Food Diaries, Part 2
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 […]
Longterm: A Podcast on Recovery – Interview with Tom Horvath, Ph.D.
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, […]
Food Diaries vs. Bathroom Scales
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 […]
Review – Crave: The Hidden Biology of Addiction and Cancer
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 […]
How to Get More People to Seek Addiction Treatment
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 […]
Quitting Addiction – How Many Attempts Does it Take?
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 […]
The CHIME Model
The CHIME Model for Addressing Addictive Problems (and Life) In many approaches to addressing addictive problems, eliminating or at least reducing the problematic substance or activity is the immediate priority. That priority makes sense, except when it does not. You might not be ready to make that level of change, even though you may recognize […]
Early Research on LSD for Alcohol Problems
Early Research on LSD for Alcohol Problems: A Look at State Mental Hospitals and Elsewhere By Kenneth Anderson, MA In the 1950s, researchers such as Humphry Osmond and Abram Hoffer in Saskatchewan, Canada developed a unique therapy for alcoholism which entailed using a psychedelic experience to alter the beliefs and values of the alcoholic patients. […]
“Big Food” vs. New Weight Loss Meds
by Tom Horvath, PhD Do you consider the food manufacturing companies to be “drug dealers?” Back to that question in a moment. What’s a food manufacturer? A company that creates ultra-processed foods (also known as “hyper-palatable foods”). Ultra-processed foods are manufactured first by taking genuine foods and breaking them into specific components (such as starches, […]
Negativity Bias
Negativity Bias: How Negative Are You? By Tom Horvath, PhD Almost 25 years ago two psychologists coined the term “negativity bias.” It refers to our tendency to focus on information, cues, or ideas that are negative, even when we have positive information around us. For instance, after a meeting in which our ideas are presented, […]