Drug and alcohol addictions are common. Some people use alcohol or other substances and can stop when they want. For others, the need for the substance becomes compulsive and can result in dangerous behaviors.
The world’s illicit drug usage problem continues to worsen and the global COVID-19 pandemic could serve to compound the problem in myriad ways, according to the latest U.N. “World Drug Report,” released late last month.
Other rehabs that I’ve been to were 12 step-based. Sometimes 12 steps work for some people. And sometimes it doesn’t work for others. It helped me stay clean for a …
Opioid deaths have increased steadily over the past several years. Reports of the opioid crisis or the opioid epidemic appear in the media on an almost daily basis. Overdose deaths from another source have been steadily rising as well but have received very little media attention. Benzodiazepines, once considered an extremely safe medication, are resulting in higher rates of drug addiction and are being implicated in overdose deaths, especially when used in conjunction with opioids.
When Mitzi and Brad met and started dating, Brad was sober, but he shared with Mitzi that although he had a history of addiction, he had been sober for quite a while.
In the United States, over six-million women become pregnant every year. Approximately 9 out of 10 of those pregnant women take medication. About five percent of pregnant women use one or more substance that is addictive. Almost ten percent of pregnant women have smoked tobacco within the past month.
Unfortunately, expectant mothers struggle with withdrawal just like any other person suffering with drug addiction. Often the withdrawal becomes too difficult, and withdrawal symptoms are relieved by turning again to the substance.
The summer, and the “Turn on, tune in, drop out” movement it inspired, may have faded into autumn, but recreational drug use numbers continued to grow. As of the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than 130 million Americans have tried illegal drugs in their lifetime, and up to 30 million report usage within the “past month.”
I attended Gulf Breeze Recovery in 2016 after over a decade of failed attempts to get clean at 12-step drug treatment centers. I was an IV drug user, and I thought that if anyone truly understood how powerful my cravings were, then surely they would see why it was impossible for me to stay sober. That’s why one of the most valuable insights I gained during my time in Gulf Breeze was my relationship to cravings.
You can recover from addiction, and rediscover how it feels to dream! Dreams for the future are a wonderful part of life. Kids are full of dreams concerning things they …