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
Addiction
5 Signs My Partner is Addicted to Drugs
The moment you begin suspecting your partner of a drug addiction can be shocking, particularly if you’ve never known anyone who has been addicted to drugs. What should you do in this situation? How can you be certain your suspicions are correct? Below, we’ve listed a few common warning signs to be on the lookout … Read More
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
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
5 Signs Your Loved One Has A Drug Problem
What do you do when you begin to suspect that someone you love might have a drug problem? Don’t know the signs of your loved one has a drug problem? First thing’s first: educate yourself on substance abuse and addiction. Learn the signs of drug abuse and what to do if you notice them in … Read More
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?
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
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 Alcohol Abuse
In a society where drinking alcohol is common and binge drinking is considered normal, it may be difficult to tell whether or not your loved one is exhibiting signs of alcohol abuse. Below are a few warning signs to help you figure out whether you should be concerned about your loved one’s behavior. They Binge … Read More
The Cost of Rehab vs. The Cost of Addiction
Dealing with an addiction in a loved one can be a roller coaster. It’s common to try to rationalize and normalize your loved one’s addiction and behavior, to make excuses for them, or to try and minimize the severity of the addiction. However, once you know your loved one is indeed dealing with an addiction, … Read More
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
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
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
Additional Risks of Using Drugs During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Over the past couple of months, the COVID-19 virus has spread around the world, and many people are making an effort to avoid spreading or contracting the disease. At the time of writing, over 1.3 million cases of the disease have been reported around the world. For many people, cases are mild and can be … Read More
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
Concentration of Recovery Centers by State
If you or someone you love is suffering from a substance addiction, you may have done a bit of research into treatment and recovery options in your area. We took a look at how many substance abuse treatment centers there are in each state and compared those numbers to the number of people who have … Read More
Why is Long Term Treatment More Effective than Short Term?
If you or someone you love is looking to get help for a drug, alcohol, or any other type of addiction, you’ve probably seen that both long and short term options are available. You may be tempted by a 30-day treatment program, thinking you can go into treatment and come out cured just a month … Read More
A Brief History of the 12 Steps
When it comes to beating an addiction, the 12-step recovery model is one of the most effective tools used in treatment. They were created by Alcoholics Anonymous as a guideline to working through and overcoming an addiction. The 12 steps, as defined by AA, are as follows: We admitted we were powerless over alcohol and … 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?
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
Rates of Alcohol Abuse in America vs. Europe
Here in the United States, we have an interesting relationship with alcohol. As you might remember from history class back in school, the prohibition era outlawed alcohol consumption and sale entirely from 1920 until 1933, and the current legal drinking age is 21. Most of our friends across the Atlantic Ocean over in Europe have … Read More
Which US Demographics are Most Susceptible to Drug Abuse?
As we know, addiction is a disease, and some people may be more susceptible to certain diseases than other people. When it comes to a disease of the mind, like addiction, social factors are the biggest differentiator between those who are likely to develop one versus those who are not. We know that people who … Read More
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
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
Carrying the Message
Remember how far you’ve come from the moment you stepped into your recovery program and how far you’ve come since then. According to the twelfth step of Alcoholics (or Narcotics) Anonymous, in order to fully recover and take your sobriety to the next level, you must share yourself and your story with those who are … Read More
How has Drug Abuse Changed in the Last Decade?
For hundreds of years, drugs have been abused all over the world. As the years go by, trends in the types of drugs and demographics of users often change. The data we have on drug use can help us have an idea of what drug use will look like in the next few years, and … 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
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
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
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
How Sleep Heals the Brain
Any article you may come across about living a healthy lifestyle points out how important it is to get enough sleep. During sleep, the body has the chance to rest and recover so it can continue functioning properly day after day. Often, people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol don’t have healthy sleep habits. … 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
4 Dangers of Intravenous Drug Use
Intravenous drug use, or taking drugs by injecting the substance directly into the body, is one of the most dangerous practices among drug users. Yet for many types of drugs, like heroin, one of the most common and preferred ways of taking them is via injection. Addicts who use intravenous drugs usually do so because … 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
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