Effective Drug Rehab Treatment

Drug rehab centers have helped thousands of people around the world to recover from their addiction from harmful substances. It helps in giving a new lease of life to the patients by rejuvenating their body, mind and spirit. They make the addicted person stop using drugs for their normal existence. They teach the addicts about the psychological, legal, financial, social, physical and other harmful effects of these drugs on them. They normally face problems like declining health, ruined relationships, financial loss, legal complications and many a times it leads to death of the drug abuser also. Substance abuse not only affects the addicted person and his family but also creates problems for the society as a whole.

If you notice that anyone in your friend circle and family member is facing issues with drug addiction, then you should intervene to end the chaos and help the person to get the treatment required. It will help him to regain control of his life again and start living a normal and healthy life once again. Learned and highly skilled professionals help the addicts to fight with their addiction and recover from it. Selecting a right drug rehab center is very important because if you select a wrong such a service providing center then along with the wastage of money and time, the life of the patient will also be in jeopardy.

While choosing a drug rehab center you should gather proper information on its drug rehab programs, staff expertise, credentials, cost and the effectiveness of its treatment. Nowadays most of these service providers have websites of their own. You can visit these websites and gain all the important information's from them. You can read reviews and a testimonial of people who got treated there and then opt for the one which you think is suitable for your needs and budget. If you manage to select the right drug treatment service provider for yourself then it will be quite beneficial for you. Professional and competent service centers always develop individualized treatment plans for their patients. Most of them offer a combination of inpatient, outpatient and partial hospitalization programs. You can choose one of them according to your convenience.

There are various steps of treatment in these service centers and the first step is detoxification. In this step, the residues of harmful substances which the patient used to take are eliminated. During this process, the patient faces withdrawal symptoms. Doctors give proper care and treatment to the patients so that they can be able to deal with their withdrawal. Detox treatment basically includes exercising, sauna treatments and consumption of vitamins and supplements.

The next step after this is counseling. It involves one to one counseling with a doctor who is an expert in curing people suffering from addiction problems. The counselor holds a detailed discussion with the patient and helps them to discover the root causes of their addiction. They make the patient realize the beauty of life and help them to get out of their addiction. Addiction is a big problem, but an efficient drug rehab treatment can help the patient to go back into their normal life.

Drug Rehab Center for Fast Recovery

Addiction to any kind of drugs can take your life for a toss. Nowadays a large number of people especially youngsters are getting into various kinds of substance abuse and ruining their lives. It's important to diagnose the addiction in the early stage and take remedial action to get rid of it. There are various drug rehab centers available nowadays which treats the patients and helps them to recover from their addiction. They help an addicted person to get back successfully into the society again without the need of drugs in your life.

The main objective of these service providers is to help their patients overcome from their dependency on drugs and start living a normal and healthy life once again. There are many stages during these processes and detoxification is the first stage. During this stage the residues of all harmful substances are removed from your body. Drugs are very harmful substances which affect the body of the addicted person in a very negative way. So, it is quite important that your body is freed from all kinds of drugs and its residues to take the treatment further. During the process of detoxification, the patient is kept away from the drugs to which he is addicted.

After the process of detoxification, the patient is treated with various medications. During this stage, the patient is given medicines and other treatments which help them to deal with the underlying problems of his addiction. Along with providing proper medication and treatment, the rehab centers also make sure that the patient receives enough love, care and attention so that he gets motivated from inside to fight with his addiction. They make the patients to participate in extracurricular activities like some sport, dancing etc. so that their mind is busy. It helps in diverting their attention from the cravings for drugs.

The internet is a very good option to gather information about such service providers in your town or in your locality. By browsing through the internet, you can be able to find an array of websites of such service providers. You can browse through the website and gather information about the services they renders to their patients. Word of mouth is another good way to find important information about them. You can ask people in your friend and family circles who have prior experience of going to such service renders. Their advices and opinions will be helpful for you to get an insight about the quality of services of rehab service providers.

While you are searching for such a service provider, money should not be the main issue. Life is the most important thing you have, take care of it! You should always prefer treatment center that is experienced and well known in this field. Their staffs will be well skilled and have the expertise to give you proper treatment which will help you to get out of your addiction. So, get treated in a good drug rehab clinic and start living a normal and healthy life once again.

