Overdose deaths from substance abuse involving methamphetamines, cocaine and most recently opioids, have been growing exponentially for nearly forty years, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health in a report recently published in the journal Science. Middle-aged Americans overdose on different drugs than youngerContinue Reading
New guidelines for prescribing Opioids for acute pain have been developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stepping up its efforts to combat Opioid abuse. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, opioid abuse is a common factor behind the alarming epidemic-like increase in suicide ratesContinue Reading
Research studies show that anger and alcohol consumption are bosom buddies. Alcohol consumption is higher in people who suffer from intense anger. Among people with only mild anger only twenty-two percent have two or more drinks at a time, while forty-four percent of people with intense anger consume that muchContinue Reading
Children who grow up in a stressful tumultuous household with both parents could be far worse off than growing up in a single-parent home. Living with one or both alcoholic or drug addicted parents is probably a life not worth remembering. Children brought up with physical abuse, harsh punishment andContinue Reading
In years past, having an affair required a chance encounter, a little luck, perhaps a willing co-worker, juggling time schedules, making excuses. People had to attend ‘fake’ work conferences or out-of-town seminars, use fake names at hotels, and pay with cash in the hope they wouldn’t be recognized by family,Continue Reading
Memories of traumatic events can lay dormant just beneath our consciousness, often for days, weeks or months. A triggering event can cause intense emotional and physical sensations that bring the trauma right back as if the event is happening all over again. There are important reasons why memories of traumaticContinue Reading
Habits are learned behaviors, or behavior patterns unlike instincts and motivations, that are embedded genetic traits. Habits are acquired by frequent use and repetition, as in an addiction or in swearing, for example that make up the structure of one’s personality. Primal vs Inherited Habits are dictated by these fourContinue Reading
We all develop habits, good and bad, throughout our lives. Frequent repetition of the same thinking and behavior patterns is how habits are formed. Practicing faulty thinking and behavior over long periods becomes engrained and is part of our second-nature. So, if that is true, the same frequent repetition canContinue Reading
Recently, the need to save and accumulate items, known as hoarding, has been added to the American Psychiatric Association’s classification system: the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). People diagnosed with hoarding disorder persistently feel they must save items and experience great distress if they attemptContinue Reading
In the addict’s world there is ongoing tension between a person’s normal self and the addicted self. A Jekyll-and-Hyde struggle emerges. The addictive system is so compelling that the addict feels it would be deadly to stop it. Yet, as the system continues, the person’s values, priorities and loved onesContinue Reading