Tag: addiction
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Heart Disease vs Addiction: A Call for Change
I was reading my favorite entertainment weekly, Happenings Magazine, and saw a news brief that indicates that 99% of heart attacks and strokes are linked to “modifiable” risks. I HAD to dive deeper. What I found is that 99% of heart attack, stroke, and heart failure cases are linked to preventable risk factors (Medical). Weird.…
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Understanding Drug Testing: A Tool for Informed Decisions
Drug testing has gotten a bad rap, but it’s not the TESTS that are bad. It’s how the results are being used. And we – the people who work in the field of substance use disorders – are the reason they are used inappropriately and why the message isn’t getting out. A Google search explains…
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How Drug Testing Can Uncover Hidden Addictions
I’ve written several times about the Marty Mann Test for Addiction, and I’m a firm believer that it works. (You can find a link in the references below.) But how do we get people to try it? And, when they won’t, how do they realize that they really do have addiction? I had a colleague…
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Addiction Misconceptions: Expert Opinions vs. Personal Bias
I always forget how dumb I am, but, thankfully, I have a bunch of people willing to remind me: family, friends, and strangers…so, yeah, pretty much have that covered. I know a lot about addiction. I’ve spent decades learning about addiction, working with people who have addiction, and working to prevent addiction. I am a…
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Understanding Cannabis Addiction Myths
It happened again the other day…and I absolutely know better than to open my mouth…but I did anyway. I was an observer to a conversation about the vast and varied benefits of cannabis. I was trying my damnedest not to participate, but one of the two people in the conversation decided to point out that…
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The Rising Risk: Alcohol Tolerance and Health Advice Changes
What happens when you take poison? You die. There is certainly an element of truth to Westley, the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride, building up tolerance against iocaine powder in order to get Vizzini out of the way. That happens every day. What’s the number one ingested toxin in the US? You got…
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Ending Addiction: Strategies for Effective Treatment and Recovery
Would you want to go to an endocrinologist for treatment of your type 2 diabetes if ze were obese and has type 2 diabetes? Do you get your hair cut by someone with a hairstyle you don’t like? Why do we have a current emphasis on people who use drugs (PWUD) to be part of…
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Research on Addiction Needs Added Oversight
Learning is good, but accepting all research as gospel is problematic, and the alternative — dismissing facts we don’t agree with — is equally harmful. Despite my sister saying I’m basically a one-trick pony, I’m passionate about a lot of topics, so I love knowing stuff and sharing it. That’s why I enjoy attending conferences…because…
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Changing Addiction Language for Better Understanding
I write a lot here about language and how words – especially those used in the field of addiction – don’t actually define what we mean to say. Words like “substance use disorder,” “mental health,” and others. Imagine how much farther ahead we’d be if we say that someone has “addiction” rather than a “substance…
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The Importance of Language in Addiction Treatment
We hear so much about stigma and how it is at least part of the reason that less than 7% of those who need treatment actually access it (NIDA legislative). Our language has changed, though I contend that we may have taken things a bit too far when I can’t actually figure out what words…
Guided by Guida 