Scientists are getting closer to understanding what factors put people at greater risk for things like addiction and other compulsive behaviors - Cambridge University researchers make a breakthrough in understanding cocaine addiction.

The advantages of a long term rehab. Why sometimes 3 months or more just offers more.

The seduction of pain medication. A slippery slope to addiction.

I was prescribed "non addictive" Ultram after a work injury, and although it never worked all that well for the pain...I loved this drug. It gave me energy, it improved my concentration, and it put me in a fantastic mood that lasted the whole day. Nothing that feels this good comes for free, and when I ultimately tried to stop (I had been taking more than I needed to get the feeling I liked) I was shocked by the severity of my withdrawal symptoms.

Hospitals not jails, and politicians with the courage to tell the truth about the drug problem in America, and what really needs to be done to fix it.

Animal studies indicate that the long term consequences of even occasional meth use in people already predisposed to neuro muscular conditions like Parkinson's may be severe.

While parents have long worried that by giving children medications like ritalin, they may be increasing their risk of addiction - they can at least rest easy knowing that the opposite is in fact true. Appropriately medicated children with ADHD are less likely than unmedicated children to develop later in life addictions.

Millions of dollars has been spent on the D.A.R.E style drug education and prevention programs for schools. Millions that new research says was almost completely wasted - these programs just don't work!

The NIAA says that there are 5 kinds of alcoholic. Which kind are you?

Worried your spouse may be on the road to a drinking problem? Noticed how little influence your words seem to have on his/her drinking behaviors?

Well, the answer may be easier than you think, but it will require that you make some changes as well!

You may have done some terrible things while under the influence of alcoholism or addiction, and you may be ashamed of what you have become; but at the core, you are not a bad person you are a sick person, and the things you may have done do not reflect who you are and what you believe.

Enabling is a pretty tricky thing. Loved ones are convinced away from doing the sorts of things that feel natural - helping - and convinced that tough love is the only kind of love that is going to work. And it's all true, enabling doesn't help us get better, but when we are finally ready to get some treatment, helping us get that treatment is not enabling it is just helping. It feels right because it is right.

Recovery statistics are always of questionable merit, and when so many are in a position to profit from impressive statistics of result and recovery, you have to wonder just how these stats are collected and to what extent they accurately reflect reality. Intervention stats are different though, and addictions professionals universally recognize that an intervention is the absolute best way to convince a reluctant and still using addict of the need for treatment. Interventions will work the vast majority of the time, conservatively with an 80% or better success rate.

If addiction is a disease, creates physical changes in the brain, and is recognized by all major medical groups - how come insurance companies can choose not to provide benefits?

Don’t want your teen to drink, smoke or do drugs? Well, there's no easy one answer, but one easy step in the right direction is as simple as sitting down at the dinner table together, as a family, 5 or more times a week.

Treatment works, incarceration alone clearly doesn't, and although the knee jerk reaction in this country is still too often a crime and punishment based approach to drug offenses, an innovative program in Delaware is gaining impressive results using a more therapeutic approach.

What's the old saying, "No man is an island..."

Some people can get better on their own, most need a little help.

You never need to let a loved one hit rock bottom before intervening - in fact, if you do wait that long, the odds of successful treatment are lower

We know we are going to die, eventually, and from this somewhat questionable gift of sentiency, we search for Big Picture answers. We are all spiritual beings, and whether through organized religion, any other frameworked belief system or through individual puzzling, humans fundamentally seek answers to life's more elusive mysteries.

Overconfidence has been the end of too many happy recoveries. Don't let it kill yours - remember what those drinking and drugging days were really like.

Can problem drinkers be taught to drink responsibly? Do alcoholics really have to quit for life?

Dr. Levy of Harvard University thinks they can, some of them anyway, and he has developed a system to help them drink, in controlled moderation.

There is truth to the AA mantra "One day at a time" but sometimes one day, one whole day without drinking or using, feels far too long.

One minute at a time? Sounds silly, but it can work.

Addiction hijacks the mind, and then confirmation bias boots free will right out the door.

It can drive a family crazy trying to understand "why they won't stop...why they can't see what they're doing to themselves..." when surely things like losing a job or a wife are pretty clear indicators of a problem.

Understand confirmation bias and get a sneaky look inside an alcoholic mind - and understand why they never seem to see the problem.

We are told, berated even, to stop our enabling behaviors when living and dealing with a still using alcoholic or drug addict. It's hard to do, but it all makes sense, and we for the most part can accept the need for it. Some of us even do it - some of us do too much.