For years, Ben had assumed all alcoholics were homeless men huddling below bridges inside cardboard boxes and nursing bottles out of paper bags like he saw in movies. But that was before Ben began college and came to know an alcoholic much more personally — himself. In less than one semester, Ben, who did not….
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A friend sent me the following reflection from one of his parishioners, who asked not to have his name attached. Well worth reading: I am an alcoholic. I can say that now and know what it means- that was not always the case. When I first started coming to the rooms of AA I couldn’t….
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Buried on page 795 of President Obama’s budget, released last Thursday, is a paragraph banning the federal funding of needle-exchange programs for drug addicts — an apparent about-face on his campaign promise to overturn that longstanding ban. To the further consternation of AIDS and addiction activists, a statement of support for needle exchange was recently….
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It’s hard to see addiction for what it is when its effects continue to influence a person’s perceptions. Making the decision to get needed treatment help also poses a tremendous challenge. Addiction operates as a chronic brain disease that impairs addicts socially, psychologically, physically and spiritually, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine. After….
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When Luis Carino was sober, his friends said he was a thoughtful guy. He painted and fixed things and did odd jobs for people in the neighborhood where he used to live. But when he drank beer, which friends said was often, it was a different story. Carino, 52, who had a history of battery,….
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