Recovery from opioid addiction may no longer mean complete abstinence from drugs
alcoholics anonymous
Perspective: The Debate Over Anonymity in Addiction Recovery
Should addicts and alcoholics remain anonymous about their recovery? Eighteen years ago this month, I wrote my first op-ed for the Washington Post‘s Sunday Outlook section, arguing against that idea. It was headlined “Addicted to …
Is Dr. Drew More Like Charlie Sheen than He Thinks?
Could Dr. Drew Pinsky be following Charlie Sheen off the rails? Recently the “Celebrity Rehab” host claimed that Sheen was “in an acute manic state” — a public statement which teeters on the bounds of psychiatric ethics (more …
Can You Use Crack ‘Socially?’ Addiction Myth Watch: Charlie Sheen Edition
The subject of addiction swirls with myths and misinformation. It doesn’t help that so many people seem to believe that their own struggle with addiction — or a few drop-ins to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings — make them …
How Religion Was Edited Out of AA’s Bible: Early ‘Big Book’ Manuscript Soon to Be Published
The “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous has long been seen as holy writ by AA members. But for the first time ever, recovering alcoholics, scholars and the public will have access to the original manuscript, including editorial …
Lindsay Lohan’s Relapse and Court-Mandated AA
Imagine that you had cancer and a judge mandated that you receive a treatment first introduced in the 1930s — one that had been described, by the world’s leading medical evidence–review group, as having “no experimental …
Recipe for Longevity: Social Drinking or Just Going to AA?
We’re so used to thinking of pleasurable things as “sinful” and “bad for you” that when the popular media, or science for that matter, attempts to validate our guilty pleasures — such as my colleague John Cloud’s excellent piece about recent research showing that heavy drinkers outlive teetotalers — skepticism runs high.