“In every corner of our state, heroin and opiate drug addiction threaten us,” said the Governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, on January 8th of this year. In his headline-making speech, the governor devoted his entire 34-minute state of the address to a crisis of addiction […]
Substance abuse is a growing problem in America. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), roughly 18.9 million Americans abuse drugs or alcohol each year. Because of its prevalence in society, it’s not surprising that so many movies have been made […]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended making certain prescription painkillers more difficult to obtain in October 2013. Opioid drugs like Vicodin, which are based on Hydrocodone, would be reclassified as Schedule II drugs and would not be automatically refilled. As pain medication abuse increases […]
Overcoming an addiction is one of the hardest things you’ll ever have to deal with. This is why it’s so important to understand that your addiction is a disease of the brain and not a personal weakness. Even though the part of your brain that […]
We often hear talk of a chemical imbalance in the brain to describe numerous disorders. Our body and brain are made up of chemicals such as proteins, amino acids, and neurotransmitters that support regular and irregular functioning. Most of the time, things work correctly as […]
There’s no shortage of therapy modalities or advice about addiction recovery. And as always, what works for one person, might not work for another. We agree with the research that says the most successful addiction treatment occurs when individual therapy is combined with group therapy. […]
We Love our job! How many people can say that and really mean it? Anyone who works in addiction treatment knows how difficult and painful it can be to work with patients who have lost their jobs, families, and self-esteem and sometimes feel like there’s […]
Drug addiction prevention is the key to saving lives, but overdose prevention is the next best thing when you can’t stop addicts from using. And California lawmakers agree. Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 635 into law in California, allowing Naloxone, also known as Narcan, […]
The latest drug to hit the emergency rooms is Desomorphine, also known as Krokodil Drug on the streets, but this one is as dangerous as it gets. Time Magazine calls it, “The World’s Most Dangerous Drug.” There’s never a shortage of ways people take illegal […]
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that affects many things, most notably pleasure, which plays a role in our mental health. When the brain is functioning properly, we receive a positive reward in the form of pleasure from dopamine induced by eating, drinking, sex […]
