Addictions Are Treatable Brain Diseases

The idea that addictions are treatable brain diseases is foreign to most people. The definition of the disease itself – addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease – is little understood, and as such, so are its treatment. The following is a guest post by Judith Ann Miller, Ph.D., and CEO of Courage to…

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Relapse Prevention – What’s Your Anti-Drug / Anti-Drink?

Relapse prevention – What’s your anti-drug | anti-drink? Once an addict/alcoholic clears their system of their substance of choice (through detox), s/he must work to re-train and repair his/her brain in order to recover from their addiction. Why? Because addiction is defined as a chronic, often relapsing brain disease. What does this have to do…

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Love Is In The Brain – Not The Heart

Love Is In The Brain – Not The Heart, which is true of all emotions, actually. But that’s good news because it means we can better understand the source of love and emotions, and from there, we can learn to healthily interpret and react to them. How? And how does this relate on a blog…

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The Brain Can Change

The brain can change – truly! One of the most encouraging things about all of the new brain and addiction-related research is learning we can actually change and heal neural networks and thereby change and repair our brains. This can be especially helpful to addicts/alcoholics and their families and friends because addiction is a brain…

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Exercise Helps With Addiction Recovery

Exercise helps with addiction recovery because it helps the brain! Thanks to new brain research, we now understand that exercise actually helps with healing the brain. Given addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease, healing the brain is critical to addiction recovery. So here’s to exercise and here’s how it works! Exercise Helps With…

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Dual Diagnosis – Explanation & Treatment

Dual Diagnosis – what is it and how is it treated? or can it be treated? One of the repeated concerns I hear when giving my presentations is the lack of satisfactory treatment for a dual diagnosis, which occurs when a person is diagnosed with both a mental illness (PTSD, Anxiety, Bipolar, ADHD, schizophrenia) and…

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