LGBT Drug Treatment Blog

Gay Drug Rehab versus Lesbian Drug Rehab

While it is true that the word gay refers to men having an interest in men and lesbian, women having interest in women, the question is can a gay man and a gay woman benefit from addiction treatment in the same drug rehab? I believe the answer to this question is yes. The key to being able to benefit from addiction services in an alcohol rehab or drug rehab lies in feeling safe and being able to relate to the others. These two components allow one to be honest and develop trust.

THe fact that these populations have issues with sexual preference in common, along with facing prejudice, discrimination will allow them to coexist and greatly benefit from the addiction treatment experience.

If you need help finding a gay drug rehab or lesbian alcohol rehab, I reccomend you call recovery connection and they wil be able to help you find one.

Addiction treatment centers offer an incredible start for gay men and lesbians on their road to recovery. These drug rehabs or addiction treatment programs are capable of providing quality addiction treatment for drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, sex addiction and dual diagnosis. Depending on the needs of the individual, certain alcohol rehabs may prove more helpful than others. It is the responsibility of each person to do their homework in gathering information to determine the most effective addtiction treatment program for them. Addiction treatment works for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders the same as any heterosexual.

Depression and HIV/AIDS

Research has enabled many men and women, and young people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), to lead fuller, more productive lives. As with other serious illnesses such as cancer, heart disease or stroke, however, HIV often can be accompanied by depression, a mental disorder that can affect mind, mood, body and behavior. Treatment for depression helps people manage both diseases, thus enhancing survival and quality of life.

Despite the enormous advances in brain research in the past 20 years, depression often goes undiagnosed and untreated. Although as many as one in three persons with HIV may suffer from depression, the warning signs of depression are often misinterpreted.

People with HIV, their families and friends, and even their physicians may assume that depressive symptoms are an inevitable reaction to being diagnosed with HIV. But depression is a separate issue that can and should be treated, even when a person is undergoing treatment for HIV or AIDS.

Some of the symptoms of depression could be related to HIV, specific HIV-related disorders, or medication side effects. However, a skilled health professional will recognize the symptoms of depression and inquire about their duration and severity, diagnose the disorder, and suggest appropriate treatment.

Facts About Depression

Depression is a serious medical condition that affects thoughts, feelings, and the ability to function in everyday life. Depression can occur at any age. NIMH-sponsored studies estimate that 6 percent of 9- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. and almost 10 percent of American adults, or about 19 million people age 18 and older, experience some form of depression every year. Although available therapies alleviate symptoms in over 80 percent of those treated, less than half of people with depression get the help they need.

Depression results from abnormal functioning of the brain. The causes of depression are currently a matter of intense research. An interaction between genetic predisposition and life history appear to determine a person’s level of risk. Episodes of depression may then be triggered by stress, difficult life events, side effects of medications, or the effects of HIV on the brain. Whatever its origins, depression can limit the energy needed to keep focused on staying healthy, and research shows that it may accelerate HIV’s progression to AIDS.

Facts About HIV/AIDS

AIDS was first reported in the United States in 1981 and has since become a major worldwide epidemic. AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By killing or damaging cells of the body’s immune system, HIV progressively destroys the body’s ability to fight infections and certain cancers.

The term AIDS applies to the most advanced stages of HIV infection. More than 700,000 cases of AIDS have been reported in the United States since 1981, and as many as 900,000 Americans may be infected with HIV. The epidemic is growing most rapidly among women and minority populations.

HIV is spread most commonly by having sex with an infected partner. HIV also is spread through contact with infected blood, which frequently occurs among injection drug users who share needles or syringes contaminated with blood from someone infected with the virus. Women with HIV can transmit the virus to their babies during pregnancy, birth, or breast-feeding. However, if the mother takes the drug AZT during pregnancy, she can reduce significantly the chances that her baby will be infected with HIV.

Many people do not develop any symptoms when they first become infected with HIV. Some people, however, have a flu-like illness within a month or two after exposure to the virus. More persistent or severe symptoms may not surface for a decade or more after HIV first enters the body in adults, or within two years in children born with HIV infection. This period of “asymptomatic” (without symptoms) infection is highly individual. During the asymptomatic period, however, the virus is actively multiplying, infecting, and killing cells of the immune system, and people are highly infectious.

As the immune system deteriorates, a variety of complications start to take over. For many people, their first sign of infection is large lymph nodes or “swollen glands” that may be enlarged for more than three months. Other symptoms often experienced months to years before the onset of AIDS include:

· Lack of energy

· Weight loss

· Frequent fevers and sweats

· Persistent or frequent yeast infections (oral or vaginal)

· Persistent skin rashes or flaky skin

· Pelvic inflammatory disease in women that does not respond to treatment

· Short-term memory loss

Many people are so debilitated by the symptoms of AIDS that they cannot hold steady employment or do household chores. Other people with AIDS may experience phases of intense life-threatening illness followed by phases in which they function normally.

