What Are Cross Addictions?

“Cross addiction” is a term to describe someone suffering from two or more addictive behaviors. In most cases, the person will have addictions to multiple substances, like drugs or alcohol, but it also includes when a person is addicted to, for example, alcohol and sex or gambling. Other terms for cross addiction include addiction transfer … Read More

Tips For Daily Mindfulness Practice in Recovery

Being in recovery from addiction requires you to make major changes to your life if you want to remain recovered. Building an entirely new mindset is much easier said than done. Changing your mindset can be made easier by becoming more mindful – that is, learning not to associate so heavily with your thoughts and … Read More

Drug Laws & Abuse Around the World

In the 1970s, President Nixon declared a war on drugs aimed at stopping the illegal drug trade in the United States. Many people consider this campaign to have been largely ineffective as new people continue to develop addictions and dependencies on drugs each day. Other countries, however, have different and much more lenient laws around … Read More

3 of the Most Addictive Substances

Addiction is no joke. In 2017, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that nearly 20 million Americans over the age of 12 were struggling with a substance use disorder that year. Of that, around 74% suffered from an alcohol use disorder and around 38% suffered from an illicit drug use disorder. Approximately … Read More

Codependency and Addiction

Recently, we’ve talked a bit about enabling an addict – that is, protecting your addicted loved one from the consequences of his or her actions. Another common, similar behavior that can develop between an addict and their loved one is codependency. A codependent is a loved one of an addict who puts the addict’s needs … Read More

What Are “Legal Highs”?

Don’t let the name fool you – legal highs are not necessarily legal. In 2010, some legal highs became illegal in the United States, based on information from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). As a result, these herbal highs became Schedule I controlled substances, which means they are illegal and have no permitted medical uses. … Read More

4 Commonly Abused Legal Research Chemicals: Popular Research Chemicals

There is a difference between legal research chemicals used in scientific research and those that are used as a way to get high. The latter are developed in a laboratory and are meant to simulate the effects of other commonly misused drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and opioids. These substances tend to be inexpensive to make … Read More

Fentanyl in Street Drugs

Fentanyl is one of the strongest synthetic opioid painkillers on the market today, and it’s become the number one culprit in opioid-related overdoses. From 2013 to 2016, fatal overdoses involving fentanyl doubled each year. This is a terrifyingly quick rise and it doesn’t appear that those numbers will begin going down anytime soon. One of … Read More

5 Uncommon Drugs That Can Be Abused

It makes sense that drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine are well-known around the country: they are some of the most commonly abused drugs in the United States. But, of course, these three aren’t the only drugs of abuse. There are hundreds of thousands of substances that can create a high when ingested. Let’s take … Read More

What Is the Most Commonly Abused Drug in the United States

Drug and alcohol addictions are both quite common in the USA. 19.7 million Americans are believed to be addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. However, the problem doesn’t end there. Many people abuse drugs without developing an addiction to them. Drug abuse is defined as any use of drugs for nonmedical purposes, or outside of their … Read More

How to Help an Addict Without Enabling Them

When you’re watching someone you love suffer from an addiction to drugs or alcohol, it’s common to feel very helpless. Because of this, it’s also common for people to try to do too much, get too involved, and accidentally end up enabling the addict despite acting with good intentions. Behaviors that enable an addicted person … Read More

What Are Designer Drugs?

When the use of fentanyl began to rise in the 1980s, the term “designer drug” was coined to refer to it and other drugs like it. Designer drugs refer to drugs that are manufactured in a laboratory (usually illegally) by manipulating or mimicking the properties of a drug that originates from a plant.  Some designer … Read More

Drug Abuse Rates in the United States

Recent government statistics estimate that around 24.6 million people in the United States use illicit drugs every 30 days. That’s nearly 10 percent of people over the age of 12. According to findings from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, overall drug abuse rates have remained steady since 2002, but nonmedical use of … Read More

Why Marijuana is Dangerous for a Drug Addict

Marijuana is the most commonly used drug in the United States and the rest of the world. It’s used medicinally in many cases and can help treat symptoms of chronic illnesses like HIV, multiple sclerosis, cancer, Crohn’s disease, and seizure disorders. Other cultures around the world use it because they believe it has spiritual properties. … Read More

What is the Opioid Epidemic in the United States?

For decades now, we’ve experienced an epidemic involving opioid misuse in the United States. In 2017, nearly 68% of all overdose deaths involved opioids, for a grand total of 47, 600 deaths. The opioid crisis began in three waves. The epidemic began in the 1990s when an increase in the number of opioids prescribed to … Read More

What is PCP?

