When we enter treatment, our families find that they feel quite relieved. They no longer wait up all night, wondering if we’ll make it home safe. They no longer fear that the neighbors will see us passed out on the porch because we were too wasted to remember how our house keys work. They don’t…
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We often make reference to drugs and alcohol, but many say that alcohol is a drug in and of itself. Certainly it shares many properties with drugs in general, even if it isn’t generally treated the same way under the law. But there are some who absolutely abhor the notion of alcohol as a drug.…
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Many recovering opiate users claim that they would not be alive for today if not for Suboxone. But numerous detractors make it difficult to reach an objective conclusion. If there is one thing that medication-assisted therapy (MAT) and step-based programs have in common, it’s that you can likely find as many sources espousing their usefulness…
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Most people acknowledge the fact that addiction is an exceedingly miserable disease. Some of us begin drinking or abusing drugs to self-medicate issues such as major depression, while some of us become depressed as a result of our substance abusing lifestyle. But this is not a question about the chicken or the egg. Regardless of…
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Quitting is easy. The actual process of deciding not to abuse drugs and alcohol requires very little effort. In fact, it’s so easy that some addicts and alcoholics have become experts at it. At some point toward the end of our active addiction, we might quit upwards of two or three times a week. We…
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When we picture “low-bottom” addicts and alcoholics, we tend to picture those who have suffered legal issues. Perhaps they received a few DWIs or spent a few nights in the drunk tank. Maybe they’ve even been in prison for years because they committed violent crimes while under the influence. Recently, one of our staff attended…
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Every month, in addition to updating our series on the Twelve Steps, we also likes to focus on the Twelve Traditions. Having recently covered Step Seven, it is now time to focus upon the Seventh Tradition. For those who have read a number of our articles, Tradition Seven will seem a bit strange. We talk…
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Now that July has begun, we can push past the halfway point in our monthly series on the Twelve Steps by focusing upon Step Seven. This step is in many ways an extension of Step Six, in which we became ready to remove our character defects. Now, much as we did with our addiction in…
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Not too long ago, we talked about the benefits of Narcan and how it can potentially save lives. The drug works by reversing overdose symptoms, giving the victim enough time to receive medical care. It has been so effective that it has even been distributed to high schools. The thought of high school students suffering…
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We talk a lot about the opioid epidemic and the growing benzo epidemic, but we can’t ignore the truth. Addiction itself, regardless of the substance involved, is spreading at a frightening rate. It has been quite some time since we published our article on addiction demographics and statistics. Since then, the problem has not gotten…
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