Close to 19 percent of American adults, representing 43.8 million people, smoke cigarettes. Smoking is the leading cause of deaths that could be prevented, and accounts for one in five deaths in the U.S, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It’s often said by medical and mental health professionals alike that depression is one of the most treatable mental health disorders. While that’s true to a point, treatment for depression isn’t always as helpful as many people would like. Not only is it discouraging when treatment isn’t working, it can make you feel more hopeless …
It goes without saying that people do a lot of weird things in their attempts to get high. When an 18-year-old French woman entered a hospital, unsteady on her feet, “mentally sluggish” and with scaly skin on her hands and legs, doctors were unsure what was going on. Her twin sister had the same problem, …
Gambling disorder is a form of addiction that manifests as a collection of dysfunctional gambling-related urges, thoughts and behaviors. Current scientific evidence indicates that people affected by the disorder have an unusual inability to stop themselves from acting impulsively while participating in gambling or considering participating in gambling.
Extensive exposure to Boston Marathon bombing media coverage caused more acute stress in people watching on TV, online or listening to radio reports than in those experiencing the terrorist attack itself, researchers at UC Irvine have found. Even the study authors who specialize in researching trauma impacts said they were startled by their findings: People …
By Robert Weiss LCSW, CSAT-S It is lunchtime at Miriam’s House. Denise sits with her twin 6-year-old boys, Dante and Darrell, encouraging them to eat not only the grilled cheese sandwiches on their plates, but the green beans. Stymied in her efforts, she uses the age-old mom trick of saying they won’t get dessert if …
Massachusetts police have seized 1,250 bags of heroin that were curiously labeled “Obamacare” and “Kurt Cobain,” the latter making only a bit more sense because the late rocker was found to be on large quantities of the drug when he killed himself.
The links between alcoholism, genetics and family history are not easy to understand. What we know for sure, though, is that there is a connection. This does not mean that if you had an alcoholic parent, or if both of your parents suffered from alcoholism, that you are destined to become one as well. It …
Drunk-driving teen Ethan Couch plowed into a group of good Samaritans, killed four people, paralyzed a friend and injured at least 11 others, yet got no jail time. The judge who heard testimony that the 16-year-old suffers from an affluent-kid condition dubbed “affluenza” sentenced him to a decade of probation under court monitoring, and a …
‘Affluenza’ Drunk-Driving Teen Ethan Couch May Still Face Jail Read More »
You might be surprised to know that the greatest amount of healing I’ve done in my battle with sex addiction happened not through painstaking efforts to avoid sexy behaviors that might have gotten me into trouble in the past, but even more painful efforts at opening my heart, honestly and fully, in relationships of all …
Not One of the Guys: A Woman’s Take on Sex Addiction Read More »