Salon.com > addiction http://www.salon.com Wed, 19 Jun 2013 02:24:51 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 My boyfriend, the sex addict http://www.salon.com/2013/06/10/my_boyfriend_the_sex_addict/ http://www.salon.com/2013/06/10/my_boyfriend_the_sex_addict/#comments Mon, 10 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13319915 “I have a proposition,” Jack said, a whiff of Maker’s Mark on his breath as he spoke over the din of the dive bar on a Saturday night. “Maybe tonight, if you see a cute guy, you could bring him back to my place.”

My voice rose, along with a sense of dread. “For a threesome?”

“No, for you — to sleep with,” he said. “I could watch. From the closet. He wouldn’t know I was there.”

I fought a swell of revulsion. Jack wanted me to sleep with other men? And he wanted to watch? It defied the laws of romance.

Jack and I met online four months earlier (although his name isn’t really Jack). He was cute, with blue eyes and dark stubble. Feeling lonely after having recently moved 3,000 miles from Brooklyn to San Francisco, I ignored my initial anxiety about his age (39 to my 29). He was an accomplished artist and musician and, being a sucker for tortured creative types, I invited myself over to his place at the end of our first date, where we finished off a bottle of cheap Cabernet before having hazy sex that I could barely remember the next day.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/06/10/my_boyfriend_the_sex_addict/feed/ 53 Internet addiction is just the next evolutionary step http://www.salon.com/2013/05/31/internet_addiction_is_just_the_next_evolutionary_step_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/31/internet_addiction_is_just_the_next_evolutionary_step_partner/#comments Fri, 31 May 2013 15:20:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13313894 Pacific Standard Having trouble shutting down your computer? Can’t stop refreshing your Facebook and Twitter streams? Did you close Reddit in your browser window … only to open Reddit right back up again? If you’re concerned that your Internet use is becoming a compulsion, you’re probably right: New research suggests that our uncontrollable desire to click may be deeply rooted in human evolution.

“The Internet is not addictive in the same way as pharmacological substances are,” cognitive scientist Tom Stafford at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. told Tia Ghose at LiveScience “But it’s compulsive; it’s compelling; it’s distracting.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/31/internet_addiction_is_just_the_next_evolutionary_step_partner/feed/ 5 My husband lies to me! http://www.salon.com/2013/05/29/my_husband_lies_to_me/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/29/my_husband_lies_to_me/#comments Wed, 29 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13311077 Dear Cary,

A few days ago, I learned that my husband had been lying to me. It was about something small. Actually, it was a series of lies -- a few to cover up an original omission of the truth. I had watched our children under the pretense that he would be somewhere, which he wasn't. He stated that his reason for lying was fear, and he was trying to avoid a conversation and criticism. As a result, I feel hurt. I feel used. I feel angry. I also feel that he may have a point.

We've been together 10 years. We have two children, and as long as I can remember, he's been lying. Most were small, but some were very big.

He's a recovering addict working a 12-step program, and he's been sober for just over a year. I've been patient. I stayed through the demon days when I didn't know what the hell was going on during his bottom-out. I stood by when he went to rehab after he told me what he was involved in. I've been far from perfect myself. There are times that I've been loving and kind. There are times when I've expressed anger and frustration in a tone I'm not proud of, recounting to him all of his wrongs. I've been seeing a therapist, and attending Al-Anon. There were years in which I felt truly victimized before he got sober. He took money I made, used my credit without my permission, got emails from women that he forgot to tell me about, sent texts to women that were unacceptable, and played while I paid the bills. This past year of his sobriety has been far from perfect, but these damaging behaviors were largely absent. I felt grateful, like the program was really working.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/29/my_husband_lies_to_me/feed/ 37 Mary Karr: David Foster Wallace and I kept each other alive http://www.salon.com/2013/05/23/mary_karr_infinite_jest_was_unkind_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/23/mary_karr_infinite_jest_was_unkind_partner/#comments Thu, 23 May 2013 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13306858 the fix In today’s saturated memoir market, Mary Karr’s still sizzle. The Liars' Club, detailing her tough Texan upbringing—complete with her mother’s gun-waving schizophrenic breakdown and her father’s alcoholic buddies, who gave the book its title—burst onto the scene in 1995. Some say the book spawned a whole bloody genre of ‘90s memoirs featuring addiction as a leading theme, with the likes of Hornbacher, Flynn and Frey following in her wake.

