Unhealthy Items at the Health Store: Four Reasons to Be Wary of Supplements Who doesn’t want an extra boost to their health that’s as easy as taking one little pill? Although herbal supplements are often touted as a relatively easy way to support your body’s healthy functioning, in reality many of the products that are […]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: 3 Reasons You Can’t Ignore Trauma When you face difficult times, you have two options: work through the difficulty you’ve encountered or try to avoid it. For many who have lived through a traumatic experience, going around or burying traumatic memories can feel like the only feasible […]
Therapy and Horseplay: Four Things You Need to Know about Equine Therapy When it comes to equine therapy, I’ll be the first one to advocate for its use. I’ve been an avid rider all my life, and there were many times I walked away from the barn feeling more relaxed and rejuvenated, and emotionally healthier […]
Six Ways to Maintain Your Sobriety at a Thanksgiving Celebration I first tried to quit drinking on November 11, 1995. By Thanksgiving of that year, I was clean, but I was scared to death of facing a holiday dinner without a drink. I remember standing by the bar in my grandmother’s house, downing Diet Coke […]
Yale researchers have pinpointed a different brain response between male and female smokers by analyzing dynamic brain scans. This study marks the first time that PET (positron emission tomography) scans were used to create “movies” of how smoking affects dopamine, the neurotransmitter that triggers feelings of pleasure in the brain. This could lead to developments […]
I have a very specific agenda when it comes to addiction treatment research. I believe that any therapy or medication which shows promise in treating addiction should be tested for efficacy and safety. At present, many such treatments are not tested because they do not have the potential to make anyone a great deal of […]
South Africa, a giant in the global drug trade, is at breaking point with the number of child addicts reaching an all-time high. Research has found that substance abuse in South Africa is double that of the global average and ranked in the top 10 countries concerning the amount of alcohol being consumed each year. […]
This past week, I presented a paper at the 2nd Canadian Conference on Positive Psychology. The paper was titled, “From Despondency to Hope: Ending Addiction for Good Using a Positive Psychological Approach.” Positive Psychology is a relatively new field of psychological research and intervention. The University of Pennsylvania describes positive psychology in this way: […]
LSD may help those diagnosed with a life-threatening disease cope with the pain and anxiety of facing death. Further study is warranted due to the urgent need of more effective therapies for those facing painful, life-ending illnesses and the promising results of a historic new study. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide, a hallucinogenic drug commonly called LSD […]
Not since the 1960s and Harvard Professor Timothy Leary, has there been such interest in the medical and scientific study of entheogenic substances. Entheogens, hallucinogenic substances traditionally used in shamanic rituals or to facilitate spiritual experiences, have long been used by folk healers to treat psychiatric problems. Later this year, researchers at Alabama University at […]