Eric Ease / From Struggle to Strength
Medicating alcohol problems shouldn't mask moralising about 'good' and 'bad' drinking
Henry Yeoman / The Conversation
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (UK) categorises certain forms of drinking as sufficiently problematic to warrant medication (Nalmefene) and others as not. This amounts to a normative distinction – a statement about how people should and should not behave. As such, it is important to consider this recommendation in relation to these “good” and “bad” forms of drinking.
Read MoreThe Coziest New Year’s Eve
Kendra Lee / Rocket Fuel
I wish I could say I didn’t remember most of the New Year’s I rung in in my 20s. But being able to forget them would probably be more mercy than I deserve; at the very least, I remember the drunken highlights… always drama-fueled, sometimes dangerous, and entirely cringeworthy.
Read MoreHow My Relapse Years Got Me Sober
Magz Shores / Sober Courage
My sober journey began 10 years ago when I walked into a church basement to attend a 12-step meeting, with every intention to never, ever, pick up a drink again. Yet, I spent the next four years trying to figure out exactly how to do that.
Read MoreThe Click (Or, How I Came To Realize I Was an Alcoholic)
Drew Gibson / Virally Suppressed
I remember distinctly going to the campus library and renting the original Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and being blown away at how thoroughly I identified with the movie’s alcoholic protagonist, Brick. He drank the way that I drank and he drank for the same reasons I drank–that is to say, he drank alcoholicly.
Read MoreAddiction can't always be cured so let's focus on quality of life
David Best / The Conversation
Regardless of how good the treatment is, half to three-quarters of drug users relapse. And the quality of life for problem alcohol and drug users in and out of treatment is low – they’re likely to face social exclusion and discrimination.
Read MoreLove, The Addict, and You
by Mike Kemski / via Facebook
Coming from a world of neglect, abuse, and addictions, I don't know that there is anything more powerful to act as catalyst for change than pain. Even though I'm well aware of the fact that pain just the other side of the spectrum of love, I've personally never seen love push or pull someone from the ashes of a destroyed life.
Read MoreDay 483: Woman Walks Into a Room.
Kristi Coulter / Off-Dry
I went to my first AA meeting last week. And I also ran my first race, a 10K where the back half was mostly hills. Hey, guess which one was scarier?
Read MoreGet High or Get Higher Power?
by Dustin John / My Sober Life
The topic of God—or a higher power—is controversial to say the least. Mainly if the status quo deity is put into question. Religious beliefs are often a topic in recovery and I feel that having an honest and open discussion is relevant and absolutely necessary in my own personal recovery.
Read MoreA Hard Dose of Reality
by K. Lanktree / Studio L Online
Like most, I never anticipated having to face addiction or homelessness. Neither issue could possibly ever effect me, right? I grew up in a good home, have wonderful parents and family, attended school and got good grades, had a well paying job, married my soul mate and we were settling in to our new life. Destroying relationships, losing everything, ending up homeless and injecting literally every last cent I had ever earned into my veins was certainly not in my plans. No one 'plans' on addiction or homelessness.
Read MoreFive Ways You Can Reduce Stigma
by Geoff Kane, MD, MPH
Too often society is unfair to people with addiction—a fact that disturbs most people with active addiction, most people who are recovering from addiction, and most people who advocate for those groups. Fortunately we can do something about it. Don’t be daunted—small steps can have a powerful impact.
Read MoreThe State of The Art
by Howard Weissman, Executive Director / NCADA
Addiction remains misunderstood and stigmatized. This is news to exactly no one. But recovery is not stigmatized, it’s celebrated. The problem is, it’s celebrated quietly, often in closed meetings with coins that stay buried in purses or pants pockets.
Read MoreRecovery: Can You Have It Your Way?
by Geoff Kane, MD, MPH
Many individuals with a personal or professional stake in addiction recovery consider recovery a spiritual process and diligently defend the right of everyone in need of recovery to practice spirituality in whatever non-hurtful ways are meaningful for them. When it comes to how these people in need practice “recovery” itself, there is no such unanimity among stakeholders—except for possible agreement that the process won’t go very well if everyone pursues their recoveries with the same diversity as their spiritualities.
Read MoreWhose Fault Is This?
by Ron Grover, An Addict In Our Son’s Bedroom.
"Who is doing this to my (child)?"
I bet I'm safe to say that every parent of an addict has asked themselves this question. I know I spent many an evening thinking about these questions and even tracking down friends’ and dealer’s phone numbers on my son’s phone. Calling friends that are police officers, one the chief of police in our city and another, a friend I grew up with since 12-years-old, that is the elected sheriff of a major county in KC. All in a futile effort to control and fix this situation.
Read MoreChaos, Disorder, and Burdens
by Erik J. Welsh, PhD
There are numerous elements that can contribute to chaos or disorder in an addict’s life. When someone becomes entangled in addiction, the consequences and effects essentially govern the psyche in such a way that the addiction becomes the identity.
Read MoreThirteen Truths and A Lie – An Annotated List
Not a #TBT exactly but another post that originally appeared on Wrath66.com, a now defunct blog of yours truly, sometime in the fall of 2008. It is here now as it was referenced in the current episode (as of this writing,) Episode 6, of The Since Right Now Podcast as well as an insight into the head of an addict, at that point almost 10 years in recovery, drifting about the upper reaches of a very deep depression.
This particular post was an expression of what I dubbed the 8 Mile Method [video, explicit language] of disarming one's detractors. Though, in retrospect, it is not remotely as insightful or soul-barring as I think I believed it was at the time.
I'm pretty sure it would be at best an incomplete—not to mention, unsatisfying—4th Step [pdf].
It's also worth noting that a number of my beliefs have evolved since the writing. Most noticeably, my position on taking an SSRI.
Read MoreThe 7 Habits of a Mildly Intellectual Man.
#TBT*
This post originally appeared on Wrath66.com, a now defunct blog of yours truly, sometime in the fall of 2008. It is here now as an insight into the head of an addict, at that point almost 10 years in recovery, drifting about the upper reaches of a very deep depression. Unsure if we were headed up…or further down.
*Throwback Thursday, Mom.
Read MoreA Look at Aversion Therapy for Alcohol & Drug Abuse [Excerpt]
by Drew Gibson