I tell clients all the time that no one is born a skid row drug addict. There’s a long, painful road to the bottom for alcoholics and all others dependent on a drug. Furthermore, not all those who become addicts wind up on skid…
When discussing addiction, or chemical dependency, not many people really understand the subject. Don’t feel bad, because many health professionals don’t understand chemical dependency. The most common idea I run across is that addiction is caused by underlying psychological problems. In other words, most people…
Writing about alcoholics and meditation might appear weird without context and an understanding of recovery from alcoholism. Also, having a little knowledge of Alcoholics Anonymous’s 12 Steps will help, especially Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God,…
During their active addiction, before addiction recovery, addicts live in a world of pretension, half-truths, exaggerations, rationalizations, justifications, and flat out lies. These are mostly defense mechanisms to protect what the addicts thinks is holding it all together, the drug of their choice. From the outside it appears insane when…
The history of opium, opiates and opioids goes way back. Opium was used in prehistoric times according to research: The earliest reference to opium growth and use is in 3,400 B.C. when the opium poppy was cultivated in lower Mesopotamia (Southwest Asia). The Sumerians…
There’s a shortage of professionals with specialized training in addiction treatment. For decades the field of addiction treatment has seen this shortage developing as young people went to more lucrative fields, and there’s also a stigma still placed on addiction that turns people away from…
There’s new form of Buprenorphine coming out that should be approved soon by the FDA. Buprenorphine is a drug used for the treatment of opiate addiction. Suboxone is the best known market name for Buprenorphine, and Suboxone has been used since around 2002. There’s been a controversy…
It’s hard for the non-addict to imagine the loss of freedom that comes with addiction. Addiction is progressive and it advances in stages. In the early stages of addiction, it’s hard to recognize and accept. Many people go through life stages where they drink too…
Improvement is also known as risk reduction. In addiction treatment, the question between abstinence and improvement doesn’t have to be resolved by absolutely choosing one or the other. Historically, those who advance risk reduction have clashed with those who advance abstinence. A lot depends on definitions…
There’s still a stigma placed on drug addiction — old ideas die hard. If anyone pays attention to what little news coverage drug addiction receives, they’ll know that people from all walks of life become addicted to drugs – preachers, police, judges, doctors, politicians, retired grandmothers,…
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