A shift in the zeitgeist seems to be happening in recent years, such that four particular things are becoming regarded as pests: Recovery, both as a goal and as a process Sobriety (its functional significance) and Abstinence (its efficacy and value, vs. its safety and vs. one’s ability to tolerate it) Addiction illness (the construct) Treatment (its indications and its … Continue reading A fresh look at “The Four Pests”

By 2019 I had grown concerned enough about the occasionally all-encompassing nature of Harm Reduction as an activist ideology (rather than the set of sound clinical practices in harm reduction I've literally seen and been involved in across my entire career since 1988), that I coined a term for the sake of my own clarity. … Continue reading A fresh look at the “Harms of Use”

We seem to be moving toward formalizing what I have called “Addiction Hospice” (palliative SUD care, both as a clinical process and as an endpoint goal). Toward supplying a back story, I’ll say that I started to identify this trend and called it “Addiction Hospice” around 2007 or so (during the final years of our … Continue reading A Fresh Look at the Topic of “Addiction Hospice”

Back in 2021 I wrote a post consisting of four separate essays, each approaching the topic of "Recovery Orphans" from a different perspective. I coined the term "Recovery Orphan" some years ago after struggling with various events I've witnessed across the decades of my career. And while struggling to make sense of various things concerning … Continue reading A Fresh Look at the Topic of “Recovery Orphans”

Disclaimer: Nothing in this document should be taken or held as clinical instruction, clinical supervision, or advisory concerning patient care. There's a classic practice in addiction counseling that I've seen implemented for decades but have never seen written up in the clinical-applied literature, practice guidelines, research studies, or anywhere else I can think of. Here it … Continue reading A classic practice in addiction counseling

At this stage of my career, it seems to me that “Addiction Counseling” is one thing made from the following four essential ingredients:  listening with the “third ear”; those unique competencies and skills that are particular to the professional addiction counselor; the competencies and skills particular to the recovery coach; and finally, the qualities of … Continue reading 2024’s Top Posts – #8 – What is Addiction Counseling?

Summit AG, Moseley MC, Chaku N, Elam KK, Jacobs W, Lederer AM, et al. Prevalence of pharmacotherapy for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and prescription stimulant misuse: A national study of US college students. Addiction. 2024. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16716 The authors of this study examined 224,469 college students aged 18-25 from 395 universities between the Fall of 2019 and the Fall of 2022. Measures were lifetime ADHD diagnosis, past-year ADHD medication treatment, and past-3-mont prescription … Continue reading Research article review: prevalence of ADHD medication treatment and prescription stimulant misuse

A newly published full-text open access letter covers this important topic. Here are a few of the key points made by the authors. Mitragyna speciose, known as “Kratom” has a major alkaloid, mitragynine, and the metabolite 7-hydroxymitragynine. In leaf products (powders, etc.) these are typically 1-2% of the total content. Properties of 7-hydroxymitragynine include that … Continue reading Novel semi-synthetic 7-hydroxymitragnine products are here