Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Originally posted on Psychology Today:
One of the biggest problems with addiction is that we never know who is truly an addict. Yes, we have tests and notions, interviews and criteria, but all of those are simply tools we've used to get around the problem of not knowing. Well, a recent ...
Posted in Education | 3 Comments »
Thursday, December 24th, 2009
We've known for a while that genes play a role in addiction in general and that nicotine is addictive at least in part because it activates receptors for a chemical called Acetylcholine (ACh) that are found all over the brain and body. Nevertheless, finding the specific mechanism for the genetic ...
Posted in Education | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
I think it's common knowledge that children are more likely to develop a psychiatric disorder when one of their parents is diagnosed with one. Just in case it isn't, as much as 80% of the likelihood that a person will develop a mental health disorder is genetically determined.
The genetics ...
Posted in Education, For others, Tips | 5 Comments »
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
I was working on the first chapter of my book today and the issue of choice plays a prominent part in it. I'm a little pissed at Dr. Heyman, whose name sounds like something a stoner might say, about his book, "Addiction - A disorder of choice".
The thing is that ...
Posted in Drugs, Education, Opinions | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
After Andre Agassi's recent confessions in a tell-tale book about his use of crystal meth during his playing days, Richard Gasquet, who recently made it to the Wimbledon semifinals has just tested positive for cocaine.
He says he was contaminated with the drug when he kissed a woman who was using ...
Posted in Drugs, Education, Opinions, Treatment | 2 Comments »
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
While there are some people who still argue about whether drug addiction is a disease or a condition that results from the moral failing of an individual, most of the scientific community has long agreed that there are at least some influences on it that are far beyond a person's ...
Posted in Cocaine, Drugs, Education, Treatment | No Comments »
Saturday, September 19th, 2009
The stigma of addiction is alive and well. Whether you believe in the disease model or not, it seems that people's judgments regarding what it means to be an addict are well entrenched.
I'd like to work on that a bit.
Why is addiction a disease?
In numerous posts on this site I've ...
Posted in Drugs, Education, Treatment | 1 Comment »