All About Addiction

Helping addicts get their lives back

Adi Jaffe Ph.D.

6 Ways Your Environment Is Influencing Your Addiction

In the fight for dominance between psychology and biology, the role of environmental influence on addiction often gets left behind. We're about to fix that.

Am I an Alcoholic? Or Do I Simply Think I Am?

We tend to believe our own opinions and views as true. But could this extend all the way to clinical diagnoses like addiction?! It's pretty hard to ignore a hearty YES response...

Why Are More People Taking Their Lives?

Suicides have been all over the news, but they're also occurring at a higher rate far from any media attention. So what might be causing this increase and what can you do to help?

Is Marijuana A Gateway Drug?

The gateway theory of addiction, with marijuana standing firmly at the gate, used to be all the rage. It seems to be back now as legalization takes hold. Should we all be scared?

Is Addiction Really a Biological Disease?

In the fight for causal domination, biology surely boasts one of the largest armies....But is addiction really a purely biological disease? And if not, then what is it instead?

How Rehab Makes You Believe You’re an Alcoholic

With so many advances in our understanding of addiction, why are providers still handing out a 90-year-old assessment tool? Maybe because of its bias.

How to Overcome Shame and Build Self-Confidence

Everyone has felt shame at some point in their life, and we're all guilty of having committed some mistakes. But what happens when shame keep you back from living a joyful life?

Why You Should Never Settle for Okay

If you've ever really struggled, you know what it feels like to want to just feel "normal." But it can be important not to let that sense of "settling for" stagnate.

Is a Club Drug the New Holy Grail for Depression Treatment?

Depression is the most common mental health diagnosis and yet treatments for it leave many wanting. Could an obscure drug, better knows for underground parties, be the answer?

6 Easy Ways to Cultivate Positive Thinking Today!

We've all had negative thoughts in our lives, but when those thoughts are regular and targeted inward, things can get bad. Try these techniques for some quick relief that lasts.

7 Spiritual Elements Critical for Addiction Recovery

Need a little boost in your recovery? These spiritual (not religious) principles can provide incredible help!

Want to Beat Addiction? Stop Blaming Addicts

The Drug War seemed like it was coming to an end...But as opioid overdoses escalate, the Trump administration is digging their heels using the same old rhetoric, and we're back!

The Abstinence Myth in Treatment

In many ways, substance use itself is a symptom of a whole host of issues that go much deeper into the psychology of individuals than mere consumption.

NatCon17 Is Coming and I’m Going on an Airplane!

It's hard to stay inspired in the field of behavioral health without exposure to new ideas and ways of thinking. National conferences like NatCon17 help remedy that.

Have a Child with ADHD? Neurofeedback Is a Great Alternative

We've all been hearing about medications for ADHD for years - the pros, cons and in-betweens. But no-one is talking about a non-medication treatment that works wonders.

Behind the Mask: Drunk on Halloween

e all know that Halloween can be a lot of fun, but how do we get to enjoy it without being part of the alcohol, drug and violence problems that seem to go with this holiday?

How Parents (and Governments) Can Fix the Addiction Problem

Many parents want to help solve their children's substance use problems. Approaching it from the "drug war" angle didn't prove useful for the U.S. and it won't work at home.

Addiction Treatment Loses When Insurance Companies Get Cheap

Insurance payments are a major source of the problems with addiction treatment—from low reimbursement rates leading to terrible treatment practices to abuse by greedy providers.

Most Problem Drinkers Learn to Change Their Drinking

You've heard it before: "once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic." The idea that "addiction" is an inescapable condition is pervasive and wrong. And there's data proving it.

The "Rock Bottom" Myth and the Shame It Brings On

Mental health labels can help us understand our clients, but they can also make us completely miss who they are. Here is a cautionary tale of one girl's difficult road back.

Top 5 Ways Biofeedback Can Change Your Life

Are you turning to pills to make your life better? Biofeedback and neurofeedback could be the answer you're looking for.

Alcohol Moderation Treatment Works!

From individual examples to data from dozens of patients, research is showing that moderate drinking can be a successful alternatives to alcohol abstinence. So where is the field?

There’s No Such Thing as (Real) Self-Sabotage

When we talk about self-sabotage, we fool ourselves into thinking that some people purposefully disrupt their success in life. But that's just not true.

The Failures of "Failure To Launch" Syndrome

When we tell kids they're struggling with "failure to launch" syndrome, we hurt them while saying quite a bit about ourselves.

Which Is More Dangerous: Alcohol or Drugs?

Even though alcohol is a major addictive drug and a primary reason for nearly 100,000 annual deaths in the U.S., we see it as vastly different than other drugs. That's silly.

Is Addiction a Habit or a Choice?

It's an age-old debate: Are addicts failing to exercise control or have they fallen victim to a disease that has taken over their brain and rendered them powerless? The answer is neither and both, so pay close attention...

Addiction, connection and the Rat Park study

Some recent chatter about addiction's causes has moved the pendulum back to social and environmental dysfunction. We might want to be careful swinging too hard.

F%$& Shame, TEDx and Mental Health

Many of us don't give the proper weight to the use of mental health labels. As this talk shows, diagnostic labels can actually impact the way in which labeled individuals perform. If nothing else, this fact should make us more wary of using these labels as everyday placeholders to describe those around us. We may just be sentencing them to meeting our low expectations.

Breaking Good - When meth addiction resolves

Coming face to face with your own shame and emotion about the past can be hard. This is me trying to do it in public.

Do Moderation Programs Encourage Alcoholic Drinking?

The fear that abstinent people in recovery will begin drinking if moderation programs are offered is simply absurd. For the one percent of substance users who both seek treatment and are successful, recovery is usually a pretty happy place. Let's let them keep their victories while offering the other 99 percent solutions they will embrace.

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