Mindfulness
Institution
Name
Date
Introduction
Opioid addiction in America is becoming a great pandemic with more and more people being affected each day. The healthcare system is becoming overwhelmed and therefore long-term solutions of treating the individuals need to be found. Other than the clinical treatment methods, others have been explored as well. The most common method being used today is mindfulness. This meditation helps people to accept their feelings, thoughts and experiences better without judging themselves. However, both the pharmaceutical and mindfulness methodologies have not been very successful in reducing the relapse experienced among patients after treatment. The proposal in this paper is that mindfulness needs to be combined with another technique in order to reduce the number of relapses. In the paper, the solutions will be given based on the neurogenerated and environmental factors that lead to the person relapsing after treatment. The paper, therefore, comprises of a discussion of the problem as well as the recommended solutions to the problem.
The problem
Opioids comprise of a class of drugs including the heroin drug as well as another prescription painkiller like codeine, morphine, hydrocodone, fentanyl, oxycodone, among other drugs. The opioid drugs are chemically related and thus end up interacting with the opioid receptor on the nerve cells found in the brain as well as the nervous system. This lead to the production of pain relief and pleasurable effects. The individual trying to use opioids for the relief of pain tend to become addicted (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2015). Addiction can be defined as a relapsing and chronic brain disease that such people cannot control. In 2015, over 20.5 million of the Americans of the ages of 12 years and above suffered from a disorder involving substance abuse (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2014). Out of these, 2 million of them suffered from drug addiction originating from prescription pain relievers. At the same time, 591,000 had an addiction to heroin. According to statistics, 23% of heroin users eventually get to suffer from opioid addiction. In the US, the main cause of death arises from a drug overdose. Opioid addiction is becoming the main epidemic here having recorded 12,990 deaths resulting from the overdose of prescription painkillers according to the 2015 data (Rudd, Seth, David, Scholl, 2016).
Although opioids are usually prescribed to patients to relieve them of pain, it becomes addictive when used excessively. It is a problem that can affect anyone and usually starts when the drug is suddenly stopped being given to the patient, which creates withdrawal symptoms. When opioids are abruptly discontinued after a long-term use, it presents unbearable symptoms. Without medical attention, the patient may feel compelled to continue using the drug in order to eliminate the horrible symptoms. In turn, it creates dependence, which forces the patient to keep using it. There are various treatments available for the people with opioid addiction to relieve the symptoms. Some of the symptoms associated with fatigue, insomnia, a poor appetite, as well as anhedonia. They also include dilated pupils, diarrhea, general body pain, and anxiety. In one of the treatments, there is a process of clinical withdrawal. In this treatment, the patient is given an oral opioid that is long-acting to help in relieving the symptoms. The dose is then reduced gradually until the patient is able to go without the medication (Schuckit, 2016).
This can however only be done by licensed addiction treatment programs. There are several problems associated with the institutional care of the opioid addicts. The first one is that it still involves the use of the drug that is trying to be eliminated. Therefore, this may take a longer time and some patients may not be able to completely get rid of the addiction. The other challenge with this method is that the number of people suffering from opioid addiction is greater than that of the registered programs. This means that more people are left out. At the same time, the program may not be affordable for some people. Such individuals will thus only succumb to their problem. Similarly, there are other patients that live in remote areas and can therefore not be able to access the facilities (Schuckit, 2016).
Following all the above issues related to the treatment of opioid addiction, this white paper proposes a different mode of treating such patients. This involves the use of a combination of mindfulness and social media in the support of recovery of a patient dealing with opioid addiction. Other than the above factors, this proposed mode of treatment is based on the issue of relapse during treatment. According to a study that was conducted by Smyth, Barry, Keenan, and Ducray (2010), following the discharge from a treatment facility, some factors that caused people to relapse include a young age, injection history, the dependence on heroin before the treatment, as well as the failure of the patient to enroll into after care. In another study, relapse was associated with functional disorders of the individual’s nervous system. These are some of the neuro-generated that make an individual goes back to misusing opioids after treatment has been done (Rong et al., 2016). The neurogenerated factors include cognitive dysfunction, oxidative stress, targeting immune dysfunction, age, stress, and circadian rhythm misalignment. Relapse is also caused by environmental factors. These include factors like the patient’s economic status, a family member that abuses drugs, imprisonment history, among others as seen in the study by Chalana, Kundal, Gupta, and Malhari (2016).
