Opioid Abuse Leads To Harmful Consequences

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Taking prescription opioids to manage pain is part of everyday life for millions of people.  As a mentor presenting vital guidance to your friends and loved ones it is important that you know how to spot problems and behaviors that are associated with opioid abuse, opioid dependency, and an opioid overdose.

The first sign of dependency is a fairly obvious one. Prescription medication comes with detailed information on when and how much medication should be taken. If you notice someone taking their meds more than instructed – or at a higher dose than instructed – then there is already a problem. This is because they need to increase their exposure to the drug in order to find relief that was manageable before, but might be quickly spinning out of control.

Other signs of dependency are what you would expect from a category of drugs – including the lines of morphine, oxycodone, and fentanyl – that have the ability to take over a person’s life. Increased tolerance begets persistent use of the drug despite obviously harmful consequences. A person will lose interest in their normal activities, obligations, and routines as they fall victim to the drug, becoming ever more dependent and moving one step closer to a life threatening – and often life taking – overdose.

The signs of an overdose are terrifying, but if you know anyone who is on opioids – be it for a legitimate reason or not – then it is important to recognize them instantly. The difference between an overdose and a very strong high are not always that obvious, making it even harder to tell if a person is in serious danger.

Overdose symptoms include:

  • Labored, slow, or even zero breathing
  • Limp body
  • Pin-point pupils
  • Pale, cold or blue skin
  • Choking and/or gurgling sounds
  • Unresponsive to anything you do

Overdoses are killers, and you must react in a rapid and calm way to find help quickly. As dependency often falls along multiple lines, be aware the chances of overdose has vastly increased when opioids are mixed with sedatives and/or alcohol.

Prevention is always going to be the first choice when dealing with opioid abuse, doing whatever it takes to help someone get away from the drugs that are hurting them. Sometimes – even with the best will in the world – this isn’t possible and in those situations knowing if it is an opioid overdose or a strong high can be the difference between life and death.

“It is important that we change the viewpoint that our nation and the medical community currently has about opioid addiction,” says Dr. Andre Waisman, founder of The ANR Clinic which educates and treats opioid addictions around the world.  “Rather than treating it as a chronic relapsing illness, doctors should approach it from the angle of a disease for treatment of the root cause rather than only it’s symptoms. By doing so we can move forward towards an age where treatment is no longer the same unsuccessful methods from 30 years ago but rather a more beneficial and humane treatment for patients of opioid addiction.”

For more information or for treatment of opioid addictions, call The ANR Clinic in Tampa, FL at (813) 750-7470.

Article by Vital Guidance

NFL Brandon Copeland Investing For A Better Future

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We hear stories all the time about pro athletes finding a way to lose tens of millions, and even hundreds of millions, of dollars that they have made during their career. Therefore, it’s always interesting to hear about an athlete that understands how to manage his finances.

New York Jets linebacker Brandon Copeland is one such player and it is his knowledge of the real estate market that has helped set him up for life after football. Copeland was not a player who entered the NFL with high expectations or one of the huge contracts that comes with being a high round draft pick. While the 6-foot-3, 263 pounder certainly has the size to play as an outside linebacker/defensive end hybrid in the league, the perceived lack of competition that he faced while playing at Penn saw Copeland go undrafted in the 2013 NFL Draft.

After initially spending time on the practice squad of the Baltimore Ravens, Copeland landed a job with the Detroit Lions in 2015, before moving on to the Jets for the 2018 season. All that bouncing around is part of what made real estate investing so appealing to the Ivy Leaguer.

Copeland’s collegiate experience was one that seems to have set him up well to avoid the money pitfalls of most athletes. The Wharton School graduate spent a pair of summers while in school interning at an investment bank. He also spent his 2017 off-season working on Wall Street. All of those moves were made so that Copeland could get vital guidance about investing, more about real estate, and more about how to use money to make money.

It is real estate which is one of Copeland’s key focus areas when it comes to saving and investing. He opened a company in the real estate sector with his wife in 2018, a decision they came to together after spending time and energy flipping houses for profit. By expanding that hobby into a company, Copeland is able to take care of all aspects of house buying, selling, renovating, and flipping.

Despite his money smarts, it is actually some of Copeland’s relative failures that have pushed him to where he is today. A number of money mistakes in his early 20s, mistakes he share with a teammate with the same issues, have seen the linebacker go back to the classroom to teach a class called Life 101 to students. His class details how he lives on 10 to 15 percent of his NFL salary with the rest of his money dropping into long term investments like real estate.

While we may not all have the disposable capital of an NFL player, we can all learn something from Copeland and his journey. Invest smartly now, using long term strategies, to live better in the future.