Battling Addiction

When I finally quit smoking .. my last day was November 7, 2001 .. and I consider it to be “cold turkey”, although I used the PATCH to help me. I haven’t had the urge to smoke since.

My wife, on the other hand .. quit smoking on August 13, 2001 and instead of the PATCH, chose to use Nicorette Gum to help her stop smoking. She consider’s that also to be “cold turkey”, because she hasn’t had the urge to smoke again. However, she did get addicted to Nicorette Gum. It’s funny .. and we *can* laugh at this now .. but, her doctor actually recommended that she go on the PATCH to quit CHEWING NICORETTE GUM! She considered it, and even tried a week but, then gave up the Nicorette gum for sugar-free Dentyne Ice gum.

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By Chris Woodall

Maybe your family has been urging you to do it for a while, or you have been meaning to, but it is now finally the right time: you are ready to quit your cigarette habit. If you have quit caffeine in the past, you know that withdraw symptoms from any sort of drug are not very pleasant. Remember, though, that the temporary discomfort of withdraw is just one of the side effects when you stop smoking, and that there will be good benefits down the road as well. Be prepared for the side effects when you stop smoking, both bad and good, and remember that the ultimate goal is great health.

Here is a discussion of what to prepare to experience:

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By Stephanie Loebs

Weed, pot, bennies, rock, snow, dime bag…with drug use and abuse comes a large vocabulary of slang terms known primarily to dealers and addicts. A concerned parent or loved may be puzzled at first to hear such code coming from children, spouses, or friends, and consequently it may take time to realize drugs are being abused.

It is the goal of any reputable drug and alcoholic rehabilitation center to help families and friends of addicts break the codes and seek help for their loved ones, that everybody may be able to speak the same language - one of sobriety and good health. With this in mind, it is important for loved ones to be aware of street terms commonly used for illegal drugs. Some may already be well known due to saturation in popular culture, while others are more obscure.

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By Lloyd Morgan

Arsenic, cyanide, ammonia, cadmium…They sound like part of the arsenal of some resourceful poisoner. But some people are voluntarily sucking these toxic substances into their bodies 20 times and more every day. Yes, these scary-sounding chemicals are just a few of the 4700 or so noxious components of tobacco smoke. Here’s a roundup of five of the most famous.

Arsenic is notorious as the poison of choice for aristocratic murderers in old movies. In real life too, it earned itself the sobriquet “poison of kings, and king of poisons” as a result of popularity among high society wanting to quickly and undetectably remove someone. It lost popularity when a method was found for detecting it in the body. Now it’s used as an insecticide. Around five micro grams of arsenic trioxide is inhaled with every cigarette. It takes a lot more to kill you right off but arsenic is carcinogenic at much lower levels.

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By Dan Gluckman

Overcoming Nicotine Addiction
Nicotine addiction is extremely powerful – ranking up there with heroin in terms of its strength. However, your physical addiction only represents only about 20-40% of your dependency — the bulk of the addiction is purely psychological. That’s good news! As humans, each of us can obviously influence the behavior or our own mind.

How do cigarettes actually affect you?
After years of smoking cigarettes, your thought processes and behaviors gradually begin to revolve around smoking. In other words, you develop the thought processes and behaviors of a smoker. I am no stranger to this. When I smoked, each cigarette gave me satisfaction and shaped my words and thoughts, getting me hooked on smoking.

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By Michael Russell

Gambling addiction is driven by a chemical and genetic disorder in the brain, causing a person to have compulsive behavior towards gambling. When a gambling addict gambles, they do so not to win money, but to satisfy the crippling urge inside their brain to take that chance or challenge. It satisfies their urge for excitement.

Gambling is a big money-making industry in the US. The gaming industry annually nets billions of dollars, due to people spending more money each year on legal gambling. The state governments in the US promote the state lotteries in order to collect taxes on this money. While gambling was illegal in the US sixty to seventy years ago, more and more states began legalizing gambling until now all but three states are the only ones that prohibit gambling.

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By Michael Russell

The German translation for bulimia is “Fresssucht”, literally meaning “addiction to eating”. Like all addictions, it has a devastating effect on the mind and body and needs to be managed through proper treatment.

Though experts disagree on the statistics, it estimated that between 8% and 10% of the US population suffers from bulimia. 90% to 95% of these are women of all ages. 10% of the affected will die.

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By Hotaka Sutton

To say that addiction is an issue in modern society is to make a rather major understatement. More and more people are looking to alternative health treatments for a solution.

The treatment for addiction is an ongoing concern of society. It has become clear to many that the threat of incarceration is not doing much to slow the illegal use of substances and offers little hope for a long term cure for the resulting problems of addiction. In recent years, alternative medicine has become a logical place to look for solutions as the conventional medical establishment has made little if any progress. Acupuncture is one of these alternative choices.

The National Institute of Health has both endorsed the acupuncture treatment for addiction and posed concerns about it. The concerns are mostly based on the fact that there is no real clear understanding in the Western Medical and scientific community as to just exactly how it works. A secondary concern is the lack of scientific research on its effectiveness.

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By Sheryl Letzgus McGinnis

Mother’s Day! The words conjure a picture of a loving mother surrounded by her children and loving family, receiving flowers, gifts, and mushy cards from her progeny, celebrating the sacrifice and love of motherhood.

This Mother’s Day the above scenario will take place again, all over the country. It will be a wonderful day for so many, a chance to say Thank You Mom for always being there for me, for loving me even during times when I wasn’t so lovable.

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By Jerome Carter

Which type of computer addiction is responsible for most computer addicts? Since there are so many different internet computer activities it is very difficult to pinpoint exactly which one is the cause of most addicts. However, there are several types which seem to be more common with computer addicts. Outlined below are what are considered to be the most addictive computer and internet related activities.

*Online games

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