Being Accountable Helps Your Sobriety
Taking responsibility for your actions is one of the most important parts of recovery. It’ll help you stay sober; if you feel that your behaviors are out of your control, it’s easier to rationalize drinking or using again. Accountability will help you get the most out of your recovery, because you’ll gain emotional sobriety along […]
Why Me? Dealing With Health Issues in Sobriety
Addiction is a chronic condition. Those of us in recovery may struggle to come to terms with this idea; processing the fact that you have a chronic disease usually doesn’t happen overnight. For the almost 38% of people with addiction who have a co-occurring mental health disorder, the two conditions will be part of your […]
Is Alcohol a Drug?
The phrase “alcohol and drugs” is used often regarding addiction. Despite the two being put into separate categories colloquially, alcohol is also a drug. Since alcohol use is so normalized, people may think of it differently than drugs like cocaine or heroin. They may have an image of a person who uses drugs, and that […]
Star-Studded Addictions: Bethany Cosentino of Best Coast
The band Best Coast’s latest album Always Tomorrow—released February of this year—is about addiction and recovery. That’s because Bethany Cosentino, one half of the band, got sober in November 2017. The 34-year-old musician has been very open about her struggles with alcohol and drugs—including how the music industry affected her addiction. “When you’re touring, the […]
Living in the Past Keeps You Out of the Present
In active addiction, you can’t process your emotions. They either get distorted, exacerbated, or buried. Sometimes trivial things are blown out of proportion, while issues you need to deal with get pushed aside. If you have painful memories to process, you can’t healthily do so—which means they may come back when you are sober. When […]
In the 2020 Election, Americans Said No to Punitive Drug Policy
This election saw the majority of Americans voting against the war on drugs. In all states where there was a ballot measure about drug policy, voters sided with less punitive measures. The most notable measure was passed in Oregon, where possession of small amounts of any drug was decriminalized. Illegal drugs will stay illegal, meaning […]
Why is it Called Substance Use Disorder?
In recent years, you may have heard the term substance use disorder to describe addiction. That is because the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)—the text used to diagnose mental health disorders—changed the classification in the latest version; the most recent iteration, the DSM-5, was released in 2013. In the previous DSM, addictions […]
It is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month
December is National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month. This campaign raises awareness about the importance of being sober behind the wheel. The National Association of Drug Court Professionals describes December as “one of the deadliest and most dangerous times on America’s roadways, due to an increase in impaired driving.” Any time you drive your […]
Star-Studded Addictions: Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston—the incredible vocalist and pop star behind famous songs like “I Will Always Love You,” “How Will I Know,” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)”—was introduced to cocaine when she was 16 by a friend of her brother. Her addiction got worse and worse, eventually leading to her death in 2012. […]
National Meth Awareness Day: A Conversation We Should Be Having
In conversations about addiction, we hear a lot about alcohol and the opioid crisis. These are both pervasive and systemic problems that need to be talked about openly—and frequently. But it’s rare you hear anything about meth. According to the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, that year, 1.6 million people had used […]