When you think about addiction or substance abuse, you may forget about commonly abused prescription drugs. After all, people abuse not just marijuana, heroin, cocaine, and other illicit drugs. Millions of people also abuse prescription medicines throughout the world. It is important to know that prescription drug addiction treatment is available List of Commonly Abused…
If you’re struggling with a mental health and substance abuse disorder, you may wonder do I need dual diagnosis treatment. In short, completing a dual diagnosis treatment program is the best way to improve your ability to fully recover. Addiction, substance abuse disorders, and alcoholism are chronic, powerful, and progressive conditions that impact your physical,…
It’s not easy to make sense of the high-functioning alcoholic (HFA), but there are more of them than we think. People earning more than $75,000 per year drink more alcohol than any other economic group. About 81 percent of these high earners consume alcohol on, at least, a semi-regular basis. While the majority of them…
Abusing drugs or alcohol does not necessarily cause domestic violence, but there is a strong correlation. For households with an addict, episodes of violence are far more likely. Every day can be a fearful game of waiting for the drug abuser or alcoholic to explode or lash out at a child or a spouse. Substance…
In recent years, the terms “addict” and “alcoholic” have been gradually falling out of favor as ways to refer to people with substance use disorders. Many people have begun to publicly advocate against these terms, including the current acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli. Those who want…
Substance/medication induced obsessive-compulsive and related disorder is the lengthy, somewhat complicated name for a newly defined mental health condition that appears in DSM 5, the recently released fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. People with this condition have symptoms that closely resemble the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or any…
For 20 years, I battled with a cycle of depression that went from manageable low moods to periods of isolation and despair. Yet it wasn’t until I had a complete breakdown that I started to challenge my mental health status. When I did, it turned out to be the first step to overcoming depression and…
For some, the burden of caregiving can seem unbearable – whether you’re caring for an elderly parent with Alzheimer’s or parenting a child with cerebral palsy. It is, without question, a challenging way to live: attending to your loved one’s personal hygiene, going back and forth to doctor’s appointments, preparing meals and ensuring he or…
Back in 1998, the satirical newspaper The Onion featured the following front-page headline: “Drugs Win Drug War” This introduction and the story that followed were obviously intended as a spoof, but humor is frequently used as a subtle way to reveal the truth and that was undoubtedly the intent in this case. Fifteen years later,…
Of the 95 million emergency room visits estimated that occurred in 2007, 12 million of them were attributed to a mental disorder, substance abuse condition, or both. According to a new statistical report from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), one in eight visits by adults to hospital emergency departments was related to the…