In the 1950s, PCP was developed with the intent to act as a surgical anaesthetic for humans, and eventually also used as a veterinary anaesthetic for animals. However, the drug was soon discontinued after the negative effects on patients’ minds were discovered. However, many of the reasons PCP was discontinued from medical use became reasons … Read More

Fentanyl’s Overdose Potential

Over 130 people die each day in the United States from overdosing on opioids. Many opioid-related deaths involve more than one drug, but fentanyl has become the number one opioid killer. Each year between 2013 and 2016 alone, fentanyl-related drug overdoses rose by over 100%. What is Fentanyl? Fentanyl is the strongest synthetic opioid pain … Read More

Signs and Dangers of Complacency in Sobriety

Getting sober can be an amazing feeling after months or years taken up by addiction. However, there’s such a thing as being too comfortable with your sobriety, and it’s not necessarily a good thing. When a person begins feels complacent, they feel they’ve already done enough to improve their situation and no longer feel in … Read More

What to Expect When Detoxing from Heroin

Most of us know the United States is in the middle of an opioid crisis. The crisis refers in large part to prescription medication being abused, but there’s another common opioid that’s been around for decades: heroin. Just under a million Americans reported using heroin in the past year, according to a 2016 survey. Between … Read More

Enabling Addicts and the Dangers of Doing So

It can be incredibly difficult to watch someone in your life suffer from a substance addiction. You want to help them any way you can, but figuring out the best way to do so is not always easy. In addition, it can be tough to initiate a conversation about finding help. It’s not uncommon to … Read More

Why Reliance on A Higher Power is More Helpful than Willpower for Beating Addiction

Many people who have completed a 12-step addiction recovery program go on to sing its praises once they’ve recovered. One of the key differentiators between 12-step programs and other recovery programs (and arguably one of the reasons it’s so effective for so many people) is its incorporation of spirituality. Spirituality and religion are not necessarily … Read More

Tips for Your Diet in Recovery

Recovering from drug or alcohol addiction is a gradual process that involves making many lifestyle changes. We’ve recently talked about how exercise affects the body and can help a recovering addict manage cravings. There’s another major lifestyle change that a lot of people are making at the beginning of a new year: diet. Is there … Read More

How Does Exercise Help Addicts in Recovery?

For most people in recovery from an addiction, treatment involves some sort of counseling: speaking with another individual or a group of people to figure out the root cause and to learn how to manage any feelings or emotions that could lead to a future relapse. Recovering from an addiction is all about making lifestyle … Read More

3 Long Term Effects of Alcohol on the Brain and Body

The use of alcohol has become so normalized in American culture. Many people begin drinking as teenagers in high school, learn how to binge-drink at college parties, and go for after-work drinks with coworkers throughout adulthood. According to a 2017 study, nearly 27% of adults in the US had reported engaging in binge drinking in … Read More

What is the Difference Between Substance Abuse and Addiction?

If you’ve noticed someone you love has been using drugs, it’s easy to assume the worst. However, not all cases of drug use or abuse mean the user is spiraling downward into addiction. The main difference between substance abuse and substance addiction comes down to how much control the person has over their use. In … Read More

5 of the Most Commonly Misused Prescription Drugs

It’s easy to imagine that the extent of drug abuse and addictions are limited to illegal street drugs. That is not true. Approximately 48 million Americans have used prescription drugs for nonmedical purposes in their lifetime. After marijuana, legal prescription drugs are in fact the most commonly abused drugs in the US. As we know, … Read More

What Age Do You Have to Be to Enter Residential Treatment?

Often, when we imagine someone addicted to drugs or alcohol, we picture a person in their 20s, 30s, 40s, or 50s. Rarely would we imagine a young teen or an older person as an addict. However, it’s entirely possible for people at either end of the age spectrum to suffer from an addiction. What treatment … Read More

Why Can’t My Spouse Stop Using Drugs or Alcohol?

Finding out someone you love has been abusing alcohol or drugs can be heartbreaking. Your spouse may have already tried to stop drinking or using to no avail. It can leave you feeling scared and asking a lot of questions – does he or she even care? Are these substances more important to him or … Read More

What is Kratom?

There are hundreds of thousands of drugs out in the world.  Some are very prevalent in culture, and others not so much. Some are made with chemicals in labs, and some are sourced naturally from different types of plants. Kratom is a lesser-known, “natural” drug, which has recently been on the rise thanks to some … Read More

How Do I Tell My Loved One They Need Help for Their Addiction?

It can be extremely tough watching someone you love suffer at the hands of drugs or alcohol. They may not believe they have a problem, or they may not want to get help. Having the support of you, someone who loves them, can make it easier for an addict to begin taking steps to get … Read More

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