Addiction - Why We Need the Detoxification Stage

Excerpted from
End Your Addiction Now
By Charles Gant, M.D. and Greg Lewis, Ph.D.

With this in mind, the goals of the Detoxification stage of the Power Recovery Program are:

• Removing the sources of toxins that can poison your brain and body and can contribute to the nutritional deficiencies and biochemical imbalances that have put you at risk for substance problems

• Fortifying the "toxin barriers" of your digestive system so that toxins you ingest are not readily absorbed

• Strengthening your body's detoxification pathways so that the continuing process of detoxification can be carried out with maximum efficiency

The Detoxification stage of the Power Recovery Program consists of a protocol of nine nutritional supplements specifically designed to detoxify your body and enable you to achieve the three goals I've listed above. I want to make it clear from the outset that, in most cases, these are not goals that can be accomplished overnight. The process of getting rid of accumulated toxins is necessarily a gradual one. But while it may take some time for you to eliminate most of your toxic load, the good news is that most of you will begin to feel the positive results of your Power Recovery Program detoxification within a short time, in some cases only a few weeks. If your toxic load is high, and your body's ability' to detoxify seriously impaired, the process may take several months.

When Is It Safe To Stop Substance Use?

Now I've got to introduce a word into this discussion that many people who have substance problems dread hearing. The word is "withdrawal." Withdrawal symptoms are part of the detoxification process, and almost everyone who has a substance problem experiences them to some degree as he or she cuts down on or stops substance use and begins to detoxify. For many of you, the Quick-Start nutrients will have such a pronounced positive effect that you might not even be aware that you're in withdrawal. Others might notice withdrawal symptoms but find that, because of the beneficial effects of the Quick-Start nutrients, they're not really too bad.

But it's important to remember that withdrawal is a very real and sometimes dangerous phase of recovery from a substance problem. I want to discuss it at some length here, because under certain conditions withdrawal can be life-threatening. It's not something to be taken lightly. I also want to make it clear that it is absolutely safe to take the Power Recovery Program Quick-Start and Detoxification nutrients as you taper and eventually stop your substance use. While, as I've said, in some cases withdrawal from substance use can be difficult or dangerous, taking nutritional supplements during withdrawal will not put you in any danger and will probably help. With that in mind, here are some guidelines to help you decide whether you can safely discontinue your substance use without medical help during detoxification or whether you need to seek professional or medical supervision during withdrawal.

Let me start by suggesting that you ask yourself a few questions about your substance use. First, are you at risk for developing a physiological dependence on your substance of abuse? For those of you who use alcohol, if you've been averaging four drinks per day, even for only a few weeks, you're at risk for dependence, and therefore for withdrawal symptoms. Smoking a pack or more of cigarettes per day for longer than a few months also puts you at risk. And with stimulants such as cocaine or amphetamine substances, you may be at risk for dependence after as few as three to four weeks of taking these substances an average of four times per week or more. With Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), dependence can develop in two to three months, while with the benzodiazapene family of prescription psychotropic drugs, dependence can develop in as little as five to seven days.

Next, how serious is your substance problem? Let me give you some questions that will help you determine this. Have you in the past ever quit using your substance of abuse abruptly after an extended period of steady use? If so, what withdrawal symptoms did you experience? If, for instance, you use alcohol regularly and consume an average of four or more drinks per day, but periodically stop drinking for several days or longer, are your withdrawal symptoms something you can live with? Perhaps you experience headaches, listlessness, and a mild case of the "shakes" for a few days, but then you begin to get back to normal. In cases such as this, where you've experienced withdrawal in the past and found your symptoms manageable, you should have no problems tapering or discontinuing your drinking during detoxification, especially with the help of the Quick-Start nutrients.

If you're a cocaine user, do you use the drug every day, or are there periods of several days or more between the times you use the drug? Are you able to deal with the letdown you experience during cocaine withdrawal? If so, you should not have a problem when you stop using cocaine during detoxification. In fact, although "coming down" from a cocaine "high" can be emotionally draining, withdrawing from cocaine rarely causes life-threatening physical symptoms. By the same token, while withdrawal from opiates (including heroin, morphine, codeine, methadone, and prescription painkillers) is often accompanied by nausea, physical discomfort, and severe cravings, it too is rarely life-threatening.

In general, the guidelines I'd set for you are these:

• If you've gradually reduced your substance use or stopped it altogether in the past and have been able to easily cope with withdrawal symptoms, you should have no problem quitting during your Power Recovery Program detoxification.

• If you're a cigarette smoker, a casual drinker, or an occasional drug user who's trying to quit because you're beginning to notice the negative effects of your substance use, you too can almost certainly stop your substance use as you proceed with the Detoxification stage.

There are, however, several instances where you must proceed very cautiously when considering how to discontinue substance use during detoxification. Let me give you some examples. In cases of severe alcoholism, withdrawal can be life-threatening. Alcohol detoxification has been broken down into well-defined stages, each of which is characterized by the severity of the withdrawal symptoms. One of the most dangerous, delirium tremens, or the DTs, can end in death if it if not properly and closely supervised. If you are at risk for the serious, life-threatening withdrawal symptoms associated with advanced alcoholism, you should not attempt to taper or discontinue alcohol use outside a professional addictions treatment facility.