Category: Addiction Science

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

GENERALLY SPEAKING? –

April 23, 2019 – There’s no evidence to suggest that people with the traits mentioned above have a higher risk for addiction. That’s not to say that certain personality traits aren’t related to addiction. For example, traits associated with borderline and antisocial personality disorders may be linked to higher rates of addiction.

However, the nature of this link is murky. Addiction can cause changes in the brain. As one 2017 research article points out, it’s not always clear whether the trait developed before or after addiction. At first glance, the concept of an addictive personality might seem like a good tool for preventing addiction. If we can identify those who have the highest risk, wouldn’t that make it easier to help them before they develop an addiction?

But boiling the complex issue of addiction down to a personality type can be harmful for several reasons: It can lead people to falsely believe they aren’t at risk because they don’t have the “right personality” for addiction. It may make people who have an addiction think that they’re unable to recover if addiction is “hardwired” into who they are. It suggests that people experiencing addiction exhibit traits that are generally considered negative, such as lying and manipulating others.

more@Healthline

 

The post What Is an Addictive Personality? It’s a Myth. appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

LISTEN – ERASING STIGMA WITH ART – 
April 28, 2021 –

VOLKOW: I’m a painter myself. And I was struck by the intensity of his images.

HAMILTON: When the scientist and the artist finally met, they found they had a lot in common.

STOEHR: We are coming at this problem from the same place.

HAMILTON: Both are determined to change society’s view of addiction, Volkow with science, Stoehr with art. Stoehr says he wants his paintings to provoke the sort of conversations that people began having about HIV/AIDS decades ago.

STOEHR: You had writers and artists and playwrights and poets and educators – and everybody started talking about it. And so they made it OK to talk about this.

HAMILTON: Volkow and Stoehr both rely on brain science to get their message across. For a decade now, Stoehr has been studying why certain images are more likely to trigger recognition and emotion and empathy in the brain.

STOEHR: Faces with expressive eyes and then with the hands are all things that we do have special places in our brain and we’re, in many cases, hard wired to respond to.

HAMILTON: Which is why he emphasizes these in his portraits. Stoehr also harnesses the brain’s response to ambiguity. For example, he will paint a slightly different expression on the right side of a face than on the left side. Stoehr says the effect of that approach was especially dramatic for one woman who wrote to him to describe her experience.

STOEHR: She looked at a painting of mine and said that I knew exactly how she felt and that she wanted to die. And she said that the next day, she looked at the very same painting and saw hope in the woman’s eyes. And then she said, you saved my life.

HAMILTON: That sort of emotional response is why a few months ago, Volkow invited Stoehr to speak to scientists at an NIH award ceremony.

VOLKOW: To the extent that art can make us understand and feel something in a different way, it has succeeded.

HAMILTON: And Volkow says the power of art and science together may be enough to lift the stigma from addiction.

Jon Hamilton, NPR News.

more@NPR

 

The post Addiction Is Not A Moral Failing appeared first on NRP.org.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

GET ’EM WHEN THEY’RE YOUNG –

April 6, 2021 – As kids begin to notice unhealthy behaviors in others, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, eating a lot of sugar, not eating vegetables, or drinking too much soda, talk about it. Take the opportunity to talk about why people may make unhealthy choices and how your child can make healthy decisions based on what their bodies need. One study found that children as young as 3 are able to recognize alcoholic beverages and differentiate them from other drinks, so they need to hear that kids should not drink alcohol because it harms their brains and bodies.

Kids see an average of 23 instances of alcohol advertising in the media every month. One study found alcohol played some role in the plot of one out of every 11 cartoons and appeared in that cartoon an average of three times. Multiple studies conducted over a few different years found between 52 and 57% of popular contemporary G/PG movies depict alcohol use. Use these exposures as an opportunity to talk about fictional characters’ behavior. Compare healthy drinking habits to unhealthy ones. You could say, “That character seemed to have a drink every time he was sad. What are some other ways he could have dealt with those feelings?”

Inoculation theory has been shown to be a powerful tool in protecting kids against all kinds of risky behaviors, including smoking, binge drinking, and unprotected sex. In fact, one study found that inoculation messaging can confer so-called cross protection; messages meant to protect college students against one risky behavior (binge drinking) effectively protected them against other risky behaviors (unprotected sex) not mentioned in the messaging.

Find out more: THE ADDICTION INOCULATION: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence by Jessica Lahey

more@Today

 

The post How to ‘inoculate’ kids against addiction appeared first on Addiction/Recovery eBulletin.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

With Valentines day around the corner – this question begs an answer.  Can you be addicted to chocolate? Though this is still a controversial topic, a growing amount of research supports treating food addictions like other types of substance addictions.

Addictive foods impact many of the same brain and nervous system pathways typically affected by drug addictions. They might also elicit behaviors similar to those caused by other addictions (4Trusted Source, 5Trusted Source, 7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source).

