Addiction Articles
A collection of articles about drug and alcoholism addiction, and addiction treatment information.
What Is Medical Detoxification, and Do You Need It?
Do you need to detox, and if you do, what does that mean, exactly? Put most simply, during the period of detoxification (detox) you experience withdrawal symptoms as your body struggles to get used to functioning without drugs or alcohol.
Understanding Addiction: The Disease Model vs. the Choice Model
Drug and alcohol addiction can devastate the health and well-being of the user as well as loved ones surrounding the addict. It can be tough for non-users to understand how people can ignore the warning signs of a problem while continuing down the road of addiction.
Outpatient Treatment Options and the Pros and Cons of Outpatient Care
Once you decide that you want or need addiction treatment, you must also decide whether you need residential care or outpatient treatment. There are certain advantages to outpatient treatment, but some people do far better in a residential setting. Outpatient treatment costs much less than residential care – but will it work for you?
Residential Addiction Treatment – What's It Like and Who Needs It?
You know that you have a problem – and since you can't seem to stop drinking or using drugs on your own, you know that you need some help. But what kind of help do you need, and where should you go to get it? Do you need to go away to a residential addiction treatment facility to get better or could you get help on an outpatient basis, while still living at home?
Suboxone vs. Methadone
Is treatment with Suboxone right for you? You've probably heard something about this newer medication used in the treatment of opiate addiction but you may still be wondering if you're a suitable candidate for treatment with Suboxone – and if you are, if it offers you the best chance of breaking free from your opiate addiction.
Methadone Maintenance Treatment – Questions and Answers
If you're physically dependent (addicted) on opiates like heroin, OxyContin, Vicodin, or other opioid pain medications, and you want to end your addiction, you might want to consider methadone maintenance therapy (MMT).
The Myths of Addiction
Addiction Myths – 5 Things You Need to Know Before Taking Action Against a Loved One's Addiction.
Is it Time for a Family Intervention?
If you're reading about staging an intervention, you've probably already been through a lot. You probably already know that alone, your words have little power to change a loved one's drinking or using, and you've probably already seen what damage addiction wreaks throughout the family.
Is the Internet to Blame for Sex Addiction?
Once a topic rarely discussed openly and seldom heard about in public, the issue of “sex addiction” is today popping up all over the news, in the media, and in our lives. Is the problem of sex addiction affecting more and more people, or are we simply becoming more aware of a condition that has existed for decades? While the answer is probably both, experts agree that the Internet has had an enormous impact on the sexual habits and behaviors of many men and women.
Addiction Treatment: Research Proves Longer Is Better
Thirty days may sound like a long time, especially when you’re considering 30 days of counseling, educational lectures, 12 step meetings, and intense recovery activities for drug or alcohol addiction. But recent scientific research suggests that 30 days of treatment is not sufficient for most recovering addicts to achieve lasting sobriety.
Chronic Pain Treatment
The statistics are both stark and staggering: Tens of millions of Americans are currently in pain, with many of these individuals suffering from chronic conditions that have resisted treatment for months or, in some cases, years.
Better Than Clean and Sober: Recovery with a Purpose
The primary goal of rehab is overcoming a dependency on drugs or alcohol. But achieving sobriety isn't the only goal. For many, recovery is a time of learning how to live again. Finding purpose by rediscovering old pastimes and exploring new interests has proven highly effective in helping recovering addicts avoid relapse and achieve long-term sobriety.
Millions of Americans Affected by Chronic Pain
Most people think of pain as either a warning or a symptom, and assume that once the underlying threat, disease, or condition has been addressed, the pain will subside. In some cases, this is, indeed, the role that pain plays. But for millions of other individuals, the presence of pain is an ongoing and often debilitating disorder unto itself.
Stages of Addiction and Recovery
In the opening to his classic novel, Anna Karenina, the author Leo Tolstoy observed that "all happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Addiction: Impact on the Family
Many professionals in the field of addiction feel that loved ones and family members actually suffer more than the actual addict. While addicts may die physically as a result of the disease, family members often experience deaths of another kind.
12-Step Programs for Addiction: An Overview
Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) is perhaps the best known of the 12-step recovery programs. A.A. was the first to employ the 12-steps to aid people in recovering from alcoholism; it remains the single, most effective program for treating this disease. For this reason, this best drug rehabs integrate a 12-step program philosophy into their treatment plan.
Binge Drinking on College Campuses
According to the College Alcohol Study (CAS) by the Harvard School of Public Health, two out of three college presidents from participating schools identified binge-drinking as a serious campus problem, and are actively seeking ways to address it.
A Pharmaceutical Candy Store: Internet Offers Unregulated Access to Dangerous Drugs
Over the past decade, the rise of the online economy has had a significant impact in a number of industries. To cite just a few examples, the Internet has created new levels of access and convenience when it comes to buying books, finding new music, and auctioning off unwanted items.
A Young Man's Experience with LSD
By Catherine H. Knott, Ph.D. “I dropped acid just 12 times, but the last time I had a really bad trip,” said Dirk.* His blue eyes looked out unhappily from a swollen moon face. He was a young man, barely 23, yet he had already seen the inside of a psychiatric hospital, a prison, and a halfway house by the time I met him. He took a grocery list of pills, and one of the many side effects he experienced was edema. I have never forgotten his face, or his words.
Law Enforcement Struggles to Detect 'Drugged Driving'
In the United States, determining if a driver is legally drunk is a fairly straightforward process, based primarily upon whether or not a suspect's scientifically measured blood-alcohol concentration is at or above the legal limit.
