What’s News Blog
Latest Allies in Recovery News
Allies in Recovery Named a Top 10 Addiction Recovery Company by Health Care Business Review
It’s a welcome endorsement of the effectiveness and solid track record of Allies in Recovery: recognition by a trusted journal as one of the 10 best companies dedicated to addiction recovery in the United States.
What’s News Posts
My Father’s Addiction Made Him A Stranger. Is It Too Late to Get to Know Him Now?
Like millions of Americans, I am a child of addiction. Research indicates that an annual average of 8.7 million children 17 or younger live with a parent addicted to drugs or alcohol. I was raised by my mother as an only child in Takoma Park, away from much of the havoc affecting families across the District.
Why Some People Swear by Alcoholics Anonymous—And Others Despise It
The 12 steps, first established in the 1930s by Bill Wilson, have now become a powerhouse in the addiction treatment world, with millions of attendees worldwide each year in AA meetings alone. More than 15 million have an alcohol use disorder. Excessive drinking alone is linked to 88,000 deaths each year. So whether one of the most common types of treatment for this disease is actually effective could be a matter of life or death.
How Does Alcohol Affect Recovery from Other Drugs?
There is an ongoing debate in the addiction field: Can people successfully recover from one drug use disorder if they continue to consume a different drug? In this case, authors reviewed more than a dozen studies in the field investigating specifically how drinking alcohol affects other drug use disorder treatment outcomes.
You relapsed? You’re going to jail!
This is an excellent piece from NPR.org about the whether relapse should be treated as a crime. The Massachusetts Supreme Court is preparing to rule on this sensitive and crucial topic.
6 Things to Do Before Your L.O. Comes Home from Addiction Treatment
The day has finally come for you and your family to welcome your Loved One back from a residential treatment program (rehab) for addiction to drugs or alcohol. You may be cautiously optimistic for the homecoming or you may be worried about how it will go.
How Science is Unlocking the Secrets of Addiction
Addiction hijacks the brain’s neural pathways. Scientists are challenging the view that it’s a moral failing and researching treatments that could offer an exit from the cycle of desire, bingeing, and withdrawal that traps tens of millions of people.
How to Talk to Them When They’re Lying
One of the oldest and well known myths is that all substance users have profound character flaws that result in chronic lying. Lying is a tool that almost everyone uses at one time or another to try and mitigate negative reactions and emotions in others. It’s a human communication strategy that is as old as time itself.
7 Things a Parent Can Say to a Child Struggling with SUD
Let your child know when they are struggling with substances, that you are still there for them. You will be waiting for them when they are ready to cross the bridge to recovery. Your support can give them the inner strength that they need to start their life anew. Here are some helpful things you can say when your child is struggling with drugs or alcohol. These seven messages would be wonderful for any child to hear.
Can You Trust A Person With Substance Disorder?
…In over 20 years of experience working with individuals who use substances in a way that causes harm, most individuals I have known, abstaining or actively using, defy these stereotypes. This opinion column from the Huffington Post focuses on the strengths of these individuals through the truths they tell.
The Importance of Household Rules for Teens in Treatment
Setting new household rules for teens in treatment for a substance use disorder can be challenging for parents. But it is important because research shows that teens do take their parents’ attitudes, opinions and beliefs into account when they make choices about substance use
What You Need to Know About Wellness
Embracing wellness can improve the quality of your life, while adding years to it! But what does "wellness" really mean? Here's a well-crafted page put together by SAMHSA on the 8 Dimensions of Wellness and how they help with recovery.
Seeking Serenity
From Addiction Professional's online magazine… This is a good article for those trying to recover but also for their family members.
Links Between Addiction & Mental Illness
From US News & World Report: Does mental illness lead to drug abuse? And more common questions, answered.
Naloxone … is No Cure in Heroin Epidemic
From the New York Times: "Critics say the highly effective antidote provides a safety net for those who keep abusing drugs, enabling them to be revived over and over."
Blame the Parents, Punish the Child?
In this post from rehabs.com, Anne Fletcher addresses the common and dangerous beliefs that many of us carry. These misconceptions lead us to blame the parents when their child suffers from addiction, and punish the child.
*Unbroken Brain* Explains Why ‘Tough’ Treatment Doesn’t Help Drug Addicts
From npr.org, an interview with Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain. Szalavitz was addicted to cocaine and heroin from the age of 17 until she was 23. "We have this idea that if we are just cruel enough and mean enough and tough enough to people with addiction, that they will suddenly wake up and stop, and that is not the case," she tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.
Can You Get Over an Addiction?
…Research also shows that half of all addictions — with the exception of tobacco — end by age 30, and the majority of people with alcohol and drug addictions overcome it, mostly without treatment. I stopped taking drugs when I was 23. I always thought that I had quit because I finally realized that my addiction was harming me. Opinion column from the NYT.
Can He Successfully Moderate? There’s Only One Way to Find Out …
The founders of AA suggest that attempts at moderation provide the best litmus test for alcoholism. In their view, drinkers that are able to cut back without abstaining are not alcoholics because they haven’t become powerless over alcohol. Read the article from planyourrecovery.com.
Missing the Mark on Addiction
Massachusetts Doctor and Addiction Medicine Specialist Dr. Ruth A. Potee has written an editorial for the Greenfield Recorder about the recently passed Opiod legislation signed by Governor Charlie Baker.
Children of Heroin Crisis Find Refuge in Grandparents’ Arms
With the rise in heroin use, grandparents are increasingly raising their grandchildren because the parents are either dead, in jail, in rehab or otherwise incapable of taking care of their children. Read the Boston Globe article here…