Karr, 58, has been sober for 24 years. She has published four volumes of poetry—most recently Sinners Welcome—as well as two other memoirs: 2000’s Cherry, which dealt with her adolescence, and 2009’s bestseller Lit, which chronicles her recovery from alcoholism. Readers see Karr slowly moving from desolation, trepidation and booze-fueled mania to a mysterious new openness and peace—due partly to an unlikely-seeming conversion to Catholicism. Still, she’s maintained her acerbic wit, outlaw sensibility and lightning-tongued, sailor-mouthed interrogation of anyone in spitting distance.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/23/mary_karr_infinite_jest_was_unkind_partner/feed/ 4 Punk, dance music and drugs http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/punk_dance_music_and_drugs/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/punk_dance_music_and_drugs/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13301493 Dear Reader,

Today, we talk a little about music subcultures, drugs and the human soul. I thought this letter was very interesting, but in trying to answer the questions it raises, I encountered my own limitations in knowledge and insight. I just don't know in detail how drugs influence crowds and vice versa, but do think social scientists can provide clues. And there is also recent evidence of music's own curative powers. My notes on it are a little dry, and a little hazy, and quite unscientific, but I am just a writer, not a scientist or philosopher. In the days to come, I'd like to write about my first experience of punk music and speculate about why it seemed so powerful and alluring.

Dear Cary,

I appreciate your column immensely and I have drafted many letters to you over the years which I have never sent -- as a sort of self-therapy to verbalize my frustrations. Sometimes the act of just putting it into words has helped me see my problems more clearly and enabled me to advise myself. Well done us!

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/20/punk_dance_music_and_drugs/feed/ 19 We are all addicts now http://www.salon.com/2013/05/11/we_are_all_addicts_now/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/11/we_are_all_addicts_now/#comments Sat, 11 May 2013 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13292915 The 21st century cupcake is a thing of wonder: a modest base of sponge groaning under an indulgently thick layer of frosted sugar or buttercream. It’s made to look like a miniature children’s birthday cake – and, indeed, birthdays are the perfect excuse to scurry down to the local boutique bakery for a big box of them. The retro charm of cupcakes helps suppress any anxieties you might have about sugar and fat. Your mother made them! Or so the advertising suggests. Perhaps your own mother didn’t actually bake cupcakes, but the cutesy pastel-colored icing implies that one bite will take you back to your childhood. This can’t possibly be junk food, can it?

Now let’s consider another ubiquitous presence in modern life: The iPhone, which started out as a self-conscious statement of coolness but which, thanks to Apple’s marketing genius, has now become as commonplace as a set of car keys. Millions of people own iPhones, making use of hundreds of thousands of apps, whose functions range from GPS-assisted mapping to compulsively time-wasting computer games. Your iPhone does everything you could require of a mobile phone and more, so you really don’t need the upgraded model that Apple has just released ... do you?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/11/we_are_all_addicts_now/feed/ 21 Do electronic cigarettes work? http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/do_electronic_cigarettes_work_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/do_electronic_cigarettes_work_partner/#comments Tue, 07 May 2013 17:36:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13291809 Scientific American

Everyone knows that cigarettes are bad for you. Yet 45 million Americans smoke, a habit that shaves a decade off life expectancy and causes cancer as well as heart and lung diseases. Nearly 70 percent of smokers want to quit, but despite the deadly consequences, the vast majority of them fail.

Going cold turkey works for fewer than 10 percent of smokers. Even with counseling and the use of aids approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, such as the nicotine patch and non-nicotine medicines, 75 percent of smokers light up again within a year. “We need better treatments because the current ones just aren’t working all that well,” says Jed Rose, director of the Duke Center for Smoking Cessation.

To create treatments that are more up to snuff, researchers are tinkering with combinations of existing drugs, looking at the role genetics plays in who gets hooked and turning to social media as a counseling platform. What’s more, a new smoking cessation medicine could be approved this year: electronic cigarettes, which have existed for a decade but only recently become the focus of efficacy trials.

The grip of addiction

Smoking at once relaxes and stimulates the body. Seconds after inhalation nicotine reaches the brain and binds to receptor molecules on nerve cells, triggering the cells to release a flood of dopamine and other neurotransmitters that washes over pleasure centers. A few more puffs increase heart rate, raising alertness. The effect does not last long, however, spurring smokers to light up again. Over time the number of nicotinic receptors increases—and the need to smoke again to reduce withdrawal symptoms such as irritability. On top of that, smoking becomes linked with everyday behavior or moods: drinking coffee or a bout of boredom, for instance, might also trigger the desire to reach for a cigarette—all making it difficult to kick the habit.

