Blogs

About Being A Sponsor

There’s little doubt that having a sponsor greatly improves the chances someone will stick with the 12 steps and maintain their recovery. Even the longtime sober will keep an informal sponsor relationship – because they know the value of having a direct contact who knows and understands them. So what makes a good sponsor? It’s actually ….

What Ticks Me Off

Well, to be honest, a lot of things do. But what is ticking me off lately is the cross-generational nature of alcoholism and addiction. What I’m referring to is how the kids that addicts and alcoholics raise are more likely to repeat the same mistakes their parents did. Some of the stats on the children ….

Preying On Addicts

I saw something the other day that got me thinking about just how cruel people can be to each other. Probably not the most uplifting topic … Without being too specific, the situation was an older couple, retired and living on benefits where one partner was (I assume) an alcoholic and the other was taking ….

Betrayed! Losing Anonymity

In a case reminiscent of CSI, a forum member related the sad tale of how he lost his fiancé and his job because the word got out about his heroin habit. It’s a cautionary tale for those for whom anonymity is critical to keeping their world from blowing apart. Although there is some speculation as ….

Pricing Your Addiction

There’s an interesting report from the World Health Organization about the societal costs of alcohol addiction. The headline tells the tale: “Alcohol Kills more than AIDS, TB or Violence.” It seems, as the basic needs or food and water are met in less developed countries the next step on the road toward a first class ….

Legislative Win/Win Is Going To Be A Loss

I sometimes wonder what it must be like to be a State Legislator. The job seems to be, not only to create and amend laws for some legal justification (redefining what plagiarism means in an Internet, copy-paste world) but also to respond to the needs of your constituents and the current political climate. Recently, belt ….

Higher Power Trouble

They tell you never to talk about religion and politics. Good advice. Especially at a step meeting. On the other hand, when you are talking about the second step, religion and faith always seem to arise. There are usually some who immediately get the idea of a higher power and another set that struggles to ….

Be Thankful

There’s a fight on for funding at all levels of government. Human services, the umbrella that addiction treatment falls under, is getting a hard look with the idea of saving taxpayer dollars and helping ease the deficit. Those involved in addiction treatment are understandably nervous. But as bad as it might end up being, a ….

Looking At Portugal

There’s been an experiment going on in Portugal for nearly a decade that is worth paying attention to. In the late 1990’s Portugal faced one of the worst drug problems in Europe. Skyrocketing addiction and poverty had turned a once proud nation into a mess. Desperate times called for desperate measures. So how to save ….

Cocaine Vaccine Raises Some Interesting Questions

Science marches on … There was report out in January about a vaccine trial in mice. The vaccine created antibodies to cocaine. The idea is that by giving it to those in treatment, they won’t be able to backslide and it will help them maintain sobriety. The question is whether this approach is the be-all ….

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