Help is available for drug addicts and alcoholics in Orange

"With amphetamines people can get stuck in a mess quite quickly," he said.

"It can get its claws in very quickly and people can lose everything they have - jobs, family possessions - in a short period of time.

"They might have tried other drugs in the past, but this can have a far more dramatic effect."

Alcoholics, he said, tend to take a slower route across years and decades.

There are detox and rehab facilities in Orange at Bloomfield health campus, where Dr Peterson works one day a week at the Wyla detox unit, and the Elouera facility for women and their children.

He said generally people can be admitted into detox or rehab within a matter of weeks, but that they may need to travel within the state if beds aren't available in Orange and the admission is urgently required.

"I don't think you could decide in the morning you need to check in that afternoon, and that can be a problem if your life is chaotic.

"But the idea that you decide one day to go into rehab and then you're done is a bit simplistic. There is a period of time as people make that decision."

Dr Peterson said dependency on drugs or alcohol was a "chronic disease" and should be treated as such.

Detox takes about a week and rehab can take up to three months as people come to understand why they use, and develop techniques for remaining sober. People who detox and don't undertake rehab have a 95 percent relapse rate, he said.

Dr Peterson said Christmas was a time when some people acknowledged that "drugs have ruined my life and I want to get away from them", but also a time that alcoholics can be tempted by having "just one".

"The brain has a good memory, and people can go months or years without it, but the brain will remember the good things about it."

Contact Wyla and Elouera on 1300 727 957 for information on local services, or 1800 422 599 for the Alcohol and Drug Information Service.

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