One major risk factor for depression is chronic illness, especially illnesses that involve pain. Studies have found that depression is common among people who suffer from arthritis, both rheumatoid arthritis and age-related osteoarthritis. The connection between these conditions is not yet clear, and is likely complex. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease that affects people…
The company that helped start the opioid epidemic in the US may now be able to profit from fighting the opioid epidemic too. Richard Sackler is part of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin. He was once president of the company and was involved in marketing OxyContin in the 1990s.…
About 72,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2017, and at least two thirds of those deaths were opioid related. The opioid crisis has been driven by overprescription of opioid painkillers over the past 30 years. Opioid manufacturers convinced doctors that pain was being undertreated and that opioid medications were non-addictive and safe for…
The opioid epidemic in the US continues to get worse. In 2017, the number of opioid-related deaths in the US increased by about 16 percent–an acceleration in a decades-long trend. The opioid epidemic has been driven by the excessive prescription of opioid medication starting in the mid 1990s with a marketing campaign to convince doctors…
In the wake of the opioid crisis, the public is becoming more aware of the dangers of drug use and addiction. However, many misconceptions about drugs still persist. This is partly because of a rapidly changing drug scene. New drugs hit the streets all the time. Marijuana has become legal in some form in much…
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, PLEASE get help. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). When we struggle with addictions, we are often driven to our addictive substances and behaviors because we’re using them to self-medicate to try and escape our inner pain. We come to realize…
When we are in recovery, it can help our healing process a great deal to reflect on the different factors in our lives that may have contributed to our addictive patterns and behaviors. Our relationships can be one of those factors and can play a crucial role in the development of our addictions. Sometimes our…
We usually think of boredom as a harmless thing, but it can actually be a trigger for our addictive behaviors and can be a factor in whether or not we relapse. A challenge for many of us is that we find ourselves bored without the substances, relationships and behaviors we’ve grown to be dependent on…
When we look back at our childhoods, many of us realize that our addictive patterns began when we were very young. The emotional responses, thought patterns and behaviors that are part of our addictions may have developed early on when were children. Sometimes we learn from our families and caregivers that it is better…
When we’re struggling with addiction, depression and other mental health issues and co-occurring disorders, we have a tendency to lose our sense of self-worth. We minimize and even forget all of our wonderful qualities and focus instead on our mistakes, weaknesses and regrets. We don’t value ourselves, and we don’t believe we are of any…
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