Most people divide substances into two categories: the hard drugs like heroin, cocaine, and crystal meth, and the soft drugs like alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and prescribed narcotics. Hard drugs are all illegal in the US, they are sold exclusively by underworld organizations, they are associated with the down and out…

Chemistry First there’s the chemical. That calm feeling you get from Percocet is just too good to give up. The sickness you feel when you are in withdrawal is just too bad to bear. Genes get rewritten when you use cocaine often enough, so that nothing but cocaine can make you…

Staying Clean is Not Enough — When you’re thoroughly caught up in addiction, your priorities are clear; the drug comes first. Everything is done or not done in service of the drug. It’s the first thing you think about in the morning, the last thing you think about at night. …

Considering the perils of dual relationships — When I’m working with you in individual counseling towards one goal, can you start couple’s counseling with me and your partner, towards a different goal? It seems like having only one therapist do both would be more convenient, but many therapists flat out refuse because of the complications that may…

The further people go into addiction, the more their lives center around it. They discard all forms of recreation in favor of activities that include the addiction. All of their friends become using friends. Non-using friends drift away and the addict is drawn to those who don’t judge because they…

I think this is what people are working out. They are learning that they have the ability to choose. — Addiction lands you right square in the middle of an ancient controversy between deterministic views of human behavior and the belief in free will. This is not just a philosophical or academic issue. What you believe about your ability to make choices will affect the choices you make. In fact…

I know. When you use drugs you think you’re a bohemian, wildly independent, marching to a different drummer, rejecting the herd mentality, experimenting with alternate consciousness. Well, take it from an aging hippie; before you turn on, tune in, and drop out in that particular way, think for yourself and…

The value behind the fuck-its is the value we place in what really matters, beyond fleeting concerns — If you’ve ever had a case of the fuck-its, you know they can be quite deadly. You’ve reached the end of your rope, sick of everything, tired of people, and sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. It’s easy to get self-destructive when you have the fuck-its. …

If you’re addicted, even if you stop using the substance that changed you, you’ll look for other things (other substances, sex, shopping, relationships, rage, work, gambling, exercising, making deals, etc) to gratify you in the same way. This is called switching addictions. …