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Quitting smoking without help is hard: Effects of motivation and other personality factors
Quitting smoking is hard, but that suggestion probably isn’t terribly exciting all on its own since most of our readers probably knew it already. Still, while we’ve talked about quitting smoking using nicotine replacement and medication, we haven’t really touched the subject of all those people out there who just decide to give quitting smoking…
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The Creative Theory of Addiction Recovery
This is a guest post from Patrick Meninga of the Spiritual River website. Since I first got clean and sober over 8 years ago, I have been creating a new life for myself. Talking about creation makes sense when I frame my recovery and how I have grown through the years, because it was always…
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Global Commission on Drug Policy: Legalization, decriminalization, and the war on drugs
A commission made up of some big names, though not really any names of addiction or drug researchers I noticed, just released a report that’s making a lot of noise throughout every news channel including NPR (see here, and here for stories) and others (see CNN). They want the debate about the current state of…
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People, places, and things – How important are drug-related triggers for addiction relapse?
In cognitive behavioral therapy they’re a big part of the “Five W’s” = When, Where, Why, With, and What. In the various 12-step programs they’re simply referred to as “People, places, and things.” But no matter how you refer to them, drug-associated cues, or “triggers” as they are more commonly known, obviously play a big…
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Is abstinence the only answer? Quality of life in addiction recovery.
Contributing author: Chelsea Crow Abstinence should not be the only standard by which we measure success in addiction recovery. There’s no doubt that for some addicts, full abstinence is necessary for recovery. Still, it would be hard to deny that even if they can’t stay completely clean, addicts who reduce their use substantially can see…