Thus, food addiction may occur when specific foods or nutrients repeatedly trigger your brain’s reward system.

Some foods are believed to be more addictive than others.

Highly processed foods that are high in sugar and fat — like many types of chocolate — are often considered more addictive than less processed foods like fruits and vegetables.

Here’s a look at how much sugar, fat, and carbs an average 1.5-ounce (45-gram) serving of chocolate contains.

This post Is Chocolate Addictive firs appeared at Healthline.com

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

If you haven’t had a drug addiction yourself, it can be difficult to know what to say to a loved one experiencing it. But knowing more about substance use disorders and which phrases to avoid can make a positive impact on your loved one’s recovery.

Understanding drug addiction

Having a substance use disorder is not a choice people make. Rather, according to Antonio Ruberto, the senior director of behavioral health at The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, drug addiction is the result of complex psychological, physiological and social components that can occur over an individual’s lifetime.

Recovering from drug addiction is a process that may include therapy, residential treatment, sober living communities, and seeking help for any mental health issues fueling the dependence, such as anxiety or depression.

Important: The substance use and recovery field have moved away from the term ‘addict,'” says Ruberto. “We would say ‘that person has a substance use issue’ or ‘they have a diagnosis of substance use disorder related to their use.'”

Your words and actions matter when speaking to someone with a substance use disorder. Here’s what not to say to someone with drug addiction and how you can help a loved one.

1. Don’t encourage their use

For a person working to overcome drug addiction, avoid encouraging any type of drug use with phrases such as:

• “Why can’t you just have one drink or hit”
• “It’s all about balance”
• “Let’s grab a drink”

If a person is recovering from a drug such as opiates, substitutes such as alcohol may replace their addiction. This is why it’s important they avoid using other substances, such as alcohol, during their recovery.

You should also avoid drinking or using drugs around them, says Leela R. Magavi, MD, a psychiatrist and regional medical director at Community Psychiatry in Newport Beach, California.

Instead, support them and suggest sober, fun activities for the two of you to do together by saying things, such as:

• “I’m proud of you for doing this”
• “Do you want to see this new movie, try this food, or play this game?”
• “Should we go for a walk?

2. Don’t shame them

Like other diseases, there are many factors that lead to drug addiction, and it can happen to practically anyone. Common phrases to avoid telling a person with drug addiction include:

• “You’re smarter than this”
• “I don’t associate with drug users”
• “You never seemed like someone who would deal with this”
• Do not use shameful, derogatory terms like ‘addict’ ‘cokehead’ or ‘pothead’

Being subjected to shame can make it harder for a person to overcome their addiction. “Stigma connected to drug addiction is a primary reason why it is often so difficult for someone to address their substance use, seek treatment, talk about it, and think critically about their use,” says Ruberto.

Instead, validate the difficult situation your loved one is in with phrases, such as:

• “I’m proud of you for the effort you’re making”
• “Thank you for sharing what you’re going through”
• ” I’m here to support you”
• “There is nothing shameful about what you’re going through”

3. Don’t act like there is an easy solution

While the solution — quitting — sounds easy on paper, it is far from it. Some phrases to avoid include:

• “Why can’t you just stop drinking”
• “Pull it together”
• “It’s not hard, just stop doing it”

“Do not criticize, nag, or scold the person for their addiction,” says Brian Wind, MD, the chief clinical officer of Journey Pure and former co-chair of the American Psychological Association’s Advisory Committee for Employee Assistance. “It is often a coping mechanism, and the person may think you are trying to exert control over them. The frustration can lead them to turn to their addiction even more for relief.”

Verbally acknowledge that this process will be challenging and that getting treatment for a substance use disorder is incredibly brave.

4. Don’t give them ultimatums

At the moment, issuing an ultimatum like “it’s your addiction or me” can feel like a powerful way to get your point across. However, generally, all it does is make the other person feel abandoned.

Ultimatums make it harder for a person to open up to you or share if they’ve relapsed. “Let the person know you love them and that you are there to support them,” says Wind. “However, don’t pressure them into getting help or be passive-aggressive.”

However, your own mental health is also important. Magavi stresses the importance of setting up boundaries like talking to your loved one at certain times of the week or limiting the amount of time per day you spend exploring treatment options for them.

By Rand T.

Our human response to food and sex both involve survival issues. If you don’t eat you will die. You won’t die if you don’t have sex (you might think you will but you won’t) but getting pleasure from sex ensures we will seek it out and then there will be babies which ensures species survival. Drugs like alcohol, opiates, cannabis and stimulants work in the same brain pathway as those natural survival mechanisms.

The primary reward neurotransmitter is dopamine; food and sex stimulate dopamine release – and drugs also stimulate a high level of this release.