Smoking treatments help users gradually wean themselves off cigarettes or put an end to their cravings—most commonly via delivery of nicotine in patches or chewing gum. In addition, two non-nicotine drugs are available: a sustained-release form of the antidepressant bupropion reduces cravings; varenicline blocks nicotine receptors in the brain, reducing the flood of dopamine.

New research is teasing out why the seven FDA-approved medications have seen only limited success. For instance, researchers recently showed that some people are genetically predisposed to have difficulty quitting: Particular variations in a cluster of nicotinic receptor genes (CHRNA5–CHRNA3–CHRNB4) contribute to nicotine dependence and a pattern of heavy smoking. Moreover, a study of more than 1,000 smokers reported in a 2012 The American Journal of Psychiatry paper found that people with the risk genes don’t quit easily on their own whereas those lacking the risk genes are more likely to kick the habit without medications.

New research also suggests that the sexes respond differently to the drugs. Rose and colleagues have found that giving a combination of bupropion and varenicline to people who have worn a nicotine patch for a week raised the quit rate of patch users to 50.9 percent up from 19.6 percent—but only in men. “We don’t know why the effect seemed entirely confined to male smokers,” Rose says. “Bit by bit we’re starting to learn how to tailor treatment to sex, early response to nicotine patches, and genomic markers.”

New treatment hope

A reason for the limited success of nicotine treatments may be that they do not address a crucial aspect of cigarette use: the cues that prompt smoking. Electronic cigarettes have as a result become a popular alternative to lighting up for those seeking to quit. E-cig users inhale doses of vaporized nicotine from battery-powered devices that look like cigarettes. Carcinogen levels in e-cig vapor are about one thousandth that of cigarette smoke, according to a 2010 study in the Journal of Public Health Policy.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that the devices, on the market for about a decade, help smokers quit. Yet there’s little hard science to back up the claim, and the gadgets are not regulated as medicines. (In 2010 a court overturned the FDA’s effort to treat e-cigs as “drug delivery devices.”) “We just don’t know if they are as good as existing nicotine-replacement therapies,” says David Abrams, executive director of the nonprofit Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies and former director of the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health.

That’s about to change. Two e-cig trials will report results this year. The first is a study of 300 smokers in Italy. It is a follow-up to a similar study in which 22 of 40 hard-core smokers had after six months either quit or cut cigarette consumption by more than half. Nine gave up cigarettes entirely, although six continued using e-cigs. The findings of the larger study, which are under peer review, are “in line with those reported in our small pilot study,” says lead researcher Riccardo Polosa of the University of Catania in Italy.

Interestingly, he adds, a control group of smokers who used an e-cig without nicotine also showed a significant drop in tobacco cigarette consumption—although not as great as those using the nicotine e-cig. This decline, he says, “suggests that the dependence on the cigarette is not only a matter of nicotine but also of other factors involved,” like the need to relieve stress or activities that trigger smokers to reach for a cigarette.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/05/07/do_electronic_cigarettes_work_partner/feed/ 10 Prescription pill epidemic has spiraled out of control http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/prescription_pill_epidemic_has_spiraled_out_of_control_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/prescription_pill_epidemic_has_spiraled_out_of_control_partner/#comments Mon, 08 Apr 2013 11:55:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13264541 AlterNetIn the small coal towns of southern West Virginia, the poorest patch of Appalachia, the police blotters these days read like big-city tabloid fodder. Last month, a 23-year-old man received up to 25 years in prison for wheeling a quadriplegic to a house against his will, carrying him inside, beating him and stealing his prescription painkillers. That same week, a 25-year-old man was charged with child neglect resulting in death for taking three prescription painkillers and passing out, suffocating his one-month-old son in his arms. The child's 21-year-old mother was charged as an accomplice.

