Question by fancychancie: How to get my brother to stop smoking pot and start going to school?
I am 22, my sister is 20, my little brother (star of this discussion) is 15, my dad is 54. My little brother is a major pot smoker and it has ruined his 1st year of high school cause he is ALWAYS ditching to go smoke. My dad has given him drug tests and he will fail them, so my dad will take away his Xbox, phone, allowance basically everything he enjoys. NONE of this seems to phase him, he’s still ditching, smoking, getting all Fs. We have talked with the school counselor multiple times and each time it ends in something along these lines “Well, he is on my list, but keeping him in school and not smoking isn’t my job.” He DOES NOT want to help, my dad has to work to support us so he can’t follow him around all day and make sure my brother is attending. My dad is at his wits end, any more suggestions that will help us get a grasp on this kid again will be much appreciated!
Thanks

Best answer:

Answer by vatsalya
Is he a human? He doesnt wanna help, study, work. Let him smoke, he’ll die someday you take his xbox and enjoy. Or take a fake lung cancer test and say that he has lung cancer and is gonna die after 4 months and cant be saved now.

Answer by cr
You could try giving him back his Xbox or phone, etc. or try to find something that he will enjoy more than smoking pot. If he finds a new hobby, game, friend (who is a good influence) or whatever, he may be more interested in the game and possibly smoke less and less. As for him ditching school, I don’t know, sorry. Hope my advice may have helped at all though.

Heroin addicts ' told to leave hospital'
Kimberley – The Northern Cape Department of Health's commitment to assisting drug-addicts with rehabilitation has come under fire after two heroin users were told to leave Kimberley Hospital, shortly after admitting themselves in an attempt to come …
Read more on Independent Online

Films explore consequences of technological advances
Valarie Veatch said she first heard about the South Korean couple in 2010 from news reports about their trial, where their attorney successfully made a case that their clients suffered from an addiction to Internet gaming, akin to alcohol, drug or …
Read more on Monmouth Daily Review Atlas

Founder of Recover Wyoming shares her walk with addiction
She lost jobs. She collected DUIs. She was kicked out of family functions. And at one point, her sister even planned her funeral. But experiencing those lowest of lows, and rising above them, later inspired her to found Recover Wyoming and lead other …
Read more on Wyoming Tribune

'What Addicts Know': Realizations from recovery that can help us all
In "What Addicts Know," Christopher Kennedy Lawford revisits the topic of addiction and provides an eye-opening explanation as to how our culture has become dependent on the instant gratification of gambling, drugs, alcohol, technology, and material …
Read more on Today.com

Why Sugar Makes Us Feel So Good
Last week, I reported that scientists are working their way toward a consensus that sugar is addictive. While some researchers are still hesitant to liken sweet stuff to drugs or alcohol, the evidence is accumulating to explain why some of us really …
Read more on NPR (blog)

Question by Michael Brian: What addictions does the APA recognize as actual addiction disorders?
I know technically anything can be an “addiction” but I’m trying to find a list that the APA has put out that lists the actual addictions someone can be diagnosed with.

Best answer:

Answer by Peachy Perfect
Depends on what you count as an addiction. The DSM-IV (current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) doesn’t have a definition for the word “addiction” and doesn’t use it.

As far as what *you* might classify as an “addiction”, you can be diagnosed with either Substance Abuse or Substance Dependence, depending on the severity of the addiction. This involves either the dependence on or abuse of substances, like alcohol, heroin, caffeine –yes, I said caffeine–, cocaine, nicotine, etc.

As far as other “addictions” to non-substances go, the ones found under the “Impulse Control Disorders” category include:
– Pathological Gambling (people addicted to gambling)
– Kleptomania (people addicted to stealing)
– Pyromania (people addicted to setting fires)
– Trichotillomania (people addicted to pulling their hair out — yes, I’m serious)

There are lots of other disorders, including but definitely not limited to pedophilia and hypochondriasis, which you might consider addictions (pedophilia being when you are “addicted” to sexual endeavors with children, hypochondriasis being when you are “addicted” to being sick), but I don’t really count those under the “addictions” category, personally.

However, in the DSM-5, which is set to come out in May 2013, they are going to add a ton more disorders involving addictions under the category “Substance Use and Addictive Disorders”. But mostly the only change that will be made is specifying the type of substance that one is abusing, dependent on, and/or suffering withdrawals from. For example, instead of being diagnosed with plain “Substance Abuse” with alcohol listed as a side note, an alcoholic would be diagnosed with “Alcohol Use Disorder”, “Alcohol Intoxication”, and/or “Alcohol Withdrawal”.

