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…
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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,…
DetailsOne of the problems practitioners encounter is that people now hear about many medications due to the hype of pharmaceutical company advertising and the promises made on TV commercials, and they think that’s the solution to their problem. Just take a pill and that will “solve my depression.” People often learn the hard way that…
DetailsOnce people stop using, the challenge is to stay stopped, and for most that involves engaging in the process of recovery. Many people need a support or mutual-aid program to accomplish this. The most popular support groups for addiction are found in the various twelve-step programs. Twelve-step programs—Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), and others—are…
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There are any number of reasons why people use and end up becoming addicted to alcohol and other drugs: to change the way they feel—for euphoria, sedation, and anesthesia; to self-medicate depression, anxiety, insomnia, boredom, and lack of pleasure. To treat addiction, you have to understand what it is, how people become addicted, and work…
DetailsMerriam-webster defines addiction as “a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal” or in a broader definition, “the persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful.” Historically, addiction has been defined as physical…
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The CASA Columbia report reveals that addiction and risky use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs constitute the largest preventable and most costly health problems facing the US today, responsible for more than 20 percent of deaths in the US, causing or contributing to more than seventy other conditions requiring medical care and a wide…
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