Texas Addiction Recovery Blog
Alcohol, Drugs, and the Blame Game
Blame is a complex process. By blaming ourselves, we’re beating ourselves up over real or imaginary infractions. But even if we’re blaming others, we’re really still highlighting our own issues. While blaming others may appear to involve others, we’re really still...
Regret and Drug and Alcohol Abuse
“Regrets, I’ve had a few./But then again, too few to mention.” These lines are from “My Way,” a song covered by Frank Sinatra and others. Regret is one emotion that can be particularly difficult. It involves thinking about the past and comparing it to the future....
Voters Want Substance Use Disorder Treatment Included in Health Insurance Reform – But So What?
Maybe it’s not surprising that politicians don’t pay attention to most voters. Most voters don’t seem to pay attention to what the candidate they vote for actually says. Policy doesn’t matter, campaign promises don’t matter. For years most voters polled seemed to...
Alcohol Detox Can Be Even More Dangerous Than Alcohol
Nelsan Ellis (Wikimedia commons) Last week actor Nelsan Ellis, better known as Lafayette on the HBO series True Blood, died at age 39 from heart failure. Earlier this week, his family elaborated in the hope of helping others: he died of heart failure while trying to...
What Makes a Drug Bad?
“Drugs are bad.” This is the repeated comment of the Mr. Mackey character on the television series South Park. But does Mr. Mackey ever explain in great detail why he believes that drugs are bad? Do any of our authority figures? I’m showing my age here, but I was in...
Substance Use Disorder and Luck
Today is July seventh, or 7/11 or 11/7, depending on how you write the date. For a lot of people, seven and eleven are lucky numbers. Remember a decade ago, when there were a slew of couples who got married on July 7, 2007 (7/7/7)? They seemed to believe in the...
Using Technology to Fight Opiate Abuse
In the fight against opiate/opioid addiction, a somewhat unlikely tool has emerged—computer databases. But maybe computer databases aren’t such unlikely tools after all. After all, we use technology to learn, to work, to find dates, to stay connected, and to spend our...
Substance Use Disorder Treatment Needs to be More Available, Cheaper than Drugs
In 1954 Darrell Huff published How to Lie with Statistics. The cover blurb added, “Now you, too, can out-double-talk your accountant; confuse your political opponent; prove that your product has secret built-in goodness!” The introduction spelled out that “This book...
No, Substance Use Disorder Is Not Caused By Medicaid
Q: If a problem has gotten worse while spending money on it, is the solution to spend less money on it? A: Yes, according to an editorial in National Review. The author is Sam Adolphsen, “a senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability,” a...
Using Rehab Centers and Other Help
Yesterday, we talked about how in 1776, the United States declared its independence from Great Britain. We also talked about how people struggle to gain their independence in more private but just as important matters. One of these matters is drug addiction. People do...