De-addiction treatment via internet can be misleading

Relying on internet to get rid of your addiction problem? That’s like walking on a razor’s edge! In the virtual world of internet, there is always a heavy traffic of unsolicited counsellors ever ready with their band of so-called qualified professionals to offer advice and prescribe therapies or medicines to persons with addiction.

Reluctant patients

That the number of such online help seekers has been on the rise is primarily due to an increase in the number of persons with addictions. These are the persons, who for some reason or other, partly attributable to their reluctance to openly admit to their addiction problem and partly their eagerness to get some quick self-medication, try and search for an online solution to their problems.

Dangerous consequences!

It has been proven umpteen times that attempts at finding online solutions to as complex a problem as drug or alcohol addictions, that are sometimes known to cause brain malfunctions and other health issues as well, is fraught with dangerous consequences.

No single dose cure

It is important to note that when you are seeking treatment to get rid of drug addiction, it’s not like as if you are searching for a tablet to cure a seasonal bout of cough and cold. For, there is no single dose cure for treating drug addictions. Just to give you an example of how such self medication sometimes can have fatal consequences: About 372 died due to drugs purchased online to treat anxiety and insomnia in 2014 in England and Wales.

Online treatment unsafe

According to British Health and Social Care Information Centre, during 2014-15 about 18,000 had to be hospitalised for poisoning due to benzodiazepines, a drug acquired online for treating insomnia. Over 500 children under the age group of 18 were treated for the same drug, illegally supplied through chemists based outside Britain.

British study

The British Journal of Psychiatry reported a study in 2014 that questioned 1,500 about their use of benzodiazepines to treat insomnia. About 30 per cent of the interviewed persons admitted to having misused the drug and another 27 per cent obtaining them online and another 11 per cent from chemists outside Britain.

No proven credentials

India is currently witnessing a surge in the use of internet and devices like smart phones driven by it. As per an estimate about 1,40,00 new websites go live everyday across the globe, among them a large number of online de-addiction healthcare providers. In 2000-01, around 60 to 100 million were looking up to online healthcare for some kind of solution or other. But not many of them come with proven credentials to treat any kind of de-addiction problems.

Online de-addiction difficult

There is, in fact, very little space or scope for online treatment for addictions. At best the information or services being offered tend to mislead and confuse the help seekers. The de-addiction treatment involves a plethora of issues involving the persons with addictions. There can be no similar treatment for the victims of drug abuse. Each patient needs to be examined by an expert or specialist on the basis of his or her symptoms.

Different treatments

There are different treatment for short term and long term addiction. There are different medicines and therapies prescribed for different types of addictions. In most cases drug addiction related health issues come with the baggage of other physical, psychiatric problems that needs simultaneous treatment alongside de-addiction cure.

Long term treatment

Moreover, patients need to continue with the treatment for a longer period time. In a large number cases the treatment needs to be continued even for years post de-addiction to ensure there are no further relapses. With so many issues to address, and health issues to resolve, how can an internet based de-addiction treatment regimen help the curing process? It does not require one to be rocket scientist to understand this basic fact!