With 23 million Americans in recovery, the chances are good that almost every person has loved ones or friends in recovery, either currently or at some time in their past. While it doesn’t matter if they’ve been sober for a few weeks or a few decades, you need to remember that they still are living with…
Myths About Addiction As we’ve learned through research, there are many myths about addiction. We know that the concerns about gateway drugs are well founded, but gateway drugs are not the sole cause of addiction. There is a difference between correlation and causation. The use of these substances leading to addiction has more to do with…
The Role of a Sober Friend During Recovery With 23 million Americans in recovery, chances are pretty good that almost everyone knows someone that has been in recovery or is in recovery. In fact, we may know recovering addicts without ever knowing that they were addicts to begin with. As a sober friend, you’re going…
When it gets to the point that your’re considering an intervention, it’s likely that your loved one is deeply wrapped up in his addiction problem. It’s obvious that addiction damages the life of the addict as well as the lives of those around him. Drug abuse or substance abuse of any kind can destroy the…
Outpatient addiction treatment is not a new concept. In fact, the history of outpatient addiction treatment goes back more than 150 years. This makes sense given that psychoactive drugs have been used in some form starting as early as human civilizations began to emerge. Despite thousands of years of experimentation with the substances, it wasn’t…
Addiction Recovery Is About Change Of all the processes of addiction recovery, there’s one common denominator – change is coming. It can be scary and be a source of worry and concern. We’ve all seen book after book and social media post after social media post about what habits one needs to be successful. Have…
Much has been written about alcohol addiction treatment largely because there is no one solution that’s right for everyone. For alcoholics, this can be especially frustrating because they’re looking for a one-stop shop and a quick remedy. The simple fact of the matter is that addiction doesn’t happen overnight and as such, there’s no overnight…
Sober Friends are the Best Friends One of the most heartbreaking things we hear from people in the recovery process is that they feel discouraged or unsupported by friends and family. To them, it seems that while their loved ones might mean well, they fail to understand how difficult recovery is and how much effort…
Bringing Up Old Feelings At some point during the recovery process, things will get very real. Understanding one’s addiction will eventually require some painful self-reflection. You’ll need to look at what caused you to succumb to the temptation that ultimately led to your addiction. Being honest with oneself is the only way to treat the…
The synthetic opiate Methadone is commonly used to help people addicted to opiates to break the cycle of addiction. Essentially a form replacement therapy, methadone has had success in helping people who have cravings to eliminate their need for opiates. Methadone can do this without delivering the detrimental effects of narcotics. However, there is a…