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Stimulant Addiction

Alliance for Addiction Solutions

Sep 13, 2017
7 min

Stimulant Addiction

Cocaine is extracted from coca leaves, and was used initially as a painkiller. In fact, in the late 1880s it was dentistry’s first injectable anesthetic and is still considered useful for nasal surgery. However, dentists and patients alike quickly discovered the drug’s ease of addiction. This inspired the development of alternative anesthetics without addictive properties, such as procaine, novocaine, and lidocaine. In addition to addiction, cocaine use can lead to sudden dea

1,394 views

Law By Day, Crack by Night

Alliance for Addiction Solutions

Sep 13, 2017
3 min

Law By Day, Crack by Night

Initially my drug of choice was alcohol, and I drank alcoholically from the start at age 18. After 12 years of constant trouble, numerous attempts to quit or control my drinking, and all the social and legal problems that go with active alcoholism, I finally did quit drinking on my own, without a recovery program. I stayed “dry” for nine years. Then I was in an accident and my doctors put me on painkillers, which I liked quite a bit. They seemed a gift from God, as they ap

83 views

PRO-RECOVERY DIET FOR COMPULSIVE OVEREATING

Christina Veselak, LMFT, CN

Sep 13, 2017
2 min

PRO-RECOVERY DIET FOR COMPULSIVE OVEREATING

A 64-year-old woman came to see me with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and out-of-control diabetes and kidney disease. She complained of feeling depressed, anxious, and was unable to sleep. She told me she was a compulsive over-eater. Her drug of choice was potato chips, and a close second was vanilla ice cream. She had been eating lots of both for 30 years. She had gone to Overeaters Anonymous, and had been seen by multiple doctors who put her on a variety of diets but no

158 views

Sugar, Starch, and Other Addictive Foods

Alliance for Addiction Solutions

Sep 13, 2017
2 min

Sugar, Starch, and Other Addictive Foods

Americans suffering from food-addiction compose over 50 percent of the adult population. That percentage is even higher among recovering addicts who so often began treatment and drop their drugs or alcohol, but pick up or increase their use of sugar, starch, and other drug-like junk foods, typically gaining 30 pounds in 30 days. This was the expected norm in the large, well-regarded San Francisco residential treatment program, The Henry Ohlhoff House, that Alliance co-founder

72 views

Opiates/Painkillers

Alliance for Addiction Solutions

Sep 13, 2017
8 min

Opiates/Painkillers

An epidemic of death by overdose of synthetic prescription painkillers and street heroin has stricken America over the past few years. Why? Not everyone who takes a painkilling drug becomes an addict. However, for most of those who are becoming addicted, withdrawal from these drugs, though relatively brief, is intolerable both physically and emotionally. The attempt to solve this problem by legalizing opiate drugs like methadone and suboxone has created an entirely new popula

131 views

CARA Model of Brain Repair

Alliance for Addiction Solutions

Sep 13, 2017
17 min

CARA Model of Brain Repair

CARA Model of Brain Repair at the Sacramento Drug Court by Carolyn Reuben, L.Ac. January, 2007 Townsend Letter (a medical journal for doctors using nutrition clinically) Mel Gibson, Nick Nolte, William C. Moyers, Keith Urban, Kate Moss, Willie Nelson, Eric Musselman (the Kings head coach, for you non-basketball fans) and numerous other famous people have been outed as alcohol or illegal drug users during the past year, some for repeat offenses. As millions of Americans who we

273 views

Libby Stuyt, MD Testimonial

Elizabeth “Libby” Stuyt, MD

Sep 13, 2017
6 min

Libby Stuyt, MD Testimonial

Medical Director, Circle Program at Colorado Mental Health Institute, Pueblo, CO 90-day inpatient treatment program funded by state of Colorado for persons with severe co-occurring mental illness and substance abuse who have failed other levels of treatment. Stuyt is a board- certified Addiction Psychiatrist and Senior Instructor for University of Colorado HSC Department of Psychiatry. She has published several abstracts and articles on tobacco cessation in mental health and

96 views

CoDependents: Treating Their Underlying
Neurotransmitter Deficiencies

Christina Veselak, LMFT, CN

Sep 13, 2017
5 min

CoDependents: Treating Their Underlying Neurotransmitter Deficiencies

Family members of addicts are often referred to as co-dependents, or co-addicts. They have gotten a bad rap in the addiction treatment field. Clinicians often experience them as rigid, angry, blaming, unwilling to change, and very resistant to self-care. This can be very frustrating to clinicians, who see clearly how the co-dependent client’s changing would help the whole family system, but find themselves unable to help effect such change. They often then begin to blame the

91 views

Tobacco Free, Drug Free

By Dr. Elizabeth (Libby) Stuyt

Sep 13, 2017
6 min

Tobacco Free, Drug Free

Elizabeth (Libby) Stuyt, MD is President of NADA (National Acupuncture Detoxification Association) and Medical Director, Circle Program, Colorado Mental Health Institute, Pueblo, CO. She is one of the few addiction experts in the country who has seen the benefits of tobacco cessation to improve outcome and maintain recovery during and after treatment for other addictive substances and has published her findings: Dr. Stuyt found that of 140 patients who completed the follow-up

26 views

Nicotine

Alliance for Addiction Solutions

Sep 13, 2017
4 min

Nicotine

Tobacco plant leaves are dried, cured, fermented, and jazzed up with flavors and sugars then smoked, chewed, or sniffed. The pleasure that derives from them has been coveted for millennia. Tobacco contains nicotine, a drug that satisfies many different cravings. Need stimulation? Check! Need relaxation? Check! Need comfort? Check! All of this is due to nicotine’s effects on our pleasure-producing neurotransmitters: Dopamine, GABA, endorphin, and serotonin. In his book “the br

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