This occurs in our mesolimbic dopamine system which is below the level of thought. Our brain is hard-wired to respond to reward and the mesolimbic system doesn’t know what is okay or not okay. It just “likes”.

Once we like something we seek it out and start to have an anticipatory dopamine response to the thought of doing it again. Then we do it again, and again receive the reward. This is the fun part.

The not so fun part is that as we recreate that chemical reward we start to reduce the availability of dopamine and also serotonin (sense of well-being transmitter). Dopamine, in addition to being a reward transmitter, is also a connection transmitter. As the availability of these two are reduced (from overuse/overstimulation) our brain functions are reduced, particularly in the prefrontal cortex. Consequently, we have a harder time problem solving, decision making, and managing stress. Remember this is occurring in the same pathway as a food reward. When we are hungry we eat, when we are feeling stress or frustration we look for something to fix that and our limbic system will remember the reward we felt from the drug (including  alcohol) and seek it out again.

The problem is that it works to change how we feel and we have just created a new brain pathway that becomes our primary response to stress. The neurobiological rule is the neurons that fire together wire together. Unfortunately, every time we do this we are weakening our natural stress response system (it’s like paying someone else to go to the gym for you) and more and more things feel stressful which creates more and more desire to use to escape from the stress.

At this point, the “addiction” (substance use disorder) is primarily emotional, as the use increases, we will start to develop physical dependency as well. With both of these as soon as the level of the drug starts to go down our stress response system activates and we start seeking more drugs.

In recovery, we essentially reverse the process and start to recreate and exercise our natural stress response system.

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Rand T. is in long-term recovery, having been free from alcohol and other drugs since March 26, 1972. That freedom “from” has given him the freedom “to” do a lot of other things.

Recovery has also given him the energy to expand much of his work into helping others affected by substance abuse. He is a Canadian Certified Addiction Counselor and an Internationally Certified Prevention Specialist in drug and alcohol concerns (kids call him the Drug Teacher). He is very grateful that he has been able to do as much work as he has in the field of substance abuse.

Rand recommends three books in particular (their covers can be seen above):

• The Science of Addiction: From Neurobiology to Treatment;
• Never Enough: the neuroscience and experience of addiction;
• Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction.

You can also read another article by Rand, posted on AA Agnostica some two years ago, right here: Life in Recovery from Addiction in Canada.

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The post The Science of Addiction and Recovery first appeared on AA Agnostica.

Addiction Recovery Bulletin

Watching Netflix’s The Social Dilemma was interesting and disturbing. It was interesting to see how it was constructed but disturbing to see that many of the psychological techniques it vilified were used to tell its own story. As a persuasive piece of media, it is very successful: Part documentary, part drama, it hits all the anxiety triggers of the last few years. The content is compelling and frightening—and also one-sided. The issues raised are serious and important, but not new. The call to action is to put down your smartphone and back away, not slowly but post-haste. Not only is that totally unrealistic, but it also leaves people less equipped and more afraid, especially during a pandemic when technology can be a lifeline.

There are a lot of smart people interviewed in The Social Dilemma. Many were part of the crowd that developed the technology and processes they are currently eschewing. Many of the arguments are solid but incomplete. The research is cherry-picked, correlations are presented as causal, and—my personal peccadillo as a psychologist—the word addiction is used liberally without regard for diagnostic criteria. The film does, however, push a lot of emotional buttons and activate a powerful mental model equating social media use with the stigma of “mental illness.” By the time you hear all the experts, you lose sight of where the responsibility should lie and what voices might be missing. You’re firmly in OMG-land.

It’s sort of ironic to be psychologically manipulated by a piece of media warning you about the psychological manipulation of other media. Here are some of the ways The Social Dilemma used your brain to get the job done.

The Power of Story
First, it was a documentary with dramatized narrative segments: It told a story. We were introduced to a family with clearly designated stereotypical roles, such as the poor mother powerless to control her children’s behavior, much less their social media use; the older sister who is clearly the only one who really understands what’s going on; and the younger brother, Ben, the main protagonist, who is used to illustrate a series of social media-related problems of increasing intensity. Their story humanizes the issues in ways the interviews can’t. It creates a journey for us to take and offers characters for us to relate to as it lays out the not-so-subtle signals of pending disaster.

Authority and Social Proof
Each episode of the family’s drama is framed by an interview with an authority figure or two—smart, talented, and successful people who were intimately involved in the creation of these technologies and how they work. Using an authority to validate and persuade is a common strategy in marketing communications. From Stanley Milgram’s shock experiments to the present, research shows that individuals change their ideas and actions to align with a perceived authority or someone whose opinion they value. The large group of experts amplifies this influence because not only are they authorities, but there are a lot of them. If we didn’t believe an expert or two at the start of the documentary, the continuous confirmation of the message by so many august personages provides the social proof to validate the information.

Read the complete article at Psychology Today here