It's common these days to hear people assert that addiction is an illness, but what exactly does that mean? The implications are primarily social and psychological. People will view an addict differently if the...
Tag: drug addiction
How Do Meth and Other Drugs Affect Your Teeth?
Bad teeth are a pervasive stereotype for many people who struggle with or have struggled with substance use disorder. Unfortunately, the truth is that drugs do have an extraordinarily negative impact on teeth. ...
Black Success Stories: Honoring Recovering Addicts in Music
There are stories of struggle, success, and overcoming obstacles in every community. For Black History Month, Recovery Unplugged has decided to highlight black success stories and honor recovering addicts in mu...
Demi Lovato has never been shy about her struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.
In July of 2018, Demi was rushed to the emergency room after an apparent Heroin overdose. The incident happened only a month after releasing her single, “Sober,” where she admitted to breaking over six year...
Rebuilding and Repairing Relationships After Addiction
In order to start rebuilding and repairing relationships after addiction, you have to rebuild yourself into a new person. It’s significant to take into consideration what your actions have done to others befo...
How Drug Addiction Affects Relationships
After living through an experience and looking back at it, we always see where we made mistakes. When you’re in recovery, it’s easy to look back and see how addiction and substance abuse dictated your life....
A Look At Addiction and Codependency
When Prince penned his iconic love song “I Would Die for You,” it’s safe to assume that he was exaggerating. For many people, however, these sentiments and possibilities are far too real, as are their str...
My Loved One Overdosed, Now What?
Experiencing your loved one suffer an overdose can be terrifying and unexpected. What’s the proper way to respond to the situation? How much do you share with the paramedics and first responders when you ...
Lil Peep Lawsuit Can Have Serious Impact on Drug Use in the Music Industry
It’s been over two years since rapper Lil Peep died from drug overdose. His mother is now suing his management in a case that can have a lasting impact on drug use in the music industry. The 21-year-old Lil P...
Must-See TV Shows and Movies About Addiction
It can be difficult to find shows or movies about addiction that offer honest and authentic messaging. Whether it’s the depiction of how substance use disorders begin, the wreckage that it leaves trailed behi...
Art Alexakis Releases Debut Solo Record
Everclear founder and front man, and friend of Recovery Unplugged, Art Alexakis has announced the release of his debut solo album, Sun Songs, which is expected to drop mid-October. The album gives Alexakis the ...
Managing the Outcome of Florida’s Pill Mills
Anyone familiar with the current opioid crisis in the United States has heard of the impact that Florida’s “pill mills” have had in compounding the problem, but the reality is that not many understand the...
Why Are Your Employees Struggling with Addiction?
Determining the cause of addiction among your employees is as simultaneously simple and difficult as asking someone why they’re having trouble paying their bills or why they’re estranged from their families...
What Does Independence from Drug and Alcohol Addiction Really Mean?
In case we couldn’t tell from the smell of lighter fluid wafting through the air and the thunderous boom of fireworks sending dogs all over the country under couches, today the United States celebrates the 24...
5 Ways Recovery Unplugged Integrates Music into Addiction Recovery
One of the first things clients and their loved ones ask when they research our organization, is how we specifically use music to help the healing and recovery processes. To provide some more insight, we have p...
HBO Series Euphoria Follows Woman Suffering from Drug Addiction in a World that’s Leaving her behind
Euphoria, HBO’s newest drama, revolves around Rue Bennett, a 17-year-old woman struggling with drug addiction, depression, and anxiety who turns to drugs to cope with the feeling that she is just existing in ...
Beyond Pride Month: Preventing LGBTQ+Addiction Every Day
Another June is quickly passing and reality is that, for many, the support and advocacy shown to the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month is passing right along with it. As well-intentioned as people may be in t...
Examining and Addressing Addiction among Millennials
Addiction among millennials has been on the rise for some time. This age group is more likely to die from drugs, alcohol, or suicide than any other age group, and reform in our healthcare is needed to cater to ...
Examining Addiction in the LGBTQ+ Community
As we continue to celebrate Pride Month, Recovery Unplugged wants to take a moment to examine some of the origins, sustaining factors and ramifications related to addiction in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as s...
