4 Signs My Son is Using Drugs

Usual changes when taking drugs

The teenage years can be awkward and difficult for many kids. Too often, a good kid may fall in with the wrong crowd at school and begin experimenting with substances like drugs or alcohol. In a 2015 survey, almost 36% of teenagers reported having tried marijuana and nearly 13% reported abusing prescription drugs. If you … Read More

12 Suggestions For Staying Sober Through The Holidays

12 Suggestions for Staying Sober Through the Holidays

The holidays can be a rough time of the year for anyone, and is especially when staying sober through the holidays may be a struggle for you or a loved one. Families have separated, the Fear of relapse brings worry and doubt. For the families of alcoholics and addicts, we worry, will my son or … Read More

What Is Drug Paraphernalia? How to Identify Drug Paraphernalia

Common Drugs

Are you curious about how to identify drug paraphernalia? If you’re concerned that your loved one might be taking drugs, one of the first things you’ll want to do before staging an intervention is finding evidence. Of course, one of the easiest ways to find evidence is to look for any hidden drug paraphernalia. But … Read More

What is Collegiate Recovery?

What is Collegiate Recovery

Binge drinking, late-night partying, and experimenting with drugs are seen as a normal part of the American college experience. But it’s not all harmless fun. College students in the United States are at a high risk of developing addiction or abusing substances. Approximately 80% of U.S. college students have abused alcohol, while the number of … Read More

What is the Difference Between Supporting and Enabling an Addict?

Difference Between Supporting and Enabling and Addict

Loving an addict is hard. Of course, you want to show them you still love them and support them through their recovery journey. Knowing exactly how to support him or her can be tricky, though. Sometimes, it may feel like you’re helping them when you’re actually enabling their addiction. It can seem like a fine … Read More

5 Signs of Meth Use

5 Signs of Meth Use

Meth, short for methamphetamine, takes an extreme toll on the body, both physically and mentally, making it one of the most addictive and dangerous substances out there. In both the short- and long-term, meth can produce negative side effects, and always carries the risk of overdose. If you’re worried that one of your loved ones … Read More

5 Signs of Heroin Abuse

5 Signs of Heroin Abuse

Heroin is a highly addictive and extremely dangerous drug, a member of the opioid family. The potential for overdosing on heroin is high – in 2018, nearly 15,000 people died from a drug overdose involving heroin in the United States alone. If you suspect that a loved one might be abusing drugs, but aren’t sure … Read More

What to Do if You Suspect Your Loved one has an Addiction During a Pandemic

What to Do If You Suspect Your Loved One Has An Addiction

Suspecting a loved one of a drug or alcohol addiction at any time isn’t easy. In fact, it can be downright terrifying. During this unique time in human history, though, it may feel even scarier. The world has almost completely shut down. Will doctors be available if your loved one needs them? Can your loved … Read More

Managing Loneliness to Prevent Relapse While Social Distancing

Managing Loneliness to Prevent Relapse While Social Distancing

The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the world. People are staying inside more than ever, avoiding contact with those outside their immediate household. These precautions are necessary for stopping the spread of a virus, but may have a negative impact on mental health – particularly for those who are recovering from addiction and require regular … Read More

How Effective is Sober Living?

How Effective is Sober Living

Recovery from addiction to alcohol or drugs is a journey, and that journey looks different for every individual. For many people, one stop on that journey is a sober living facility. Sober living homes act as a transition stage for people who have completed their time in inpatient recovery but still require a bit of … Read More

The Importance of Mediation in Recovery

Recovering from an addiction to alcohol or drugs is hard, but we believe that it’s always possible. We believe that twelve-step programs are the most effective method of treatment, but it’s by no means the only way an addicted person can achieve sobriety. Mediation is another helpful and important component in recovery from addiction and … Read More

What Does Addiction Do to the Brain?

Brain damage

We know the basics of what constitutes an addiction: a compulsive need for a particular substance that takes priority over things like relationships, work, and the person’s financial situation. To many people who have never had a brush with addiction, it can seem a bit surprising that a person’s need to drink or use drugs … Read More

What Are Cross Addictions?

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

3 of the Most Addictive Substances

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

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

How to Help an Addict Without Enabling Them

mutual support against addiction

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

Drug Abuse Rates in the United States

benzodiazepines addiction

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

What is the Opioid Epidemic in the United States?

Opioid Epidemic

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

Signs and Dangers of Complacency in Sobriety

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

Heroin detoxification

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

Accepting addictions

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

How Does Exercise Help Addicts in Recovery?

Exercise during 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

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

medicines with greater consumption

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?

Tobacco addiction

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?

addiction denial

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

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