From reading the headlines, it’s easy to get the impression that fatal overdoses are almost always caused by opioids, especially heroin and potent synthetic opioids like fentanyl and carfentanil. While opioids are responsible for a large share of opioid deaths, they are rarely the only drug involved and a significant number of fatal overdoses don’t…
The holidays have come and gone, but depending on where you live, you may have three or four months of winter weather left. Winters can be hard for many people and that’s especially true if you are recovering from addiction or mental illness. Here are some common challenges winter poses to your recovery and how…
Getting someone you love to enter addiction treatment is often difficult. You may experience several stages of resistance. First, they don’t acknowledge the problem. Then, they may acknowledge they have a problem but they can take care of it on their own. After these two hurdles have been cleared, they may resort to practical objections.…
One popular belief about addiction is that once someone develops a substance use disorder, she will always have it, even though she might learn to control it. This idea, like many beliefs about addiction, owes much of its popularity to AA. In AA, members introduce themselves as alcoholics–never “former alcoholics,” even if they’ve not had…
The third week in January is National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week, or NDAFW. It was started by scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, to push back against the misinformation about drugs and alcohol that teens learn from TV, movies, music, friends, and random people on the internet. During NDAFW, people…
Generally speaking, extroverts are people who get energy from being around other people, while introverts are people who get energy from being alone. While few people are completely extroverted or introverted, generally falling somewhere in the middle, most people tip at least a little towards extraversion. This can be a major advantage in addiction recovery…
There’s a common belief that drugs and alcohol make you more creative. This is perhaps understandable, since many of the great writers, artists, and musicians have used drugs and alcohol, too often to the point of addiction and self-destruction. Also, drugs and alcohol make people feel more creative. However, studies have shown feeling more creative…
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