Her Smell Movie Combines Blistering, Beautiful Music and the Heartbreaking Reality of Addiction
Recovery Unplugged went to the movies to take in the gritty, unflinching and painfully realistic “Her Smell” starring The Handmaid’s Tale’s Elizabeth Moss; a film that chronicles the decline, addiction ...
Examining Specific Workplace Issues Faced by Addiction Care Nurses
Nurses in every area of medical care face unique and extraordinary professional and personal challenges, many of which are due entirely to the nature of their field of specialization. These challenges can be es...
Upcoming Elton John Biopic Discusses Acclaimed Songwriter’s Drug and Alcohol Addiction
There was a well-documented time in the career of Elton John, during which his Rocketman moniker had a double meaning, representing both the smash hit that he wrote of that name, and is frequently intoxicated s...
Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr Team Up to Address American Drug Addiction
We can all imagine a scenario in which we’re listening to a collaboration between Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh and saying, however hyperbolically, that the track “saved our lives”—the raw materials are cer...
UBH Lawsuit Verdict Strikes Important Blow to Stigma against Addiction
A federal court ruling in Northern California against the nation’s leading health insurance provider shines a light on the power of stigma against addiction, and how it can often prevent patients from getting...
The Role of Environment in Addiction Recovery
People, places and things; that’s the common motto among individuals in recovery when discussing relapse triggers. While this may seem like a broad and generalized phrase, it specifically refers to the role o...
What Peter Tork’s Alcohol and Drug Addiction Struggle Says about Reinvention in Recovery
Last week the music and performance art world said goodbye to Peter Tork, bass player for The Monkees. Tork passed away on February 21st at the age of 77 from cancer. His musical legacy is often a polarizing on...
Valentine’s Day, Addiction and Relationships: The Impact on Romantic Partners
We get how hard navigating healthy relationships can be already without the additional issue of addiction. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it can be easy to dwell on past mistakes or get caught up in ...
Addiction in Families: A Roller-Coaster Ride
A FEW WORDS ABOUT ADDICTION IN FAMILIES FROM RECOVERY UNPLUGGED NATIONAL OUTREACH MANAGER BLAKE COHEN. “Whatever those therapy groups you go to are doing, it’s working.” My mother said that line to me o...
Is Your Career Making You Use?: Jobs with the Highest Rates of Alcohol and Drug Addiction
Everyone’s job is stressful, right? Even the people who beat the alarm clock every morning and race with enthusiasm to the most rewarding of jobs occasionally find themselves checking their blood pressure wit...
What Are The Most Addictive Drugs?
This time of year, everyone loves a countdown, from the best songs of the year to the most commonly used (and most ridiculous) phrases, and everything in between. Recovery Unplugged is starting your new year of...
Staying Centered and Sober during the Holidays
Recovery Unplugged wants to wish everyone a happy, healthy and hopeful holiday season while recognizing the plight of those in recovery during this often-bittersweet time of year. We are fully mindful that the ...
In Case You Missed It: Three Stories from the Week that Address Addiction in the United States
It’s been quite a week: the government remains millimeters away from shutting down, President Trump has announced plans to pull out of Syria. The never-ending news blitz combined with the madness of the last-...
Is Opioid Addiction in the United States Beginning to Decline?
A promising report from health insurance leader Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) saw a five percent drop in opioid addiction among their customers from 2013-2017. While the findings represent some encouraging news...
Nearly Every American Dealing with Drug Addiction in some form, Pew Report Says
It’s official: drug addiction now impacts practically every American in some way. We often say that drug abuse is everyone’s problem; a recent survey from the Pew Research Center has taken this assertion fr...
Choosing the Right Drug Addiction Treatment Center
The news has been rife lately with stories of opportunistic and lesser-quality treatment facilities putting their own financial interests ahead of patient care and, in some cases, actively threatening patients...
Is The Perception of Addiction Changing?
Most people would like to consider themselves as enlightened, progressive and deeply in tune with the inner workings of just about everything; but when push comes to shove, we all have our inherent biases, incl...
Children: The Often-Forgotten Casualties of Drug Addiction in Texas
Each and every one of us who has dealt with addiction in our lives understands that it doesn’t just affect the user. This disease has the power to ruin the lives of users’ families and loved ones, as well a...
The Faceless Nature of Drug Addiction
Decades of media influence, political posturing and cultural sharpening have firmly entrenched images of the stereotypical drug addict into the American consciousness. We think of the homeless person, visibly w...
