Inpatient treatment offers one of the most intensive and comprehensive forms of addiction treatment. However, it comes with some trade-offs, such as cost and time commitment, that many people cannot make. Less intense but still high-quality forms of treatment in an outpatient setting offer more flexibility and affordability. Two of the most common high-care types…
Opioids are a type of pain-relieving drug. They are one of the largest categories of drugs, spanning prescription medication to illicit drugs like heroin. Many people and medical professionals simply refer to opioids as painkillers because of their primary function. Prescription opioids play a valid role in certain medical situations, such as for pain relief…
Meth is one of the most dangerous illicit drugs in circulation today. Using meth leads to numerous mental and physical health problems. It can take a while for these to become apparent. But the signs of symptoms of meth use often show themselves much earlier than some of the uglier impacts. Learning to recognize the…
It is easy and tempting to think of addiction and drug abuse as individual problems that only affect the person using drugs. The reality is far more complex and wide-reaching. Drugs affect a family in numerous ways. The impact of substance abuse tends to ripple throughout a family unit. Drugs affect family members profoundly, often…
The 12 Steps were written down for the first time when Bill Wilson penned the Big Book in 1939. The 12-step movement saved countless lives and transformed people all over the world. The 12 steps were so life-changing that Alcoholics Anonymous touted a near 75 percent success rate from its inception in 1935 to when…
The history of medical research is rampant with sexism. The research used to only include men and thus was only truly helpful in determining treatment for men. It took until the 1990s for research to include women meaningfully. Research has since clarified that men and women experience addiction and recovery differently. High-quality practitioners like Rockland…
Prescription medications provide enormous symptom relief to millions of people every year. However, their benefits are dampened by how addictive and habit-forming they can be. Drug abuse all too often begins with a valid prescription. The long-term effects of abusing prescription drugs can be catastrophic to a person’s health. The longer someone uses these substances,…
Addiction and mental health disorders commonly exist together. There is a profound interplay between substance abuse and mental health issues. One common pairing is bipolar disorder and drug use. Having bipolar disorder does not guarantee that someone will struggle with substance abuse, nor is the inverse necessarily true. Yet a correlation between bipolar and drug…
Group therapy is used often during substance abuse treatment. It is similar to individual therapy, except for involving a single therapist treating multiple clients simultaneously. Groups are typically kept to eight or fewer clients and are sometimes even more intimate with just three or four participants. This approach can be just as effective as individual…