There’s a widespread belief that cannabis is basically harmless to the body. However, research is showing that might not be true. Here’s an excerpt from an article from Medical Press that shows there might be a link between cannabis use and heart problems.

At a time of increasing legalization of marijuana, a growing number of people under 50 diagnosed with cannabis use disorder were later hospitalized for a heart attack, new research has found.

The rising trend from 2007 to 2018 was most pronounced in three groups: ages 18 to 34, men and African Americans, according to findings being presented this Sunday at the American Heart Association’s virtual Scientific Sessions conference. The results are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Although AHA statistics show heart attacks are much less common in people under 50 compared to older adults, the study suggests people who use cannabis should be followed more closely for possible heart problems.

It’s the Holiday Season. I wish everyone in addiction recovery a safe and happy holiday season. If you’re new in recovery and feel anxious because of parties and other festivities that might involve alcohol, reach out to someone in your support network and let them know what’s going on. If you don’t have a support network, you might want to develop one. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, especially if it can help you avoid relapse.

Even if your problem is with another drug other than alcohol, you still need to lean on your support network. You should know by now that anyone addicted to one drug will likely go back to that drug if they substitute one drug for another. For example, if someone is in recovery from cocaine addiction, then they start using alcohol as a substitute, they are likely to return to cocaine. It takes all the awareness a person in recovery can muster to avoid relapse, so if a person is under the influence of a substitute drug and they have the have the opportunity to use their drug of choice, it’s common for the person to start craving their drug of choice and make a bad decision with impaired judgement. The other risk is developing a problem with the substitute drug. Research has shown that people who become addicted are susceptible to becoming addicted to drugs other than their drug of choice — it’s called cross-addiction.

The main point is to be safe and protect your recovery. There are plenty of things to do during the holiday season that don’t include drugs. That shouldn’t have to be said, but if you’re in recovery you’ll understand. Reflect, Rejuvenate and Rejoice.

For those of us working in the addiction treatment field, it’s practically impossible to determine who will recover. Recovery itself is difficult to identify, in the sense it’s not always a case of not using drugs ever again. Recovery can be messy. Many people who finally recovered long term and never used drugs again went through several forms of treatment or interventions before they took the necessary actions to recover. It’s sort of like people who go on diets then have several episodes of slipping before they maintain the diet on a regular, long term basis — except when people go back to drugs the risks and consequences are more imminent and deadly for the most part. One thing we can determine with high accuracy is that certain actions lead to a straight line recovery at a much greater rate. We just don’t know who’s going to take the actions and who’s not. It’s not always the ones we’d expect who take recovery actions — many times it’s the ones who have the hardest time in treatment.

We see clients who talk a good game and, if you just listened to their words, you’d think they’re making great changes and are surely on their way to recovery. The crazy part is most of these people are sincere — they mean what they’re saying at the moment, but when you dig a little deeper and ask the right questions you realize they aren’t taking any actions that give them the best chance at long term, stable recovery. They haven’t established a support network – they aren’t dealing with emotional issues that can lead a person to relapse – they haven’t made the necessary changes with people, places and things that are associated with drug use (and, of course, we’re considering alcohol a drug) – they haven’t taken the steps to improve their employment, like they said they wanted to do – they didn’t attend the counseling session with their spouse that they agreed was needed in order to have the best chance at long term recovery – the list goes on.

There’s a trap people in treatment fall into, and it’s fairly common. A person comes into treatment, they begin to hear others discuss their problems, it hits home with them, and all of a sudden a light comes on and the person begins to think about how better life would be without all the consequences suffered from addiction. They begin to feel like they’ve got it licked, but it’s all a pink cloud experience, and if they don’t take the difficult actions to deal with the past and truly manage the future for recovery, when they leave treatment and are back in reality the pink cloud dissipates and they fall back into drug use.

We warn people about the pink cloud experience. We talk incessantly about addiction recovery in action, but some just don’t believe they need to do everything suggested, so they pick the easiest actions which are mostly in their head and not made real in action. If they relapse, many try again and realize they didn’t take the necessary actions before, so they start following the advice they received in treatment. On the other hand, some relapse and don’t come back — they likely feel like it’s hopeless and just give up trying to recover. An addict should never give up. Valuable lessons can be learned in a relapse, and it’s never too late to change.

