Heroin Addiction Treatment and Rehab Announced by Recovery Associates …
Recovery Associates, through its multiple therapeutic tracks, is placing an emphasis upon heroin addiction treatment, helping men and women break free from this harrowing, potent drug. Heroin turns normal, functioning people into walking zombies and …
Read more on PR Web (press release)

Colombia's capital banks on marijuana cure for hard drug addicts
BOGOTA, Colombia — Marijuana has long been accused of being a gateway to deadlier vices. But could cannabis be a swinging door that might also lead people away from hard drugs? That's what this capital city is trying to find out. In coming weeks …
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DSM-5: The End of One-Size-Fits-All Addiction Treatment?
But there may be some surprise, too, as received wisdom about the diagnosis and treatment of addiction is turned on its head. … Since then, a considerable body of research has shown that there are not two distinct types of substance misuse, but only one.
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Gulf Coast Addiction Treatment Now Offers Long-Term Addiction Treatment
Gulf Coast Addiction Treatment Now Offers Long-Term Addiction Treatment. Gulf Coast Addiction Treatment is an alcohol and drug addiction center offering a hands-on approach to recovery with assistance every step of the way. Knowing that a successful …
Read more on PR Web (press release)

DSM-5: The End of One-Size-Fits-All Addiction Treatment?
This may come as a surprise to people working in the treatment industry because legal problems are the most common reason people seek treatment in rehab. But only about 12 percent of people with DSM-IV alcohol dependence ever seek specialty …
Read more on Pacific Standard

The European Alcohol Addiction Market is Poised For a Treatment Paradigm …
The DecisionBase 2013 report entitled Alcohol Addiction: How Would a Harm Reduction Treatment Paradigm Be Received by Physicians? also finds that surveyed U.S. psychiatrists indicated that they would prescribe Alkermes' samidophan to 25 percent of …
Read more on PR Newswire (press release)

Gulf Coast Addiction Treatment Now Offers Long-Term Addiction Treatment
Gulf Coast Addiction Treatment Now Offers Long-Term Addiction Treatment. Gulf Coast Addiction Treatment is an alcohol and drug addiction center offering a hands-on approach to recovery with assistance every step of the way. Knowing that a successful …
Read more on PR Web (press release)

Recovering Drug Addict: 'We All Start in Same Place'
And drug addiction, the recovering addict says, can affect anyone. "We were all kids of lawyers, doctors, politicians," Herren said about his high school basketball team. "Six of the 15 members got hooked on heroin." Just one day before failing his …
Read more on Patch.com

Church Leaders Tackle The Stigma Of Mental Illness – Huffington Post
Stetzer said some evangelical Christians think that if they pray enough or become more spiritual, then their mental illness will go away. But they don't look at other health issues the same way. “People who become … McKnight helped start Celebrate …
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Frantic 911 call ends ordeal for 3 long-missing women
Officials said they want to give the women time to recover before debriefing them. Authorities declined to say whether the …. The victims' families in the Sowell case accused police of failing to properly investigate the disappearances because most …
Read more on CBS News

David Sheff talks about addiction and recovery at Powell's in Beaverton
Sheff speaks from experience. His son Nic Sheff is a recovering addict who was the subject of “Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction,” a No. 1 best-seller. Nic Sheff is now 30 and sober after years of addiction to meth and other …
Read more on OregonLive.com

Lang says book is practical advice
Lang admits there are a million books on drug addiction and recovery, but his is different. “Well, I tried to make it as practical as I could. I looked back on my experience these last couple years and thought; OK, how did I do this? Why was I able to …
Read more on Pryor Daily Times

Right Now Enough is Enough! Overcoming Addictions & Bad Habits for Good
The author begins his book by explaining the foundation of his plan—the one that can supposedly help one overcome addiction and bad habits in 30 days or less. Sacco posits that three things will need to be addressed in order for true health and …
Read more on PsychCentral.com (blog)

Film "Anonymous People" shows the recovery side of addiction
Health professionals and those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction packed Morton Theatre on Thursday to watch a special screening of the documentary “The Anonymous People.” The film pondered why addiction isn't treated like other health issues, …
Read more on Online Athens

South Florida Halfway Houses Announced by the Best Halfway House Addiction …
They help find sober living homes for all of those in recovery and in need of a safe place to live. A great halfway house can make or break a person's early recovery from drug addiction, and the Best Halfway House is committed to providing the best …
Read more on Beaumont Enterprise

Habits usually do not form overnight. I have often heard this popular quote repeated, though the source is unknown: “Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.

Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.” By this statement, it is clear that people do things habitually after a process that begins in our thought patterns. The whole sequence takes time, and it’s usually a negative thought or idea that leads to a negative habit. Habits, when not checked or balanced, become addictions; and addictions are the hardest habits to break.

What Habits Lead to Drug Addiction?

A person might try their first drug after a dare or a little pressure from their peers, in an attempt to fit in and look cool. Others try drugs when they are depressed, sick, or at a weak moment in their lives; looking cool is the farthest thing on their minds. Some might try it for no particular reason at all, other than out of curiosity. Kids who have access to drugs (prescription or otherwise) through parents or peers sometimes experiment, even using cough syrups, cold medicines, and other household products to get high.

It doesn’t help that drugs and alcohol are glamorized in the media, in music videos, movies, and in advertising. Print ads tend to be sleek and alluring enough to draw someone in. The drug, alcohol and tobacco industries are some of the richest businesses in the world, thriving even in tough economic times.

Unfortunately, there are some people who have an immediate strong reaction and addiction to a drug, while others seem unaffected until larger doses are taken. Some drugs are more potent and addictive than others, so one dose can get a person hooked. Ten-time Grammy winner Natalie Cole recalls in the movie, “Livin’ for Love: The Natalie Cole Story,” how her very first encounter with heroin at a house party got her hooked. She had taken other drugs before but had never had such an intense reaction.

Prescription drug addiction can begin by accident, especially when they are narcotic painkillers. These kinds of drugs are known to be addictive, but also effective at relieving pain. Patients are simply seeking pain relief, while their bodies are gradually building up immunity to the drugs, rendering the drugs less and less effective. As a result, they take greater doses and more pills to ease their pain and an addiction forms.

No matter why someone gets started taking drugs, taking them habitually usually leads to addiction; and once they are addicted, it usually becomes a lifelong struggle to break free and stay free.

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