Sponsors and Newcomers: the Heart and Lifeblood of A.A. Is it important to have a sponsor? Wow, absolutely. Absolutely. Sponsorship is an experience that you must not miss. Sponsorship is the heart, the heart of the AA approach to recovery. Everybody in this room knows that the heart is the most vital organ of your … Read More
Question: Is there any safe amount of alcohol a woman can drink while she is pregnant? Are there drinking safety guidelines to follow during pregnancy? Answer: We have no strong research evidence for a threshold of drinking below which there is no harm to the developing child. Although studies consistently show that heavy drinking during … Read More
Last year, it was bath salts. This year, the trending, scary new drug is krokodil (pronounced “crocodile”), a cheap heroin-like drug known to rot the body from the inside out and turn skin green and scaly on the surface. Krokodil is the street version of the synthetic opioid desomorphine. Made from crude products like lighter fluid, … Read More
Addiction is a destructive disease that pulls a person and the people around them down. This obviously effects friends and family, but it also endangers employers and co-workers. Addiction is more prevalent than you think. According to a survey conducted by Hazelden Foundation, more than 60 percent of adults know someone who has gone to … Read More
Question: As a part of heavy partying, people often plan to get drunk. What they don’t plan on is getting alcohol poisoning. For those who drink to excess, however, alcohol poisoning is a real danger. This begs the question “How can you get drunk without getting alcohol poisoning?” Answer: By controlling how much you drink and how fast … Read More
In Part 1 of How to influence an addict to enter treatment, we talked about how to detach ourselves form the problem to become part of the solution. Here, we talk about how you can use your relationship with the addict as leverage during an intervention. If you realize that you’ve been enabling your loved one, then you need to use this … Read More
When you love someone who is struggling, you want to do anything you can to wipe the hurt away. However, we often enable a loved one’s destructive behavior without realizing it because we think we’re helping them. Enabling is facilitating the progression of a problem by protecting others from the consequences of their own actions. That … Read More
Substance abuse affects everyone differently, which is what makes addiction an unpredictable disease. One person may become addicted after using a drug only one time, while another occasionally uses the drug for years without developing a dependence. Environmental and social factors play a big role in whether or not a person will form an addiction, … Read More
Recovery month is a time to show our support for people in recovery, but it is also a time to reflect on the people and the facilities that have made recovery possible. Over the years, there have been many changes in the way we see and treat addiction and mental health illnesses. Rehabilitation centers have not … Read More
As you may have heard, September is Recovery Month. And if there’s one thing we’re excited about celebrating for a whole month, it’s recovery. Why We Celebrate Why? Well because, without recovery, life is pretty bleak. Without recovery, we are still reeling in addiction. Without recovery, we don’t know the joys of sobriety. Without recovery, just continuing … Read More
