A couple of weeks back, I got a call from a client, let’s call him Joe. Joe is on disability and has dealt with chronic pain for most of his life. If you saw him walking down the street, you’d think Joe was a regular guy. He dresses well, has...
REAL TALK ABOUT ADDICTION: The Beginning of Change
I talked previously about how unaddressed trauma in our lives can lead to addiction and other unhealthy coping mechanisms. This time I’d like to talk about what how to begin the lifelong process of healing from those traumas. For this topic,...
REAL TALK ABOUT ADDICTION: Retraining the Brain
People who use drugs (PWUD) are an impatient lot. It goes back to the brain chemistry stuff I talked about in Part 3, but people dealing with addiction are stuck in an “I want it now!” mindset that is fueled by those predictable rushes of...
REAL TALK ABOUT ADDICTION: The Chamber of Secrets
Addiction is ugly. It’s surrounded by stigma. When we’re in active misuse, we do things we aren’t proud of. For all of these reasons and more, addiction lives in a space fill with secrets and lies.
Because most addiction is rooted in...
REAL TALK ABOUT ADDICTION: “Thieves in the Temple”
In this installment, we’re going to briefly talk about some of the impacts of addiction and substance misuse on our bodies. Nutrition is an important issue to me, especially because I see so few people in the addition and recovery field talking...
Real Talk About Addiction: “If I Only Had a Brain”
Addiction is not as simple as some people would like to believe. The science tells us that it’s more than a choice to use. Addictive behaviors are actively stored in the brain as memories thanks to dopamine. Dopamine is the neurotransmitter...
Real Talk About Addiction: Trauma
Addiction is not the problem, it is a symptom of the problem. You wouldn’t believe how much pushback I get from saying that, but it’s the truth. It is only by integrating all parts of ourselves into our long term recovery plan that we...
Real Talk About Addiction: Arrest and Incarceration
One of the cornerstones of my approach to working with people who use drugs is to create a safe space where they know they can be honest with me, no matter what. That’s the same for the heroin-addicted felon sleeping under a SW Atlanta bridge...
Addiction and Co-Occurring Disorders
Up to 80% of people with substance use issues also have mental health issues. Since the 1980s, this has been known in the Addiction and Recovery arena as "dual diagnosis", with addiction and mental health being treating in tandem. In more...
Is Relapse a part of Recovery?
When it comes to addiction and recovery, there are...