What AG Sessions’ Ruling Means for Marijuana Use in the United States
In a week-long news cycle that has been dominated by other stories about the Trump Administration, it’s perfectly reasonable that one may have missed an item about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ plans to r...
The Never-Ending War: Examining the Plight of Addicted Veterans
Objectively speaking, it’s hard to think of circumstances more treacherous than the battlefield during an active armed conflict; the deafening blasts of bombs and gunfire, the chaos, the violence, etc. It’s...
Three Ways to Help an Addicted Friend
Very often we look at a friend who is vulnerable to drug or alcohol dependency and convince ourselves that it’s not our business to intervene or not our place to say anything about it. In theory, this sense o...
Choosing the Right Drug Treatment Facility
The Huffington Post recently ran an article about the how to identify an ethical drug treatment facility, which turned out to be a rather accurate and illuminating piece. The explosion of substance abuse and ad...
Popular Energy Drinks Linked to Drug and Alcohol Addiction in New Study
The next time you think about chugging a Red Bull to get through the second half of the work day or taking down a Monster before going to the gym, consider these new findings from the University of Maryland. Re...
Choosing the Right Florida Addiction Treatment Center
It’s little wonder or surprise that addicts seek a Florida addiction treatment center. The state has long been hailed as a recovery destination. It’s forgiving climate and tropical atmosphere make it an ide...
Finding An Effective Addiction Outreach Program
The American addiction and overdose crisis has taught us many things, two of the most important of which are that community involvement is vital to curbing substance abuse and that addicts need all the help the...
New Study Reveals Shocking Data on References to Drugs in Music
Rock and roll and hip-hop have been closely linked to counterculture over the past few decades. They have developed an association with sex, substance abuse and violence, as have genres like heavy metal, jazz a...
Misinformation Plays Significant Role in Texas Drug Epidemic
It’s, frankly, little surprise that many healthcare organizations and state agencies would have a hard time keeping up with the glut of addiction-related fatalities consuming the United States. The reality is...
Venezuela VP Named as Drug Trafficker by Treasury
Venezuela and the United States have, for a long time, had a difficult and contentious relationship. Going back decades, even before the inflammatory back-and-forth between the Bush and Chavez Administrations, ...
A Closer Look at What Addiction Does to Families
When discussing addiction and its impact, brief and superficial lip-service is often paid to damage it creates within the family unit. We hear common tropes like how substance abuse takes its tolls on families ...
Second Chances: A Conversation with Songwriter Dan Carr
We are all vulnerable to substance abuse and addiction: no matter where we come from, no matter how much money we make, no matter what our lives looked like prior to the development of our drug or alcohol use. ...
A Word (or 400) about Addiction in Media and Pop Culture
The media we consume has always been a product of the culture and collective opinion of our time. However exaggerated and stylized, the messaging that we see in movies, on TV and in other media usually, in some...
Naloxone Saves Lives: A Message from Recovery Unplugged Medical Director Dr. David Kramer
I’ve treated thousands of patients in South Florida over my 20-year career as a doctor on the front lines of substance abuse and psychiatric illness. Recently, however, I had a heartrending experience that I ...
2016 Red Ribbon Week Spreads Awareness of Drug Addiction
October 31st marked the conclusion of this year’s Red Ribbon Week, a nine-day event meant to spread awareness and education regarding the dangers of drug abuse and addiction. Red Ribbon Week was established b...
Population of Addicted Homeless Rises Dramatically in Austin
If you live in the Austin area, and have noticed a dramatic increase in the region’s homeless population, you’re not imagining things. A recent survey conducted by Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (E...
A SAFE and Happy Halloween: Alcohol and Halloween’s Burgeoning Relationship
This year Americans will have spent approximately $8.5 billion on Halloween. Translation: it’s not just a kids’ holiday anymore. While many of us still celebrate the occasion by taking our children or niec...
Are We All Wired for Addiction?
Last month, researchers at Texas A&M published a white paper making a decidedly bold claim: We are all wired for addiction on some level. The paper, entitled “What is Abnormal about Addiction-Related Atte...
What Election Day Means for Recreational Marijuana Use
There is a political sea change coming any way you slice it. In what can be charitably described as one of the most unorthodox presidential campaigns in American history, a variety of policy issues stand to und...