Drug Rehab for Meth Addiction

Meth is one of the most dangerous and addictive drugs abused today. Thankfully, even the most severely addicted people can make lasting recoveries with today's drug rehab programs. Due to medical advances over the last several decades, addiction specialists have been able to develop a myriad of effective addiction treatments. Here are a few of the proven methods which rehab clinics use to help people recover from meth addiction.

Rapid Detox

Most people who come to rehab clinics with severe physical drug dependencies require detoxification. Detox is a five to fourteen-day process of drug deprivation that weans addicts of their constant and immediate needs for drugs. It doesn't cure addiction - nothing does - but it allows rehab patients to effectively engage their therapies.

In the case of meth addiction, however, normal detox methods can involve risk of breathing problems, seizures, and even heart attack. To mitigate these symptoms, doctors sometimes use specialized medicines to induce rapid detox. Meth addicts can experience days of withdrawal within hours, limiting the time they spend exposed to high-risk withdrawal symptoms.

Inpatient Treatment

Because meth causes such severe addictions, addicts typically require inpatient rehabilitation programs. Inpatient treatment lasts one to three months and requires addicts to live at their treatment facilities. Patients receive fifty or more hours of therapy per week - therapies which help them make rapid but lasting lifestyle changes.

There are a variety of effective therapies for addiction treatment, but the most common ones are called evidence-based therapies. These primarily include individual counseling, group discussions, and family therapy, and they are the most rigorously tested treatments available today.

Individual Counseling

All evidence-based therapies are effective, but one-on-one counseling sessions are the most important aspect of most addicts' recoveries. During counseling, addicts discover the root causes of their addictions and learn to identify their triggers - the people, places, and objects which lead them to use drugs.

Once they have made these personal discoveries, addicts can effectively formulate plans to avoid their triggers and deal with drug cravings. Addiction last a lifetime, and these coping strategies are crucial for staying sober when life's unpredictable situations cause cravings to reemerge.

Biofeedback Therapy

Meth is one of the most physically damaging illicit drugs, and users often lose their abilities to identify the physical warning signs of impending cravings. To restore this kind of mind-body connection, rehab clinicians use specialized biofeedback machines to monitor patients' vital signs. They the teach addicts the connections between physical stressors and drug cravings, allowing them to avoid future temptations to use.

Sweeping Lifestyle Changes

In most cases, addicts must make drastic changes to their lifestyles to maintain the clean lives they begin during rehab. In most cases, they must cut ties with old friends who still use drugs - even if those are the only friends they have. Since stress so often leads people to relapse, they must also change their careers, social circles, and living arrangements to create low-stress environments.

Meth addiction can make life seem utterly hopeless, but even the most severely dependent users can get clean. If you're struggling with meth or other drugs, click the links below to locate the treatment centers in your area. Drug rehab can help make life worth living again - all you have to do is ask for help.

Multiple versions of the same painting

It is interesting that throughout art history we can find one artist who will paint multiple versions of the same painting- why is this?  There are many reasons but usually the first version of the painting was so successful that the artist had received another commission.  Let's look at several well known versions of the same theme by the same artist.

1483, Louvre (left) and 1506, The National Gallery (London) (right) 

The Virgin of the Rocks, Leonardo da Vinci 

Leonardo da Vinci created this new type of Madonna and Child painting when he first moved to Milan.  The figures aren't seated on a throne or a chair, but enclosed in a unique landscape which seems otherworldly.  The Virgin Mary puts her arm around the infant St. John the Baptist as he is given the sign of benediction by the infant Christ while being watched over by an angel.  A foreshadowing to Christ's baptism by St. John can be seen in the body of water in the foreground.  Leonardo is here using several techniques he is famous for: chiaroscuro (modeling form with lights and darks), sfumato (using this glazes of paint like smoke) and the use of atmospheric perspective in the blue-gray landscape in the distant background.  The gestures, colors and forms all act as symbols as Leonardo took great care to copy this painting nearly exactly in the second version.

Why two versions of this painting?  The web site of the Louvre museum has a good hypothesis regarding the two versions of Leonardo's Virgin of the Rocks.  The following text is taken from the website and was written by Séverine Laborie:

"The Louvre version of the picture was to have been the central part of a polyptych which the Brotherhood of the Immaculate Conception commissioned Leonardo and the de Predis brothers to paint for a chapel in the church of San Francesco Grande in Milan in 1483. The other version, now in the National Gallery in London and known to have formerly been in this chapel, and several archive documents indicate that the Louvre painting was never installed there. Its presence in the French royal collection is attested from1627, but several clues suggest it may have been acquired much earlier.

