Tag: substance abuse

Words from My Heart to ‘My Heart’: What Might Have Helped...

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More than two and a half years later, I’m still processing my grief, still picturing our happiness and innocence as kids, and still acknowledging our struggles and pain.

My 7 Years of Detention Hell

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The court found me “not guilty by reason of insanity” and sentenced me to a 30-day evaluation at a psych facility. A crisis had been averted, and my life could return to normal... oh, how far from the truth that idea was.

Addiction Treatment: How Many Meds Does It Take to Get Sober?

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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.

Does Stranger Mean Danger?

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Are those diagnosed with “mental illness” more dangerous than other people? Or have we evolved to sense danger from anything that we believe to be different or "strange"?

Benzodiazepines Linked to More Emergency Department Visits

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Recent research implicates benzodiazepines as being involved in a high rate of emergency department visits in the US.

From Stoned to “Schizophrenic”: My Mental Healthcare Journey

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During a period of self-doubt, I chose to see a psychiatrist because I was engulfed in negative thoughts and couldn't find a direction in life. The slightest joys came only when I was high. Though my weed addiction was likely causing all of my symptoms, my psychiatrist’s response was to prescribe antipsychotics.

Gabapentin: A New Target for Abuse

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From STAT: Gabapentin, a drug that acts as a sedative and is also used to treat conditions including nerve pain, epilepsy, restless leg syndrome, and...

Alcoholism — Is it a Disease?

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We are told a story about illness, and that story serves a mindset that underlies the darkness that we feel all around us and within us. The mindset is that we are flesh robots, floating on a dead rock, in the middle of nowhere. But we are in the midst of a paradigm shift.

‘Enough is Enough’ Series: LSD Reconsidered

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Biochemical psychiatry is now moving in an unfortunate, potentially dangerous, yet predictable direction. It has run out of new drugs to try, so it's turning to psychedelic drugs, suggesting that they hold promise in the treatment of substance use 'disorders.'

Why We’re a Culture of Addicts

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From Uplift Connect: Addiction tends to be viewed through one of two lenses - as a genetic disease or a moral failure. According to Dr. Gabor...

Prescribing Benzodiazepines As-Needed Leads to Abuse

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A new study reported on in Medscape, examined risk factors for misuse of benzodiazepines (drugs such as Xanax, Ativan, and Klonopin). The researchers found that patients who had been prescribed the medication on an as-needed basis were more likely to end up abusing it than those who had been prescribed a standing dose.

Young Transgender Women Burdened with High Rates of Psychiatric Diagnoses

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New research published in JAMA Pediatrics reveals that transgender women have more than double the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses than the general US population. The study found that the women, who had been assigned male at birth and now identified as female, had a high prevalence of suicidality, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, generalized anxiety and major depressive disorder.

Mental Health Professionals Critique the Biomedical Model of Psychological Problems

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While a great deal of the excitement about advances in psychological treatments comes from the potential for research in neuroscience to unlock the secrets of the brain, many mental health experts would like to temper this enthusiasm. A special issue of the Behavior Therapist released this month calls into question the predominant conception of mental illnesses as brain disorders.

“US Opioid Epidemic Fueled by Prescribing Practices”

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Medscape Psychiatry reports that the “man-made epidemic” of opioid abuse in the United States is the result of over-prescription and poor research.