No one wants to see a loved one suffer. We always want to help the people we care about and protect them as much as we can, but if that person is struggling with addiction, our help may be doing more harm than good. It’s never easy to tell the difference between helping someone through…
One problem people often face in the first year of recovery is feeling disillusioned because sobriety is not the panacea they expected it to be. They may be doing very well, but perhaps they expected more. They feel deceived, disappointed, or cynical. They might start to wonder if they’re doing something wrong, or if sobriety…
Eight states have now made recreational marijuana legal, and many other states are moving in that direction by making medical marijuana more easily accessible. Advocates of marijuana legalization consider this a positive thing because it leads to more personal freedom, hurts the profits of drug cartels, allows police to spend their time on better things…
Lack of motivation can be a major impediment to getting sober. Only about 10 percent of Americans with substance use issues seek and receive treatment. The vast majority of those who don’t seek treatment are just not ready to quit. They might not believe they have a problem, they might fear change, they might fear…
As with any endeavor, half of success in addiction recovery is just avoiding the pitfalls. You can do a lot of things right, but if you make a big enough mistake it could set you back pretty far. The good news is that most mistakes in recovery are easy to avoid if you know what…
Substance use is extremely common. Most Americans drink alcohol at least occasionally, most have at least tried marijuana and a substantial minority use it regularly, and every day, people take prescription painkillers after medical procedures and stop taking them when their prescription ends. Why is it then, that roughly 10 percent of the population uses…
Addiction and borderline personality disorder, or BPD, is a common dual diagnosis. BPD is characterized by unstable emotions, self-image, and behavior. This can lead to impulsive behavior and relationship problems. Not only do people with BPD have unstable moods and self-image, but they tend to think in extremes. They may think a friend is completely…
Media coverage of the opioid epidemic in the US has often mentioned the link between addiction and unemployment. Many states that have seen a sharp rise in unemployment in recent years have also had the highest rate of overdose deaths, with West Virginia and Ohio leading the nation. Are addiction and unemployment actually related, or…
Depression is one of the most common mental health issues. In 2016, more than 16 million American adults suffered at least one episode of major depression and that number appears to be steadily rising. Symptoms of depression include depressed mood, inability to feel pleasure, loss of interest in activities, trouble sleeping or sleeping too much,…
There are some huge disparities among addiction rates in different states. For example, in West Virginia, about 52 out of every 100,000 people died of a drug overdose in 2016, the highest rate in the US, while in Virginia, the rate was just under 17 in 100,000. That’s still relatively high, but the disparity is…
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