Texas Addiction Recovery Blog
Thinking in Absolutes and Why it Destroys Recovery from Substance Use Disorder
“I'll never get well,” you think. “It's never going to happen. I will always be an addict. I can't recover.” Many who are recovering from addiction have these kinds of thoughts. The words “never,” “always,” and “can't” are absolute terms, meaning that they hold no...
Drugs and Alcohol: Not an Award-Winning Combination
The Academy Awards (Oscars) ceremony will occur a few days from now. In some ways, the ceremony encapsulates what many people think when they hear the word Hollywood—movies, attractive people in glamorous outfits, and the like. Many people also think about alcohol and...
A Possible Opiate Breakthrough
Around two million. Almost 600,000. These two numbers are the number of Americans addicted to prescription opiates (opioids) and heroin in 2015, according to the American Society for Addiction Medicine. An opiate or opioid is a drug related to opium. Opiates interact...
Harm Reduction for Alcohol and Drug Abuse
It seems like there’s more than one way to do most things. That also includes seeking help to treat problems with alcohol and drugs. Harm reduction is one such approach. Unlike 12-step programs and non-12-step programs that encourage people to give up alcohol and...
Specialized Treatment for Addiction
This is an encouraging fact, although a lot of people might not know it. Did you know that there are medical professionals who specialize in addiction care? There are. Many of these people belong to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), an organization of...
Exercising Patience in Recovery: What Works Best
When you're deep in the dark world of addiction, it's hard to feel patient. After all, why did you get this way? How did you get here? And why do you feel irritable inside? These feelings bleed into other parts of your life—for one thing, it can make it difficult to...
Should You Detox On Your Own?
It is quite dangerous to detox on your own, depending on the drug. If you are detoxing from an alcohol addiction, this can bring on a phenomena called delirium tremens, which consists of uncontrollable shaking and other movements, as well as intense sweating, raised...
Treatment for Cocaine Abuse and What Works for YOU
When you're hooked on cocaine, you're hooked on the high speeds of life. You feel great—everything moves at a lightning pace, and all of the best answers land in your mind. Many people become addicted to stimulants like cocaine when they're depressed because they can...
Ecstasy Does Not Promote Good Health
Yesterday, we talked a lot about what ecstasy does to your body physically. Like most drugs, ecstasy can also have a profound on your mind and emotions. In fact, many people use the drug to change their emotions, but they encounter side effects they never anticipated....
Paying the Physical Cost of Ecstasy
Since we celebrated Valentine’s Day this week, we might as well talk about ecstasy. No, not that kind of ecstasy. The drug ecstasy. After all, this is a blog for Willow Springs. We’re not that kind of website. Anyway, many people use ecstasy (MDMA) to feel good, but...