Modern Rites of Passage in the Wilderness: Guiding Young People to a Sober Adulthood

By Meghan Vivo

Much of what you read about wilderness therapy speaks of the life skills young people learn in the wilderness, such as communication, teamwork, and understanding natural consequences, which teach them to build positive relationships and pull themselves out of the pitfalls of adolescence. And all of that is certainly true. But equally, if not more important, is the broader opportunity in wilderness therapy for young people to mark their transition into adulthood.

Teen Substance Abuse: What Parents Don’t Know Could Hurt Their Kids

By Meghan Vivo

The teenage years are all about developing a personal identity. As part of this period of self-exploration, many teens will break rules, defy authority, and possibly experiment with drugs and alcohol. To help parents determine whether their child may have a problem with drugs or alcohol, Laurie Wilmot, LCSW, provides responses to some of parents’ most common questions.

Beating Addiction: Help for Teen Girls

An Interview with Laurie Wilmot, LCSW—By Meghan Vivo

At an age when most kids are breaking away from their parents, exploring their career interests, and establishing lifelong bonds with friends and partners, teens who are addicted to drugs or alcohol face an entirely different challenge just to get back to normal adolescent life.

Couples in Recovery

By Amy Zachary, MSW

When addiction strikes, what happens to a couple? In couples where one partner is using and the other is not, spouses usually develop over-functioning and under-functioning roles. That is, the user under-functions and the non-user over-functions to compensate for their mate.

Drug Addiction - The Hard Truths

Those who struggle with drug addiction don't set out to destroy themselves and everyone and everything in their path--rather, these disastrous consequences are the effect of the vicious cycle of addiction. For many, drugs seem to be a means of averting emotional and/or physical pain by providing the user with a temporary and illusionary escape from or way to cope with life's realities. In fact, more problems--often life-shattering ones--are created by using drugs.

Closing the Gender Gap in Addiction Treatment

By Hugh C. McBride

Among the many strides women have made in the past generation, at least one “advancement” is unlikely to be cause for celebration: According to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, one in four abusers of drugs or alcohol in the United States is female, making women the fastest-growing segment of the nation’s substance-abusing population.

Women Often Experience Drug Abuse and Addiction Quite Differently Than Men

The developmental stages of drug involvement and addiction are not necessarily identical for men and women. The path to drug abuse can be more rapid and complex for women and typically includes a pattern of breakdowns in individual, familial, and environmental protective factors and an increase in childhood fears, anxieties, phobias, and failed relationships.

Turning to the Use (and Abuse) of Drugs, Alcohol and/or Tobacco in Times of Stress...

Stressful events can have a direct affect on the use of alcohol or other drugs. Stress is a major contributor to the initiation and continuation of addiction to alcohol or other drugs, as well as to relapse or a return to drug use after periods of abstinence.

Methamphetamine: Highly Addictive and Highly Dangerous

Methamphetamine--known by such slang names as speed, meth, chalk, ice, crystal, crank, glass, and uppers--is a highly addictive and ultimately dangerous stimulant. Whatever the excuse to use meth, or whatever the perceived short-term attraction to the drug may be, meth use is predictably physically, emotionally and mentally destructive.

Understanding How Wilderness Therapy Programs Change Teens

By Meghan Vivo

“I often see the greatest progress in students after someone has drawn a boundary with them or they have gone through some sort of struggle,” explains Lynn Anne Madory, a therapist at Aspen Achievement Academy, one of the oldest and most reputable wilderness programs in the nation. “Parents get nervous when their child has a tough week, but that’s when the growth happens."

Baby Boomers: The Changing Face of Older Adult Addiction

By Emily Battaglia

Coming-of-age baby boomers heralded a new era of illicit drug use in the United States – and aging members of this generation have maintained a higher rate of involvement with illicit drugs than the generation immediately preceding it.

Interventions for Chemical Dependency

By Lana M. Ackaway

The chief issue with chemical dependency/addiction is that most often an addict believes he/she can use safely. I've never encountered a chemically dependent individual who thinks, feels, says or behaves otherwise.

Helping Kids Navigate Their Teenage Years: When Parents Need Help First

Parents can do much to help their teenage sons or daughters through a variety of difficult situations. Depression, violence, substance abuse, and bullying are all serious issues that parents and teens can work together to help resolve. Sometimes, however, parents need to confront their own problems before they can help their teenager.

What is Marijuana?

There are over 200 slang terms for marijuana including "pot," "herb," and "weed." Learn more about marijuana, including its affects on the brain, lungs, and its addictive potential...

The Hard Facts About Cocaine

Cocaine is a powerfully addictive stimulant that directly affects the brain. The pure chemical, cocaine hydrochloride, has been an abused substance for more than 100 years, and coca leaves, the source of cocaine, have been ingested for thousands of years. Learn more about what cocaine is and how it can affect you...

OxyContin...Potential Fast Track To Addiction

Diversion and abuse of the prescription pain reliever OxyContin has become a major problem. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reports that, in the United States, oxycodone products, including OxyContin, are frequently abused pharmaceuticals.

Ecstasy: Too Often a Fatal Trip

A recent survey of teens conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found that one in four questioned said they had a friend or class mate whom they knew had used Ecstasy, and 17% said they knew more than one user. Often referred to as this decade’s version of LSD, Ecstasy is, according to some of its users “the hottest drug going now.” It’s also one of the deadliest.

