On September 11th, 2001, the world was shaken by the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. If you were old enough to remember 9/11, it is one of those days that will be forever engrained in your memory. It was heavily televised – live for the most part – so whether...
If you’ve made the decision to get help for drug or alcohol abuse, you’ve conquered one of the toughest challenges on the road to recovery. Before you begin your journey of learning how to live a sober lifestyle, you need to have a clean, substance-free system. Most addiction treatment programs begin with a medically-supervised detox to...
Growing up as the famous son of George Hamilton and Alana Stewart wasn’t easy for Ashley Hamilton. The 40-year-old has survived his two failed marriages, a heroin addiction and struggles with anorexia and bulimia. Today, Ashley is eight years sober, an addiction coach, and living a different life, as seen on the new E! reality...
Four Californians aged 18 to 24 have died at music festivals in the last 15 months. The latest victims were two young women attending the two-day Hard Summer Music Festival held this past weekend at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, CA. The two girls, Tracy Nguyen, 18, and Katie Dix, 19, died from...
Many individuals experience trauma during their lifetimes. Although many people exposed to traumatic situations demonstrate few or no lingering symptoms, those who have experienced repeated, chronic or multiple traumas are more likely to exhibit pronounced symptoms and consequences, including substance abuse, mental illness, and health problems. People of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations and...
The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This dysfunction is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors. But what if...