The most convincing hypothesis is that the picture, painted between 1483 and 1486, did not meet with Leonardo’s clients’ full satisfaction, which enabled Louis XII to acquire it around 1500−1503. The second, replacement picture, now in London, may have been painted by Ambrogio de Predis under Leonardo’s supervision between 1495 and 1508."

                1528, Metropolitan Museum of Art (left) and 1530, St. Louis Art Museum (right)

 The Judgment of Paris, Lucas Cranach the Elder 

German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder was a court painter in Saxony and above we see two versions of The Judgment of Paris.  This told a story from the start of the Trojan War where the shepherd Paris had to judge which of three Greek goddesses was the most beautiful.  Cranach made several versions of this theme, he depicts the goddess as young and lithe (if proportionally inaccurate) and shows Paris dressed as a Renaissance man.  This was a popular theme for a few reasons: it showed the patron was educated and had knowledge of the classics and it depicted beautiful women.  Yet there was another reason this story was popular among Cranach’s patrons.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art states on their website:

“Just as the emperor Augustus had claimed descent from Aeneas, a son of Venus, so many Italian princes traced their ancestry to the participants in the Trojan War or sought to equate their own accomplishments with the deeds of these heroes.”*

Patrons wanted to tie themselves to the events portrayed in either a painting or sculpture and so commissioned a well known historic or mythological theme from an artist.

*Source of quote: Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints | Thematic Essay |Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 Supper at Emmaus, Caravaggio, 1601, The National Gallery (London)

The Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio has a few examples of multiple versions of the same painting.  His two versions of Christ's Supper at Emmaus are unique in this blog entry as being quite different from one another.

A Roman nobleman Ciriaco Mattei, commissioned the earlier version (above) in 1601.  In this first version Caravaggio pays as much attention to the detailed still-life objects on the table as to his figures.  The gestures that each figure makes are quite theatrical, Christ is shown as clean shaven and this version is not as dark.  In fact a figure casts a shadow that seems to represent a halo over the head of Christ.  While this is a well done painting, it isn't as realistic as his later version.

The second version of this painting was done after Caravaggio committed murder and fled to Naples.  Today it hangs in the Brera Gallery in Milan where I was fortunate enough to have recently seen it, in fact I spent quite a long time sitting in front of this painting.  This later version is more somber and powerful for the viewer, the figures appear in a naturalistic way rather than as having been posed dramatically for the scene.  The sobering changes in the artist's own life are clearly reflected in this work, done in 1606.

Supper at Emmaus, Caravaggio, 1606, Brera Gallery, Milan

 

Vanitas Still-Life, Pieter Claesz                                                              Vanitas Still-Life, Pieter Claesz     

1630, Mauritshuis, Holland                                                               1656, Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna

Seventeenth century Dutch painter Pieter Claesz was a prolific artist who specialized in the Vanitas painting.  In Latin Vanitas means vanity and the Vanitas painting uses symbols to reflect on mortality.  The message for the viewer was a reminder that while earthly life is fleeting, your soul is eternal. While variations of the Vanitas had been used for centuries, its rise in Dutch art coincided with a difficult time in the countries history.  The Twelve Years Truce with Spain ended in 1621 and much of the next decade was spent under siege.  In 1624 a plague swept through Holland, the plague returned in 1635 and struck most heavily in Leiden where over 14,000 died.  

The Vanitas painting became increasing popular through the 1620’s and went from being metaphorical to an allegory of death.  Symbols of mortality included: skulls, candles (both lit and extinguished), timepieces, extinguished oil lamps and empty hourglasses. Claesz painted many versions of Vanitas paintings as they were a popular style of painting and middle and upper class patrons were buying these from galleries to display in their homes.

 1638-43, Metropolitan Museum of Art (left) and 1640-45, Louvre, (right)

                                        The Penitent Magdalene, Georges de la Tour

 French artist Georges de la Tour paints another version of the Vanitas, the penitent Mary Magdalene reflecting on her sins.  He owed much of his style to that of Caravaggio and is considered a "Caravaggisti" or one of Caravaggio's stylistic followers.  de la Tour painted at least four versions of this work, The Repentant Magdalene, is now housed in the National Gallery of Art (DC) and The Magdalene with the Smoking Flame, at the LACMA.
This was typical for the artist, he also painted multiple versions of other themes during his career.