Nearly $1 Billion in Medicare Fraud Sheds Light on Addiction among Senior Citizens
Things seem to just keep getting worse for the medical community, and arguably the patients for whom it cares. Last week a study revealed that a free meal paid for by pharmaceutical companies can sway many doct...
The Faceless Nature of American Addiction
Addiction affects Americans of every age, ethnicity and economic background. It’s important that we recognize this for treatment and prevention purposes. One of the most common questions regarding drug a...
Examining and Unpacking The Marijuana Myth(s)
Over the past 70 years, Marijuana, in all of its forms, has been the casualty of extremes. Decades ago, the nation was absorbed by the “Reefer Madness” culture, and every adolescent in the country was taugh...
Examining the Impact of Addiction on Parents
We are now square in the middle of the month-long swing between Mother’s and Father’s Day, and while for many, these holidays are spent eating brunch, buying gifts and honoring our parents, mothers and fath...
Recognizing Addiction in A Child
Every year hundreds of thousands of children fall victim to drug and alcohol addiction, often paying the ultimate price as a result. For each one of these bright, vibrant and promising lives that are threatened...
The Evolving Depiction of Addiction in the Media and Popular Culture
Over the past few years, the themes of addiction and chemical dependency have been more and more prevalent in the television shows and movies we consume. This past winter, Netflix released two new series (Love ...
7 Rappers That Struggle with Addiction
No one is safe from addiction. More than 23 million Americans aged 12 or older — or 9.2 percent of the population — have abused drugs in the past month, according to the most recent 2012 data from the Nati...
Taking Time On Veterans Day
Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans, that is, persons who served in the United States Armed Forces. It coincides with other ...
Addiction Stigma and Understanding
“Why the bigotry, why the stigma, why the shame when we almost all have a version of this disease? We’re all using something to deal with the pain and suffering of being human…Why are we a nation that wai...
The Drug Czar and Forward Thinking
“Locking people up for minor drug offenses, and especially people with substance-use disorders, is not the answer,” Mr. Botticelli said. “It’s cruel. It’s costly. And it doesn’t make the public any ...
The Dangers of Addiction and Pregnancy
When someone who is struggling with drug and alcohol addiction becomes pregnant, the dangers become not only prevalent to the mother, but her unborn child, too. While many people may know it is dangerous, it is...
Codependency
When referring to addiction and recovery, we often spend our time talking about the person that is using, but not much about those around them. I want to start by saying that I have been in this situation befor...
Rehabilitation at Home
When you suspect a loved one in your home is struggling from addiction to drugs and alcohol, many people have a natural instinct to solve it. They feel they are capable of helping that person overcome. In some ...
Molly: Not the girl next door
Molly. It sounds extremely harmless and reminiscent of a childhood friend or the girl next door. Unfortunately this couldn’t be further from the truth as “Molly” is sweeping through college campuses aroun...
Talking to Kids About Drugs and Alcohol
It is hard to avoid the prevalence of drug and alcohol addiction in our society. If you are not talking to kids about drugs and alcohol, who will? While this topic is not the easiest to approach with your kids,...
How to Help
Do you have a friend or loved one you suspect is struggling with drug addiction? Have you seen physical and behavioral changes that make you think something is different? When faced with this situation, it can ...
Goal Setting
Everyone, at some point in their life, has hopes and aspirations. Growing up, everyone wants to be a professional athlete, astronaut or maybe a fireman. Dreams and goals don’t have an expiration date. In orde...
The Role of Stress
I do not want to suggest that it is OK to make excuses for addictions, but it is important to understand situations and triggers that can aggravate addiction or rehabilitation. In this case, let’s examine the...
Planning an Intervention
Confronting a family member or loved one about alcohol or drug addiction is hard, no matter how you approach the topic. It is important to remember that while you are approaching them in love, they still may fe...
Continuing Treatment
When a person ends drug rehabilitation, the process of recovery isn’t over. The time after a person leaves a rehab facility is just as important as their time in the program. There are ways to continue healin...
Reading the Signs of Drug Addiction
When you suspect a child, parent or loved one is struggling with addiction, it is hard to know what to do. There is always a risk of damaging a relationship and many do not know how to be sure addiction is pres...