The Solution
The biggest problem being faced in the treatment of opioid addiction is a relapse. Following expensive and long treatments, some patients still go back to the abuse of opioids. A permanent and more long lasting solution is being sought to deal with this challenge. In this paper, we explain an alternative method of treatment that can be used to deal with the problem of relapsing (Sinha, 2007). This includes a discussion of using a combination of mindfulness and social media on the patients. People suffering from drug addiction without a doubt also deal with issues of depression. Using drugs will help with the withdrawal but the depression will cause the individual to relapse. That is why the mindfulness technique is being proposed in this paper.
Mindfulness is a meditation practice of Buddhism origin that only go to the West recently. The practice is all about connecting the individual to himself and his surroundings. It means the person is observing what is happening to them with compassion for himself and without criticism. Therefore, if he experiences stressful moments, he treats them as moments that are just fading away instead of taking it personally. In this case, mindfulness helps the individual to trap any negative thought patterns before they overtake him. This way, the individual remains focused and in control of his life. Meditation is, therefore, a good practice that enables the individual to connect with himself making it easier to gain more power over his actions and thoughts. Mindfulness, therefore, works even for the long term thereby bringing good changes in the mood that increase well-being and happiness. It is thus a practice that not only rids the individual of depression but also affects the brain in a positive way making it able to deal with day-to-day stress, anxiety, irritability, and depression.
Addiction and stress go hand in hand because most people end up abusing or continuing to abuse drugs because of stress. This makes it important for clinicians to recognize the importance of incorporating techniques of stress management in the treatment of opioid addicts. Mindfulness meditation therapy is one of the ways clinicians can incorporate stress management techniques in their treatment regimes. In addictive disorders, studies have shown that mindfulness meditation interventions are the best. Kabat Zinn came up with Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in 1979 so that he could help the patients that were suffering from mental health issues to be able to improve their lives. Today, MBSR is being applied as an adjunctive treatment for a number of disorders especially those caused by addiction. Mindfulness is thus defined by Zinn as the ability of someone to pay attention purposefully in a certain way, in the current moment, and without judging. He described it as a practice that promotes the awareness as well as acceptance of feelings, bodily sensations, and thoughts, as they come up (Kabat‐Zinn, 2003).
They are also taught to realize that these things are only temporary and they will thus pass. Mindfulness teaches patients to acknowledge as well as accept their experiences rather than suppressing and modifying them. With this, the individual will be able to make more mindful behavioral choices. Mindfulness can be applied to different interventions. Other than MBSR, the other mindfulness-based interventions used for addictive disorders comprise of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). In the recent past, these interventions have been modified to cater for the populations that abuse drugs. The new interventions include Mindfulness-Based Therapeutic Community (MBTC) and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) (Shapiro et al., 2006).
Many studies have shown that the use of mindfulness in the treating of abuse disorders has been successful for many years. However, this cannot be relied upon on its own if effectiveness is desired. It needs to be used together with other modes of treatment. In this paper, to avoid the relapse that occurs in many patients, we will focus on the combination of mindfulness based therapy with the use of social media. For many years, people have relied on the healthcare facilities to get the treatment and after care for opioid addiction. This system has clearly not been as efficient as it needs to be. This is because of many reasons. But specifically, the facilities may not be very accessible to some patients because of the remoteness of the location or inadequate staffing. Because of this, some patients will not be able to get the kind of attention and follow up required to heal completely.
