A slight improvement in California law for addressing complaints about addiction treatment By Tom Horvath, PhD AB 424 was signed by the governor on 10/3/25. The bill is quite brief! It adds a section (11834.33) to the Health and Safety code about how the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) is to address a complaint from the public about an alcohol or other drug recovery or treatment facility. The primary requirements of this 125-word bill are: (a) Within 10 days of the date of the complaint, provide notice to the person filing the complaint that the complaint has been received. (b) Upon closing the complaint, provide notice to the person filing the complaint that the complaint has been closed and whether the department found the facility to be in violation of this ch...

Practical Recovery’s Free Psychoeducation Group Every Wednesday at 9AM by Zoom, Practical Recovery offers a free one-hour psychoeducation group to all current and past clients. This group has existed for over 10 years. It has regular participants, some of long standing. If it were a SMART Recovery group, we’d call it a “check-in” meeting. We go around the room (I call on people one by one). Depending on the size of the group, you get one to a few minutes to tell us what is on your mind. If you are new to the group, I call on you near the end. However, you can “pass.” No one is required to participate. Because from time to time it is good to review and update our regular activities (e.g., clean out our drawers, closets, and cupboards, reorganize our hard drives), I have been review...

By Tom Horvath, PhD For many of us a good life is a happy or a meaningful one (or some combination). However, in recent years a group of psychologists has proposed a third guideline: “psychological richness.”  On their deathbeds the happy might say “I had fun.” Those with meaningful lives might say “I made a difference in the world.”  Those pursuing psychological richness might say, ”what a journey I had” or “that was an adventure!” These three approaches can be and probably often are combined. You can pursue happiness by creating or finding satisfaction, well-being, and even joy. You can pursue meaning by looking for connection with others, purpose, and making the world a better place. If you add the dimension of pursuing personal growth, you can keep working to expand your persp...

By Tom Horvath, PhD "An intimate look inside the billion-dollar addiction treatment industry where young people are bought and sold for their insurance policies and ushered into a system designed to keep them sick.” From www.StopTheShuffle.com Practical Recovery will host a free screening of this award-winning documentary on Thursday, 11/13/25, at 7:00PM, in the conference room of our building in La Jolla (just off I-5). Seating is limited. RSVPs are required, by emailing Susie.Lee@practicalrecovery.com. A brief discussion period with the producer and Dr. Horvath will occur at the conclusion of the 81-minute screening. In 2013 Practical Recovery organized a screening of The Business of Recovery. That film focused on how poorly addiction treatment can be provided, and how ...

Tom Horvath, PhD Part 1 suggested that tracking what you eat rather than what you weigh promotes better health and could also lead to slow but sustained weight loss over time. Part 2 adds further detail about what to eat. Even if there were only a minor reduction in some of the less-than-healthy foods you eat, the introduction of better foods is a significant improvement for your health. The food diary will remind you to keep it filled with good food. Part 1 emphasized consulting with your doctor if appropriate and the Mediterranean diet with its focus on fruits and vegetables. Part 2 adds eating 1) at least 30 different plant foods each week and 2) probiotic foods (not supplements). Both actions support increasing and maintaining the diversity of the gut microbiome. What is th...

Longterm: A Podcast on Recovery Interview with Tom Horvath, Ph.D. Episode: Understanding Recovery Beyond the Stereotype YouTube: https://youtu.be/c3wGl2If6o8?si=8HplQQxea6gMuG7c Spotify and all other podcast platforms: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/tiking/ The host is Ti King. The podcast was described this way: Dr. Horvath explains that SMART Recovery is a free mutual-help group, similar to AA in its community-driven support. However, it stands apart with its self-empowering philosophy, contrasting with the "powerlessness" approach. SMART Recovery does not require belief in a higher power and supports individuals choosing to reduce harm, moderate, or abstain from substances, allowing for personalized goals. The program teaches a variety of coping and thin...

By Tom Horvath, PhD Many of us are concerned about our weight. We might check the scale regularly, and not much else. I suggest that a food diary of everything you eat is a much more sensible approach. A simple version is a list of foods you eat at each meal, without listing how much you ate. There are apps, such as My Fitness Pal, which can streamline some aspects of this process. The apps also provide nutritional analysis of what you are eating. If you have food you tend to eat regularly (e.g., eggs at breakfast, bread at lunch), it is easy to copy them forward. There are free and paid versions, which means you have options when it comes to food diaries. This app was recommended to me by a registered dietitian (RD). I have found it useful. Be aware that there is no legal definit...

Crave: The Hidden Biology of Addiction and Cancer, by Raphael E. Cuomo, PhD A Book Review by Tom Horvath, PhD This compact and compelling book describes how our moment-to-moment actions regarding food, sleep and rest, physical activity level, electronic activities, relationships, and daily life in general contribute to increasing or decreasing our risk for developing cancer and other diseases. These actions often have the character of addictive behaviors, “the relentless cycle of stimulation and reward that defines ordinary life (pg. 1).” The impacts of these actions accumulate over time, altering “the internal landscape…the body’s terrain pg. 1).” This book could have been entitled The Body Keeps the Score, but that title was taken! “The term ‘addiction’ is reserved for beh...

By Tom Horvath, PhD In the US many individuals who might benefit from addiction treatment never attend. Although there are probably many reasons for this non-attendance, surely one of the primary reasons is the typical rigidity of US treatment programs. In a commentary published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, the official journal of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), the committee overseeing the development of ASAM’s Engagement and Retention of Nonabstinent Patients in Substance Use Treatment presents a summary of the document. The California Department of Health Care Services funded this project, and it offers a path forward to get more people to seek addiction treatment. As this commentary states in its abstract: To improve population outcomes, it is im...

How Many Quit Attempts Are Needed to Be Successful? By Tom Horvath, PhD It is common knowledge that abstaining from a substance that has become problematic is difficult and may require multiple attempts to be successful. But how many attempts does it take to succeed in quitting addiction? One effort to answer this question, based on the International Quit & Recovery Registry, was recently published. Subjects were 344 individuals who have registered with this registry. The substances studied were pain meds, opioids, stimulants, alcohol, tranquilizers, inhaling, anesthetics, cocaine, cannabis, nicotine, and hallucinogens. They are listed here in the order of most attempts to fewest attempts. How many quit attempts is complicated not only by the specific substance, but also...