Holiday Tips: Seven Secrets for Successful Holidays
Holiday Tips Navigating the holidays can be tough. The holidays can also be wondrous and joyful. As we put 2022 in the books and look ahead to a new year, a few last minute tricks might be useful as the heart of the holidays hits home. Below are some holiday tips to help make the […]
Jails, Institutions, and Death, pt. II
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Earlier this year I wrote a piece arguing that 12-step programs are wrong when they claim that drug use invariably leads to jails, institutions, or death. The piece generated a decent amount of dissenting responses (even more than most of the stuff I write!). Impassioned retorts proclaimed that I built a […]
Addiction is a Natural Response to an Unnatural World
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. There are no known examples of addiction in the natural world. There are, however, ample examples of animals shifting their consciousness with substances, a favorite of which is the infamous drunken moose who got himself stuck in an apple tree. Even though animals often experiment with substances, the only examples of […]
Technology Addiction: Put Down the Device & Get Into Life
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Addiction is frequently mischaracterized in binary terms – us and them, normies and addicts. The truth is that addictive behavior is universal and is, in a very basic sense, one of many manifestations of the way the brain naturally learns and develops. The more we accurately understand addiction as normal, universal […]
Understanding the SMART Recovery USA Position on Goals
by A. Thomas Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP As part of my celebration of SMART Recovery’s 25th Anniversary, this blog is devoted to considering the recently released SMART Recovery USA Position on Goals: “SMART Recovery is abstinence oriented. Our meetings and tools are designed to help participants stop problematic addictive behavior.” I offer the following interpretation of […]
Can Cannabis Cure Cancer?
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Pretty much anyone who likes to think knows that truth in cannabis propaganda for the past century was about as scarce as a direct answer in politics. Reefer madness told us that ingesting a single cannabis joint would make us rape and murder. Nixon and his cronies put cannabis in the […]
Stand By Family No Matter What
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Family is forever, or at least, that’s what the chintzy wall stencils say. During times of hardship, sickness, death, misfortune, mistakes, and malaise it is helpful to rest assured that our families will stand by us and help us. My esteemed mentor, Dr. Horvath, often says that 90% of social support […]
SMART Recovery® at 25: An Overview
by Tom Horvath, PhD, ABPP In September, 2019, SMART Recovery celebrated its 25th anniversary, at its annual conference in Chicago, IL. I have been involved with SMART since before it began operating under that name in October, 1994. It was previously the Rational Recovery Self-Help Network. I was president of SMART for 20 years, and […]
What is Considered Binge Drinking? (Hint: It’s Not Just a College Fad)
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The term ‘binge-drinking’ generally conjures up images of frat boys in pastel polos guzzling litres of PBR out of a homemade beer bong, or something along those lines. The stereotype is that binge-drinking is a college thing, not a mature adult thing. The truth, according to the current dean at USC’s […]
SMART Recovery Celebrates 25th Anniversary
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Often, a call to reflection upon past achievements might be interpreted as a prelude to a swan song. When our favorite musicians release greatest hits albums we move from excitement to nostalgia. When filmmakers reboot and update original creations, we hear the silent reverberations of writer’s block echoing through the gaping […]