NARCONON BLOG

ADDICTION

Parental Advice for Raising Kids Who Do Not Use Drugs

Parents worry about their kids constantly. It’s just a part of being a parent. No matter their kids’ age, parents seem to worry, showing concern for their kids from birth into childhood, to adolescence, to their teen years, and even through adulthood.

DRUG REHABILITATION

Why Is Methadone the Wrong Way to Treat Addiction?

It’s becoming clear that America is facing a problem with prescription drugs. What is not clear to anyone is that using one medication to stop using another is simply not the right way to treat addiction.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

How Some Countries are Cracking Down on Addiction

Iceland has been able to reduce their substance abuse rates to unprecedented lows by making after-school programs for youth of all ages a mandatory requirement for graduation.

DRUG REHABILITATION

How to Talk to Someone About Their Addiction

Let’s have a conversation, about a conversation. More specifically, let’s talk about how to talk to someone about their addiction.

ADDICTION

The Importance of Taking Care of Our Health Without Falling Prey to Overmedication

We live in a very peculiar, very unique time in society right now. Let’s look at this. In the United States, our medicine and our approaches to health are more incredibly advanced than they have ever been in our history. Yet in that same token, the problems...

ADDICTION

Addicted, Alone, and Nowhere to Go—A Guide For Pulling Yourself Out of the Trap

If you or someone you know is addicted to drugs, you are probably no stranger to feelings of loneliness, hopelessness, and overall feelings of total misery and despair. These feelings are totally normal, as addiction is itself akin to the physical universe...

ADDICTION

Are Teens Less Likely to Misuse Drugs and Alcohol?

Any area or arena of drug and alcohol misuse is concerning and unpleasant, but few areas are as concerning or as unpleasant as teen drug use is.

STATISTICS & TRENDS

Drugs Throughout History, the Current Drug Crisis, and Why We Need to Talk About It

It would seem that year after year, the U.S. drug and alcohol addiction problem has only grown more complicated and more difficult. It always seems like every time we approach a position where we might be able to overcome this problem, another drug comes...

DRUG INFORMATION

What Does it Mean to be a Poly-Drug Addict and How Do We Help Such Individuals?

One of the problems that we are seeing now more so than perhaps ever before is the problem of poly-substance abuse. This is also called poly-addiction, or poly-drug addiction. What it means is simply to have multiple addictions at once.

ADDICTION

How Our Underestimation of Opioids Lead to an Epidemic

At this point, it is pretty clear to me that the United States of America is suffering from a crippling and extremely derisive opioid addiction epidemic. Sometimes, we have a hard time swallowing this bitter truth.

ADDICTION

The Dwindling Spiral of Addiction—What Happens When Addicts Don’t Get Help

Drug and alcohol addiction is a growing problem, a crippling health epidemic that has expanded across all aspects and areas of American health and life.

DRUG REHABILITATION

Identifying a Loved One’s Drug Use May be Trickier than You Think

There’s all kinds of articles about the signs and symptoms of drug use. But if your loved one is clever about hiding his or her drug use, you may have to look deeper to find the real source of problems.

DRUG REHABILITATION

Medication-Assisted Treatment: A “Solution” that Has Never Solved the Problem

Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) is the use of prescribed drugs to help a person break free from addiction to some other drug. While MAT makes plenty of money for pharmaceutical companies and prescribers, it may not be so great for those taking the...

STATISTICS & TRENDS

The Unhurried Devastation from our National Drug Problem

What if, in a flash, the entire population of Denver was vaporized? Or Seattle, Washington, D.C. or Boston? That would equal the number of Americans we lost to drug overdoses between 1999 and 2017. We take a look at this ultra-slow phenomenon that makes...

ADDICTION

How to Avoid Binge Drinking

There is a lot of information out there about alcohol abuse, alcohol misuse, alcoholism, alcohol dependence, alcohol poisoning, binge drinking, over drinking, and all of the other, many factors that play into alcohol consumption.

DRUG INFORMATION

The Drugs Most Likely to Appear in an Overdose

If there is one thing that we can be absolutely certain of when it comes to drug and alcohol addiction in the United States, it is that we are far worse off with this problem than we were twenty years ago.

DRUG INFORMATION

Drug Enforcement Administration Updates List of Slang Terms for Drugs

For parents and professionals, knowing the slang terms for popular drugs might mean the difference between detecting drug use and addiction and missing it. The DEA has just published an updated list of drug slang that can help with this vital task.

ADDICTION

Exercise Offers Benefits for Healthy Living and Recovery

We already know that exercise has great benefits for people. Exercise relieves stress. It boosts mood. Exercise increases body image. Regular exercise releases depression and anxiety. But on top of that, we have now learned irrefutably that exercise improves...

DRUG REHABILITATION

“Why Does My Loved One Love Drugs More than Me?”

This is a question that tortures every parent, spouse, child and sibling of an addicted person. Gain insight into why this person you love so much changes into someone you fear and how they can make their way back to lasting health.

DRUG INFORMATION

What is Molly? Isn't What Most of Its Users Think It Is

Molly is one of those drugs that’s been around for a while and hasn’t gotten enough attention. While the opioid crisis has been in full-bloom, it’s sort of eclipsed the growing problem with Molly.