Tag: SUD
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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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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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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…
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Is ‘California Sober’ a Real Path to Recovery?
There’s much debate about what recovery looks like. In fact, in some fun videos on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mikeandguida/) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MikeAndGuida) that I do with my friend, the renowned trainer Mike McGowan, we recently talked about “California Sober,” and sheesh, did we get pushback! For the unfamiliar, “California Sober,” according to one source, means “when a…
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Screening Pregnant Women for Substance Use: Key Insights
“You don’t want to go on a date with me, do you?” There’s no good way to answer this question. If I do want to go on a date, I’m actually disagreeing with the person asking me. If I don’t, well, you know…saying “You’re correct. I don’t,” is hard. I refer to this as the…
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Prenatal Substance Exposure: A Neglected Health Crisis
Urine drug tests can be done for every patient in every hospital…but they aren’t. And that lack of testing everyone who is hospitalized could be considered discriminatory, especially when the group of patients all being tested, under the guise of not discriminating, is pregnant people, as if pregnant people are the only ones who may…
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Racial Disparities in Newborn Drug Testing and Prenatal Care
What would a pregnant person on the verge of delivering a baby say if she were asked if she has a history of drug abuse within the last 12-18 months? How about if she’s asked about her history of child abuse, neglect, or court-ordered placements of children outside the home? History of domestic abuse or…
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They’re Drunk On Your Dollars
People suffering from alcohol use disorder[…] were given alcohol – indeed, given alcohol to the level of intoxication – in the name of research.
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Addiction: The Disease Not Worthy of Intervention?
It is unconscionable for those with cancer, and it should be considered equally unconscionable for those with the other chronic, progressive, lethal disease.
Guided by Guida 