addiction
The realities of addition; the truth about living under, above and beyond the influence of drugs and alcohol.
I’m Not Addicted, Are You?
As Americans, we’ve all likely seen the ad that says, “This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs.” The war on drugs has shaped our impressions of what taking drugs and medications mean, and a stereotypical image of what an addict is. It doesn’t help that the words “dependent” and “addiction” have been so often used interchangeably, making many people think dependent people are addicts. That isn’t true. The two words have different meanings.
By Julie L Hodges5 years ago in Psyche
The complexities of addiction and recovery
Addiction is a concept that is variable, ambiguous and difficult to characterize. Webster defines addiction as "the process of giving oneself habitually or compulsively to something, such as alcohol or narcotics" (Soukhanov & Ellis, 1984, p. 77). While this description somewhat captures the desperate and sinister nature of this process, it remains an incomplete explanation. The Social Work Dictionary (Barker, 1987) refers instead to substance abuse or substance dependence and further describes the phenomena as " a disorder related to an unhealthy use of alcohol or drugs which includes related negative social, legal or vocational ramifications, a pattern of pathological use (episodic binges), psychological dependence including a desire for continued use and an inability to inhibit that desire, and symptoms of tolerance or withdrawal" (p. 160).
By Donna L. Roberts, PhD (Psych Pstuff)5 years ago in Psyche
Breaking free from the cycle
Is trauma the root cause of emotional dysregulation and as a result developing addictive personality traits to cope? So today id like to share the progress I've made overcoming addictions and the behavior patterns that hindered my growth and strained the relationships I've had with people.
By Marcus Eli5 years ago in Psyche
Dying to Be a Prospect
They called him Bubsy, but his cutesy name didn’t do much to reduce his wild and fearsome reputation. His linebacker like frame juiced to the tits with steroids didn’t fit it either. I only saw him one summer when I worked as a laborer, but the stories about him made their way back to me via a co-worker and many of them were terrifying.
By Steve B Howard5 years ago in Psyche
Understanding Addiction
When most people think about addiction they usually think about issues such as alcohol or drugs which are probably the two most common forms of addictive behavior in society today, an addict is basically anybody who turns to something which they feel gives them instant gratification or some other kind of reward or helps them escape from their actual reality. Usually, this will go hand in hand with a sense of them feeling low self esteem even though in many cases, they can often seem confident on the outside.
By T. S. Michaels5 years ago in Psyche
What to Expect When Going To Treatment
In this post Covid 19 era of living where we are facing the challenge of going back to work and sending our children back to school and leaving our masks behind, some of us have come to realize that we have developed a dependence upon alcohol or other substances to help us manage our anxiety, depression, fear, etc. Being isolated in our homes has presented us with a great deal of unwanted time to ruminate upon thoughts and memories and past traumas that we happily distracted ourselves from with our occupations.
By Wendy Hall5 years ago in Psyche
People in my Life
Brian Mol was one of the first guys that I met when I broke my mom’s and my brother’s rules and crossed Franford Ave. He was in the old arcade that used to be on Trenton Ave right next to Frankford. Up until that point I always had a few friends but one best friend, and we were literally dorky loners, afraid of our own shadow. We went to the arcade for protection. We were all of 13 years old and some girls that my friend and I had known had made friends with older guys and asked them to beat us up. We were confined to the safety of Cumberland Street between Tulip and Memphis. We had heard, and told, all the stories of the gangs on the other side of Frankford Ave. and we had just become friends with Tommy Stierle so we had an in.
By James S. Carr5 years ago in Psyche
