General information on alcohol and drug addiction
It’s scary thinking about entering treatment for the first time. It’s embarrassing — you don’t want people to judge you — you don’t know what to expect — you’re afraid it’ll cost too much — you’re afraid you’ll lose your job. In reality, addiction…
Sometimes we in the field of addiction treatment speak a language that’s not understood by most people – we need common sense addiction talk. There’s been a tendency to soften the language, but much of these efforts muddy the issue rather than help. To…
I was watching Morning Joe on MSNBC this morning and saw the interview with Eric Bolling regarding his son’s opiate overdose and death. I’m not fond of Bolling as a political pundit, but I once heard him talking about his son a few years…
There’s so much negative news about active addiction and its consequences it helps to balance that out with stories of recovery. Most people don’t hear about addicts in recovery because it’s not news worthy. I’m always careful when talking about addiction recovery — I…
I firmly believe that the relationship discovered going forward between neuroplasticity and addiction treatment will greatly improve recovery outcomes. With addiction, although it might seem strange to someone who doesn’t understand addiction, the particular drug used is not so important as what happens to the brain…
I find that most people are uncomfortable talking about addiction, addiction treatment or addiction recovery. The word addiction is loaded with negatives and stigma still remains. Some people have an image of a skid row “wino”, while others envision a drug addict using a needle in a…
One question I often get is how does a person know if they’re addicted, especially in the early stages of addiction. In the beginning, the symptoms of addiction are behavioral and psychological more than physical. When a person begins to drink or do drugs…
In reference to alcohol, other drugs and society, one of the biggest barriers in recovery from addiction is societal attitudes and beliefs concerning the use of alcohol or other drugs. Alcohol is the nation’s socially acceptable drug, yet most people have no idea that,…
This is Part II of Old Ideas About Addiction. How can addiction be a brain disease when people freely choose to drink or do drugs? Doesn’t this relieve the addict of all responsibility? This is a common rebuttal when discussing addiction. If we go…
There are stubborn ideas about addiction that persist in spite of decades of knowledge and experience that contradict these old ideas. Many people believe addiction is a moral weakness, a failure of will power. There’s still the idea among many mental health therapists that addiction is the result of some underlying…
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