Because early HIV infection often causes no symptoms, a doctor or other health care worker usually can diagnose it by testing a person’s blood for the presence of antibodies (disease-fighting proteins) to HIV. HIV antibodies generally do not reach levels in the blood which the doctor can see until one to three months following infection, and it may take the antibodies as long as six months to be produced in quantities large enough to show up in standard blood tests. Therefore, people exposed to the virus should get an HIV test within this time period.

Over the past 10 years, researchers have developed antiretroviral drugs to fight both HIV infection and its associated infections and cancers. Currently available drugs do not cure people of HIV infection or AIDS, however, and they all have side effects that can be severe. Because no vaccine for HIV is available, the only way to prevent infection by the virus is to avoid behaviors that put a person at risk of infection, such as sharing needles and having unprotected sex.

Seek Help for Depression

While there are many different treatments for depression, they must be carefully chosen by a trained professional based on the circumstances of the person and family. Prescription antidepressant medications are generally well-tolerated and safe for people with HIV. There are, however, possible interactions among some of the medications and side effects that require careful monitoring. Specific types of psychotherapy, or “talk” therapy, also can relieve depression.

Some individuals with HIV attempt to treat their depression with herbal remedies. However, use of herbal supplements of any kind should be discussed with a physician before they are tried. Scientists recently discovered that St. John’s wort, an herbal remedy sold over-the-counter and promoted as a treatment for mild depression, can have harmful interactions with other medications, including those prescribed for HIV. In particular, St. John’s wort reduces blood levels of the protease inhibitor indinavir (Crixivan®) and probably the other protease inhibitor drugs as well. If taken together, the combination could allow the AIDS virus to rebound, perhaps in a drug-resistant form.

Treatment for depression in the context of HIV or AIDS should be managed by a mental health professional—for example, a psychiatrist, psychologist, or clinical social worker—who is in close communication with the physician providing the HIV/AIDS treatment. This is especially important when antidepressant medication is prescribed, so that potentially harmful drug interactions can be avoided.

In some cases, a mental health professional that specializes in treating individuals with depression and co-occurring physical illnesses such as HIV/AIDS may be available. People with HIV/AIDS who develop depression, as well as people in treatment for depression who subsequently contract HIV, should make sure to tell any physician they visit about the full range of medications they are taking.

Recovery from depression takes time. Medications for depression can take several weeks to work and may need to be combined with ongoing psychotherapy. Not everyone responds to treatment in the same way. Prescriptions and dosing may need to be adjusted. No matter how advanced the HIV, however, the person does not have to suffer from depression. Treatment can be effective.

It takes more than access to good medical care for persons living with HIV to stay healthy. A positive outlook, determination and discipline are also required to deal with the stresses of avoiding high-risk behaviors, keeping up with the latest scientific advances, adhering to complicated medication regimens, reshuffling schedules for doctor visits, and grieving over the death of loved ones.

Other mental disorders, such as bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) and anxiety disorders, may occur in people with HIV or AIDS, and they too can be effectively treated.

Remember, depression is a treatable disorder of the brain. Depression can be treated in addition to whatever other illnesses a person might have, including HIV. If you think you may be depressed or know someone who is, don’t lose hope. Seek help for depression.

Source: National Institute of Mental Health

Gay Men and Homophobia

INTERNALIZED HOMOPHOBIA:
Having grown up in a society which condemns and even abhors homosexuality (“faggot” is still an acceptable put-down in school), we all carry with us a degree of self-hatred for our attraction to other men. And, in some of us, this self-hatred can be immense (particularly if raised in a fire-and-brimstone Fundamentalist environment, be that Seventh Day Adventist, Southern Baptist, Roman Catholic or Orthodox Jewish). Becoming infected with HIV can re-trigger this self-hatred, magnifying all of those feelings of self-loathing, since it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that “if I hadn’t acted on my sexual impulses I wouldn’t have become infected.”

LOSS OF CONTROL: Most of us labor under the delusion that we’re in control of our life circumstances, a delusion that can be maintained as long as nothing catastrophic occurs. HIV is, to many, that very catastrophe. Suddenly it seems like an alien agent (the HIV virus) is in charge of their lives. The totally powerless feeling that results has been described to me as “like being a passenger in a car on the 405 whose driver just had a heart attack”.

