Six Ways to Maintain Your Sobriety at a Thanksgiving Celebration I first tried to quit drinking on November 11, 1995. By Thanksgiving of that year, I was clean, but I was scared to death of facing a holiday dinner without a drink. I remember standing by the bar in my grandmother’s house, downing Diet Coke […]
There are some issues that can remain a struggle well into recovery. Though I have been clean from drugs and alcohol for nearly 17 years, staying off the sugar – or at least trying to consume it in reasonable amounts – is an ongoing challenge. Sugar abuse, misuse, and addiction are common; recent research suggests […]
High school seniors have a lot of expectations about what life will be like once they move on from their parents’ homes. When I prepared to leave for college, I hunkered down in my room to make a list of all the things I’d “need” for my new life, including a fully furnished student apartment. […]
We have come a long way in our efforts to treat PTSD and other psychological disorders. Some of the best information has come from veterans themselves. For example, after suffering from the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, Army veteran John Thurman used his experience with yoga to help others, in a program that packs rooms. […]
More than 15 million Americans practice yoga. It is a twenty-seven billion dollar a year industry in the US. Why is yoga so popular? According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, 58% of those who practice yoga do so for mental and physical well-being and 16% use yoga to treat specific conditions. […]
When a plane goes down, we all want to know why. When a plane is purposefully crashed by its pilot, the only answer that makes sense is that “He must have been crazy.” How does someone kill themselves and 150 fifty other people? The problem is that labeling a person as “crazy” or “mentally ill” […]
In an excellent piece in The Atlantic, writer Gabrielle Glaser gives an exposé on the lack of scientific evidence on the efficacy of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the preponderance of evidence that shows that not only does the lauded program fail to work for most people who try it, there are many other more effective […]
Frederick Douglass is reported to have said, “It is easier to build strong children than to fix broken men.” It is something I think about often in my work as an addiction researcher. When I hear the life stories of those who seek treatment for their addictions, if I am not careful to do my […]
Intervention for binge drinking in college has shown to be successful, but only for a limited time according to research published in the APA Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. A total 1,040 college students participated in a twelve-month study by James Henson, PhD, a psychology professor at Old Dominion University. He concluded that “brief […]
At addiction treatment centers across the nation, more and more individuals are being seen for opioid addiction. Opioids are pain medications including morphine, codeine, oxycodone, methadone, fentanyl or hydrocodone. These pain-killing drugs are addictive and even when prescribed correctly, can be dangerous. It is recommended that opioid therapy should be used only as part of […]