A couple of weeks ago, the manager of a pain clinic in the Mingo County seat of Williamson (nickname “Pilliamson”) pleaded guilty to “reluctantly selling drug prescriptions illegally”--abetting doctors in writing scripts for thousands of prescription pill addicts. “Patients” would line up at the clinic before it opened, like bargain shoppers at a Black Friday Christmas sale. And now, as the nation knows, the Mingo County sheriff is dead, shot at point-blank range as he sat in his car eating a sandwich.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/04/08/prescription_pill_epidemic_has_spiraled_out_of_control_partner/feed/ 17 Addiction’s shrinking gender gap http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/addictions_shrinking_gender_gap/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/addictions_shrinking_gender_gap/#comments Mon, 11 Mar 2013 22:30:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13225789 the fix
 The worse women have it, the better off they are. This is the lesson we might draw from looking at one (and only one) global trend: addiction. Worldwide, women have always had lower rates of drug and alcohol use and dependence than men. Butas women’s access to opportunities grows along with a nation’s affluence, this gender gap begins to close. In fact, just as women often outstrip men in the classroom and office if given the chance, they have already forged ahead in the abuse of certain substances. It may not be the most celebratory way to mark International Women's Day (March 8), but the fact is, equal rights have their penalties.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/11/addictions_shrinking_gender_gap/feed/ 2 Jake “The Snake” Roberts: “I started drinking when I was 11″ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/jake_the_snake_roberts_i_started_drinking_when_i_was_11_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/jake_the_snake_roberts_i_started_drinking_when_i_was_11_partner/#comments Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:04:00 +0000 http://www.railrode.net/?p=13218550 the fix When it comes to the giants of pro wrestling, Jake “The Snake” Roberts (real name Aurelian Smith, Jr.) is right up there. From 1986-1992, Roberts wrestled in stadiums throughout the world with the WWE, winning immense popularity for his intense character, his in-ring psychology and his ever-present pet python.

But all the while, this dark public persona was being outmatched by his true-life troubles outside of the ring. Roberts frequently used drugs and drank heavily throughout his wrestling career, which ultimately led to him being fired from the WWE during a 1997 comeback attempt. A highly unflattering portrayal followed in the 1999 wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat, in which he was reported to have smoked crack in a hotel room after a reunion with his estranged daughter. As he began wrestling on the independent circuit—the equivalent of baseball's minor leagues—his behavior became increasingly erratic, including instances of drunken breakdowns in the ring and exposing himself to the crowd.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/03/04/jake_the_snake_roberts_i_started_drinking_when_i_was_11_partner/feed/ 2 Is Dr. Drew too dangerous for prime time? http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/is_dr_drew_too_dangerous_for_prime_time/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/is_dr_drew_too_dangerous_for_prime_time/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:40:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13211659 With the news last week of country star Mindy McCready’s suicide by gun, the death toll among Dr. Drew’s "Celebrity Rehab" patients now stands at five, giving the show an unusually high mortality rate of nearly 13 percent. But what’s even more disturbing is that most of those deaths — possibly even McCready’s — might have been prevented if the program had utilized treatment practices proven to be most effective.

the fix

Although Dr. Drew appears to truly believe in what he does, addiction experts say that the treatment philosophy and policies demonstrated in his show and public statements often do not reflect the best evidence-based practices. His rejection of maintenance treatments, use of punitive detox practices and humiliating therapy, and insistence that people cannot truly recover without complete abstinence through 12-step programs reflect the conventional wisdom of the 1980s, not the data of the 21st century. Indeed, "Celebrity Rehab’s" treatment — leaving aside the massive confidentiality violation of being televised — diverges dramatically from the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Principles of Drug Treatment, a guide that lays out standards for the best addiction care.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/25/is_dr_drew_too_dangerous_for_prime_time/feed/ 26 Is porn addiction real? http://www.salon.com/2013/02/22/is_porn_addiction_real_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/22/is_porn_addiction_real_partner/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13208587 the fixPornography addiction deserves a little more respect, because porn affects the brain much like a drug, as illustrated by a new video from AsapScience (below). "The not-so-shocking truth is that pornography has profound consequences for the brain and acts, in many ways, like a drug," says the SFW video. It explains that viewing pornographic images can increase tolerance, while causing loss of control and a compulsive need to get more. Just like drugs, porn can rewire the brain's flow of the feel-good chemical dopamine, reinforcing the behavior until it becomes addictive. Some compulsive viewers may even experience withdrawal when denied their fix. This might explain why porn makes up 25% of all internet searches and is the 4th most common reason people go online, the video points out. Like any addiction, watching too much porn can create problems in "the real world," such as making it "difficult to be turned on by reality.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/22/is_porn_addiction_real_partner/feed/ 22 Getting prescription meds right http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/why_wont_the_media_stop_freaking_out_over_prescription_drugs_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/why_wont_the_media_stop_freaking_out_over_prescription_drugs_partner/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2013 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13202942 The media seems to have three modes of action when it comes to psychoactive drugs: intense promotion of advances and benefits; general disregard; and full-on panic about negative effects, including potential for misuse and addiction. During both the benefits and the risks periods, many myths and misinformation are disseminated. But between these bouts of euphoria and panic, there is little coverage at all, especially of addiction. This up/down/off pattern does a disservice not only to people suffering from addiction, but to those with other diseases as well.
the fix

