1st Person – A Writer’s Story

“...I was deteriorating faster than I could lower my standards.”

The national media has recently taken note of new research on the apparent link between two interrelated phenomena, both increasingly found among youth. They are:

A young person’s level of activity on social media, and
Worsening symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

I wasn’t at all surprised to read that. The fragmented, distraction-filled environment of social media  is a natural in terms of aggravating existing attention or hyperactivity problems in youthful users.

Here’s the surprise: Rather than being related to the amount of time spent on social media — as has been widely assumed — the link is instead to certain characteristics in the youth’s behavior.

One of many articles on the research and its findings:

Boys' Social Media Use Tied to Rising ADHD Symptoms

Study suggests 'addictive' use precedes worsening attention symptoms in boys down the road

The signs of this so-called addictive use will be the familiar ones:

...

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Those Troubling OD Statistics

In recent months, samples have been  found with as much as 20% fentanyl content. It’s easy to see how this could increase both the total number of overdoses, and the percentage of victims who did not survive.

Those Troubling OD Statistics

In recent months, samples have been  found with as much as 20% fentanyl content. It’s easy to see how this could increase both the total number of overdoses, and the percentage of victims who did not survive.

Kid-Friendly Pot

I couldn’t find any evidence of consequences suffered by the pot peddlers, so can only assume there weren’t many. And it does look as if they’re still making the same products in the same packages.

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An ADHD-maxxer

Those signs and symptoms happen to be shared by most people who arrive in treatment for opioid or alcohol or stimulant disorders. They're behaviors that clinicians use to help them identify addictive disorders in their patients.

An ADHD-maxxer

Those signs and symptoms happen to be shared by most people who arrive in treatment for opioid or alcohol or stimulant disorders. They're behaviors that clinicians use to help them identify addictive disorders in their patients.

Split Over Kratom

...both the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security have “strong ties to a kratom lobbyist (and convicted criminal) behind a notorious kratom drinks company.”

What We Can Learn from Estonia

...the situation has improved, mostly because of renewed efforts on the demand side. Estonia adopted harm reduction strategies used effectively in other countries,  such as take-home naloxone; ready access to MAT; and efforts to destigmatize drug use and drug users.

The Storytellers

One young man explained that he avoided speaker meetings because the “drunkalogues” he heard triggered in him an awful craving for a drink.

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Rage-baited

From a counseling standpoint, it’s a time when we ought to be advising patients to restrict their social media activity, at the very least to selected forums and sites that support recovery goals

Rage-baited

From a counseling standpoint, it’s a time when we ought to be advising patients to restrict their social media activity, at the very least to selected forums and sites that support recovery goals

Parenting Under The Influence

Children raised in such families are more likely to be exposed to violence, to initiate their own substance use at an earlier age, and to have mental health problems in childhood.

Is This Recovery?

...there are other folks out there like these— pretending to sobriety yet still secretly using, and hoping to avoid the sort of trouble that haunted them in the past.

Officers in the House

...with law enforcement agencies taking on vastly different roles, planning and practicing our response appears more important than in the past.

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A Novel Approach

...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.

A Novel Approach

...the author, who grew up in and around the region, chose to use its earnings to found Higher Ground, a home for recovering women.

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