Mark Kerrigan, brother of American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan, has been accused of killing his father in an alcohol-induced rage. Kerrigan’s problems with addiction have been ongoing for years, and his parents even sued him for more than $100,000, reportedly to push him toward seeking treatment. John Quinones and Christine Brozyna of ABC.com explore this …
Should Families of Drug Addicts Try Financial Tough Love? Read More »
It is not always easy to spot an alcoholic. Not everyone who has a drinking problem is falling down on a park bench with a brown paper bag concealing the bottle in their hand. Nor is every alcoholic spending their evenings perched on a bar stool ordering round after round to satisfy an addiction. For …
Can you imagine the world without antibiotics? It is not an exaggeration to say that the development of penicillin changed the course of history. Drugs and vaccines have made it possible to treat intractable diseases and even eradicate some of the most devastating diseases. Then there are pain medications. One of the earliest pharmaceutical grade …
Is mild depression a concern? We know that major depressive disorder (MDD), or clinical depression, is a major problem for 300 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and young adults may be among those most affected. An estimated 3 million 12- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. report they have suffered at …
Addictions are hard to understand. We need an explanation for why people do the things that addicted people do. That’s what the moral model of addiction does for us. It explains things. As human beings, we strive to make sense of the world and our place in it—it is a part of human nature. We …
Depression affects roughly 10% of U.S. adults at some point in their lives. There are several different types of clinical depression or depressive disorders that can be diagnosed and treated, as well as a short-term, more transitory type called “situational depression.” There is an important distinction to be made between situational depression vs clinical depression. …
Addiction recovery is a long and involved process for all concerned – not just the addict. But whether you are the addict in recovery, or the family members, friends or co-workers, one thing is certain: there’s no point in continually focusing on the bad memories. That just clouds the situation and makes healing for everyone …
Addiction Recovery & the Negative Effects of Not Letting Go Read More »
Misuse can quickly progress to abuse and physical dependency. When you develop a physical addiction to opioids, coping with opioid withdrawal is difficult. Detox symptoms can become painful and overwhelming. Difficulty coping with opioid withdrawal symptoms is a major reason why it’s hard to recover from an opioid addiction without help from a treatment center. …
A new study finds that changing the words used to describe someone struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction may significantly alter the attitudes of health care professionals, even those who specialize in addiction treatment. Science Daily reports that Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have found that health professionals’ answers to survey questions about a hypothetical …
Words Used to Describe Substance-Abuse Patients Can Alter Attitudes, Create Stigma Read More »
The opioid crisis is progressing at an alarming rate and it is taking a financial toll on us all. Estimates of the cost vary by source, but a recent study showed that the current cost of the opioid crisis to the U.S. is a trillion dollars since 2002 and will cost another $500 billion by …