Addiction | Substance Use Disorders | Treatment
Excessive Alcohol Use – a Leading Cause of Preventable Death
Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death in America. It causes more preventable deaths than opioid overdoses; more preventable deaths than all drug overdose deaths combined. It causes more preventable deaths than car crashes. According to the CDC, “excessive alcohol use is responsible for more than 95,000 deaths in the United States each…
Read MoreHow Does a Person Lose Control of Their Drinking
How does a person lose control of their drinking? How much is too much? What can a person do to regain control – or can they? Readers asking these kinds of questions have risen dramatically as drinking and relapse have escalated during the Covid-19 pandemic. But it’s not just readers worried about their own drinking…
Read MoreSubstance Use Disorder Recovery Needs to be a Family Affair
Substance use disorder recovery needs to be a family affair for one simple reason. A person’s substance use disorder (SUD (whether it involves alcohol or other drug) affects nearly every member of a family. Much of my work has been around raising awareness of the little understood fact and the importance of treating both “sides”…
Read MoreIt’s Just Marijuana or Is It?
“It’s just marijuana!” I can’t tell you how many times I hear this in my work. Many go on to defend using marijuana as safer, less harmful to self and others than drinking alcohol or using other drugs, like cocaine or prescription pain meds. It’s Just Marijuana or Is It? Now I am the last…
Read MoreUsing Brain and ACEs Science to Fight Social Challenges
Using brain and ACEs science to fight social challenges has been a theme running through several of my recent Zoom PowerPoint presentations. The social challenges I refer to are juvenile and criminal justice, homelessness, recidivism, substance use and mental health disorders and secondhand drinking. Audiences have included the Sacramento Area Re-Entry Network, Hope Cooperative Sacramento,…
Read MoreCodependents – StrongWilled or Willful? – Darlene Lancer
Codependents – strong-willed or willful? is a question frequent guest author, Darlene Lancer, JD, MFT, explores in her post below. As she writes, “A strong-minded person accepts life on life’s terms, which provides a solid basis for constructive, effective action that is well-considered and not compulsive. Having a strong will is having a strong mind.…
Read MoreWhat Now – When Your Loved One Drinks Too Much
When your loved one drinks too much – what now? After 16+ years of doing this work, even I am surprised by the significant increase in emails I’m receiving from readers under Covid-19 stay-at-home orders. They’ve discovered hidden bottles or caught their loved one in lies covering up their relapse. They’ve realized they just can’t…
Read MoreWhat To Do When Your Loved One is in Treatment
Your loved one has finally decided (or was left with no other option than) to seek treatment for their alcohol or other drug use disorder. You’ve long wanted and fought hard for this. But instead of feeling confident that all will be well, you feel a tumult of emotions. And perhaps the voice screaming loudest…
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