by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. It’s the most wonderful time of year…  for some.  For others, this time of year brings with it uncomfortable holiday situations and challenges.  Navigating difficult family members, work events, and beverage-laden holiday parties while successfully self-regulating or abstaining from alcohol can render celebratory festivities a skosh toilsome.  Here are some exit strategies to help navigate uncomfortable holiday situations. 1. Identify Your Reason to Leave Ahead of Time. You know Topher from marketing is going to hound you all night to have a drink (or 10) with him, and you know you don’t want to play Robin to Topher’s Batman in the tales of misadventure that the entire company laughs and cringes about on the Monday after the holiday party.  After the main...

A collegiate recovery program can mean all the difference to a young person in recovery. Having a program like this available on campus means they do not have to choose between recovery and a higher education. It provides students with an avenue to stay committed to recovery, while focusing on school, and having a community of support in a setting where it’s stereotypically a place to overindulge in substances. We researched colleges across the country that understand this and have dedicated university resources to supporting students in recovery. This is far from all, but is a great showing of support for the recovery community in higher education. U.S. Universities with Recovery Programs for Students Alabama University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL - The Collegiate Recovery and...

by Thaddeus Camlin, PsyD New England Journal of Medicine Article Says: Addiction is Learning, Not Disease One of the world’s most prestigious journals just published an article saying that addiction is not disease.  Not surprisingly, an uproar is underway.  Devotees to the disease model of addiction are not happy, but sometimes the truth hurts.  The article in the New England Journal of Medicine is a major step towards improving the standard of care in addiction treatment and deepening our understanding of the true nature of addictive behaviors. Including and Transcending the Disease Model of Addiction The article in the New England Journal of Medicine, written by Marc Lewis, Ph.D., does a masterful job of presenting the current state of the evidence about the etiology and maintenan...

Artificial Intelligence for Addiction Treatment is Here Technology continues to advance at a rapid rate.  Like anything, excessive use and over-reliance on technology can lead to problems.  However, few would argue that smart phones improved our ability to connect with each other.  At Practical Recovery we strive to stay on the cutting edge of technology and the advancements that improve quality of care.  In keeping with our efforts to improve quality of care, we are proud to be one of the first providers of behavioral health services to incorporate artificial intelligence into treatment. Artificial Intelligence: The Cutting Edge of Mental Health Services Artificial intelligence for Mental Evaluation (AiME) is now an option for all clients at Practical Recovery.  AiME was developed b...

by Cheri Harkleroad Naloxone Guide: Everything You Need to Know This naloxone guide offers all the essential information about naloxone - the lifesaving antidote for opioid overdose. The information here is NOT a substitute for medical advice - it is intended to serve as a general guide to increase overall awareness of naloxone. ALWAYS seek information from your doctor or pharmacist. According to the CDC there were 63,632 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2016, 42,249 of these deaths (66%) involved some type of opioid, including heroin." - Center for Disease Control Knowing how to use naloxone to reverse an overdose could mean the difference between life and death. By now most people have heard about naloxone, even if they're not quite sure what it is. Naloxone (Narcan...

The next recovery blogger in our interview series is truly inspiring. Mark Goodson has been sober for over 10 years and in that time he met, and married his beautiful wife, and had two children. Mark changed his life for the better and works every day to understand the nature of his mental illness and use that knowledge to live his happiest life. Mark’s calling is writing, he wrote his first novel in just four months and we could not be more thrilled to have a piece of his story on his journey to recovery here to share. Interview printed with permission PR: What is the best part about being sober? Mark: My capacity for life has grown immensely. I don’t bury feelings or grind axes. I face the world fully frontal and vulnerable. And while that is challenging, it provides me with a...

Guest post by “Albert” For more years than I care to remember, I hit my head against the 12-step wall. I was that “chronic relapser,” and the guy who picked up a white chip every few weeks or months. I began to believe that I was one of those “unfortunates” who was “constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves” (perhaps the most grandiose, obnoxious and unhelpful words ever written in the English language). I even had a 12-step “fellow” once tell me, “You know Albert, I’m glad you come to these meetings. You’re such a good example of a bad example that you’re probably helping more newcomers than you realize.” OUCH! To say that I resented and even hated AA, NA and all the other “A’s” would be an understatement. I should probably say that the “God thing” was not my pro...

By Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Fentanyl Strips: A False Sense of Accomplishment? Accidental overdose deaths attributed to fentanyl continue to rise.  Recently in San Diego, people overdosed on cocaine cut with fentanyl. Because fentanyl is cheap and potent, there is more money to be made if popular products like cocaine and xanax are cut with it. The temptation for the cartel and other black market kingpins to cut product with ultra cheap, ultra potent fentanyl is too much to resist. With popular drugs increasingly cut with fentanyl, and the inevitability that people will seek out substances like cocaine and xanax, it would make sense that fentanyl test strips are easily accessible for people to test products before ingestion to prevent overdose deaths.  However, the Substance Abuse and M...

By Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Mental health professions are big on person-first language, and rightly so.  Defining people by their problems is widely agreed upon to be below the standard of care.  People are much more than their diagnoses, and thus, mental health professions now routinely opt for descriptions like, ‘a person with schizophrenia’ rather than, ‘a schizophrenic,’ or ‘a person with borderline personality’ rather than ‘a borderline.’  As sensitivity to mental health issues grew in recent years and person-first language became the standard of care, one notable category of diagnoses was conspicuously left behind: substance use disorders. Why is language in addiction treatment failing to catch up? Addiction Treatment and Double Standards While the frequency of hearing a psych...

As we continue our recovery blogger series we bring you a recovery story from Nancy Carr from Last Call Blog. Nancy has now been sober for over 14 years, she has a fulfilling career, is happily married, and is a proud dog mom living in San Diego. Nancy is in a good place, but it took grit and determination to get here. Nancy has seen the ups and downs of addiction and recovery and is a better person now because of it. She’s learned a lot and has plenty of advice to share with others experiencing a similar journey. She writes about those experiences on her blog and is sharing a piece of her recovery story with us here now. Interview printed with permission What is your favorite part about being sober? FREEDOM! I love that I can do anything or go anywhere.  Being sober has be...