Why You Need to Quit Smoking

Smoking has detrimental consequences to both the physical and emotional wellbeing of people who are addicted. Family, friends and loved ones are also affected by an individual’s addiction to nicotine, including children. Quitting smoking may seem easy but, in fact, is one of the hardest habits to break. Here is why a person should consider

Are You An Alcoholic?

If your drinking has progressed to a point where you’re asking yourself if you’re an alcoholic, you can easily convince yourself that the answer is “no”. You might have had one or two nights of binge drinking and woke up the next day with little memory of the previous evening, but in your mind those

Three Steps to Relapse

After recovering from a serious drug addiction, the last thing you want to do is consider going through that ordeal again. Once you’re done, you want to be done with that forever, right? Unfortunately, the nature of addiction is complex and frustrating and you will have to fight off temptations and relapse triggers for some

Keep Calm and Kick the Habit

The popular Internet and T-Shirt meme has a catchy and shareable nature to it; Keep Calm and…  The phrase is usually followed up with some activity but the central idea of this viral idea is that only when you take a breath and calm your agitated nerves can you truly enjoy what you’re doing, whatever

The Lifetime Value of Discipline

Recovering from an addiction is a process of mental strength, willpower, and treatment. But above all things, the core of recovery is an artform that has gone out of fashion in the modern consumer culture; Discipline.   Many people look at discipline as restrictive rules and dogmatic practices that limit your options as an individual.

You’re Responsible for Your Own Happiness

We hear in recovery counseling a lot about people who turn to substance use in a search for joy or pleasure in an otherwise miserable or unhappy life. As understandable and universal as the desire for happiness is to all of us, it’s well understood that the fleeting rush afforded by drugs and alcohol are

Marijuana Clocking Record Potency Worldwide

Marijuana seems to be having its time in the spotlight lately with the rolling legal reforms that continue to sweep Europe and the United States as well as the cultural obsession with glorifying it as the drug of choice for rappers, silicon valley moguls, and movie producers. But one of the more important changes regarding

Teen Marijuana Use Linked with Brain Development Issues

There is still a great deal of controversy over the long term health effects of marijuana on the brain. Growing numbers of research studies are still not sufficient enough to make a definitive conclusion on what the exact extent of the damage can be. While scientists are not yet certain how marijuana affects the brain

Anxiety and Addiction

Addiction is well understood by clinical psychologists to be a brain condition resulting from impaired cerebral function. Anxiety is understood to be, at least in part, a combination of genetic factors, environmental stress, and personal idiosyncrasies. Or in other words, it is a cocktail combo of the influence from parental genes, cues in your surrounding

Is Social Media the 13th Step?

Human beings, like many other animals, exhibit a tendency to emulate each other’s behavior. The more individuals behave in a particular way, the more powerful the tendency becomes. To a degree, we become like those we spend the most time with. This is called “herd mentality”. It is a phrase that describes how we are