Addiction definition in flux
In September, Yale professor of psychiatry Marc Potenza published a letter in the journal “Addictive Behaviors” on how the definition of “addiction” had broadened in the new edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) …
Read more on Yale Daily News (blog)

You can't treat addiction with willpower and denial
These phenomena have been incorporated into the definition of addiction as a chronic relapsing brain disorder by the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the symptoms include cravings and withdrawal with observable consequences such as loss of …
Read more on The Globe and Mail

Sugar as addictive as Cocaine
If we look at the above definition, then no, sugar is definitely NOT an addiction and using the term is highly erroneous. My view though is that "addiction" is much more complicated to define. Firstly we aren't all tempted by the same vices. I will …
Read more on News24

Question by Michael Brian: What addictions does the APA recognize as actual addiction disorders?
I know technically anything can be an “addiction” but I’m trying to find a list that the APA has put out that lists the actual addictions someone can be diagnosed with.

Best answer:

Answer by Peachy Perfect
Depends on what you count as an addiction. The DSM-IV (current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) doesn’t have a definition for the word “addiction” and doesn’t use it.

As far as what *you* might classify as an “addiction”, you can be diagnosed with either Substance Abuse or Substance Dependence, depending on the severity of the addiction. This involves either the dependence on or abuse of substances, like alcohol, heroin, caffeine –yes, I said caffeine–, cocaine, nicotine, etc.

As far as other “addictions” to non-substances go, the ones found under the “Impulse Control Disorders” category include:
– Pathological Gambling (people addicted to gambling)
– Kleptomania (people addicted to stealing)
– Pyromania (people addicted to setting fires)
– Trichotillomania (people addicted to pulling their hair out — yes, I’m serious)

There are lots of other disorders, including but definitely not limited to pedophilia and hypochondriasis, which you might consider addictions (pedophilia being when you are “addicted” to sexual endeavors with children, hypochondriasis being when you are “addicted” to being sick), but I don’t really count those under the “addictions” category, personally.

However, in the DSM-5, which is set to come out in May 2013, they are going to add a ton more disorders involving addictions under the category “Substance Use and Addictive Disorders”. But mostly the only change that will be made is specifying the type of substance that one is abusing, dependent on, and/or suffering withdrawals from. For example, instead of being diagnosed with plain “Substance Abuse” with alcohol listed as a side note, an alcoholic would be diagnosed with “Alcohol Use Disorder”, “Alcohol Intoxication”, and/or “Alcohol Withdrawal”.

Scientists examine the causes and treatment of addictive behaviour
Such a system allows changes in how genes are expressed in cells without altering our genetic code, and forms a type of genetic memory. Addiction to all four major classes of abused substances – psychostimulants, opiates, alcohol and nicotine – has …
Read more on South China Morning Post

The 6 Types of Sex Addict
I will cover the six types of sex addicts briefly. I go into greater detail on the CD's The 6 Types of Sex Addicts and the follow up CD, Treatment for the 6 Types of Sex Addicts. This subject and application is also available on several hours of DVDs …
Read more on Kawartha Media Group (blog)

Closing of Lake Shore Health Care Center prompts concerns over impact on …
The health care center includes an emergency room and a residential program for rehabilitation of women's chemical dependency. “Many people are dependent on the facility, including those in the Seneca Nation,” Borrello said. Patients at Lake Shore at …
Read more on Buffalo News

Closing inpatient services at Psych Center would impair Claxton-Hepburn's …
e-mail this article. OGDENSBURG — Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center's emergency room chief says the hospital's ability to serve patients would be seriously damaged by the proposed closure of inpatient care facilities at the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center.
Read more on WatertownDailyTimes.com

Huntington urges state to keep Sagamore center open
Under the cost-cutting plan, children needing inpatient psychiatric treatment would go to facilities in Queens or the Bronx, and community services would be expanded, including intensive, individualized help designed to treat more troubled children at …
Read more on Newsday

In Focus: Raising awareness of prescription drug abuse
Prescription drug abuse is the fastest-growing addiction problem in the nation, according to experts. In Western New York, an estimated 1 in 5 young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 is either dependent on or abusing prescription painkillers. More …
Read more on Buffalo News

More states focusing on prescription drug problem
Avi Israel has been a frequent and vocal advocate since 2011 for tackling the growing problem of prescription drug abuse, including testimony in 2012 before the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control. His advocacy helped lead to New York …
Read more on USA TODAY

Kansas vs. Missouri in debate over prescription drug abuse
In the Show Me State, according to the group HealthyAmericans.org, the number of deaths mostly related to prescription drug use has tripled since 1999. The state has the seventh highest drug overdose mortality rate in the United States, with 17 per 100 …
Read more on KSHB