It's That Time of Year Again
Our annual look at Christmas Decoration Addiction. ByJohn M. Grohol, Psy.D."Five years ago, I covered something calledChristmas lighting addiction in our then-fledgling newsletter. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek, because I ’m not a big believer in most addictive behaviors. Christmas lights? I mean, c’mon…But as I guess with anything in life, you can go overboard with decorating your house in Christmas lights...." (Source: Addiction Inbox)
Source: Addiction Inbox - December 18, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Cancer: Alcohol ’s Dirty Little Secret?
What Doctors Don ’t Tell YouIt is, in fact, no secret at all thatalcohol causes cancer. Rather than conferring any demonstrable metabolic benefit, alcohol is more likely to damage your health in a variety of ways. The body converts alcohol (ethanol) into acetaldehyde as part of the metabolic process, and acetaldehyde is carcinogenic in sufficient quantities. Drinkers are particularly susceptible to cancers of the head and neck, as well as the liver, breast, and bowel.However, you wouldn ’t know this if you only talked to doctors. In acommentary written for the journalAddiction, Terry Slevin and Tanya Chikritzhs o...
Source: Addiction Inbox - November 26, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Marijuana: Where Things Stand
Results of the 2016 election.Source: Governing.com (Source: Addiction Inbox)
Source: Addiction Inbox - November 15, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Take It Easy
One day at a time. (Source: Addiction Inbox)
Source: Addiction Inbox - November 12, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Drug Deaths By State
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Source: Addiction Inbox - September 27, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
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Source: Addiction Inbox - September 17, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Synthetic Dialectic
Banning New Drugs:What is the Path Forward?Eighteen months ago, in apost on novel synthetic drugs in the cannabinoid and cathinone families, I wrote that the new fake marijuana and fake Ecstasy were “very nearly the perfect overdose drugs.” An MDMA-like stimulant called PMMA was implicated in a number of deaths in Florida, Chicago, and Ireland back then. PMMA, like many synthetic highs, is toxic at low doses, and takes a fair amount of time to take effect, thereby encouraging double dosing.A year and a half later, what has changed? Today ’s synthetic pharmaceuticals are not coming from secret underground labora...
Source: Addiction Inbox - September 1, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
The Poetry of “Irresistible Descent”
John Berryman in the Penal Colony “Will power is nothing. Morals is nothing. Lord, this is illness.”—John Berryman, 1971A year before he committed suicide by jumping off a Minneapolis bridge in 1972, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet John Berryman had been in alcohol rehab three times, and had published a rambling, curious, unfinished book about his treatment experiences.Recovery is a time capsule. If you think we have little to offer addicts by way of treatment these days, consider the picture in the 60s and 70s. InRecovery, treatment consists almost entirely of Freudian group analysis, and while there is regu...
Source: Addiction Inbox - July 31, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Addiction Treatment Industry at the Crossroads
How unethical treatment shills hunt down patients.Check this account at Huffington Post by Ryan Grim: "Addiction Treatment Industry Worried Lax Ethics Could Spell Its Doom."Eye-opening. (Source: Addiction Inbox)
Source: Addiction Inbox - June 19, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Nicotine Genes: Evidence From a 40-Year Study
How adolescent risk becomes grownup addiction. Pediatricians have often remarked upon it: Give one adolescent his first cigarette, and he will cough and choke and swear never to try another one. Give a cigarette to a different young person, and she is off to the races, becoming a heavily dependent smoker, often for the rest of her life. We have strong evidence that this difference in reaction to nicotine is, at least in part, a genetic phenomenon. But so what? Is there any practical use to which such knowledge can be put? As it turns out, the answer may be yes. People with the appropriate gene variations on chro...
Source: Addiction Inbox - June 12, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
From Failure to Enthusiasm
Guest PostBy Andy"Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm." —Winston ChurchillOne of the reasons I love this quote, is because for many of us, being able to keep our enthusiasm up in the midst of trying times can be very difficult to achieve. But once you figure out how to never lose it, no matter how hard life can get, it will mark the difference between giving up and succeeding. I love this quote and remind myself every time that sobriety success is shaped by my attitude. In this post I’m going to take you through my personal sobriety journey.The Addict/AlcoholicWhen I was 4 years old my...
Source: Addiction Inbox - June 7, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Revised Drug Wheel
Know your chemicals. (Source: Addiction Inbox)
Source: Addiction Inbox - May 26, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Know Your Mushrooms
Spring has sprung, and the toxic 'shrooms are out. (Source: Addiction Inbox)
Source: Addiction Inbox - April 16, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Know Your Powders
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Source: Addiction Inbox - April 3, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Addressing Criticisms of the Disease Model
Volkow, Koob, and McLellan on the neurobiology of addiction.The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a review article, “Neurobiologic Advances from the Brain Disease Model of Addiction,” authored by three prominent figures in the field of addiction research: Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA); George Koob, the director of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA); and Thomas McLellan, founder and chairman of the Treatment Research Institute in Philadelphia. The article summarizes the research that has “increasingly supported the view that ...
Source: Addiction Inbox - February 15, 2016 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
