When treating addiction, why not equally support programs that target brain receptors and alternative treatments that address the psychological and social dimensions of addiction?
Addiction Is Not a Disease of Free Will
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Addiction Treatment Methods
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Homeopathic Remedies: Helpful, Harmful, or Harmless Hype?
Featured ArticleAre there any real benefits to homeopathic medicine? Recently released data seems to indicate the answer is no.
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Is “Dual Diagnosis” Even Necessary Anymore?
Featured ArticleDespite earning separate DSM classifications, a debate over the strength of the correlation between substance use and other mental health diagnoses still lingers.
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Harm Reduction in Action: Here is Ed’s Story
Featured ArticleThis may just be one example of harm reduction allowing one alcoholic to improve his quality of life. But he didn’t die. I didn’t “let him” use and watch him spiral…
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Setting the AA Record Straight Part II: Myths and Facts About the Program
Featured ArticleA number of people expressed anger and indignation at Part 1 of this series, with some suggesting that I had “turned” into an AA supporter, but my views have not changed.
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Check Your Blind Spot: Understanding Implicit Bias
Featured ArticleImplicit bias is a well-studied phenomenon. The phrase refers to the unconscious attitudes we have towards groups of people. So, what does this look like in treatment?
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Are You Really Sober if You’re on Medication-Assisted Treatment?
Featured ArticleThe very nature of addiction makes that phrase, “just say no,” or moderating, almost impossible. In the privacy of their own hell, they deem themselves weak, moral failures.
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Explanatory Frameworks for Understanding Addiction
Featured ArticleUsually one doesn’t think about physics in the context of addiction, but there is a valuable lesson to be learned courtesy of quantum mechanics and relativity.
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A Brief History of Disease Theory and Harm Reduction Treatment in the US
Featured ArticleHow we resolve these incompatible models of addiction will be the story of addiction treatment and policy in the 21st Century.
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Don’t Abandon Your Children When They Are Struggling with Addiction
Featured ArticleWhen Jen and Aaron came to see me they were nearing the end of their rope. Their 19 year-old daughter had barely completed her first year of college. Life at home was tense.
World Health Organization Declares Gaming Disorder a Mental Health Condition
In mid-June of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared “gaming disorder” a clinically recognizable and significant syndrome.
Mastering Change – Part III: Common Threads Among Maintainers of Change (Continued)
This concludes my list of common observations among hundreds of long-term weight maintainers and individuals who have resolved serious drinking problems.
Mastering Change – Part II: Common Threads Among Maintainers of Change
I decided it would be really interesting to step back and identify what both groups of people – the “masters of change” – had in common.
Mastering Change – Part I: Focusing on Success Rather Than Failure
Early in my career as a counselor of overweight clients, I wish I’d received a dollar each time a patient said to me, “I know what I need to do; I just can’t get myself to do it.”
Fentanyl: Time to Open Our Eyes to Today’s Biggest Driver of the Opioid Crisis (Part I)
Multiple recent reports highlight the fact that the main culprit in today’s opioid crisis is fentanyl and its analogs, much more so than prescription opioids prescribed by healthcare professionals.
Alcoholics Anonymous Finally Addresses the Issue of Safety
As society begins to acknowledge that harassment, abuse and rape are real and serious issues, it is gratifying to see AA finally confronting the truth.
A Harm Reductionist Takes a Fresh Look at the 12 Steps
As I read the Steps again, I began to look at the them from a harm reductionist perspective. I found myself rephrasing them from the perspective as someone who does not believe I am powerless.
The Wrongness of Limiting the Administration of Naloxone
Raising the possibility of limits on the number of times a person may receive naloxone is a backdoor way to ask whether someone deserves to live.
A Lawyer’s Take on Proposed Changes to the Florida Marchman and Baker Acts
Changes are on the horizon for both the Florida Marchman Act and the Baker Act, which allow for involuntary commitment of people with substance abuse or mental health problems.
Trump’s Opioid War Just Got Even Worse
Until now, Trump’s promises to win the US opioid war were merely empty. Recent news makes clear they are turning sinister.