Right now, we seem to be moving from a period characterized mainly by disinterest into one of attention and fear. Though we’ve never returned to the peak freak-out of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s—in 1989, a Gallup poll found that Americans viewed drugs as the number one problem threatening the nation, eclipsing even the economy during a recession—we have seen brief but blinding spotlights on Oxycontin, methamphetamine and now prescription drugs more generally.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/why_wont_the_media_stop_freaking_out_over_prescription_drugs_partner/feed/ 12 Confessions of a pot addict http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/confessions_of_a_pot_addict/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/confessions_of_a_pot_addict/#comments Mon, 18 Feb 2013 02:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13203350 My relationship with pot started off badly. I lost all my high school friends after self-righteously refusing to smoke. I preached at everyone until our friendships evaporated. “I know if I try it, I will like it too much,” I remember saying — perhaps the only smart, true statement I would utter for many years to come.

The hardest friend to lose was a guy I’ll call Kevin. Kevin got me off Ratt and onto The Smiths. He got me playing guitar, which continues to provide me with happiness and social adventures at the age of 39. Without Kevin’s musical influence, I surely wouldn’t have moved from Florida to my beloved New Orleans after college. I worshipped Kevin until junior year, when he began smoking weed and abandoned me and my antidrug bitching. That same year, Kevin’s parents bought him a very nice car, which he crashed while skipping school and tripping on mushroom with his new drug buddies. At the time, I felt depressed but also extremely right.

When I finally broke down and tried pot in college at the age of 20, I realized I’d judged it totally wrong. Judgments regarding weed never prove factual, since the drug affects everyone differently. Some people plant themselves on the couch with snacks. Others grow manic and suffer panic attacks. I think of weed as a relaxant, a simple inverse of coffee -- and not just because I smoked every morning for a long, long time.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/18/confessions_of_a_pot_addict/feed/ 157 What really goes on inside rehab http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/what_really_goes_on_inside_internet_rehab_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/what_really_goes_on_inside_internet_rehab_partner/#comments Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:48:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13198563 the fix

Anne M. Fletcher’s new book, Inside Rehab—out this week—is a no-holds-barred report on addiction treatment in America today. Fletcher, who struggled in the past with her own drinking problem, got involved in the rehab field a decade ago after writing Sober for Good, a book about long-term recovery. While only a brief section of Sober for Good focused on treatment, Fletcher was “astounded” by the shortcomings she discovered.

About five years later, a massive amount of media coverage focused on hot-mess celebrities like Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, as they bounced in and out of pricey rehabs, stirring up misconceptions about addiction treatment. “I said, someone needs to write a book about what really goes on in rehab,” Fletcher tells me. Turns out that someone was her.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/12/what_really_goes_on_inside_internet_rehab_partner/feed/ 0 I love an angry heroin addict http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/i_love_an_angry_heroin_addict/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/i_love_an_angry_heroin_addict/#comments Fri, 08 Feb 2013 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13193666 Dear Reader,

As I pointed out in the Wednesday column, the best way to read the column every day is to bookmark http://www.salon.com/topic/since_you_asked/ and click on that every day.

I will run this notice up here for a few days so that folks will see it. (In case you've been having trouble finding the column because of the higher volume of stories Salon is now publishing.)

You could also subscribe to the Salon email newsletter and see how that works for you. It works for some people.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/08/i_love_an_angry_heroin_addict/feed/ 24 Why can’t Hollywood get bipolar disorder right? http://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/misdiagnosing_bipolar_disorder_in_tv_and_movies_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/misdiagnosing_bipolar_disorder_in_tv_and_movies_partner/#comments Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:20:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13191401 the fix

I’m not sure what happened exactly in the last 10 years, but apparently I tapped into a popular trend when I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder back in 2003.

