Brain images from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) clearly show that the brain with addiction has a very different response to drug and alcohol stimuli than one without addiction. Most addiction scientists believe that an addicted brain has actually been altered by the substance. Not everyone who uses substances becomes addicted to the substance. Scientists…
I was having dinner with a group of friends and one of them began asking me questions about a “friend of his” whose son was having substance use issues. This friend is a highly respected medical doctor. The next morning, I got a call from him and, no surprise, he confided that the “friend” was…
Life never goes exactly as planned. I will begin by taking you to a moment in my life that I could never have imagined. On Saturday, March 15, 2014, my wife and I were at home watching Saturday Night Live and waiting for our youngest of five children to come home from a night out….
Challenging does not begin to describe the fear, hopelessness and anxiety that I felt while my sixteen-year-old son suffered from active addiction. In these twelve short stories, I will share the best of what I learned about addiction that helped me handle extreme parenting difficulties and ultimately allowed me to be a part of the…