Meditation and Addiction Recovery

In an earlier blog from last year, called Be Still – Mindfulness in Lockdown, we talked about how lockdown was an opportunity to stop racing around and burdening ourselves with often self-imposed pressure to stay busy. Alcoholics and others suffering from addiction are not very comfortable sitting still. [...]

Motivation, Discipline and Reward

Alcoholics and drug users find it tough to stick to a treatment programme. Motivation comes and goes. Discipline is something different. It’s a planned, concentrated effort, sustained over time. It involves practise and the build-up of good habits. Staying sober requires discipline. [...]

The Brain and Addiction – Part III

Do we have three brains? Now we know that in the early century XX neuroscientists were able to understand the roots of some of Jon’s symptoms, mostly those related to very basic primitive behaviours, hiding deep inside the human brain because they were one of the first brain structures to develop [...]

The Brain and Addiction – Part II

Reptilians Among Us.. Late in the morning in April 1899 Christfried was crossing the cobbled central square of Erlangen, in Bayern. His pace was fast, firm and resolute. He had finally made his decision and like a man on a mission, he knew exactly where he was going. He will [...]

The Brain and Addiction – Part I

I want to vs I have to.. You know what you have to do, but you can’t help doing the opposite. How many times have you been there? Don’t worry, we all have. It is a very human thing. It is probably what makes you a real human. Internal conflict. The “have [...]

Exploring the Mechanism of Maintenance Therapy

Understanding Opioids. Over the past few decades, much has been revealed about opioid dependence that has shaped our comprehension of addiction as a chronic disease. Opioid drugs activate specific opioid receptors (mu, kappa, and delta in the spinal cord and GIT system. Initially, when heroin or other opioids derivatives are [...]