Kenneth Anderson, M.A. First, it is important to define our terms. A stimulant is a drug which raises levels of physiological or nervous activity. A depressant is the opposite of a stimulant, i.e., a depressant is a drug which lowers levels of physiological or nervous activity. A depressant is not a drug which causes depressed mood; the correct term for a drug which causes depressed mood is a depressogen. A depressogen is the opposite of an antidepressant, just as a depressant is the opposite of a stimulant. Although alcohol can act as a depressogen and cause depression in some people, alcohol also acts as a euphoriant, and some people drink to feel less depressed. However, this is beyond the scope of our article, and we shall focus on the stimulant and depressant effects of alcohol....

By Kenneth Anderson All too often I hear people erroneously lay the blame for the current war on drugs on Nixon; however, this is historically inaccurate. The focus of Nixon's war on drugs was treatment, and under Nixon, the harsh drug laws of the 1950s were eased. Ronald Reagan was the true architect of the evil known as today's war on drugs. Let's start by looking at some historical background. The US Rise of Substance Use There was an explosive growth in the use of marijuana from 1967 to 1979, with LSD bringing up the rear. Although marijuana and LSD were promoted in the early 1960s by both Timothy Leary at Harvard and Ken Kesey at his ranch in rural La Honda, California, about 42 miles from San Francisco, their influence was quite local and had little impact on the US as a whol...

by A. Tom Horvath, Ph.D., ABPP It is an old idea that we need to balance both ends of a polarity to have a good life. Over 2,000 years ago Aristotle suggested that using the mid-point between two extremes would be a sensible guide for behavior. For instance, the courage polarity has recklessness (acting without taking risk into consideration) at one end, and cowardice (being so afraid that you do not act at all) at the other. The mid-point, courage involves doing what needs to be done, even if you are afraid. There are many examples of balancing a polarity. Getting to balance involves moving to the center from both extremes. However, some polarities do not fit this pattern. On what I am terming an expanding polarity we want to move toward both ends of the polarity simultaneously. ...

By Tom Horvath, PhD This blog will focus less on physical skills (like playing the piano or hitting a baseball) and more on “psychological skills” like being assertive. Physical and psychological skills are not entirely distinct. Your body will need to play its part in a psychological skill. For instance, you would need to say “no thanks, I’m not interested in that” with your mouth. The physical skills needed to accomplish a psychological skill are typically already well known to you. You just need to use them! Without further ado, let's take a look at practicing psychological skills. Practicing Psychological Skills #1: Interpersonal Skills Nevertheless, the physical aspect of a psychological skill can be a good place to start. To stay with our example, you could practice sayin...

By Kenneth Anderson, MA Two people of the same weight, height, and sex can drink the same amount of alcohol over the same period of time, and when they stop, one will have few if any symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, while the other will go through severe alcohol withdrawal. Why is this? Although environmental factors (e.g., kindling) may have some influence, the primary reason for this difference appears to be genetics. One of Several Studies on Genetics of Alcohol Withdrawal A 2005 study conducted at a detoxification unit in Germany by Martin Driessen et al. gives us an idea of what percentage of people will develop alcohol withdrawal. There were 217 patients in this study, and they had drunk an average of 15.6 US standard drinks per day during the 30 days prior to the study. The r...

By Kenneth Anderson, MA Part 1 reviewed some of the historical background which led up to the rat park studies. Part 2 reviewed the rat park studies themselves. Part 3 will look at where we have gone since. Follow-ups to Alexander's Rat Park Experiment The July 5, 1985 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a study by Michael A. Bozarth and Roy A. Wise on the toxicity of heroin and cocaine in rats. Subjects were 23 male Long Evans rats. All 23 rats were housed in solitary confinement in laboratory cages and fitted with catheters so that they could self-inject drugs by pressing a lever. The rats were given unlimited access to the drugs for 30 days. Eleven rats were in the heroin group; all eleven learned how to self-inject heroin. The amount of her...

By Tom Horvath “Analysis paralysis” is another term for “overthinking” a decision. We face many decisions in life. Some we make too quickly (like acting on addictive impulses), and some too slowly. This blog focuses on making decisions too slowly. (We also leave out the sequence of smaller decisions we might make over years, that lead to an occupation, a partner, or a hometown we may or may not be satisfied with) How can we match the amount of time and energy we devote to a decision with the importance of the decision? Let’s focus on decisions like what movie to see, what birthday card or present to purchase, what meal to order, what color to paint a room, or how to state something (such as when writing an email or blog!). If you start “going down a rabbit hole” in your decision-m...

A Closer Look at the Rat Park Experiment, Part 2 By Kenneth Anderson, MA Part 1 reviewed some of the historical background which led up to the rat park studies. Part 2 reviews the rat park studies themselves. Part 3 will take a look at where we have gone since. Bruce K. Alexander's first rat park study was published in 1978. The subjects were 32 albino Wistar rats (18 males and 14 females). After weaning, 10 of the rats (six males and four females) were placed in solitary confinement in standard laboratory cages. Twenty-two of the rats (12 males and 10 females) were placed in rat park. Rat park was an open-topped plywood box with 95 square feet of floor space covered in sawdust where rats could play, fight, and have sex with each other just like they did in their natural enviro...

By Tom Horvath, PhD Regret is the feeling or sense that we did not behave or choose as well as we could have or should have. How many times might we ask ourselves, “why did I ….?” Or, “why didn’t I…?” Not only is it impossible to live life without regrets (who does not make mistakes?), regret appears to be quite common. One study suggested that we might regret nearly 1/3 of our decisions. It makes sense, then, instead of trying to avoid regret, to turn our attention toward coping with regret. Two Types of Regret There seem to be two main types of regret. You might regret falling short on responsibilities to others. When you realize the problem, it may be easy enough to correct your behavior or make amends. On the other hand, do you make a similar effort when you fall short on actin...

By Tom Horvath, PhD Although these evaluations are often termed substance “abuse” evaluations, that term is outdated, and it assumes that substance problems exist, when they may not. When one or both divorcing parents allege that the other parent uses substances (alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, etc.) in a way that is harmful to the children, the Court may rely on expert recommendations about what course of action to take. Below are the definitions and principles I use to guide the recommendations I make in substance use evaluations. Although the principles may be of less general interest, the definitions are informative for anyone with an interest in addictive problems. A major factor in these evaluations is that some substance users will minimize or misrepresent their substance us...