History is not linear. Our movement, the New Recovery Advocacy Movement, like many social movements in the course of history develop and are then subject to decay. This history is important. The past is the pathway that has led to every door available to us in our current era. We can learn from history to … Continue reading 2024’s Top Posts – #10 – Coopted and Colonized – Lessons from the Washingtonian Movement
Hats Off to Those Who Do the Toughest Job They Will Ever Love
This is my last of 31 posts for the year. At the beginning of 2024, I set a goal of posting roughly one piece every two weeks, which would be 26. The 26th post was Once Bitten Twice Shy - the Recovery Community and the False Promise of Harmless Drugs which I completed October 23rd. … Continue reading Hats Off to Those Who Do the Toughest Job They Will Ever Love
When Evidence-Based Methods Don’t Seem to Fit: An Example During Cognitive Restructuring
Disclaimer: Nothing in this document should be taken or held as clinical instruction, clinical supervision, or advisory concerning patient care. I attended an introductory training focused on cognitive restructuring. Attending was nostalgic, humorous and odd for me because I received such focused and intense education and training on cognitive restructuring during graduate school within a department grounded … Continue reading When Evidence-Based Methods Don’t Seem to Fit: An Example During Cognitive Restructuring
Opioid settlement funds will be “a really nice tailwind”
The NYT recently published an article on allegations of ethics violations and fraud in Acadia Healthcare's methadone clinics. It's a big deal because Acadia is big, really big. "The for-profit chain of 165 methadone clinics — the country’s largest — has generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue since 2022." The allegations include not providing … Continue reading Opioid settlement funds will be “a really nice tailwind”
Research article review: prevalence of ADHD medication treatment and prescription stimulant misuse
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
Essays on Addiction Counseling
What is this work, and why have I undertaken it? It’s a series of essays that reflect some of my thoughts at this stage of my career. My hope is someone finds something here that is instructive, inspiring, challenging, or helpful. The essays are an attempt to work things out. Sometimes I say what … Continue reading Essays on Addiction Counseling
Occam’s Razor and the Industries of Addiction
Addiction is immensely profitable for purveyors of drugs and their related businesses, both in the illicit and legitimate markets. As I wrote about last year, in Portraying Abstinence Recovery as Puritanical Is in the Interest of Those Who Sell Addictive Drugs, industries selling addictive drugs have long targeted high-risk groups including youth and people in … Continue reading Occam’s Razor and the Industries of Addiction
Novel semi-synthetic 7-hydroxymitragnine products are here
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
An Interview with Maryanne Frangules of the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR)
“Faces that are visible, voices who are vocal, will prove that recovery is valuable, and that is how we will be victorious!” - Maryanne Frangules of MOAR Maryanne Frangules has decades of experience as a recovery community advocate and community recovery capital builder. I have long thought about doing an interview with Maryanne Frangules. I … Continue reading An Interview with Maryanne Frangules of the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction Recovery (MOAR)
Unpopular opinion: Attention to recovery advocacy and ROSC has come at the expense of Recovery Management, harming treatment patients
This post isn't meant to suggest that ROSC or recovery advocacy are bad in any way. Rather, it is meant to suggest that Recovery Management has been underdeveloped while energy and enthusiasm have been focused on recovery advocacy and ROSC. It also isn't meant to assign blame, I'm just sharing an observation. Recovery Management (RM) … Continue reading Unpopular opinion: Attention to recovery advocacy and ROSC has come at the expense of Recovery Management, harming treatment patients
Recovery Review 