Addiction Treatment Under the Gaslight
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Some of the most powerful groups I’ve been a part of have been on the topic of the ‘Gaslight.’ Derived from the title of a 1944 Ingrid Bergman film in which Bergman’s character leads his wife to believe she is going mad, the term gaslight grew into a potent psychological concept. […]
How Should We Spend Any Opiate Settlement Funds?
The “tobacco settlement” was reached in 1998 after five years of litigation. Tobacco manufacturers agreed to change some business and marketing practices, and to pay over $200 billion spread over 25 years (with continued payments thereafter) to reimburse 46 states for their expenses in treating tobacco-related illnesses. Opiate Settlements There are now hundreds of opiate […]
Infantilizing Addiction
“Go to your room and calm down… Wake up, breakfast is ready… Are you gonna’ sleep all day?… You can’t have candy in your room… It’s 10 o’clock, lights out, it’s bedtime…” The Practice of Infantilizing Addiction The statements above are just a few of the endless parade of childish remarks that are hurled at […]
Ibogaine Treatment for Addiction: What To Expect
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Dr. Horvath and I, along with a team of colleagues, recently published an article on ibogaine treatment for addiction. In the context of the psychedelic treatment renaissance, it is worth summarizing our findings to provide an overview of what one can expect when taking ibogaine. While much variation between individual experiences […]
Sober Senorita: Interview with a Recovery Blogger
Next up in our top-blogger interview series is Kelly Fitzgerald, of Sober Senorita. We’ve been following Kelly’s blog for a while now, maybe 2-3 years. Her personal and professional growth, as well as that of her blog, have been nothing short of inspiring. What started out in 2014 as a blog about Kelly’s personal recovery […]
Avoidance is Addiction’s Best Friend
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Avoidance and Fear Nothing feeds fear like avoidance. Substance use itself often becomes problematic because it is such an effective method of short-term avoidance. Eventually, the repetition compulsion of avoidance builds up so much unaddressed residual byproduct that the costs of continued avoidance outweigh the potential costs of facing what we […]
Canada Legalizes Cannabis
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The abating cannabis prohibition was dealt a stifling blow this week as Canada became to first G7 nation to legalize the plant. President Trump recently said that he would back a bipartisan bill for federal cannabis legislation reform in the United States. The U.S. bill stops short of federal legalization, but […]
Moderation: Recovery’s Best Kept Secret
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The greatest trick the puritanical tyranny of abstinence ever pulled was convincing the world that moderate drug use doesn’t exist. For over a century addiction recovery, despite the facts, successfully fought and relegated moderate substance use to the shadows of quackery. As is often the case, we only fight what we […]
The National Recovery Study
by Tom Horvath, PhD, ABPP The US media often presents stories about substance problems. However, there are fewer stories about how individuals resolve these problems. The National Recovery Study (Kelly, Bergman, Hoeppner, Vilsaint, & White, 2017) was an effort to estimate how many in the US have resolved substance problems, and how they did so. […]
Changing Addictive Behavior: The Perils and Promise of Perfectionism
By Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. For many, perfectionism is a guilty pleasure – we know it isn’t good for us but we can’t seem to let it go. Well, difficulty in letting something go is almost always a sign of that thing being beneficial in some ways, and perfectionism is no different. When it comes to […]