Category Archives: Addiction

Heal Your Brain with TAMERS

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We know so much more these days about the brain and how addiction affects it—and about how we can help it to heal.

Addiction doesn’t happen because someone is lazy or is a “bad person.” It’s a brain disease, pure and simple. In some people, repeated use of alcohol or other drugs causes profound structural and functional changes to the brain. The need for drugs becomes a compulsion that can’t be ignored; it is as ingrained in the brain as breathing or looking for food. Plus, the frontal lobe, the executive brain, is damaged and is no longer able to override those impulses with rational thoughts.

We used to think that the brain was set in stone once a person was grown. We now know that’s not true. In fact, the brain can grow and change at all ages, a concept known as neuroplasticity. When the brain changes for the … Read more...

Recovery Resources Lists Now Online

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For the past two years, as we’ve been updating The Recovery Book, we’ve been collecting online resources related to addiction and recovery. Many of them will be listed in the book, but we had far too many to include. So we are posting them here as well, in Resources.

We have links to all kinds of resources: treatment directories, health effects of addiction, sober living directories, drug testing, legal and employment issues, drug courts, sober social networks, online meetings, medication safety and disposal, recovery activism, campus recovery associations, mutual help fellowships, resources for teens, resources for family and friends, help to quit smoking, and much more.

We also have links to recovery support groups for many diverse communities: bikers, pilots, nurses, Buddhists, Jews, Native Americans, doctors, lawyers, and more.

Please explore our lists. Share them with others. And please let us know if you have anything to add. … Read more...

What is Addiction? What is Alcoholism?

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Addiction is a disease of the brain. It is not due to a moral failure or a lack of willpower. It doesn’t happen because someone is a “bad” person. It is a chronic disease, just like diabetes or high blood pressure.

The first time a person takes drugs it is by choice. But over time, with continued use, the drugs “hijack” the reward system in the brain, as well as causing other changes. These  changes affect a person’s ability to make good choices and control their behavior.

In time, they are addicted: they have strong cravings for drugs and compulsively seek out more, even when they know there could be devastating consequences, such as going to jail or dying.

The picture is similar with “alcohol use disorders.” In the early days, alcohol use is optional. But over time, it becomes more important, there are strong cravings for a drink, and … Read more...