Texas Addiction Recovery Blog
The Great and Dangerous Unknowns of Heroin and Other Drugs
What you don’t know about drugs and alcohol can hurt you. Sad to say, the manufacturers and dealers often look for ways to make their products more attractive to buyers. After all, they’re not in business out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re in it to make...
Opioid Epidemic Still Not Declared an Emergency
It’s a wise man who thinks things over, but it’s a fool who hesitates. – Proverb On Oct. 15, 2016, President Donald J. Trump released a campaign press release on the opioid epidemic, particularly the prescription pills such as Oxycodone and hydrocodone plaguing New...
Better Pain Management, Expectations Needed Post-Substance Use Disorder
In 2016 a recovering opioid addict underwent hip surgery in Michigan and was given 50 oxycodone pills to deal with the pain. Instead she died of an overdose. The hospital where she received her surgery didn’t know of her addiction or recent stay at a substance use...
Marijuana Legalization Debates
Interesting battles have been occurring for some time, and it doesn’t look like they’re ending anytime soon. The battles? People who advocate the legalization or decriminalization of drugs and people who want to punish drug use, possession, and distribution. Perhaps...
Methamphetamine (Meth) and Breaking Bad: The Ongoing Conversation (Spoilers Ahead)
Breaking Bad was a popular and critically acclaimed television series that aired on AMC from 2008 to 2013. You can still find old episodes on the Netflix streaming service and people are still talking about the program. The series featured Bryan Cranston as Walter...
Toluene and Inhalant Abuse in the Young
Older teenagers and adults aren’t the only people who struggle with substance use disorder. Young teenagers and preteenagers (preteens) also abuse substances. Monitoring the Future (MTF) is an annual survey that includes information about drug, alcohol, and tobacco...
Helping Others Live Sober through Service
How To Help Others Become Sober From Native American sobriety circles though Keeley’s Gold Cure and Alcoholics Anonymous, it’s evident that addicts and substance use disorderrs do better when at least some of the people helping them have personal experience...
The Problem of Pain Fuels Substance Use Disorder
If you had a magic wand that take away pain, but didn’t use it when someone was in pain, wouldn’t you use it? That may be how the current opioid epidemic started. Physicians were told by pharmaceutical companies that their new opioids were magic: they took away pain...
Fixing Substance Use Disorder Priorities
You can find “facts” to fit your desired outcomes, and choose to disregard other information that, in Al Gore’s parlance, are “inconvenient truths.” We’re all guilty of this to one extent or another. It’s called the backfire effect, conformation bias and a few...
Drug Courts Can Fight Addiction
If the police find that you’re carrying drugs such as cocaine or heroin, they’ll arrest you, send you to court, and you’ll end up in jail or prison, right? Not necessarily. In fact, authorities might send you to a special court called a drug court. Drug courts are...