
Dopamine Burnout
If dopamine is our brain’s feel-good chemical, what happens when this neurotransmitter production is exhausted? Dopamine deficiency is real and extremely problematic for people currently experiencing downturns in dopamine production. After…

How to Talk to Teenagers about Drugs
Adolescence is a crucial time. While the brain and body continue to develop, important social influences begin to emerge, including experimentation and peer pressure. As teens continue to explore who they are and where they fit in, they may…

How to Deal with Peer Pressure
It’s natural for people to identify with or compare themselves to their peers. Peer pressure is a force that nearly everyone has faced at some point. Through growth and a renewed sense of independence, young adults tend to question how they…

What Does Fentanyl Look Like?
The problematic use of pain medications has increased drastically over the last decade. Pain medication can be highly addictive, as it blocks both physical and emotional pain receptors, thus the experience of pain is minimized. Pain medications…

Types of Peer Pressure
A classic parental or teacher reply when you wanted to do something they deemed foolish: “If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you?” This well-known rhetorical question is meant to test the power of social influence or peer pressure. While…

Alcohol and Benzos
As a standalone substance, benzodiazepines pose many adverse health effects. Taking a benzodiazepine boosts dopamine levels in the brain, which induces a pleasant state of relaxation. Although this highly addictive prescription medication is…

Why Do People Do Drugs?
Science has made incredible breakthroughs in studying the impacts of alcohol and drugs and, ultimately, ways in which effective treatment—including medications—can potentially assist tens of thousands in overcoming substance abuse. However,…

PTSD and Alcohol Abuse
As the nation faces a healthcare pandemic and struggles to gain footing on a mounting addiction epidemic, heightened stress and anxiety levels have become the new norm. Still, there are plenty of misconceptions and myths surrounding dual diagnosis…

Alcohol and Adderall
Adderall is a prescription medication doctors use to treat patients with a common condition known as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The drug can help with mild or extreme symptoms of ADHD by increasing attention and focus and…

Veterans and Substance Abuse
Nationally recognized columnist, Karie Fugett, published a gripping narrative about her late husband, Cleve Fugett, a Marine war hero who, in 2010, tragically lost his life to a prescription opioid overdose. During his second deployment in Iraq,…