Caffeine is No Substitute for a Nap

Ninety percent of Americans use caffeine daily, some substituting it for sleep. While the stimulant enhances alertness and concentration, it's been unclear whether it also helps learning and memory. By contrast, daytime naps, like nighttime sleep, benefit both alertness and memory.

Hooked on Pills: What Parents Need to Know About Prescription and OTC Drug Abuse

An Interview with Arianne Power, CD Counselor, By Meghan Vivo

Arianne Powell, a chemical dependency counselor at SageWalk the Wilderness School, has some strong advice for parents of adolescents: “More teens than ever before are abusing prescription and over-the-counter drugs. It’s time to take precautions in your own home. You could be providing your children with something that could kill them.”

Females Typically Have Different Motivations For Drug Use

The path to drug abuse can be more rapid and complex for women than it is for men and typically includes a pattern of breakdowns in individual, familial, and environmental protective factors and an increase in childhood fears, anxieties, phobias, and failed relationships.

Physical or Sexual Abuse Linked With Later Substance Abuse

Findings from a new study suggest that repeated physical or sexual abuse makes lasting changes in the brain, changes that can explain why abused children often use illegal drugs later in life.

How Much Drinking Is Too Much?

A new survey estimates that as many as three-fourths of American adults think they know enough about how drinking affects their blood alcohol levels, while in fact, most don't even know the legal limits in their own state. The Century Council, a group backed by major distillers, is campaigning to better educate the public about those limits and how much you have to drink to exceed them.

PTSD Can Lead to a More Severe Course and Worse Outcomes When Coupled With Substance Abuse

The first multi-center study of PTSD among individuals seeking treatment for an SUD has found a greater prevalence of PTSD among those who were drug- rather than alcohol-dependent, and that having PTSD was associated with a more severe course and worse outcome for an SUD.

Drugs and Memory

Researchers say that drugs may create "extreme" memories by overstimulating the brain's dopamine system. When drugs cause an overabundance of dopamine it may cause the brain to "overlearn," creating a memory of drugs as "good."

What's Alcoholism's Affect on Mental Health?

People with mental health problems face an increased risk for alcohol problems and vice versa. Studies show that the overall prevalence of alcohol dependence is almost twice as high among people with mental disorders than in the general population. It is not clear whether mental health problems are a cause or a result of problems with alcohol dependence.

Club Drugs Aren't "Fun Drugs"

By Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D.

"Raves" or all-night dance parties continue to attract teens and young adults who may think Ecstasy, GHB, Rohypnol, and other club drugs are harmless. While researchers continue to study club drugs with a sense of urgency, treatment and prevention strategies are being developed. The bottom line is simple: even experimenting with club drugs is an unpredictable and dangerous thing to do.

Millions of Americans in Denial About Their Own Substance Abuse

Results of a recent nationwide survey reveal that, while millions of Americans habitually smoke pot, drink alcohol, use cocaine and swallow prescription drugs, too many who meet the criteria for needing treatment do not recognize that they have a problem. The figure of those "in denial" is estimated at more than 4.6 million--a significantly higher number of individuals who could benefit from professional help than had previously been thought.

Harsh Truths About Cocaine

The word "cocaine" refers to the drug in both a powder (cocaine) and crystal (crack) form. It is made from the coca plant and causes a short-lived high that is immediately followed by opposite, intense feelings of depression, edginess, and a craving for more of the drug. Using cocaine has dangerous emotional and physical effects that can prove to destructive to all aspects of a person's life--and can even be fatal.

Many Doctors Overlook—Or Ignore—Their Patients' Drug Abuse

A nationwide survey of family physicians, internists, obstetricians, gynecologists, and psychiatrists finds that, although primary care physicians are in a key position to help diagnose their patients’ drug addiction and get abusers proper treatment, too many either don’t address the issue with their patients, or they don’t offer intervention to those patients who tell them about their drug use.

The Future of Teen Addiction Treatment--Trends and Predictions from Jeff Nalin, Psy.D.

By Meghan Vivo

In this article, Jeff Nalin, Psy.D., co-founder and executive director of Echo Malibu, an innovative residential treatment program for adolescents in Malibu, California, weighs in on the trends in teen-focused substance abuse treatment programs and makes predictions about what changes we can anticipate in the years ahead.

Methamphetamine Remains Number One Drug Problem

According to a new survey released July 18, 2006 by the National Association of Counties (NACo), county law enforcement officials across 44 states reported that methamphetamine remains the number one drug problem in their county.

Study Shows Most Treatment Effective Against Alcoholism

A complex study of alcoholism treatment medications and counseling has found that most stand-alone and combined therapies were effective in promoting short-term abstinence, with only the drug acamprosate (Campral) proving to be disappointing.

Binge Drinking: Too Often a Deadly "Game"

In recent national surveys about a third of high school seniors and 42 percent of college students reported at least one occasion of binge drinking within the previous 2 weeks. Alcohol poisoning – a severe and potentially fatal physical reaction to an alcohol overdose – is the most serious consequence of binge drinking.

Drug Rehab Programs

Selecting a drug rehab for yourself or someone you care about may be one of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime. Most of us don't know what to look for in a quality program. Not all drug rehab centers are the same--they differ greatly in program options, staff qualifications, credentials, cost, and effectiveness.

Link Between Teen Smoking and Anxiety Disorders

Can smoking directly affect emotional health? A recent study offers evidence of an association between cigarette smoking during the teen years and developing anxiety disorders during adolescence and early adulthood.