Tag: addiction

Joshua Haynes - How growing up in a world of constant change inspired an innovative business and commitment to equality. 

Many of the harms associated with drugs were very much rooted in policy choices rather than in the nature of the drugs being used, or even addiction in general.

Hanna Pickard on the elusive middle ground between personal responsibility and systemic factors in our understandings of addiction.

Kevin Gallagher addresses the Reagan era and the "crack" epidemic of the 1980s in this continuing series about the USA and addiction.

If addictions are existential, and not biological, at their core, then we can start to understand why addiction is not always chronically and progressively compulsive and obsessive.

I started to wonder, “How many medications does it take to get sober?” In fact, the biggest correlation I’ve noticed with relapse and overdose is the amount of psychiatric medications being prescribed.

Our fears about drugs and drug addiction have allowed our society to accept court mandated treatment and the continuing militarization of police.

The psychiatric system takes away all choices and freedom and calls the resulting state "mental illness." Psychiatry justifies alienation rather than repairing it.

If I had not crumbled, brought to my knees beneath the weight of the misdiagnoses and sordid side-effects of the medications, I would not have had the opportunity to rise up and gain such a strong sense of self—something for which many spend their whole life searching.

Researchers investigate trends in opioid use, prescriptions, misuse, and access reported by adolescents and young adults.

A new article explores how psychiatric diagnoses are differentially applied to people of different racial and class backgrounds.

In parts of Wales in the UK, one in six adults takes antidepressants and support for anyone struggling with dependence or withdrawal issues is patchy and inconsistent. To help draw attention to these issues, an awareness day was arranged for the Welsh Government and here we provide video of the presentations made at the Senedd in Cardiff, Wales.

In the 1800s, the British East India Company, aided by England’s parliament which invested in it, profited greatly by selling opium in China. This began what China calls its “century of humiliation” in which a great empire was brought to its knees. Are we at the start of our own lost century, with psych pill and opioid dispensers taking on the BEIC’s role?

Findings point to the role of withdrawal symptoms and prescriber practices in long-term antidepressant use.

A new study examines the extent to which patterns in prescription drug misuse and substance use disorder symptoms can be predicted by education level

From The Globe and Mail: "From Abraham to the Aztecs, ancient cultures exacted human sacrifices to appease the gods – that is, to soothe...

From Financial Times: "So far, clinicians have most commonly used VR for exposure therapy — for example, putting a person with a fear of heights...

Part of what we mean when we say something is socially constructed is that the existence of an entity, in this case a specific medical condition, partly or wholly depends on certain social attitudes, beliefs, or reactions towards that entity. In this particular case, a mental illness exists if and only if it causes certain types of distress that we get to define.

From The Conversation: "It is not clear what exactly drives the demand for the psychoactive substances and what has driven the increase in suicides....

From Patreon: The rate of addiction to alcohol, opioids, gambling, social media, and porn has shown a steady increase in recent years. While conservatives often...

New understandings of medication and withdrawal experiences warrant rethinking conceptualizations of health and “madness."

From The Guardian: The British government has ordered an investigation into the growing problem of addiction to prescription drugs such as opioids, benzodiazepines, and antidepressants. Article...

From Forbes: Increasing evidence shows that smartphones can be addictive, and that smartphone addiction can have a very negative impact on our mental health, especially...

From Scientific American: The current medical consensus is that addiction is a chronic and relapsing brain disease in which drug use becomes involuntary despite its...

From The New York Times: According to the first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths to cover all of 2016, drug overdose deaths increased by...