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

Consider these sentences from a journal article published in 1940: Etiology of alcohol addiction.  It has been generally recognized for many years that alcoholics do not form a homogeneous population but are heterogeneous relative to etiology, reaction, and course of disease. Definite criteria and relevant classification are therefore essential for the discussion of the phenomenology … Continue reading Sentences to Ponder (1940)