This is where the social media comes in. Almost everyone today has an internet enabled phone or tablet. They are therefore capable of joining a social media site where they can interact with specialists and other people going through the same problem. Stories have been published on various news media telling the stories of people being helped to get rid of their opioid addiction. One of these is the story of a mother from Ohio that started her secret addiction to the painkillers she had been prescribed for her bad back. She experienced a bad back pain and went to the doctor in 2015. The doctor then prescribed synthetic opioid tramadol to her easily. However, when the drugs got finished, the doctor refused to refill it. This is when she started experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Because she could not access the drugs, she decided to go to the streets where she received heavier narcotics like oxycodone (Harfenist & Cohen, 2017).
Seeing her desperation, a friend invited her to a Facebook group that was dedicated to helping people with opioid dependency. The group is called Opiate Addicts. At first, she only joined the group just to see what it was about. Her main reason for joining the group is because she had no one to talk to offline either and this would be a good place to connect. Her initial intention was not to get clean but rather to just see what people were doing there. Therefore, for a long time, she stayed and watched things in the background (Harfenist & Cohen, 2017). As time went by, she started connecting with some members of the group. During her time in the group, she was able to see addicts getting sober although others sank in even deeper. Gradually, she started to learn the different tricks of staying sober from all the guidance and advice she received from the group. Little by little she started to be clean but would relapse over again. She was finally able to get rid of the behavior for good and has ever since remained sober for more than a year now (Harfenist & Cohen, 2017).
These social media group have been very helpful to the opioid addicts. Other than giving them an opportunity to relate with each other and feel each other’s pain, social media has been helping in keeping the people wandering off on track. For example, some patients end up developing suicidal thoughts and without anyone to follow them up, they may actually end up killing themselves. They have tracked down many people in the past who have indicated that they want to commit suicide. They have thus managed to track them down with the necessary authorities and offered the people help. The opiate and Opioid group Addicts group has over 8,900 members with three administrators (Harfenist & Cohen, 2017). Even though these groups and social media networks are helping people to get over their addiction and keep off from relapsing, relying on them alone is not sufficient.
Because of the discrepancy was seen in using both mindfulness and social media separately, the white paper recommends the combination of the methods. To maximize the results of each method, they need to be used together. Mindfulness meditation helps people stay connected with themselves and their feelings, thoughts, and experiences. On the other hand, the social media has been seen to be a good place where the patients are able to connect with each other, feel the experiences of each other, and change gradually. Nonetheless, if the individual does not understand himself and the emotions and things he is going through, he will not be able to stay away from relapsing because they are not strong enough to think rationally. The two of them need to be put together to reduce the cases of relapsing.
Conclusion
The number of opioid addicts is fast increasing in the United States. The number is growing so fast that it is becoming difficult to cater for all these patients because the licensed programs that deal with the issue is not big enough. This has also increased the number of deaths from drug overdose. To add on to the problem, the people that have been able to get treatment end up falling back to their addiction. The treatments offered are only making the problem worse because it still involves the use of synthetic opioids. Even if someone manages to get treated, most of them relapse and go back to the drawing board. This is not only time consuming but too expensive as well. Mindfulness meditation has been a cognitive therapy that has been used to help keep the patients in touch with themselves. This method has worked for a long time and has reduced the relapses. Additionally, various social media sites have also been used to connect the addicts to each other and to professional help. Because of the inadequacy in the independent effectiveness of the methods, the recommendation of this paper is that mindfulness and social media be used together because this enhances the recovery and reduce the relapses as well because it works both on the neurogenerated and environmental aspects of the individual.
References
Chalana, H., Kundal, T., Gupta, V., & Malhari, A. S. (2016). Predictors of Relapse after Inpatient Opioid Detoxification during 1-Year Follow-Up. Journal of addiction, 2016.
Harfenist , E., & Cohen, A. (2017, April 30). How opioid addicts are using social media to get clean. Retrieved July 21, 2017, from http://theweek.com/articles/694617/how-opioid-addicts-are-using-social-media-clean
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National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2014). Drug Facts: Heroin. Bethesda, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse. Available at http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/heroin
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