Drug Induced Psychosis: The Signs, the Causes and How It Is Treated
Drug-induced psychosis is a break from reality triggered by drugs. Someone in it may hear voices or see things that are not there, and hold fixed beliefs that cannot be true. For most people it clears within days to a few weeks of stopping the substance. While it lasts it is a real medical emergency, […]
Codeine Addiction: The Signs, the Dangers and the Other Painkillers That Cause Dependence
Codeine addiction in South Africa rarely begins with a decision to use drugs. It usually begins with genuine pain and a pharmacy product that helped. Maybe it was a migraine that Myprodol finally touched, or a cough that only a codeine syrup could settle. The shift from taking codeine for pain to needing it to […]
What Is Mandrax? Inside South Africa’s Methaqualone Problem
Mandrax is the South African street name for tablets containing methaqualone, a sedative drug banned internationally in the 1970s but still produced in clandestine laboratories around the country. The drug acts as a central nervous system depressant. It slows breathing and dulls consciousness to a level that can cause respiratory failure, especially when combined with […]
Warning Signs of Relapse: What Families and Sponsors Should Watch For
Relapse is a process, not an event. By the time someone in recovery picks up a drink or a drug, the relapse has usually been underway for two to four weeks. The earliest signs are emotional rather than behavioural, and they appear long before anyone reaches for a substance. This article describes what to look […]
The High Functioning Alcoholic: When the Problem Doesn’t Look Like a Problem
Yes, you can be a high functioning alcoholic and still need treatment. The defining feature is that nobody around you sees the problem. You hold the senior job and pay the bond. You drink a bottle of wine every night. Your performance has not collapsed. That is not evidence you do not have a problem. […]
How to Stop Drinking: An Honest Guide for Someone Ready to Quit
The safe way to stop drinking depends on how much you have been drinking and for how long. For light to moderate drinkers, the path is behavioural. You change your environment and your routine, and within a few weeks the cravings ease. For heavy daily drinkers, willpower alone is dangerous. Sudden withdrawal from heavy drinking […]
Domestic Abuse Thrives Behind Perfect Social Media Lives
Domestic violence does not thrive in dark corners anymore. It thrives in the spotlight, behind curated feeds, matching outfits, sunset selfies, and relationship highlight reels polished to perfection. Social media has given abusive partners an unexpected gift, a stage on which they can perform as devoted lovers while controlling and terrorising their partners behind closed […]
Relapse Prevention Isn’t Willpower, It’s a Brutal Audit of Your Life
Relapse isn’t born in the moment someone picks up. It’s not the drink, the hit, the line, or the call to the dealer. Relapse starts long before the substance reappears. It begins quietly—inside daily habits, inside self-deception, inside the gaps people pretend aren’t there. The world keeps telling us relapse is a failure of discipline. […]
How Fear Keeps You Addicted to Managing Everything
Addiction isn’t only about substances. It’s about control, losing it, craving it, chasing it, pretending you have it. And for many people in recovery, the addiction doesn’t end when the drugs or alcohol stop. It simply changes shape. The new high comes from control, the desperate, obsessive need to manage everything and everyone to feel […]
Sober October
Many South Africans drink too much! Why is this? Is it just to party, or do underlying issues need to be addressed? Whatever your reason might be, I ask that you please consider this. Changes Addiction Rehab is issuing you a challenge. Join us for Sober October 2024! Simply Sober October. We are doing it, […]