Here is some more I’ve written about action in recovery.

Our name NewDay might sound corny, but it was chosen with serious intent based on concepts of change and renewal. With each new day recovery from addiction is possible. This is the idea I’d like to instill in the mind of everyone with an addiction problem. There’s an old idea that stubbornly persists from generation to generation that real change is not possible, that we are what we are and it’s too ingrained to make much change. I don’t believe this is true, and many smart people who work in the field of psychology don’t believe it’s true. People can change, they can accomplish renewal, they can recover from conditions such as addiction.

I’ve personally experienced renewal, change, recovery in my life and witnessed it in thousands of others. It’s never too late. There are some mental conditions that limit change, but I’ve witnessed change even among those who face such severe limitations. The human spirit is powerful and resilient. In addiction, the human spirit is damaged over and over, day after day for years and sometimes decades. It feels like nothing will change, especially if the person has tried to change many times only to return to alcohol/drugs. The thing is renewal is not easy. Renewal requires hard work, support, a plan, daily action and a deep desire to change.

Most people make the mistake of trying to change on their own, but they don’t know how to change, so they go back to what they know when change becomes too hard and painful to handle alone. It’s amazing we can have car trouble and find it easy and reasonable to take the car to a mechanic who knows how to fix cars, yet when it comes to our life, our happiness and peace of mind, we can’t reach out for help. There’s no shame in needing help with life, especially with something like addiction — of course we wouldn’t know how to deal with addiction, why would we know how to find renewal in recovery if we’ve never done it before? The good news is that there are many people who do know about renewal in recovery and they’re willing to help. It only requires reaching out and asking for help. In the early twentieth century and before there weren’t many places a person with an addiction problem could go, and most addicts/alcoholics died prematurely in terrible conditions. Nowadays you can Google “help with addiction” and find resources in seconds. Even if the first time someone reaches out for help it doesn’t feel right, as long as a person keeps trying to find help, they’ll soon find it. Then it’s just a matter of accepting the help and following through. Renewal is possible and real. Happy new year.

It’s the Holiday Season. I wish everyone in addiction recovery a safe and happy holiday season. If you’re new in recovery and feel anxious because of parties and other festivities that might involve alcohol, reach out to someone in your support network and let them know what’s going on. If you don’t have a support network, you might want to develop one. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, especially if it can help you avoid relapse.

Even if your problem is with another drug other than alcohol, you still need to lean on your support network. You should know by now that anyone addicted to one drug will likely go back to that drug if they substitute one drug for another. For example, if someone is in recovery from cocaine addiction, then they start using alcohol as a substitute, they are likely to return to cocaine. It takes all the awareness a person in recovery can muster to avoid relapse, so if a person is under the influence of a substitute drug and they have the have the opportunity to use their drug of choice, it’s common for the person to start craving their drug of choice and make a bad decision with impaired judgement. The other risk is developing a problem with the substitute drug. Research has shown that people who become addicted are susceptible to becoming addicted to drugs other than their drug of choice — it’s called cross-addiction.

The main point is to be safe and protect your recovery. There are plenty of things to do during the holiday season that don’t include drugs. That shouldn’t have to be said, but if you’re in recovery you’ll understand. Reflect, Rejuvenate and Rejoice.

What is addiction treatment? You could say addiction treatment is basically relapse prevention; however, this applies to those who actually accept abstinence as the foundation for recovery. Our intensive outpatient program is based on abstinence from mood altering drugs not prescribed by a doctor, preferably a doctor who has experience in addiction treatment. Yet, many come to us with the idea they’ll learn how to manage their drinking/drug use. Because we’ve seen people return to treatment over and over as they try to manage their drinking/drug use, we don’t recommend controlled use as a viable option. We recommend abstinence and we show our clients how to develop a life-long plan for relapse prevention.

As I wrote above, when clients come to us with no intention of stopping drug use all together, we present them with facts, and we tell them why we are an abstinence-based treatment program — then the client has to decide whether they accept abstinence as the foundation of recovery or whether they choose to attempt controlled use as an option. When people ask about our success rate, we tell them it’s complicated. People coming into treatment have different motives. Those who come to us after many failed attempts at controlling their drinking/drug use, who have experienced consequences from their addiction, are more amenable to developing a plan for relapse prevention. They have tried to control their use and now they know they can’t, but they don’t know how to remain abstinent — they can’t quit and they can’t control their drinking/use — these clients usually do well.

