Addiction Research & Theory recently published an interesting article entitled "The unseen burden: exploring the lived experiences of mothers caring for individuals with substance use disorder." It focuses on the lived experiences of Indian mothers caring for sons with severe Substance Use Disorders. The authors set the focus of the paper as follows: This growing … Continue reading Moms, SUDs, & “emotional disintegration within the family”
Author: Jason Schwartz
Quality of life in the first five years of recovery
I recently had the opportunity to see John Kelly present some of his research on recovery. Kelly is doing some of the most important work in the addiction and recovery space. I say this because he's one of the few researchers publishing on long-term outcomes and quality-of-life. Most contemporary research gives us little more than … Continue reading Quality of life in the first five years of recovery
Alcohol Use Disorder Relapse After One Year of Remission
Earlier this year, Frontiers in Public Health published an important study by John F. Kelly, Morgan Klein, Katherine Zeng, Sydney Manske, and Alexandra Abry. I say it's important because research that captures information about relapse tends to focus on the days, weeks, and maybe months following the initiation of recovery. We have very little professional … Continue reading Alcohol Use Disorder Relapse After One Year of Remission
Banning substances
Yesterday was an interesting news day. First, in Michigan, there were a couple of stories (here and here) about kratom and a legislative push to ban leaf-based and synthetic kratom products. Later in the day, I began to see coverage of a UK smoking ban for people born after 2008. I expect that this will … Continue reading Banning substances
Recovery Flourishing as an Act of Rebellion!
This guest post was written by Mark Sanders, LCSW, CADC and is cross-posted from the Online Museum of African American Addictions, Treatment and Recovery Recovery Advocate, Senior Research Consultant and the substance use disorder profession’s number one historian William White has written another groundbreaking Monograph entitled, Post Traumatic Growth and Flourishing in Addiction Recovery. I predict this … Continue reading Recovery Flourishing as an Act of Rebellion!
“Recovery pessimism is the lie that must be forever expunged from cultural consciousness”
Bill White has a new monograph out: Post Traumatic Growth and Flourishing in Addiction Recovery: A Critical Review and Commentary. Readers will know that I've long been concerned about the erosion of the boundaries of recovery. My concerns center around a few issues. Background Recovery Management introduced recovery as a disruptor to the status quo … Continue reading “Recovery pessimism is the lie that must be forever expunged from cultural consciousness”
Covering Drugs
Visit http://www.coveringdrugs.org I often think about how difficult it is to find good information about addiction, drug use, recovery, drug policy, and advocacy around all these matters. There are so many sources providing incomplete and incorrect information, often very persuasively. I've spoken with so many family members and members of the media struggling to find … Continue reading Covering Drugs
MOUD retention: 17 years, 212 days, 10 days
Earlier this week, a friend shared a really interesting table from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) 2023 annual report. I'm familiar with the TEDS, but I don't recall ever seeing this table of discharges by year of admission. What this table shows is that, of the 1.4 million discharges in 2023, 60 of them … Continue reading MOUD retention: 17 years, 212 days, 10 days
Lived experience and empirical knowledge: domination or integration?
I've been in and around professional addiction and recovery circles for more than 30 years. In that time, I've spent a lot of time in rooms where empirical knowledge was a suffocating force. It determined what and who was valued, heard, and respected in ways that did not lead us any closer to truth or … Continue reading Lived experience and empirical knowledge: domination or integration?
2025’s Top Posts – #1 – The AI Mirror: “take that small hit, and you’ll be fine”
Over the next several days, we’ll be sharing 2025’s posts with the most views. Today is #1. I published the post below last month, which resulted in an invitation to speak with DeAnn and Craig Knighton on their podcast, Recovery Discovery. It was a fun conversation and I thought I'd share that with you here. … Continue reading 2025’s Top Posts – #1 – The AI Mirror: “take that small hit, and you’ll be fine”

