I believe that knowledge is helpful and empowering. Because of this, I talk to patients about how tardiness, lack of punctuality, is an early form of addictive behavior. In other words, it is mood altering by following one’s own rules instead of life’s rules. In the addicted brain, this self-directed processing of life’s events is […]
The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) has identified five distinct subtypes of alcohol dependence. “Clinicians have long recognized diverse manifestations of alcoholism,” said NIAAA Director Ting-Kai, MD, “and researchers have tried to understand why some alcoholics improve with specific medications and psychotherapies while others do not.” Previous attempts to identify alcoholism subtypes […]
One of the things I think our society has an extremely difficult time with is the process of grief. We give it a lot of lip service, but, in the end, avoid talking about how much grief and loss is involved in day-to-day life. We politically correctify it as “empty nest syndrome” or a “midlife […]
This is a summary of the study “Encouraging Posttreatment Self-Help Group Involvement to Reduce Demand for Continuing Care Services: Two-Year Clinical and Utilization Outcomes” which appeared in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Persons attending AA are 30% more likely to remain sober for at least two years according to a recent study. Researchers from Stanford […]
“Nature has given us one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.” Epictetus Communication is a fundamental aspect of work in the legal profession. Often we take the process for granted. Effective communication is part of what makes for success and satisfaction. Lawyers often see their […]
The surprising part of living with addiction, for many of us in the late 1970s and early 1980s, was the discovery we made that even when we left home, we carried home inside of us. That whatever had happened to us growing up was not left behind but followed us into our adult relationships. And […]
In our society, there is a very negative and prevalent association with the words “addict” and “alcoholic.” This antiquated association was, and continues to be, born of ignorance and unhealthy shame, or stigma. Shame and the societal stigma that accompanies it are detrimental to understanding addiction, identifying those in need of treatment, and facilitating acceptance, […]
By Saskia Davis, ©1984 Be on the lookout for symptoms of inner peace. The hearts of a great many have already been exposed to inner peace and it is possible that people everywhere could come down with it in epidemic proportions. 1. A tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than on fears based on […]
Since about 1980, there has been a phenomenal interest in and writing about shame, a topic that had received little prior attention. We have more understanding of the results of childhood neglect and abuse, and how that relates to addiction, the self’s inner relationship with the self, and the significance of shame. We now have […]
It was like any other Monday morning. I got up and got in the shower and began planning the day ahead. After a few minutes I started feeling dizzy while I was shaving. My heart started racing, my breathing became short and erratic, and an unexplainable sense of fear overcame me. The anxiety seemed to […]
I was always able to get by on my brains and wits, so the drinking in high school and later in college wasn’t an obstacle to making it through. Of course, I wasted my brains by doing as little as possible academically, had a good time, and finished college with “gentlemans.” Looking back on it […]
I come from a family of worriers, and I’ve done a lot of worrying in my life. I now do it less than ever, but there was a time when I thought I was a “worry addict.” Of course, a feeling of any kind can be “addictive”—we can use one feeling or mood to alter […]