MEDICAL ADVANCES: Ironically, while someone who’s positive is medically much better off today than in the 1980s, it may have actually been easier for some people infected then to deal with the psychological impact of living with HIV. At that time, HIV was almost assuredly a death sentence, and those who were positive were viewed, at least by many in our community, as martyrs or heroes, “diseased” though they might be. That was a context in which fear and suffering could be endured. Today, people who are HIV positive are no longer martyrs or heroes, but they remain “diseased”. And medical advances have enabled many of those infected to look healthy, or even better than before (thanks to testosterone therapy) – even when they’re not feeling that way. So sympathy is harder to come by.

The Psychological Complexities of the HIV Positive Man

By: Jim Weinstein, M.F.T.

Therapists love to label, to categorize, and to diagnose. It’s a way to reduce the infinite variety of human experience into discreet segments that seem graspable, knowable, and (when necessary) even fixable. It is tempting to oversimplify a short article about the psychological effects of HIV. Yet the truth is that an essential part of understanding HIV’s emotional impact is to recognize that it is as complex as the disease itself.

Accordingly, I’ve decided to list a baker’s dozen of the major issues I’ve encountered in talking with hundreds of HIV positive men over the past decade. These are the variables that determine the unique, personal shape of the disease’s shadow on their lives. I believe that only through the process of understanding and honoring their individual circumstances can that shadow be lifted, and healing occur. In the interest of simplicity, I will be referring primarily to how HIV/AIDS impacts gay men, as they form the bulk of my clinical practice and are also the vast majority of the readers of this publication.

AGE: HIV’s psychological impact can be vastly different on a man in his 20s than on a man in his 40s. For a younger man, the diagnosis is generally much harder to take. Not only does it complicate the “my best years are ahead of me” thinking, but it can feel much more isolating. Older men often find some solace in the memory of friends and lovers who’ve suffered before them, a comfort seldom accessible to the younger guy, who may not know anyone who’s openly positive or who’s died of the disease.

ANXIETY: It’s hard to imagine a condition more anxiety provoking than HIV. In addition to the worries about declining health, bodily deterioration, and the possibility of premature death, there are anxiety-producing situations that someone who’s HIV positive may confront many times on a daily basis: Did I remember to take my pills? How far is the nearest toilet? Should I tell this guy that I’m positive? Not to mention longer-term worries: is my face looking gaunter? If I lose my job, what will I do about medical insurance? Should I worry about planning for retirement?

The Gay Life-Coming Out

Some of the most important (and, in many cases, most difficult) decisions in the lives of gay, lesbian or bisexual people surround “coming out,” that is, when they decide to be open and forthright about their sexual orientation. If you are thinking about whether and how you should come out, you’re probably wrestling with such questions as “How will this change my life?” “Will my family accept me?” “Will my friends still want to be my friends?” and “How do I know if this is the right thing to do?”

Millions of people have come out, and many say it was the best thing they ever did; while being an openly gay, lesbian or bisexual person is admittedly not always easy in this society, they contend it can be so much more gratifying than being “in the closet.” The effort that it takes to conceal the truth and to worry that someone will discover your secret can consume a lot of personal energy and detract significantly from the overall quality of an individual’s life.

In addition to causing pervasive feelings of isolation and fear, closeting yourself away in secrecy and denial can lead to serious mental-health consequences such as depression, extreme stress, anxiety disorders, and alcohol and/or drug abuse. No one should be denied the opportunity to live a productive and fulfilling life just because his or her sexual orientation is different from that of the majority.

Coming out–whether it’s to your parents, friends or to the outside world–can be an extremely complex emotional process. It requires that you develop the courage to honor your own experience of love and intimacy above anyone else’s judgments about it. Going through the coming out process alone can be very, very hard. Many have found that seeking the support of a mental-health professional made a world of difference in their ability to cope with outside obstacles, work through personal uncertainties and apprehensions, and strengthen their sense of self. While you can’t change the world’s prejudices, you can make sure you don’t internalize counter-productive attitudes. There are therapists who are especially experienced in gay and lesbian issues. You might consider contacting a therapist in your area who can help you cope with your particular issues so that you are able to effectively integrate your sexual orientation into a strong self-image.

It’s important to arrive at this point of strength as much as possible before you first confide in–or come out to–family and friends. Being able to come from a position of self-acceptance can be key to your ability to establish a strong and healthy stance so that you’re able to better represent to others how very right your sexual orientation is for you.

Many have found that coming out is actually much more than the one-time act of making a public announcement to the effect that they’re gay. As one person characterized their ongoing experience: “There seems to be this popular belief that you come out once and it’s done. Or that coming out only refers to when you first tell your parents that you’re gay. But coming out is a process, and what really happens is that you come out over and over and over again. I come out every day.” Throughout your personal life’s journey, it can be critically important to conscientiously maintain a sound network of individuals–friends, family, and a supportive therapist–to help make sure your ongoing process of coming out is a life affirming one.