Like the Claesz paintings we have symbols of mortality, such as the skull and the candle.  There are also other symbols of earthly vanity such as jewelry.  Like Caravaggio he creates a somber mood with a strong light source, all four versions of this painting are illuminated by a single candle.  Though the earliest version is unique in that the flame of the candle is reflected in a mirror that Mary Magdalene looks into with a meditative gaze.  Like Pieter Claesz, Georges de la Tour was also selling his work for a broad market and therefore would paint additional versions of his paintings that were the most popular.

 

 Painting Gallery of Ancient Rome, Pannini, 1758, Louvre

Giovanni Paolo Pannini painted his famous pair of works: Painting Gallery of Ancient Rome and Painting Gallery of Modern Rome while he was the professor of perspective at the French Academy of Rome.  French painter Hubert Robert began working in his studio and Pannini was to become the biggest influence on his artistic style.  Pannini took on the role of a mentor for Robert and the younger artist proclaimed him to be the greatest painter of ruins in the world.  While under his supervision Robert assisted with the master’s well known first version of his paintings of imaginary gallery views of ancient and modern Rome, of which he would make several other versions.  The first version was commissioned in 1756 by the Comte de Stainville (the future Duc de Choiseul) who had himself and his friends painted into the scenes as visitors to the galleries.  This pair of paintings proved to be so popular with de Stainville that the year after he finished them Pannini created a second set of these paintings again for the Comte, now in the Louvre.  Robert himself owned a later third version of Pannini’s gallery view paintings as well as several other works by him.

 Painting Gallery of Ancient Rome, Pannini, 1756-57, Stuttgart, Germany

These are just a handful of examples of multiple versions of the same painting by the same artist, but many more can be found throughout history.

Holbein's The Ambassadors

I have long been fascinated by Hans Holbein the Younger's 1533 painting The Ambassadors.  This double Renaissance portrait is filled with symbolism both known and unknown.  The artist Holbein was originally from Germany and moved to England after the Protestant Reformation to work as a portrait artist.  Holbein eventually became a royal court portraitist for King Henry VIII and painted many members of the Tudor court.  

This work is a portrait of two French ambassadors who visited Henry VIII and have been indentified as Jean de Dinteville (left) and Bishop Georges de Selve (right).

 The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533, The National Gallery, London

It is important to keep in mind that 1533 was a seminal year in English history: Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine were divorced, he then married Anne Boleyn and was excommunicated from the Catholic church.  The Protestant Reformation was well underway in Europe and after Henry VIII was excommunicated, England too breaks away from Catholicism.

These events were in part why de Dinteville and de Selve were sent from France to England to visit the Tudor court.  It isn't entirely clear who commissioned Holbein to paint their portrait and requested so many symbols and details be added.  This work has been the subject of scholarly research and debates for centuries.

The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533, detail of dagger and book

One element that may go unnoticed by most viewers is that Holbein has listed the age of each of his subjects, de Dinteville (29) on the sheath of his dagger and de Selve (25) on the pages of the book his elbow rests upon. These symbols tie into the idea of de Dinteville as a man of action and de Selve as one who is leading a contemplative life.  The shelves in the middle are filled with additional symbols that show both men were well educated in a variety of ways.

 The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

detail of upper shelf

The upper shelf is filled with scientific instruments and has been referred to as the heavenly realm.  Let's look more closely at these objects.  Sitting on top of a luxurious oriental carpet we have a globe of the heavens, a quadrant and several instruments used to tell time including two types of sundials.


Are these objects alluding to the knowledge and worldliness of the two ambassadors?  Is there a particular day and time that the instruments point to that add to the message in the painting?

The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

detail of lower shelf

The lower shelf while the lower shelf is filled with the objects of man and thought of as the earthly realm.  Here we have a globe of the earth, a book open to reveal mathematics, a lute, several flutes and a song book open to reveal specific hymns.

The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

detail of lute and songbook

If you look closely at the lute, you will see that one of the strings has been broken.  Therefore an instrument which would be considered harmonious, is now a symbol of discord.  Was this a symbol of discord between England and the Catholic church?  Perhaps instead it was a symbol of the discord between Henry VIII and Catherine as the queen failed to produce a suitable heir to the throne.  Later in the 17th century the lute was frequently used in Northern European painting as a symbol of a woman's sexual organs, though I don't know if there is any connection to that in this painting.

The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

detail of floor and anamorphic skull

Still lower in the painting are the unique type of flooring and the anamorphic skull, which is unrecognizable when viewing the painting head on.  The viewer must stand to the side and crouch down in order to see it, though it is thought that it originally hung over a flight of stairs and that the viewer would have an easier time seeing this skull, perhaps so as to be taken by surprise by it.

