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…
Only those who’ve experienced addiction in the past, or those who’re presently addicted, can understand what it feels like chained to a drug, whether it’s alcohol, a prescription medication like Xanax or opioids, cocaine, or whatever is the drug of choice. When a person…
Opiate addiction has been in the news now for quite a while. Depending on who’s reporting the news, the exposure can be helpful or not so helpful. To the extent that reporting is aimed entirely at doctors over-prescribing opioids, it’s not so helpful. The…
Alcoholism among females, from a clinical perspective, is basically the same as alcoholism among males, but there are differences. The experiences are definitely different, but physical effects are also different. Below is an excerpt from DrugAbuse.com: About 5.3 million women in the United States…
Once a recovering person has accomplished short term goals in recovery and is in the commitment stage of recovery, there’s a temptation to curtail basic actions that got the person to this stage. Surely, now, the person has learned a lesson and can go…
In parts one and two, I wrote about asking for help, then taking the actions to learn about addiction and addiction recovery and accepting the severity of the problem. This preliminary process hopefully leads to some level of commitment. There are basically three motivators…
In part one I wrote about the first step – asking for and seeking help. I’ll assume the person seeking help comes into outpatient treatment, but the actions are similar regardless if a person goes into formal treatment or not. The next step is…
Addiction recovery is about action. It’s true that thoughts and emotions influence action, both positively and negatively, but action is what generates change. A person in addiction recovery can have the most positive thoughts and emotions about wanting to recover but still not take…
Not all teenage drinking is problem drinking, but about 10 to 13 percent of teenagers who drink will develop a problem and many will advance rapidly.
Just what does alcohol do to the body? Below is an excerpt from WebMD: Anemia Heavy drinking can cause the number of oxygen-carrying red blood cells to be abnormally low. This condition, known as anemia, can trigger a host of symptoms, including fatigue, shortness…
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