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  • Time to Act: Helping parents deal with teens and drugs

    Parents are always looking for help on how to parent when it comes to teens and drugs. Well, the new tool from drugfree.org, called Time To Act, may provide just the help parents want. The tool has separate sections for parents who fear their kids may be trying drugs or for those who know for sure. Check…

  • Teens and drugs: Drug use statistics and treatment that works

    Here are some drug use statistics: Over 80% of teens engage in some form of deviant behavior (1). Over 50% of high-school seniors admit to having used drugs (2). Only 10%-15% of the population develop drug addiction problems related to their drug use (1). The question is: If the majority of teens experiment with drug…

  • Treating alcohol withdrawal with benzodiazepines – Safe if mindful

    Contributing co-author: Andrew Chen Alcohol withdrawal can be extremely unpleasant (see here for an overview). Symptoms vary from person to person, but most people will experience some negative symptoms of alcohol withdrawal if they try to stop drinking after long term use. Mild to moderate symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, insomnia, rapid heart rate, abnormal…

  • Negative self-talk and addiction recovery

    Everyone has internal beliefs about what they are, or aren’t, good at. For many these have become an implicit reality – facts about life that are rarely examined and never questioned. The “gravity” of our lives. When I review these internal beliefs with clients, especially those in early recovery but also others who don’t have…

  • Saving lives made easy – Treating opiate overdose with intranasal naloxone

    Contributing co-author: Andrew Chen Imagine that you and your friend have been using heroin (or another opiate). A few hours go by and you notice your friend is progressively becoming more and more unresponsive. You check on him and find that his breathing is shallow, his skin is cold, and his pupils are constricted. You…

  • Influential factors in college drinking

    Co-authored by: Jamie Felzer What influences students’ college drinking decisions? Do friends peer pressure them? Do they do it because they are bored? Do they drink to relieve depression or anxiety? Researchers recently tried to answer these questions by surveying college students… 65% of the participants reported having at least one drink in the past…

  • More money more problems? Rich teens and drugs

    Teens raised in affluent homes display the highest rates of depression, anxiety, and drug abuse according to a recent article in Monitor on Psychology, the APA‘s monthly magazine. One of our recent posts dealt with some of the issues unique to teens and drugs. In addition to the issues we’d already mentioned, the article named…

  • Higher drug abuse among gay youth likely tied to rejection

    For a lesbian, gay, or bisexual youth, “coming out” is an extremely stressful, though important event that can result in improved self-esteem, social-support, and psychological adjustment. However, a recent study found that the reactions to such a disclosure have a lot to do with the risk of those youths abusing alcohol and drugs. Social rejection…

  • Parenting advice – What’s important when it comes to teens, alcohol, and drugs

    Parents often ask us what they can do to prevent their children or teens from becoming alcoholics, drug addicts, criminals, and the likes. I’ve been all of these and more, and so I’d like to share my insight with you now that I’ve made it over to the other side: You can’t prevent anything –…

  • How much alcohol is too much drinking? Knowing your BAC can be key!

    There has been some research suggesting that training people to better estimate their Blood Alcohol Content (BAC), can help reduce accidents and improve risk-taking while drinking among college students (see here and here respectively). I’m including a recent piece from one of our readers, telling us about her first over-21 drinking experience in Las-Vegas. I…