Addiction Intervention

Screening Teens for Gambling Problems

Gambling problems are gambling-related behaviors that detract from a person’s ability to maintain mental equilibrium and participate functionally in society. Some affected individuals have problems severe enough to qualify them for diagnosis of an official condition called gambling disorder. However, doctors may sometimes miss the presence of dysfunctional gambling-related behaviors in teenagers. In a study published in October 2013 in the Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, a team of Australian researchers examined the usefulness of a screening questionnaire, called the Victorian Gambling Screen, in detecting teenagers’ gambling problems.

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Should Doctors Do More to Educate Their Patients About Alcohol Risks?

When you visit your doctor there are a few standard questions you’ll be asked: How are you feeling? What’s going on in your life? Do you have any health concerns? Now the government agency that keeps tabs on our nation’s health is asking doctors to spend more time discussing alcohol use with patients.

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Arming Parents with the Knowledge to Confront Teen Drinking

Studies have shown that parents are the most significant factor in whether a teen decides to drink alcohol. Peer pressure gets all the media attention, but research has shown that parental influence lasts through their children’s adolescence.

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Senior Women Fastest-Growing Group of Problem Gamblers

Twenty miles from the river on an east/west highway running through central Mississippi, there’s a billboard, one of those really big ones. This billboard is a party, a sparkling carnival, a live action vaudeville show. It’s so thrilling that passersby never fail to notice it, and some have been known to slow down just to stare. It’s not unusual that this billboard features a slim, attractive woman with her head thrown back, a look of wild abandon painted on her face as colored lights spin and blur and loom behind her. What is unusual is that this woman is probably 75 years old.

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Middle School Pupils at Highest Risk for Inhalant Use

Inhalants are a diverse range of household, industrial and medicinal chemicals that sometimes get adapted as drugs of abuse. Young people have especially high chances of beginning inhalant use, at least partly because they have less access to legal intoxicants than adults.

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Red Ribbon Campaign Continues to Spread Drug Prevention Message

Formed in 1980 by a coalition of concerned parents, the National Federation of Parents for Drug Free Youth got a big boost when Nancy Reagan served as its honorary chair. The organization later changed their name to the National Family Partnership (NFP) and in 1985 created the nation’s largest drug prevention program, the Red Ribbon Campaign.

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Teens’ Desire to Belong May Lead to Alcohol Abuse

Adolescence is a confusing period of emotional highs and lows. These are years when kids are, for the first time, experiencing an identity separate from that of their parents and home. Whether it is the freedom of driving a car or having their own job or even their first romantic relationship, teens are figuring out how to be their own person.

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Designer Drugs Multiplying at Alarming Rate

Designer Drugs Multiplying at Alarming RateAccording to the U.N. 2013 World Drug Report, the number of “designer drugs” is increasing at an unprecedented rate, presenting a new challenge for legislators across the world in terms of public health. The report reveals that the number of designer drugs has skyrocketed over the last three years, but it might not come as a surprise to everybody. From the unforgettable reports of bath salt-induced cannibalism, comatose N-bomb users, and hammer-swinging, naked Kratom users, you might be well aware that the substances in the spotlight today aren’t the “usual suspects” like cocaine and heroin, but the extent of the problem has been driven home with the new report. Full Story

Intervention and the Holidays

The holidays can truly be the most wonderful time of the year; filled with the warmth of family, friends, cozy get-togethers, and opportunities to catch up with those we rarely have time to visit with during the rest of the year. We all typically want to spend the holiday season surrounded by our loved ones, but what if you have someone in your life living with an addiction? It can be all too easy to consider simply putting off the intervention until after the holidays have come to an end, but the reality is that you may just find that this is the best time for you to stage an intervention. Full Story

Escaping a Family History of Addiction

When you are surrounded by addiction in your immediate family, it is easy to feel like your own downfall will occur in just a matter of time. The genetic, inheritable nature of disease has become well known, and it can be disconcerting to know that one or more of your parents, and perhaps your siblings as well, are all suffering from addictions. Quite apart from the pain and frustration of being in such close proximity to addiction, it is hard not to wonder and to fear what that significant family history means for your own health and future. Full Story