Anyone going into the addiction counseling field should know something about the medications that are used in medical detoxification, as well as to stabilize active addiction and assist the recovery process. Even though therapists don’t participate directly in the medical aspects of the detoxification and treatment processes, it is helpful to know generally what physicians…
DetailsDenial can take many forms. As an addiction treatment professional, you will find many of your clients in various stages of denial. Their inner voice says, “I don’t have a problem; I can control this. Yeah, maybe I got a DUI (or even two), but I was just in the wrong place at the wrong…
Details
The emergency rooms are full of people on all kinds of drugs. Many hospital emergency rooms just let the alcohol-intoxicated patients lie there in a subacute area and “sleep it off.” The nursing staff monitors their vital signs (blood pressure, temperature, pulse, and respiration) and makes sure that patients don’t go into acute withdrawal. Some…
Details
The structures in the brain that these neurotransmitters activate and that are involved in the addiction cycle are the prefrontal cortex, the nucleus accumbens, and the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The reward pathway connects the VTA to both the nucleus accumbens and the prefrontal cortex via this pathway. The neurons of the VTA release dopamine…
Details
It’s important to have at least a basic understanding of the different parts and processes of the brain that are involved with the reward pathway because they are fundamental to addiction. There are neuropeptides that activate the various chemical receptors and act on the reward pathway. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that relay, amplify, and modulate signals…
Details
Throughout the history of medicine, there have been various theories of addiction. Historically, addiction was thought to be a form of spiritual possession, and this provided the origin of referring to alcohol as “spirits.” Sometimes the behavior of addicted persons seems more animal than human. This is typified by the aggressive behavior and lack of…
DetailsAddiction is a family disease because it affects everyone in the family system in which it occurs, but also because it runs in families. Addiction runs in families through genetic transmission. Most people who use alcohol or other drugs don’t become addicted. If you’re speaking with a group of addiction treatment patients or people in…
DetailsIt takes two elemental factors to produce an addicted individual… First, it takes a substance or behavior that stimulates the reward center of the brain. The reward center is located in an area called the limbic system, in the midbrain. The midbrain lies below the prefrontal cortex, under the “thinking” brain that thinks consciously and…
DetailsSo what is addiction treatment? why can’t most drug addicts just quit on their own? How effective is addiction treatment, when is it necessary, and is addiction treatment worth the cost? why isn’t more treatment available? what can we all do to help? There are about five federal government agencies now tripping over each other…
Details
I tell people who don’t believe marijuana is addictive to go to a Marijuana Anonymous meeting, where they will see and hear people whose lives have been ruined by marijuana. Anytime you smoke something, it’s harmful. When you inhale smoke, whether it’s tobacco smoke or marijuana smoke, inhaling heated smoke is inherently unhealthy. In addition,…
Details