The Best Cures for Addiction are Desire and Purpose Written for Practical Recovery by Stanton Peele, Ph.D., J.D. Many neuroscientists claim that we have made great advances in addiction—that we have discovered its chemical sources in the brain and are on the verge of a cure. Recently, the Wall Street Journal  published “A Pill to Cure Addiction?”  (based on a JAMA Internal Medicine study). The article trumpets the cure for addiction by “transforming” the brain’s “chemical architecture.” But that view of addiction reveals a basic misunderstanding of why—and how—people are able to overcome addictions. Worse, it makes it less likely that they will do so. Contrary to the idea that withdrawal is the hardest part of quitting, people kick drugs and alcohol all the time. Most rehab pati...

5 Opiate-Related Celebrity Deaths in the Last Year The recent death of Philip Seymour Hoffman is shining light on the American opiate overdose epidemic, but the problem wasn’t exclusive to Hoffman. In fact, opiate death rates are on the rise, in both the celebrity sphere and the general public. This post illustrates five opiate-related celebrity deaths in the last year.    February 2, 2014 - Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46, was found in the bathroom of his Manhattan apartment with a needle still in his arm. According to the New York post, the cause of death was an apparent heroin overdose. Hoffman had struggled with drug addiction in his early twenties, but was able to stay off drugs for 23 years before relapsing in 2012 and entering a detox facility in 2013. July 13, 2013 – 31-year o...

Looking to stay sober this NYE? Read on for some celebration ideas! New Year’s Eve is the “booziest” holiday, full of champagne toasts, parties with open bars, and DUI arrests.  It is a challenging day to stay sober for any individual, especially someone in early recovery.  New Year’s Eve does not have to be all about getting intoxicated.  New Year’s is a wonderful time to evaluate goals for the year ahead and strengthen your recovery plan.  It is also a great time to focus on the achievements of the past year, and appreciate how far you’ve come. Just because you aren’t drinking/using this year, doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time!  Here are some ideas for enjoying New Year’s Eve, and waking up still feeling great on New Year’s Day: 1. Game night!  Invite friends over, make s...

Sometimes it can be a challenge to find holiday activities that don’t include alcohol. Add to that the stress that often comes with the season and some in recovery may find this time of year a difficult one. The good news is there are plenty of holiday activities that can be enjoyed sober. We’ve compiled a list of local San Diego activities to get you started with your celebrations – with so many options, you’ll certainly be able to stay busy, safe and merry the whole season through! Happy sober holidays! Clicking the links will take you to the event pages. November 16 – December 28, 2013 Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas Old Globe Theatre Back for its 16th holiday season, this Dr. Seuss classic is a play the whole family will enjoy! Now – End of Season Residential Ho...

For Professionals (or anyone) Article on collaborative addiction care written for the Addiction Professional website

Natural recovery should be seen as the primary process of addiction recovery. Treatment needs to be seen as an adjunct to natural recovery, not as the essential element of recovery. In physical health, the self-healing capacity of the body is ultimately the source of healing. A physician can intervene, but the body heals. As the 16th century French surgeon Ambroise Pare remarked, “I dressed, and God healed.” When the body is too ill to heal, no physician’s work can be effective. Although surgery today is a highly successful enterprise, we might fail to consider that many patients are refused surgery because the surgeon decides they are not well enough to benefit from it. In psychological health, the capacity to benefit from an intervention appears to be based on the mind’s willingnes...

In addition to the facts arising from the science of addiction treatment, there is another compelling and relevant aspect of addiction: Natural recovery. Most who recover from addictive behavior do so without attending treatment or a support group. Recovery is thus a broader concept than treatment.  In daily life natural recovery is easily visible in how people quit smoking.  Although for most quitting smoking involves multiple attempts and a major expenditure of effort, very few individuals attend treatment or a support group to quit.  Nevertheless, in the US millions of individuals have quit smoking, especially since the widespread recognition in the mid-20th century that smoking was seriously harmful. Large scale population studies have confirmed that even for the substances of ab...

The statistic Practical Recovery would most like to publicize is how many of our clients return here after a relapse. When some treatment centers are publicizing “cure rates,” publicizing “return rates” would not appear to be good marketing!  However, the reality of addiction treatment is that after any particular episode the most likely outcome is a slip or relapse. The slip or relapse does not necessarily mean that more treatment is needed, but in some cases it does.  We have had clients who were previously in treatment at many of the “brand-name” treatment centers in the country. When they relapsed they elected to come to Practical Recovery, perhaps because if they returned (to most treatment centers) they would have gone through the same “program” they experienced previously. Every ...

Psychiatric pharmacogenetics refers to the use of genetic testing to predict the effectiveness of pharmacotherapy for individuals with psychiatric illnesses, including alcohol, drug and addiction problems. Some individuals, for instance, may have a genetic variation that interferes with or enhances the metabolism of a particular drug. Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine recently published an article that reviews psychiatric pharmacogenetics for drug and alcohol treatment (Haile, Kosten & Kosten, 2008). Most FDA-approved pharmacotherapies for addiction treatment are for either alcohol or opiates, and the current study focused on these two addictive substances. The researchers used Medline to conduct a literature review, searching terms related to alcohol and opiates and th...

By Tom Hovath, Ph.D., ABPP Congratulations to Anne M. Fletcher, MS, RD, on the release of the paperback edition of Inside Rehab: The Surprising Truth About Addiction Treatment—and How to Get Help That Works. This book has a been a major contribution to the US discussion about who needs rehab, what is less than desirable about the US rehab system, and how that system might be changed. During the nearly five years that Inside Rehab was in preparation, Fletcher visited 15 addiction treatment facilities across the US, and interviewed several hundred professionals and addiction treatment consumers. Practical Recovery is pleased to note we were one of the facilities she visited, and that she interviewed numerous staff and clients. We are proud that a summary of our work is included i...