I’m optimistic about the future of addiction recovery. Ongoing research into the brain has led to new understandings in prevention, identification, treatment and relapse reduction. At 85 years old I am just grateful that I’ve lived long enough to feel a part of the fighting chance that now exists. In the spirit of this perseverance, […]
Many people ask me how much pain and suffering is necessary before an addict will turn toward a new way of life. I don’t know whether there is a tougher question to answer about addiction. On one hand, I believe that we can ‘raise the bottom’ by timely intervention and a mixture of tough love, […]
I was laying on my porch on a summer afternoon with my feet up on the couch when I realized that the health of all Americans was about to change for the better. It is a wonderful day in the life of a physician when the word gets out that there is hope on the […]
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) recently published a summary on the genetics of addiction to aid in the understanding of research on genes and their role in addiction and alcoholism. Researchers are searching for the gene or genes responsible for addiction that we see in families who have addiction across multiple generations. The family studies […]
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. Teilhard de Chardin Early in my medical career, when I began recognizing the life-destroying consequences of addiction in my patients, I fell into magical thinking. I was sure addiction was a bad habit, one that could be fixed by a little will power and a motivating […]
Recovery is slow transformation of leaving behind the old and beginning a new way of life. Sobriety is taking away the substances that were once used as a poor but oftentimes necessary way of coping with life. While this is certainly a good and important start, just stopping the use doesn’t solve the entire problem. Spirituality is a […]