Those clients who come to us with the goals of avoiding trouble when they drink/use, and to find a way to drink/use responsibly, and who refuse to develop a plan for relapse prevention, don’t do well. For those with an addiction problem, it’s the chosen drug and their brain that’s the problem, not the lack of knowledge how to drink/use responsibly. When an alcoholic/addict begins drinking/using they eventually lose control, and there are consequences. Untreated addiction is a progressive illness that gets worse over time, not better. There are treatment programs and therapists who claim to teach people how to control their use. We don’t believe in this model. To be clear, though, if a client comes to us with a dual diagnosis of addiction and a co-occurring mental health issue, we don’t insist that this person discontinue their medication just because it can be considered mood altering — we will, however, recommend that the person get a second opinion from a psychiatrist trained in dual-diagnosis treatment. It’s important to treat both the addiction and the mental health issue in tandem. If not, it’s likely one disorder will have a negative effect on the other.

To repeat, we consider addiction treatment as, broadly speaking, relapse prevention. We believe treatment works best when the client accepts abstinence as the foundation of recovery. We believe some people with co-occurring addiction and mental health disorders might have to take medication, but it’s best if the medication and treatment are managed by a doctor with experience in both disorders.

There’s a widespread belief that cannabis is basically harmless to the body. However, research is showing that might not be true. Here’s an excerpt from an article from Medical Press that shows there might be a link between cannabis use and heart problems.

At a time of increasing legalization of marijuana, a growing number of people under 50 diagnosed with cannabis use disorder were later hospitalized for a heart attack, new research has found.

The rising trend from 2007 to 2018 was most pronounced in three groups: ages 18 to 34, men and African Americans, according to findings being presented this Sunday at the American Heart Association’s virtual Scientific Sessions conference. The results are considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Although AHA statistics show heart attacks are much less common in people under 50 compared to older adults, the study suggests people who use cannabis should be followed more closely for possible heart problems.

Addiction doesn’t just affect the person with the addiction, it affects family members and significant others. It’s especially difficult for someone who lives with a person who is addicted to a drug — a husband, a wife, a son, a daughter, a father, a mother – because they experience the chaos and insanity on a regular basis. I’ll simply call the person living with the addict the loved one.

The addict makes promises she/he can’t keep. It’s not necessarily that the person is purposefully deceiving a loved one. Often the addict truly intends to change. It seems like a betrayal of trust to the loved one who has their hopes dashed over and over. After a while, the loved one becomes cynical and stops believing the empty promises, unless the loved receives counseling or attends a support group in which they learn the true nature of addiction.

It’s very important for the loved one living with an active addict to get help for themselves, regardless if the person addicted gets help or not. The loved one can get sick, too, living in a toxic environment of anger, fear, hopelessness and confusion. If the loved one receives help from someone who understands the relationship dynamics of addiction, the loved one can put the situation in perspective and, if they choose to continue living with the addict, take actions that might help the situation. Too often, a loved one who hasn’t received help tries in vain to help the addict at the expense of other relationships.

If the loved one can take steps to remain as mentally and emotionally healthy as possible, they can keep from spiraling downward with the addict into the sickness of addiction. The main thing is too maintain a proper perspective, to stay as strong as possible and to realize the person is sick — but also realize  hard decisions might need to be made at some some point if the addict can’t, or won’t, change. There’s not always a happy ending, but often there is a happy ending, The loved one can protect their own mental and emotional health, though, no matter how it turns out.

Here is an excerpt from an excellent article written by Jeremy Murphy. The article is titled The Dangers of Mixing Alcohol and Drugs. You can read the entire article at — https://www.blueprintsforrecovery.com/resources/drugs-and-alcohol/ 

Overdose

The risk of overdosing while intoxicated is increased greatly when mixing with alcohol. Alcohol tends to worsen the negative effects of other drugs or reduce their effectiveness. Common causes for overdose include liver failure, severe depression of the central nervous system, blood poisoning, heart failure, and asphyxiation.

Accidents