newamethyst, Author at Amethyst Recovery Center

December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month

by newamethyst | Dec 23, 2020 | Uncategorized

The weather outside may be frightful but it isn’t the only reason that driving during the holidays can be so dangerous. Since 1981, every president has declared December to be National Impaired Driving Prevention Month. And it’s no accident that the “happiest time of...

Why You Should Never Mix Fentanyl and Alcohol

by newamethyst | Dec 14, 2020 | Fentanyl

Talk about making a bad situation worse. It’s widely known that mixing alcohol with any sort of medication – even harmless over-the-counter cough medications – can cause harmful adverse effects. When alcohol is mixed with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that...

What Does Heroin Feel Like & Other Common Questions

by newamethyst | Dec 8, 2020 | Heroin

Overview: What Is Heroin? Heroin is an opioid that goes by several street names such as big H, horse, and smack. It is a natural derivative of morphine and technically classified as an opiate. It’s use dates back thousands of years to some of the earliest known...

Where Does Heroin Come From?

by newamethyst | Dec 4, 2020 | Heroin

Heroin is a semi-synthetic opioid derived from morphine, which itself, is made from the Papaver somniferum or opium poppy. It was first created in the late 1800s, and the first instances of heroin abuse and addiction were recorded as early as the 1910s. From there, it...

A Guide for Children of Addicts

by newamethyst | Nov 24, 2020 | Family Addiction

Nobody is safe from the sting of addiction, not even those as innocent as children of addicted parents. There are a great many kids in the US, 18 million to be exact, that live in a household where substance use disorder exists. To put this number into perspective, 25...

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The Benefits and Drawbacks of a Harm Reduction Model

Jan 15, 2021

What Is Harm Reduction? In the case of substance abuse, harm reduction is a proactive approach to making drug use—both legal and illegal—as safe as possible. These practices address broad social and health issues. Harm reduction is a concept that can be applied to any...

How Being Organized Can Help Life In Recovery

Jan 7, 2021

Marie Kondo’s Netflix may have caused the latest decluttering fad, but psychologists have long known the benefits of tidiness and the positive impact it can have on the lives of recovering addicts. With nothing to lose (but everything to gain), here are 3 major ways...

Causes & Signs of Alcohol Poisoning

Dec 31, 2020

Despite being a legal substance, alcohol is very much a drug—and one that has very real and potentially fatal consequences. Alcohol poisoning is the most severe side effect of intoxication that can occur. The CDC estimates that it results in an average of 2,200 deaths...