Help For Recovery – Give Lists a Try
I am a died-in-the-wool list maker. They have been my “Hansel and Gretel, crumb-dropping pathway” through my secondhand drinking recovery and, well…, I’d have to add – managing my life overall. And when it comes to secondhand drinking or addiction recovery, it’s the managing of one’s life that’s so important in the prevention of relapse.…
Read MoreIncarcerating Drug Offenders | How’s That Working?
The United States has roughly 5% of the world’s population. It has approximately 25% of it’s prison population. Nearly one half the nation’s prisoners are serving time for drug related crimes. Clearly something’s about incarcerating drug offenders isn’t working. Thanks to new brain and addiction-related research of the recent 10-15 years, it’s now understood that…
Read MoreAcceptance is… well, Acceptance | Recovery from Addiction | SHD
Are you in recovery from addiction or SHD (secondhand drinking | drugging)? Likely, then, you have heard these sorts of phrases: “Live and Let Live,” “Let It Go,” “…to accept the things I cannot change.” Don’t you hate when people try to make something that is darn near impossible to define, let alone do, seem…
Read MoreSigns of Heroin Addiction
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “In 2011, 4.2 million Americans aged 12 or older (or 1.6 percent) had used heroin at least once in their lives. It is estimated that about 23 percent of individuals who use heroin become dependent on it.” (NIDA: DrugFacts-Heroin) To help readers know the signs of…
Read MoreTalking About Addiction | Let’s Make the Day Come When We Have These Sorts of Conversations
Recently I gave a talk to a group of parents of children with the chronic, often relapsing – but treatable – brain disease of addiction. I shared a bit about my own experiences with loved ones with this brain disease and about the emotional and physical health consequences I’d suffered as a result of the…
Read MoreAddiction Treatment Medications | Are They Cheating?
I was speaking at a forum recently and this question came up (it actually comes up quite often), “Aren’t these addiction treatment medications sort of like cheating?” And then the person asking the question went on to say, “I mean, in AA they say you can’t take other medications because that’s being addicted to something…
Read MoreAddiction Recovery Therapy Options
There’s a common perception that AA and NA or another 12-step program are “the” way to recover from addiction or Secondhand Drinking (in which case, the 12-step programs are Al-Anon and Nar-Anon). And let me say right off – these are wonderful programs for millions of people! But they don’t work for millions more and…
Read MoreWhy Addiction Relapse Can Be Stronger Than the Determination to Stay Clean
Addiction relapse – meaning the addict | alcoholic goes back to using drugs or alcohol – is another of the confounding aspects of this brain disease – the brain disease of addiction (aka brain disorder). Not only is the addiction relapse confounding, but equally confusing is the idea that relapse does not mean treatment failed. Really!…
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