Asking for Help: Getting Loved Ones Involved
How to Ask for Help with Addiction After a long and stressful day at work, a glass of wine with dinner may be a way that you choose to unwind. It’s a simple way to take the edge off and honestly, there is really nothing wrong with that. However, what if that glass becomes two, […]
PAARI: The Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative
What do you mean cops want to help us? It’s true folks, there are cops and even chiefs of police who really want to help addicts and alcoholics instead of putting them in jail. P.A.A.R.I. is a community policing movement to create non-arrest pathways to treatment and recovery. In other words, instead of arresting you, […]
Addicted to Drama
Why are People in Active Addiction and Recovery so Dramatic? Why do they constantly drag you into their drama? I can remember being newly sober and thinking I was in high school again because of this new level of drama. It seemed to me everyone in rehab was a volcano about to erupt: people were […]
Never Be Ashamed of Your Story
Did you ever think that your story could help someone else? I’ll bet you right now someone has a similar story. It might not be exactly the same as yours, but the similarities will vastly outweigh the differences. When you get honest with yourself and start to open up, most of us are full of […]
Xanax Addiction and Detox
Xanax (generic name alprazolam) is in a class of drugs called benzodiazepines. It is prescribed as an anti-anxiety medication prescribed to treat anxiety, anxiety disorders, panic attacks and panic disorders, depression with anxiety, insomnia, and tremors. What is Xanax For? Xanax is very commonly prescribed in the US; Xanax is also known to be highly […]
Resilience & Recovery from Substance Abuse
Resilience is the ability to bear up against and bounce back quickly from tough or difficult situations. Babies, children and teens are generally more resilient than their parents realize. And although recovery from substance use/misuse hinges on the ability to stay: Focused Motivated Patient Resilient Younger, more resilient, more impatient substance users/misusers innately tend to […]
If Other People Have a Problem with Your Program, It’s Their Problem
One of the biggest obstacles in recovery, is interacting with people who do not understand what recovery is, what it means, and why you are in it. The ignorance around recovery, and the fact that it’s a topic often shied away from, causes mass misunderstanding. One of the problems may stem from the fact that […]
Drug-Seeking Behavior: Everything You Need to Know
Drug-seeking behavior is behavior that is meant to decrease discomfort or pain. People seek dopaminergic-drugs in order to feel better because dopaminergic-drugs increase dopamine in our mind’s/brain’s pleasure center. The more frequently one seeks dopaminergic-drug(s), the more readily they are unable to use infrequently. Addiction is defined by the loss of choice to stop using. […]
Medication-Assistance: Why We Choose Naltrexone over Methadone
Naltrexone is a fairly new addition to the medical portfolio of medication-assisted treatment compared to Methadone. Methadone was frequently used to detoxify heroin addicts in the 1960s. It rapidly became a substitute addiction for heroin. Typically, methadone was dispensed in methadone clinics with very little, if any, co-delivered recovery-sensitive cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and/or self-help […]
Overdose Deaths Rise from Cocaine and Meth
Overdose deaths aren’t just a symptom of the current opioid crisis, but we have seen an increase in drug overdoses due to drugs like cocaine and meth. The trend is not only exclusive to drug users who used an opiate alongside the cocaine or meth, these two drugs in particular have been the cause of […]
