While stress is nearly unavoidable in this non-stop world and it’s all too easy to fall prey to ever-present stress, this doesn’t mean you have to live with it. Indeed, stress is best when banished because unchecked stress can lead to potentially fatal heart attacks, strokes, ulcers and many other serious medical conditions. What’s a…
Attaining peace and serenity in sobriety isn’t always easy, but it’s definitely easier when life is going smoothly than it is during difficult or challenging times. At some point in your sobriety, you will have to deal with situations that feel overwhelming or painful. No matter what happens, you don’t have to drink or drug.…
New findings from a team of Canadian researchers indicate that the presence of short-term or acute stress has a significant impact on the amount of alcohol consumed by college undergraduates. Compared to the general population, college students in the U.S. are heavily affected by a highly dangerous, drunkenness-inducing pattern of short-term alcohol consumption known as…
A small study from the University of Siena in Italy suggests that photophobia—fear of bright light—is associated with panic disorder (PD). Certain features of panic disorder led the researchers to suspect that a fear of light might be connected to panic disorder. Exposure to fluorescent lights has been known to trigger panic attacks, and it…
There are certain things you can count on as you go through life sober, and one of them is that you will feel stressed from time to time. Sooner or later things happen in life that challenge your feeling of serenity and leave you feeling overwhelmed and anxious. The question isn’t if you will experience…
Wouldn’t it be great if you got exactly what you wanted all the time? In a perfect world, the people around you would act the way you wanted them to act and they would say what you wanted them to say. You could work when you wanted to work at a job you totally loved,…
New findings from a group of Spanish and American researchers indicate that nearly one-half of all people who use marijuana/cannabis will eventually transition into additional forms of drug use. Marijuana/cannabis use is increasingly acceptable in American society, and this acceptance may lead to a significant underestimation of the short- and long-term harms associated with the…
Facebook continued to be the most popular social media site in 2014, but evidence is mounting that much of its lure is due to social media addiction, which shares many similarities to drug addiction in the brain. Seventy percent of Facebook users interact with the website every day, according to a new Pew Research Center…
Male and female athletes of all ages and types are no strangers to trying to get an edge, to be one up on the competition. The goals are what every athlete wants: to be stronger, faster, and more agile, to have more stamina, increased energy and focus, and to quickly be able to adapt to…
This is the first in a two-part series. In many addiction recovery programs, regular physical exercise is considered to be a top line behavior. Extensive research in exercise physiology demonstrates that exercise helps alleviate stress, increases a sense of well-being and boosts self-confidence. In recent years, addiction treatment centers, addiction therapists and addiction experts have…
