When it comes to individual counseling and addiction treatment for chemical dependence, I recommend addiction treatment, intensive outpatient or inpatient or a combination of the two. I would never minimize the importance of individual counseling for issues such as anger management, anxiety, relationship problems,…
Despite the fact that heroin deaths continue to rise, the public and media are losing interest. For a while opiate overdoses were a news item, but now it’s difficult to find a story. Political craziness pretty much dominates the news. Why should the average…
There’s always been a controversy regarding responsibility and alcoholism. I’ve had this conversation over and over through the years. Many see the disease concept of alcoholism as a cop-out. This side of the argument says that we’re all responsible for our actions, and calling…
Parents don’t read much good news when it comes to teens and drug use. Media, no doubt, highlight deaths from overdose when it’s a young person involved who no one would suspect of having a drug problem. It can seem like young people are…
Addiction and the family is an important topic, because often the family is severely affected and vital to recovery. How do family members deal with addiction? After years of knowing someone one way, lovingly, like a father, brother, sister, mother, etc., the person begins…
Alcoholism and opiate addiction are similar in many ways. The reason alcoholism and opiate addiction have been so difficult to treat is that both forms of addiction are what I’ll call ingrained. Some might think “ingrained” is not a useful description when addiction creates…
Because of the increasing opiate overdose deaths, I want to post these warning signs. This is from www.Drugabuse.com : Depressant Overdose Opiates and benzodiazepines (heroin, Oxycontin, Valium, Xanax) are all depressants, meaning they significantly slow your breathing and heart rate. When an overdose occurs,…
The topic of addiction recovery and freedom aren’t often discussed. Many even think of recovery in terms of loss of freedom — the person in early recovery complains that they can’t go to nightclubs for a night on the town, can’t have that glass…
There’s still confusion about addiction as a disease. Old ideas persist contrary to the chronic brain disease concept. There’s a lingering idea that to call it a disease let’s people off the responsibility hook. I hear this often – “No one forced them to…
I saw a headline today related to a celebrity who’s a recovering alcoholic. The headline implied a tragic event is revealed in the article which led the celebrity to alcoholism. This is misleading and unsupported scientifically. There’s no evidence which establishes tragic events as…
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