Prevention | Intervention
How It Is That a Person Can Choose to Drink and Drive?
How does a person get a DUI if they didn’t choose to drink and drive? One of the most difficult obstacles to overcome when working to halt DUIs/DWIs — driving while impaired — is that by the time a person who has been drinking through dinner or over the course of an evening still thinks s/he…
Read MoreThe Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
Astounding findings about the role of adverse childhood experiences (ACE) on brain development are now available. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) – Childhood Trauma If you’ve been following my blog or my books, you will have repeatedly read that one of the key risk factors for developing a substance abuse problem and/or addiction is childhood trauma.…
Read MoreFinally! The Need for Physicians Substance Abuse Training in the News
Physicians Substance Abuse Training is gaining traction in the news! I was thrilled to read Join Together’s January 18, 2011, News Summary, “Physician Substance Abuse Training ‘Inadequate,’ Experts Say.” The following are the recommendations cited by the referenced paper’s lead author, Patrick O’Connor, M.D., Chief of the Section of General Internal Medicine at Yale, who…
Read MoreUnderstanding What Happens to the Family of an Alcoholic | Addict
For a better understanding of what happens to the family of an alcoholic or drug addict when their loved one enters treatment, please consider watching this interview on the subject, downloaded in two parts – each 15 minutes long. What Happens to the Family of an Alcoholic/Addict The following two-part interview was conducted by Gabrielle…
Read MoreVeterans, Suicide and the Substance Abuse Connection
Veterans, Suicide and the Substance Abuse Connection. It’s real, and it’s rooted in the brain changes caused by the mental health impacts of war – anxiety, depression, PTSD, for example. These impacts often cause a veteran (and any person with a mental illness, for that matter) to turn to drugs or alcohol to self-medicate the…
Read MoreStandard Drink Label – Proposed Cigarette Label
Standard drink labels – simple, easy to read, informing you of how many standard drinks are in a drink container. In light of the proposed cigarette warning labels – isn’t it time? It’s in the news, today, articles and reader comments about the F.D.A.’s proposed graphic warning labels on cigarette packs, like this one, “F.D.A.…
Read MoreStandard Drink Labels – Isn’t It Time?
Standard drink labels – isn’t it time? Most definitely! Especially when a can of alcohol contains 5 standard drinks! Given the recent articles in a number of newspapers, news programs and online regarding the hospitalizations of young drinkers of the caffeinated alcoholic beverage, Four Loko, the call by 18 state attorneys general for the Food…
Read MoreMyth: The best thing for a drunk friend is to let them sleep it off.
by Lisa Frederiksen REALTY: Alcohol is a depressant that works on the central nervous system. It slows down the heart rate, lowers the blood pressure and slows a person’s breathing rate. If a friend passes out, s/he has consumed an amount of alcohol that puts him/her dangerously close to the amount of alcohol that can…
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