Obesity is a Completely Different Health Condition Than Addiction People who struggle to control their weight are often blamed for their own condition. “Why would you do that to yourself?” the uninformed bystander thinks, wondering why someone who begins to gain weight wouldn’t just start eating more vegetables. In reality, each person’s average weight is[…]
Tag Archives: addiction
28
Jan
Jan
Getting High, Avoiding The Low, & Craving Tobacco, alcohol, stimulants, opiates, and marijuana are all capable of leading to addiction. Some of these drugs are more addictive than others. Some people are more prone to becoming addicted than others. Authors of a recent review article in the New England Journal of Medicine define addiction as “the most severe, chronic stage[…]
25
Jan
Jan
How to Spot When The Adolescent in Your Life May Have a Problem I frequently give talks about marijuana at schools. If the audience includes parents, the most common question is a variation on, “What are the signs that my kid might be abusing marijuana?” Kevin P. Hill, M.D., M.H.S., is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard[…]
22
Jan
Jan
It Can’t Be About Your Expectations For Them When a loved one is in crisis, it can be hard to know what to say. It can feel safer to do nothing in the hope of avoiding messy feelings or uncomfortable communication. What your loved one needs as they take their first steps toward recovery, however, is your[…]
21
Jan
Jan
Know How to Do it, But Need The Social Push The United States has come a long way in encouraging people to smoke less or quit. We need a similar push against alcoholism and binge drinking. Public health measures do help. On U.S. campuses, nearly 40 percent of students confess they’ve downed 5 or more alcoholic drinks at a time[…]
21
Jan
Jan
What is Achievement Addiction? How Do You Know If You Have It? One of the most powerful motives that humans can possess is the drive to achieve. Typically, we consider high achievement to be positive. We encourage ourselves, and our children, to be high achievers. But can we become too achievement-oriented, and cross over into[…]
20
Jan
Jan
Writers & Loved Ones Should Embrace “Progress Not Perfection” I write and I recover from a loved one’s addiction. Granted there are significant differences between the two, but several similarities. I struggle to master both. And let me tell you, it’s hard. Fran Simone is Professor Emeritus from Marshall University, South Charleston Campus, West Virginia where she[…]
19
Jan
Jan
Are Smarter People More Likely to Harm Themselves With Drugs & Alcohol? Dr. Kanazawa has reissued his assertion that more intelligent people binge drink and get drunk more, according to the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The following data from that study relate childhood IQ to binge drinking and drunkenness: “Very dull” Add Health respondents (with childhood IQ[…]
14
Jan
Jan
On Accepting Your Feelings, Rather Than Attempting to Escape As far as I’m aware, there has been no time in the history of the human race when the majority of human beings attempted to accept their feelings rather than escape them. Escape is a natural way of avoiding pain and unpleasantness. This technique works for short-term relief, but it[…]
14
Jan
Jan
Getting Dopamine From Your Best Connections Not Your Worst Vices Dopamine is trending as the most popular neurotransmitter. And why not? There are days I think it rules the world or at least the day-to-day activities of my friends and family. The craving you have when you smell the coffee brewing in the morning—thank dopamine. That elation you feel[…]