While there are other examples of anamorphic art (where an image can only be seen from a certain viewpoint) it wasn't common at the time.  In fact Holbein was very skilled to have been able to properly execute this artistic trick.

 

The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

detail of anamorphic skull as seen three dimensionally

The unique flooring is said to be the same as the style in the main altar of Westminster Abbey.  At Westminster the design on the floor has a significance as representing the universe.  Is the fact that there is a skull placed at the bottom, within a possible symbol of the universe a representation of the inevitability of death?  Look again at the full painting at the top and in the top left is a crucifix, placed in a spot over the heavens and earth and reminding the viewer that salvation could be found after death.

Articles and books have been written about this mysterious and compelling work of art and while several interesting theories have been proposed, we may never have all the answers.

If you have not visited the incredible Google Art Project site, I suggest you do so if only to view an incredibly close and detailed version of this painting.

Recreational use of ED drugs is bad for one's health

When Viagra first appeared, it was hailed as effective by the millions who had been affected by erectile dysfunction. This left many in the rest of the community curious. Men whose sexual performance had always seemed adequate wondered whether the use of the little blue pills could somehow make the experience better. Even women who had found men a little underwhelming wondered whether they might use viagra and find their own orgasms improved. At first, this was viewed as a benign development. Women quickly discovered their use of the pills had no effect, while men found there was no difference in their performance and decided it was cheaper to enjoy sex the natural way. We now move forward to 2012.

Viagra recreational use triggers psychological problems

A new survey finds the recreational use of erectile dysfunction drugs can have a negative effect. The research was based on 1,200 young men of college age and the finding is that men who took the drugs without a prescription found sex less satisfying. This seems to be an issue of self-confidence. Some men were either feeling inadequate or found their sex lives less satisfying than they expected. Whatever the reason, they took the drug to boost their performance or hoping to gain increased satisfaction. After several doses, the men reported a more general dissatisfaction with their sexual performance. If we can believe these self-reports, it seems recreational use introduces or amplifies psychological problems. Worse, these problems seem to persist.

Te routine use of Viagra masks your health problems

Experts say there's no evidence men develop a tolerance for erectile dysfunction drugs. They work as well, or as badly, throughout time. But if you use Viagra or other Ed drugs over time, this could mask a general decline in physical ability through aging or for some other reason. These other reasons could be psychological, i.e. acting as a spectator to your own physical performance can make it seem less enjoyable, or it may lead to greater expectations than can ever be satisfied. Or advancing artherosclerosis may be hidden and make it more likely the men will have a stroke or heart attack.

Powerup Your Songwriting With A Chord Wheel

Quick what's the 1st thing that pops into your mind when you think of Music theory? Hey... This is a PG post. ha But you get my point. Very few people get excited at the thought of studying music theory. What I propose... Go at it a different way.

The Chord Wheel, provides an excellent way to propel your music and songwriting forward. Essentially, what it does is give you a plethora of options for chords to use that sound good tonally together. You start with the key you want to play in and spin the wheel to open up the options of what chords or notes to play next. The Chord wheel is an excellent resource for composition, soloing, music education, and transposing.

When writing our own songs, we typically have a handful of chords that we are comfortable with. Our staples, per say. But to continue on our journey as songwriters, we need to move past, what is comfortable, and learn new things. This can often be frustrating, slubbing through websites, books, and reference apps to get points of references.

This handy little tool has it all in one. Is it going to be the only thing we use? Absolutely not, but it can help open up even the worst of writer's block. There is even a handy app for all of our phones.

Another cool way to use this songwriting resource is to look up your favorite songs tabs, and see what chords they used and compare them to your own songs. See if your favorite musician or band is moving to the same positions you tend to gravitate towards.

Here is another cool trick!

Look up your favorite songs tab.

Pull out the chord wheel, and use the first chord as a reference point,

Now change the rest to different chords than the ones in your favorite song!

Maybe you start with moving all the chords just one spot to the right on the wheel.

Now play the chords together, and WALLAH you have a new song. Now, it may take some experimentation, but you get the point. Your options and growth, as a songwriter, have just opened up.

Have fun with it! Use the new inspiration to write that hit, or a new jam song for you and your buddies. We're all looking for new tricks, and this may very welll be a new way at looking at something you already knew.