Are you being affected by the worry that someone in your life is falling into drug addiction? Drug addiction is a difficult reality for many people in the United States-- a reality that can be trivial and bring a variety of unwanted consequences. A number...
Drug addiction has been around since humankind discovered that ingesting fermented fruit altered your state of mind. This crude form of alcohol was likely the first drug people depended on to the point of addiction, but opium and cocaine were not far behind. As more...
A person who has never suffered from addiction can find it hard to understand a cycle of recovery and relapse. Think about this, though. Have you ever tried a diet for weight loss? Many people lose weight, stop their diet, and then regain some or...
Individual struggles with addiction are not solitary fights. Addiction impacts the whole family and can distort the family dynamic, creating long-standing dysfunction. It truly is a family disease. For this reason, the process of recovery requires more than just the commitment of the addicted, but...
Addiction is one of the most difficult disorders to understand. People blame it on everything from a lack of morals to heredity, thrill seeking to escape reality, immaturity, selfishness – the list is nearly endless because it’s human nature to want a reason for everything,...
Many adults old enough to have teens in the household will recall the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) campaign of the ‘80s, initially launched through a partnership between the LAPD and LAUSD. Incredibly, the program has been around for 35 years at this point, although...
There are different ideas about how many stages of alcoholism exist, but it is generally agreed that this common addictive behavior can be broken down into about four stages, which could be loosely classified as: Habit, including occasional abuse such as binge drinking Early Stage,...
As the pressure on students to excel scholastically from kindergarten through grad school has dramatically risen over the past few decades, the abuse of study drugs has increased proportionately. Not only does this misuse of drugs meant to treat ADHD often lead to addiction, the...
Recovering addicts are at extremely high risk for relapse because it is so difficult to fight ingrained behaviors, as well as physical, mental, and emotional addiction to substances. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), those in addiction treatment suffer relapse at a...
Stereotypes are often based on reality but exaggerated to make them entertaining or interesting. This hyperbole is usually harmless but can also blind people from cold, hard facts. For example, it’s typical for drug addicts and alcoholics to be portrayed in the media as manic,...