Alcohol plays a small role in some people’s lives and a much larger one in others. How problematic alcohol use becomes depends on many factors. When drinking starts to cause serious consequences, the question becomes when is someone considered an alcoholic? There are several ways...
December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month, and it’s the perfect opportunity to talk about the impact of drug- and alcohol-related crashes in the U.S. These crashes highlight the fact that drug and alcohol use have consequences that extend well beyond the person using...
Words carry incredible power. We rarely think about the many hidden meanings of the words we use to describe others, particularly when it comes to addiction. It’s important to understand that there are reasons addiction professionals choose their words carefully. The medical community has come...
People often think about how addiction impacts our brains, emotions and cognitive abilities. Though we all know that substance use has physical consequences, it’s tempting to think about addiction as solely a disease affecting the mind. However, once you truly understand how addiction affects...
Binge Drinkers More Likely to Misuse Opioids Prescription opioid misuse is more common among binge drinkers, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. In their analysis, researchers discovered that the prevalence of prescription opioid misuse increased significantly with binge...
Recently, BRC was asked by our good friend Ken Seeley of Intervention 911, and the producers of The Doctors TV Show to accept a patient struggling with heroin addiction for treatment. I flew to LA to meet with Ken, the family of the patient,...
Fear of accepting Many fears kept me on the fence with sobriety for a long time. Fear of accepting I had a problem, fear of the label of alcoholic and the fear of a new way of life I heard about in recovery. When I...
If you’ve spent any time around Al-Anon, Alcoholics Anonymous, or other recovery-oriented groups, you’ve heard at least a few slogans and acronyms. Most of them seem to fall into one of three categories, and they include our relationship with: Our addicted loved one. Ourselves. ...
If you’ve spent any time around Al-Anon, Alcoholics Anonymous, or other recovery-oriented groups, you’ve heard at least a few slogans and acronyms. Most of them seem to fall into one of three categories, and they include our relationship with: Our addicted loved one. Ourselves. ...
A couple of years ago A couple of years ago I was approached about joining a Steel on Steel group, and exchanging Evening Reviews with two women in my recovery group. I knew these women casually, and liked them, but we weren't super close. I...
Deathiversary of my son’s death Yesterday was the fifth anniversary (deathiversary?) of my son’s death of a drug overdose. Brandon was one of those people who are larger than life. He was the life of the party. He had a loud voice, a lot of...
You’ve discovered your loved one or friend is an alcoholic or addict—now what? For many people in that situation, their first reaction is, “What can I do to fix my alcoholic/addict?” It took a while for me to figure out that I couldn’t “fix” my...