What I mean by that is, when I was first diagnosed, I’d never even really heard of bipolar as a mental illness before. I knew the Jimi Hendrix “Manic Depression” song. And I’d heard stories of how Francis Coppola was such a crazy genius back in the '70s, but how once he started taking Lithium, he lost his creative edge and ended up making movies like—well—Jack. Oh and of course, Nirvana had that “Lithium” song.

But other than that, I wasn’t super aware of bi-polar disorder in popular culture. Now hit TV shows like Homeland and Academy Award-nominated movies like The Silver Linings Playbook all feature bi-polar characters.

Bipolar disorder is very real for me. But it’s also completely manageable.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/05/misdiagnosing_bipolar_disorder_in_tv_and_movies_partner/feed/ 18 Can magic mushrooms help cancer patients? http://www.salon.com/2013/02/04/can_magic_mushrooms_help_cancer_patients_partner/ http://www.salon.com/2013/02/04/can_magic_mushrooms_help_cancer_patients_partner/#comments Mon, 04 Feb 2013 21:21:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13190728 the fix
 Psilocybin, the hallucinogen found in “magic” mushrooms, may have the power to help cancer patients deal with the psychological suffering associated with cancer, claims new research from the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD). Previous studies have suggested that psilocybin may help ease depression and increase "openness." And according to Anthony Bossis, PhD, a clinical assistant professor at NYUCD and Langone Medical Center, it may also relieve cancer patients of some of the "existential distress" that can accompany a life-threatening diagnosis. "The emotional, spiritual and existential distress that can often accompany a diagnosis of cancer often goes unidentified and untreated," says Bossis. He notes that cancer sufferers often experience side effects from the physical pain of illness and chemotherapy—such as anxiety, depression, anger, denial, social isolation, hopelessness, and loss of independence—which the hallucinogenic drug could help alleviate.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/02/04/can_magic_mushrooms_help_cancer_patients_partner/feed/ 6 Co-parenting with an addict http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/co_parenting_with_an_addict/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/co_parenting_with_an_addict/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13170988 Dear Cary,

The mother of my child, who is also soon to be my ex-wife, is an addict. She swears up and down that she is no longer on pills and that she only smokes weed for her (possibly imaginary) arthritis. In addition to being an addict, she regularly invents illnesses she or her family members suffer from in order to dump our daughter in my lap on a moment's notice when she's taking care of her.

I don't know how much you want to know or is relevant, but here's the back story. We were dating, and she moved in. She was a model who didn't have regular work. When I told her she needed to pay her share of the rent, she got pregnant intentionally so I would support her. Yes, I understand my responsibility in all this, but she has admitted that she lied about taking the pill. Que sera, sera. After the birth of our daughter, my ex shut down, popping pills and sleeping all day. I'd have to leave work to come wake her up in the middle of the day. She was also shopping compulsively with money we didn't have. And we, including my daughter, lived in a filthy mess because she's a slob. I checked out at work, focusing instead on the chaos at home, and ended up getting fired.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/co_parenting_with_an_addict/feed/ 13 Do electronic cigarettes really work? http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/do_electronic_cigarettes_really_work/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/17/do_electronic_cigarettes_really_work/#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13173599 the fix Smoking without the health risks may sound like a pipe dream for many smokers; but this is just what makers of electronic cigarettes (or "e-cigs") promise their consumers. E-cigarettes are battery-operated products, often resembling cigarettes, that turn nicotine and/or other chemicals into a vapor that users inhale. Companies like LOGIC E-Cigarettes use aggressive marketing tactics, like street campaigns and taxi cab ads, to push their products as an easy, safe alternative to smoking. Although these companies are profit-driven, they also claim to have the public's interest at heart. “This is the 21st century. The public deserves an alternative to smoking,” Eli Alelov, CEO of LOGIC, tells The Fix. Alelov says that his products emulate the experience of smoking a cigarette—the motion of smoking, the oral fixation and the inhaling—but without tobacco, tar or “4,000 other chemicals in cigarettes.” A nicotine addict himself, he lost his father to lung cancer at the age of eight; he believes e-cigarettes are a way to “save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.” Alelov is urging the US government to back e-cigarettes as an alternative to "poisonous" tobacco, "which the American government now benefits from tax-wise."

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