When battling the dual diagnosis of alcoholism and depression it is helpful to employ all possible tools available. Each of the disorders on their own are difficult and complex, but together they form a very challenging diagnosis that requires some thinking outside the box. While traditional treatment measures can ease symptoms somewhat, eastern medicine, in […]
As maligned as prescription painkillers are in recent years, using these opioids is still the most effective method for managing acute, short-term pain following an injury or surgery. The pain medications are also useful for treating patients with chronic pain when other drugs haven’t been successful, although the risk of developing dependence to them is […]
Alcoholism is, indeed, a family disease. Anyone caught up in the immediate orbit of the alcoholic will be drawn into the chaos and pain, as there is no way to separate from the overall effects of the alcoholism. These effects run far and deep, impacting family members in all aspects of life. For this reason, […]
Adderall is a prescription stimulant that is typically prescribed for individuals diagnosed with ADHD or narcolepsy. For many years now, Adderall has also found its way into the hands of people who do not necessarily obtain a doctor’s legitimate prescription, but obtain the stimulant through illicit means. The Adderall is then used for reasons other […]
You may know a high functioning alcoholic and secretly wonder how they manage to pull it off—holding down and excelling at a high-level professional position while abusing alcohol. It seems to defy reality that someone could be capable of this feat, but these individuals, about 20% of alcoholics, seem to have gotten a pass somehow. […]
Alcohol is a depressant. That means that an alcoholic beverage provides a nice, warm, mellow feeling because it depresses the central nervous system. Used judiciously as an occasional relaxation tool, alcohol is not problematic. The trouble occurs when we overuse alcohol consistently to help manage feelings of stress and anxiety. Among high-level professionals, this is […]
Chances are if you have landed on this blog you are seriously considering entering a program for treatment of an alcohol use disorder. By this point, there may be a litany of negative consequences piling up in your life due to the excessive alcohol consumption, prompting real interest in turning things around. Motivation to quit […]
Alcohol detoxification involves the process of ridding the body of all residual toxins associated with ethanol, the chemical byproduct associated with alcoholic beverages. Alcohol detox can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the severity and longevity of the alcohol addiction. A medically supervised detox is always recommended for someone […]
Being treated for alcohol use disorder covers many different realms, including restoring physical health. By the time someone seeks addiction treatment for alcoholism, their health may be significantly deteriorated, including the presence of nutritional deficiencies. Amino acids, which are the foundational building blocks of protein, can be seriously deficient in alcoholics because of poor diet […]
Funny how those excuses we used so often in childhood can become part of the alcoholic’s daily vernacular in adulthood. Remember how we insisted that our bad behavior was a result of some slight we’d suffered- “See what you made me do?”; or as a defense for eating all the ice cream-“I hardly had any!”; […]
