Many people struggle with the idea of acceptance, but those of us afflicted with addictions seem to be fighting more of an uphill battle in this area. It may seem paradoxical, but although recovery is all about making positive changes, we can only incur those changes once we accept our present circumstances. The concept of … Read More
Drug Abuse
“Can I Tell You A Sobering Story?”
This story is about one of my proudest sober accomplishments. Honestly, sometimes I think I’m more proud of this than graduating from college. It all began when three friends of mine decided to plan a trip to the Tetons. Knowing that I was a certified mountain guide, they figured that if they convinced me to … Read More
How Acceptance Solidified My Success in Sobriety
Some days, I look in the mirror and ask myself, “Who is this person?” I’m over here doing things I never imagined were possible: accepting things I never thought I would and changing things I never thought I could. I certainly wasn’t able to do either when I was out there drinking and using. In … Read More
“Cali Sober” – A Potentially Harmful Term?
If you have ever visited (or heard of) California, then the recently trending term “Cali Sober” probably sounds like an oxy-moron. After all, with its landscape full of vineyards and being the first state to legalize medical Cannabis, California is not exactly a symbol of abstinence. Indeed, if you go so far as to listen … Read More
4 Signs My Son is Using 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
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
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
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
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
Drug Abuse Rates in Europe vs. the USA
Over the past month, we’ve been taking a look at how the United States compares to other countries in terms of drug laws, and how we compare to Europe specifically in terms of alcohol abuse. When looking at the alcohol abuse rates, we saw that European countries with looser laws around alcohol tended to have … 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
Is Addiction A Family Disease?
You may have heard that addiction is genetic, and someone descended from a former alcoholic or addict needs to be careful around drugs and alcohol so that they don’t become addicted themselves. This is true in many cases. One study concluded that children of addicts are around eight times more likely to develop an addiction … 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
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
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
Pros & Cons of Legalizing Marijuana
The legal status of marijuana is a hot topic – nearly everyone seems to have an opinion. The drug does have some medical uses and in many places around the world, patients use it to manage their chronic pain. Different cultures believe it has spiritual properties and use it during traditional ceremonies. But what about … 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
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
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
The Abuse Potential of DXM (Dextromethorphan)
Before codeine was outlawed as an ingredient in over the counter medications, people would turn to cough medicine for a cheap and easy high. Even now, though, taking too high of a dose of OTC medicines – whether intentionally or by accident – can make a person feel high. DXM stands for dextromethorphan, and it … 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
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