Treating Deaf addicts

jillio said:
I understand your point. We discussed this awhile back about bi-polar disorders. I think some of it has to do with drug availability, but also, we have to consider the fact that the symptoms have been around for a long time, but until it was studied as an actual disorder, there wasn't an official name for it. ADHD kids were just known as "very active" or "hard to manage" prior to the disorder being identified.
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Also, throw in a lot of co-morbidities as well. ADHD/ADD is often co-morbid with another disorder making it that much harder to appropriately diagnose someone.
 
deafgal001 said:
what if those percentage of hearing people separated by race instead of deaf? I don't it is really fair to judge by their disability, race, etc.

Or lets say there 1,500 white students (hearing so deafness is out of the picture), and only 4 of them are native americans. 2 of them caused incidents while 55 out of 1500 white students caused incidents. Are you going to say 50% of native Americans are more likely to cause incidents?
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There are well known differences in addiction rates and substance of abuse divided by racial markers. Also SES.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Also, throw in a lot of co-morbidities as well. ADHD/ADD is often co-morbid with another disorder making it that much harder to appropriately diagnose someone.
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True. And some medications prescribed for some disorders can have a side effect of ADD type symptoms.
 
Wirelessly posted

jillio said:
Oceanblue7 said:
In perspective of hearing/ deaf world, do you think that all this new diagnosis such as ADHD/ADD could just be a money making label for new drugs from our government? Its just a thought. Years ago, no one has ever heard of such disorders.
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I understand your point. We discussed this awhile back about bi-polar disorders. I think some of it has to do with drug availability, but also, we have to consider the fact that the symptoms have been around for a long time, but until it was studied as an actual disorder, there wasn't an official name for it. ADHD kids were just known as "very active" or "hard to manage" prior to the disorder being identified.
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Yes, that's very true. Back in the day it was not identified nor studied til recently. This is an interesting thing I heard, can't at all prove its a fact, they were blaming certain foods to cause this to happen such as the kids cereals, Mc Donalds, etc..
 
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Years ago, one of my dear deaf friends was a cocaine addict. Even dealt it. Her apartment was raided, and she tried to throw the drugs down the toilet.
No matter what I said or even anyway that I tried to help her...it was useless. She went on to be a crack addict, and is that to this day, I've heard, even her 2 daughters and her son.

She was very well liked and a beautiful person before the drugs came along.
 
rockin'robin said:
Years ago, one of my dear deaf friends was a cocaine addict. Even dealt it. Her apartment was raided, and she tried to throw the drugs down the toilet.
No matter what I said or even anyway that I tried to help her...it was useless. She went on to be a crack addict, and is that to this day, I've heard, even her 2 daughters and her son.

She was very well liked and a beautiful person before the drugs came along.
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I had a childhood friend (also born hearing, but with spina bifida like me) who became addicted to cocaine. Sadly, he committed suicide in 1995.

I don't think the rates of addiction are higher amongst the deaf then the general population. But, I WOULD say that the proper services for the deaf are probably sorely lacking. Services like, interpreter led addiction meetings and psychotherapists trained in ASL. You need to have better services to meet the needs of deaf. Only then, will you see the rate of addiction go down.

*Note the same can be said for general population as well it's just magnified in the deaf population!
 
breaks my heart , I wish I knew how prevent stuffs like this. I do know that people being negative because who they are (black spina bifida, deaf, gay, etc.) does not help at all. Heck, my friend, who is very smart, took drugs. I guess she was on alot of pressure and this was her way of coping. She clean now (hopefully, but she did tell me that she will always think about it)
 
Oceanbreeze said:
I had a childhood friend (also born hearing, but with spina bifida like me) who became addicted to cocaine. Sadly, he committed suicide in 1995.

I don't think the rates of addiction are higher amongst the deaf then the general population. But, I WOULD say that the proper services for the deaf are probably sorely lacking. Services like, interpreter led addiction meetings and psychotherapists trained in ASL. You need to have better services to meet the needs of deaf. Only then, will you see the rate of addiction go down.

*Note the same can be said for general population as well it's just magnified in the deaf population!
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Very true!...There are rehab centers, but are they qualified to hand a deaf addict? Even large cities are lacking the resources.
 
deafgal001 said:
breaks my heart , I wish I knew how prevent stuffs like this. I do know that people being negative because who they are (black spina bifida, deaf, gay, etc.) does not help at all. Heck, my friend, who is very smart, took drugs. I guess she was on alot of pressure and this was her way of coping. She clean now (hopefully, but she did tell me that she will always think about it)
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An addict will always "think" about it....someone I knew actually had to leave the state to get away from old friends and dealers, as they knew her well. And once an addict, always an addict, same as for alcohol. It's a daily battle to refrain from the drugs/alcohol.
 
but until it was studied as an actual disorder, there wasn't an official name for it. ADHD kids were just known as "very active" or "hard to manage" prior to the disorder being identified.
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Yes. Like after the "sleepy sickness" encephalitis (the Awakenings one) weren't there a lot of kids who had "minimal brain damage/dysfunction?"
It IS legit. It's present in a lot of syndromes ....but on the other hand, it does seem like it's overused when the only thing wrong is parental management abilty!
 
rockin'robin said:
An addict will always "think" about it....someone I knew actually had to leave the state to get away from old friends and dealers, as they knew her well. And once an addict, always an addict, same as for alcohol. It's a daily battle to refrain from the drugs/alcohol.
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This is true. I never got addicted to drugs/alcohol, but I am in recovery from eating disorders. There are times when I am under stress that I think about resorting to my disordered eating patterns, but the difference is, I have a CHOICE now. I can CHOOSE to go to food to fulfill a certain "need", or I can choose to deal with whatever is going on constructively. I say this with the caveat that I've been in recovery for quite some time. When I was practicing my eating disordered behaviors, I did NOT have a choice. This is also true of the addict who is not abstaining. It only because a choice when you have been abstinent for some time and have begun to learn healthier coping skills to replace the addictive behavior.
 
Oceanbreeze said:
This is true. I never got addicted to drugs/alcohol, but I am in recovery from eating disorders. There are times when I am under stress that I think about resorting to my disordered eating patterns, but the difference is, I have a CHOICE now. I can CHOOSE to go to food to fulfill a certain "need", or I can choose to deal with whatever is going on constructively. I say this with the caveat that I've been in recovery for quite some time. When I was practicing my eating disordered behaviors, I did NOT have a choice. This is also true of the addict who is not abstaining. It only because a choice when you have been abstinent for some time and have begun to learn healthier coping skills to replace the addictive behavior.
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Exactly. Treatment gave you that choice by teaching you alternative coping skills. Addictions treatment functions from the same premise.
 
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