Effective Drug Rehab Solutions for New Mexico
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It’s not unusual to see media coverage of New Mexico’s heroin and opioid problem. Northern counties like Bernalillo and Rio Arriba epitomize the problem the state has with drugs. Rio Arriba County, tucked up next to the Colorado border and east of Farmington, is very sparsely populated but it has the highest rate of drug overdose deaths. Bernalillo County, home to Albuquerque, produces the highest number of deaths. The drugs most likely to kill people are an opioid like methadone or oxycodone (almost half of all overdose deaths), followed by heroin (more than a third), tranquilizers, cocaine, and antidepressants.
Drug overdose rates tripled in this state between 1990 and 2015. Nationally, the rate of fatal overdoses per 100,000 population was 16.3 deaths but the New Mexico rate was an appalling 24.8 deaths. In the city of Espanola, the rate hit 42.5.
It seems very hard to believe but in some households, heroin use is accepted. In northern counties, it’s common for addiction to be multi-generational, with children being introduced to drug use by seeing their parents using drugs at home.
New Mexico was way ahead of the curve in dispensing naloxone, starting in 2007. They were also early in enacting what has come to be called the Good Samaritan law to protect people doing their best to save the life of someone who is overdosing.
Alcohol Ending Many Lives Early
But there’s next to no media coverage of New Mexico’s pervasive and destructive problem with alcohol. By almost every measure, New Mexicans damage themselves with alcohol far more than nearly all the other states. Nationally, one in ten deaths can be attributed to alcohol but in New Mexico, it’s one in six. From 1997 to 2010, New Mexico had the unenviable distinction of being #1 for deaths resulting from alcohol. American Indians suffer this fate nearly at a rate nearly three times that of whites or Hispanics. Here too, Rio Arriba was the leader in suffering this kind of damage.
A graph of treatment admissions in New Mexico (below) reflects the high rate of alcohol problems in the state, but not the problems with opioids. One report commissioned by the City of Albuquerque noted that more youth were looking for help with opioid addiction but that there were few resources for treatment of youth or for the administration of various kinds of medication-assisted treatment.
Lack of resources could prevent many people in New Mexico from seeking help, as could the acceptability of drug use in some households.
One bright spot amid the alcohol-induced damage is that high school students in New Mexico engage in binge drinking far less than they used to. From 35% reporting binge drinking in 2003, only 15% reported doing so in 2015.
Lasting Recovery Takes Time and the Right Program
When you leave rehab, you have your best chance of staying sober if you have addressed the problems that led you into addiction and the damage caused by years of addiction. This is the focus of the Narconon drug rehab program.
The Narconon program begins with a specialized withdrawal process which does not use replacement drugs. It is designed to assist the individual to come off drugs as rapidly and comfortably as possible using nutritional supplements and physical techniques that help alleviate the discomfort associated with withdrawal.
When a physician deems it medically necessary, Narconon refers students for a distinct medically supervised withdrawal as a prerequisite to beginning the Narconon program. Once the person is safely weaned down from heavy alcohol use or drugs such as benzodiazepines that require medical supervision, they are ready to begin the Narconon drug-free withdrawal.
Next, the individual begins on their post-acute withdrawal support through a deep, sauna-based detoxification. The combination of time in a low-heat sauna, a strict regimen of nutritional supplements and moderate daily exercise activates the body’s ability to extract drug toxins that have been stored in the body, sometimes for years. As the person sweats in the sauna, residues of past drug or alcohol use are gradually washed away. When this process is complete, many people talk about how their thinking is clearer. It is often easier to communicate and laughing comes more naturally for some. Most people’s outlooks are brighter as well.
This prepares a person for the rest of this drug-free rehab program. The next step involves restoring one’s perception of and communication with the present environment. Years of addiction take a terrible toll on a person and the present environment can seem dim and vague. After this detoxification, a person is ready to re-engage with the present and learn to control his actions, decisions, and even thoughts. This next change is accomplished gradually on the objectives, a series of precise actions designed to brighten perceptions and rehabilitate self-control.
What follows is a three-part life skills training module teaching the most vital skills to protect lasting sobriety. First, a person learns to differentiate between social personalities and the antisocial so he is not tripped up by trusting the wrong people. Then he learns how to recover his own personal integrity—to his great relief. This is often when those in recovery realize that they deserve to have a happy future, that they are worth helping and can help others. Finally, each person studies exact formulas that can be applied to resolve problems and overcome barriers.
A person on the Narconon drug rehab program only graduates when he has learned to put all these tools to use and is ready to take on his new sober life.
Law Enforcement in New Mexico Has a Difficult Job
With any state on the border of Mexico, there’s always a higher level of drugs flowing through the state than there are for states further north. As a result, New Mexico high school students have higher levels of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana use.
- The highest rate of marijuana use among high school students is among American Indian males and females.
- Forty-one percent of males report use and 46% of females.
- In Taos County, nearly four out of every ten high school students reports marijuana use.
Get Help Now
When a person in New Mexico is seeking recovery from addiction, he (or she) has a choice of Narconon centers. To the east in Oklahoma, a large Narconon center is situated on a ridge of hills overlooking the state’s largest lake. In Colorado to the north, there’s a center in Ft. Collins. The same program is offered in each location and the staff receive the same training. Each student receives the same manuals to help them get through the program and a series of videos makes the educational process faster and easier.
Learn how the Narconon program can help you or someone you care about build a new, lasting sober life. Call Narconon today for the whole story of this unique path to recovery.
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