Where Addiction Meets Your Brain

The Neurobiology of Addiction

Joseph Troncale M.D.

Addiction and the Risk of Hepatitis C

Many individuals have a history of injection drug use and are at risk for Hepatitis C.

Escaping or Accepting?

It is my belief that escape is at the heart of all addiction. Brene Brown points out in her book "Daring Greatly," shame and guilt are fostered by our attempts to escape our feelings. She identifies three primary ways of escaping feelings.

Cross Addiction and What It Means

One of the problems that I see frequently is patients with cross addiction, specifically those who are also being given “legitimate” prescription medications such as stimulants, benzodiazepines, opiates for bona fide symptoms.

Self-Defeating Behaviors and Psychological Flexibility

Regarding oneself as important is a cornerstone for any of the behaviors mentioned above to happen.

The Lion King

If through therapy, AA, life experiences or a kind word, the addicted person comes to a place of self-validation and acceptance of their feelings, sobriety and a full life.

Cross Addiction and What It Means

The dopamine dysregulation in the limbic system of the brain seen in addiction is not able to tell the difference between addictive drugs.

More About Marijuana

If, however, you are having a problem with your use like the other people that I see every day, we are here to help you.

Borderline Personality Disorder and Addiction

People with BPD or borderline tendencies are demanding, hard on themselves and others, and in constant life crises. Here's how to help.

Pain Management in Recovery

The answer is not whether to provide adequate pain relief. That is a given. There is no reason that anyone with addiction should be made to suffer needlessly. If we know that someone is going to suffer post-surgical pain or a similar level of pain for other reasons, the patient with addiction should be treated as one would treat anyone.

Anxiety and Addiction

As more and more receptors build in the brain, more drugs, alcohol, and nicotine are needed to bring the person to a state of calm.

Marijuana Revisited

The more you use and the younger you start, the more the effect of the drug. And the effect of the drug is very simply to make you unmotivated and emotionally flat.

The Family and Addiction

Untangling the triangles of addicted families can be a full-time job. Since one grows up in a family with a history and a present reality, as a child, one’s major frame of reference is the family constellation and the culture that goes along with it.

Deconstructing Your Triggers

The problem with the mood alteration is that it doesn’t solve the problem. It just buys some time until the next stress, fear, craving or symptom occurs.

Once a Pickle, Never a Cucumber

I argue that if someone can use an addictive substance without compulsive use then they are not an addict.

Addiction and Projective Identification

I like to think of it, projective identification, as an attempt by the person one is working with to inject you with a hypodermic and give you some of their soul whether you want it or not.

Buprenorphine, Methadone and Opiate Replacement Therapy

So the opiate problem is not solved. There is no perfect drug or therapy, but it is still a certainty that the use of street heroin or synthetic opiates is extremely lethal... So the opiate problem is not solved. There is no perfect drug or therapy, but it is still a certainty that the use of street heroin or synthetic opiates is extremely lethal.

Buprenorphine, Methadone and Opiate Replacement Therapy - 2

After The Harrison Act was ratified, it was the beginning of the DEA and the “Controlled Substances” legislations. Again, although well meaning, this effectively drove addicted patients underground, and the black market for opiates began.

Buprenorphine, Methadone and Opiate Replacement Therapy

One of the more controversial issues in addiction medicine is the practice of opiate replacement therapy, or ORT. It is important to understand the history of ORT if we are to begin to understand how it should or should not be used.

The Revolving Door of Relapse

Relapse is a fact of addiction. Sobriety is something of a miracle when you think of all the forces that operate against being clean and sober. Yet sobriety happens.

Your Lizard Brain

Understanding automatic behavior frees us to do the next right thing by staying in the present rather than worrying about the future or being shamed or guilty about the past.

Acute Care for Addiction

The difficulties encountered by both the patient and practitioners related to early recovery and detoxification needs.

Addiction, Trauma, and the Compartments in Your Head

Trauma and addiction allows people to create a psychic architecture that requires a lot of walls, closets, compartments, and closed doors.