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Category: For others

  • Alcohol – Blackouts, Brownouts and how they affect your body

    Do you remember what you did last night? Have you ever not remembered what you did after drinking? Drinking alcohol affects the brain and can cause lasting damage including, but not limited to, slips in memory. These memory slips can be due to lack of blood flow to brain areas that are important for memory…

  • Is the drinking age getting lower and lower? Teenage alcoholism

    We’ve already mentioned that kids tend to get in quite a bit of trouble during their teen years (see here). Well, adolescence is also a time when the brain is developing and therefore is at a high risk for damage, especially when alcohol abuse enters the picture. Early use means more alcoholism later While the…

  • Physical addiction or psychological addiction – Is there a real difference?

    This is another one of the basic questions I get regarding addiction. It seems that people think about physical addiction and psychological addiction as somehow separate processes. I think this distinction makes no sense. Even if people really meant what they were saying, the brain is undoubtedly part of the body, and therefore, psychological addictions…

  • Tips for consistent boundaries and better addiction outcomes

    People close to addicts (mothers, wives, brothers, and such) often find themselves struggling when trying to decide how to treat the substance abuser. They feel betrayed when the addictive behavior is displayed, but are lost when it comes to what they can do. For example, a mother with an alcoholic husband may feel that it’s…

  • How does it all start? My thoughts on addiction causes and substance abuse

    I was talking with a friend the other night, and he asked me my opinion about the line between addiction and normal behavior. He was wondering whether I think that everyone who looks at porn is a sex addict. I don’t. (see some of our posts on sex addiction here) Still, the conversation made me…

  • It’s in your genes: The connection between addiction and other disorders

    I think it’s common knowledge that children are more likely to develop a psychiatric disorder when one of their parents is diagnosed with one. Just in case it isn’t, as much as 80% of the likelihood that a person will develop a mental health disorder is genetically determined. The genetics of mental health and addiction…

  • Abuse of prescription drugs is on the rise

    A recent article in the UCLA health system magazine Vital Signs talks about the increased prevalence of prescription drug abuse. Apparently, at 20%, prescription drugs are now the most commonly abused group of substances after alcohol and marijuana. With the same prevalence among teens, this is certainly a concern. The article notes a few indicators…

  • How can you offer addiction help?

    The question that seems to be on everybody’s mind (except perhaps that of the addict), is: SO HOW CAN I HELP ?!?!? – One of the first things you must do if you want to help someone with an addiction is to educate yourself. Obviously, you are already beginning the process by reading blogs like…

  • The many different options to getting sex addiction help

    We’ve talked about the fact that sex addiction (or love addiction) is defined by the inability to regulate sexual behavior despite negative consequences. We also mentioned already that it affects millions of Americans. But how does one get sex addiction help? Addictive sexual behaviors can range from compulsive masturbation and porn watching, to compulsive cheating,…

  • One is too many, a thousand not enough: Does a slip or relapse mean the end?

    Breaking news: When alcoholics who have gone through treatment have a drink after a certain length of sobriety, most don’t go off the deep end. Slip scares and abstinence relapse The old AA adage: “One drink is too many, and a thousand not enough,” refers to the fact that alcoholics who are sober are assumed…