Addiction and Society: Snowflakes and a Culture of Outrage
Snowflakes and Addiction: A Culture of Outrage by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. In today’s culture of outrage everything seems to be offensive to someone. The term ‘snowflake’ is generally viewed as derogatory and refers to people who are entitled, genuinely distressed by ideas that run contrary to their worldview, and carry an inflated sense of their […]
Technology Addiction: ‘Likes’ Are the New ‘It’ Drug
Technology Addiction: ‘Likes’ Are the New ‘It’ Drug by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. In the world of technology, the customers are the advertisers and the product is our attention. Tech giants like google, apple, twitter, and facebook sell advertisers access to our eyeballs. In an age of unparalleled information abundance, our attention is increasingly scarce. The […]
Suicide and Addiction
Suicide and Addiction By Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The recent success of the Netflix series entitled, 13 Reasons Why, along with the death of Chris Cornell, brought suicide into the forefront of American consciousness. The relationship between suicide and addiction is well established – substance use problems are the #2 risk factor for suicide (depression is […]
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 6: Happiness
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 6: Happiness by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. The final topic of our in-depth exploration of each core emotion is happiness. Happiness is the most pleasurable, desired, pursued, elusive, mercurial emotion of all. If happiness is so pleasurable and desired then it can’t be a […]
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 5: Fear
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 5: Fear by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week fear is the topic that continues our in-depth exploration of each core emotion. Why do people use drugs? Often times, people use drugs to assuage fear and alleviate anxiety. In healthy doses, many researchers consider […]
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 4: Disgust
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 4: Disgust by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week disgust is the topic that continues our in-depth exploration of each core emotion. Believe it or not, disgust is often an answer to the question, ‘why do people use drugs?’ Disgust is the most generalizable […]
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 3: Sadness
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Sadness and Addiction by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week sadness is the topic that continues our in-depth exploration of each core emotion. If you ever wonder, ‘why do people use drugs?’ sadness is often an answer. Many of the most painful emotions (e.g. grief, bereavement, mourning) and debilitating […]
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 2: Anger
Why Do People Use Drugs? The Relationship Between Emotions and Addiction, pt. 2: Anger by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. For the first in-depth look at each core emotion we begin with anger. Few would object that anger is one answer to the question, ‘why do people use drugs?’ Anger tends to conjure potent associations like violence, […]
Mental Health Diagnosis: History, Validity and Implications
The Mental Health Diagnosis: History, Validity and Implications by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. Today’s Diagnosis is Tomorrow’s Joke A former client recently sent me a list of reasons for admittance to a psychiatric hospital between the years of 1864-1889. The list was being shared on the internet as a joke, highlighting how many mental health diagnoses […]
The Biggest Lies in Recovery, pt. IV: Shaming Inspires Change
by Thaddeus Camlin, Psy.D. This week’s topic is the fourth installment in a series exploring lies that have permeated the recovery culture. Thus far, lies about success, failure, and everyone in recovery being the same have been challenged. This week’s article challenges the lie that shaming people helps them change a problematic pattern of substance […]