inpatient care. Too many dangerous issues can occur, as is listed above, if a person chooses to detox and recover by themselves.
As your recovery progresses, you and your case counselor can discuss the possibility of finishing your recovery as an outpatient.
INPATIENT VISITATIONS
Visiting a loved one during inpatient recovery can be helpful for the person in treatment. When you visit someone in rehab, you let them know they are not alone and you still care about them.
Of course, the rehabilitation center will have restrictions as to when loved ones and friends can visit. During the initial barbiturates detox, you likely won’t be allowed to visit.
The emotional stability of the person in recovery will also affect your ability to visit. If they are positive and upbeat, now might be a good time to stop by. Whereas, if the person in treatment is struggling with the recovery process, it may be best to wait.
Always check with the healthcare professional helping your loved one through their barbiturates recovery before showing up for a visit.
BARBITURATE OUTPATIENT REHAB
Barbiturate-based outpatient care should be considered only in the event that you’re fully detoxed and securely on the road to recovery. Only then should a move to outpatient status be considered.
THE PROCESS FOR BARBITURATE REHAB
The increased popularity of barbiturates made creating a custom rehab process for it simpler.
We look deep into the history of your barbiturates use to find the root cause, then, through group and individual counseling, help you learn how to confront that root cause.
We’ll also help you identify which aspects of your life could trigger a relapse.
In addition to counseling, our rehabilitation process also focuses on your physical wellbeing.
We offer exercise programs, which in most cases involves stretching, yoga, and other low impact activities. Getting into better physical shape will help you resist using barbiturates when the inevitable cravings strike.
THE LENGTH OF BARBITURATE TREATMENT
Depending on the degree of your barbiturates use, treatment could last anywhere from a few days, to months, or possibly longer.
Also keep in mind that barbiturate treatment doesn’t just involve detox and a week or two of recovery. Extended counseling is needed to fortify one’s sobriety as well as continual maintenance.
It isn’t just about not using barbiturates, it’s also about building up your physical, mental and emotional tolerance to the point that when you leave, having a relapse has less likelihood of occurring.
BARBITURATES AND THEIR HISTORY
Barbiturates are an old drug with traces to the early 1900s. But barbiturate popularity in the US didn’t take off until the 1960s and 1970s.
During that time, at least for the U.S., war either had just occurred, was occurring, or about to occur. The post-WWII lifestyle was one wrought with competition, unrelenting wholesomeness and in many social circles, a building national tension from scenarios such as the Red Scare and nuclear war.
Social tension and change began to stress out Americans, and what better way to short-circuit the stress than by medicating ourselves with what more-or-less were sleeping pills.
These pills were barbiturates.
Their first call to duty in ‘60s and ‘70s were as treatments for anxiety and insomnia, as well as seizure disorders.
HOLLYWOOD ENDINGS
Before cocaine moved onto the scene during disco’s infancy, barbiturates were all the rage. Whether prescribed or achieved in some other way, the relaxant was taken for the slightest bit of anxiety a person experienced.
Of course, television at this time had gained popularity. And what played on TV eventually made its way into mainstream American homes.
A whole host of television sitcoms and dramas had characters who were on some type of stress reliever. These programs, in short, had many of the characters drinking while seemingly ingesting barbiturates.
What the television programming didn’t reveal was how mixing booze and barbiturates made for a very bad idea, mostly because both are depressants.
Known in some circles as a Hollywood cocktail, it took many high-profile celebrity deaths to realize the dangers of barbiturates.
Fortunately, a so-called safer replacement drug was on the horizon, and as of the early 1980s, the stage exit loomed large for barbiturates.
Their popularity was coming to an end.
FAMOUS DEATHS
But even with the popularity of barbiturates ending, there still remain a number of people, including celebrities, who still had an affinity for the drug which eventually killed them.
Those deaths include:
- Charles Boyer
- Dalida
- Phyllis Hyman
- Carole Landis
- Jean Seberg
- Abbie Hoffman
- Felix Hausdorff
- C.P. Ramanujam
- Judy Garland
- Marilyn Monroe
- Ellen Wilkinson
- Dorothy Kilgallen
- Brian Epstein
- Alan Wilson
- Jimi Hendrix
- Edie Sedgwick
- Inger Stevens
- Kenneth Williams
SYMPTOMS OF BARBITURATE ABUSE AND OVERDOSE
Lethal dosages of barbiturates vary greatly from person to person. Much of the variance has to do with a person’s tolerance and the potency of the barbiturates they take.
Even so, the symptoms of barbiturate abuse remain the same from one person to the next.
Typical symptoms include:
- Sluggishness, a lack of coordination
- Difficulty thinking and making decisions
- Slowness of speech
- Faulty judgement
- Drowsiness
- Shallow breathing
- Staggering
- Coma or death.
TOLERANCE IS THE TROUBLE
With barbiturate abuse, as well as any addiction, tolerance is the real problem.
Even with inpatient settings, tolerance can make recovery more unpleasant, if not dangerous, as withdrawals set in once the drug is stopped.
Certain tolerances tend to develop faster to barbiturates, making them generally unsuitable for psychiatric use.
BENZODIAZEPINES: THE BARBITURATE REPLACEMENT
Barbiturate popularity waned when doctors moved over to benzodiazepines, which were deemed to be a safer drug.
The reason for the switch was benzodiazepines, unlike barbiturates, do not significantly affect the brain or the central nervous system. Benzodiazepines also have fewer side effects.
Benzodiazepine treatment, however, is more difficult to treat than barbiturates, especially as an addiction can occur in a relatively short amount of time.
Some have even said that if a patient has taken benzodiazepine for at least two months, that the addiction is strong enough to cause a patient to have seizures as they withdrawal.
Any addiction is difficult to get through, but with drugs such as barbiturates and benzodiazepines, a person’s addiction can be acute and tough to recover from.
To help avoid addiction, follow your doctor’s advice regarding the dosages. Be vigilant about the time allotted to you to take these drugs, and mindful that there well may be a period when you’ll have to go through rehab only to get off barbiturates and benzodiazepines.
PATIENT PRIVACY
We take pride in keeping your Patient Health Information (PHI) safe and secure.
While you focus on your recovery, you can take peace of mind in knowing your PHI will remain confidential.
HOW ARE PAYMENTS HANDLED
If you stay with us for a long period of time, we will bill on a bi-weekly basis, otherwise it will be on a monthly basis.
As is the case with your PHI, we strive to keep your financial privacy secure as well.
GOING AWAY FOR TREATMENT
A change of scenery is always good when recovering from substance abuse.
Going away to get treatment leaves you free of distractions, giving you the opportunity to focus on yourself without any distractions.
POST-REHABILITATION SUPPORT
Having a strong support group can greatly contribute to your long-term sobriety.
We help you establish a support group as part of our treatment programs. This type of continued support can often come from the network of relationships you develop while receiving treatment. Sometimes the camaraderie of a good support group can make the difference in a successful recovery.
Solitude and feelings of loneliness notoriously lead to substance abuse. This makes a stay in a rehabilitation facility not just crucial for the detox phase of recovery, but for also improving social connections.
A loved one’s drug addiction can be devastating to all who are near, family and friends included. If you sense an addiction problem in yourself or a loved one, and you just don’t know how to remedy it, contact BLVD Treatment Centers. At BLVD Treatment Centers we custom tailor our recovery programs within the safe and nurturing confines of our rehab treatment centers. Located throughout California, in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego and in Portland, OR, our mission is to assess the severity of your addiction to help you achieve true recovery within 30 days. Call us now at 1-888-537-6671.