Addicted ?!

In college I worked at the Colorado State University Drug & Alcohol Center in Fort Collins, CO. I used to teach classes on the addiction cycle and precursors to addiction. Over the years I remained interested and continued to study the information and resources available. This is my current list of Healthy Discoveries regarding addiction information:

1. Health Recovery Center – I’ve watched this center from afar for years and I am a fan of the treatment philosophy. They use nutrition to balance blood sugar, brain chemistry and food intolerance when addicts begin treatment. Drugs and alcohol can create or contribute to these imbalances so it makes sense to heal the physical body before addressing the emotional issues. If blood sugar is low, gut flora is imbalanced, and/or neurotransmitters are deficient, people can have more cravings for things like sugar, alcohol, drugs. It is a pioneering approach and they boast a 70% higher rate of success than traditional treatment programs.

2. Seven Weeks to Sobriety: The Proven Program to Fight Alcoholism through Nutrition– This book explains the Health Recovery Center’s treatment protocol and approach. Joan Matthews Larson is the author of this book and founder of the Health Recovery Center. She received her PhD in nutrition. This book contains a wealth of information for the layperson who has been unsuccessful with traditional treatment programs.

2. The Diet Cure– Written by Julia Ross who is based in California. Julia used the Health Recovery Center model and treats people with eating disorders. She also wrote The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions–Today which is a great resource as well.

3. The Edge Effect: Achieve Total Health and Longevity with the Balanced Brain Advantage
I recommend this book all the time when I teach stop smoking, weight loss, and stress management classes. Eric Braverman is a medical doctor and he explains the importance of keeping our major neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, GABA, acetylcholine) balanced. Braverman offers medication, hormone, diet, vitamin and supplement, exercise and environmental recommendations in an easy to follow format. He includes a scientific questionnaire that you fill out to determine your dominate and deficient neurotransmitters. This information is groundbreaking and very useful. If you know people who struggle with anxiety, depression, cravings, or compulsiveness in any form, I highly recommend this book.

4. 16 Steps by Charlotte Kasl – Offers a different approach to the traditional 12 steps. Kasl has a compelling argument against the 12-steps in her book Many Roads One Journey: Moving Beyond the 12 Steps. I have always liked her empowering thinking and contribution to this field.

5. Drinking: A Love Story One of my all time favorite memoirs. Caroline Knapp is a candid writer. A coming of age story about her heavy drinking through an ivy league education and a career as a Boston journalist. Her story is mesmerizing, I read it twice. She also wrote a book called, Appetites: Why Women Want which describes her struggle with anorexia after she stopped drinking. Tragically, when Knapp finally overcame her addictions she was diagnosed with lung cancer and died a couple years ago; but her books and writing live on and they are fantastic!

6. A Million Little Pieces– I read this book before the Oprah debacle and loved it. Then Oprah slaughtered James Frey on her stage for calling his book a memoir when many parts of it were undeniably fiction. I was then disenchanted with this book; but time moved on and if you haven’t read it, I would still recommend it. Memoir or not, it is a gripping story about drug and alcohol addiction.

7. Five other well known stories on addiction will be read in a live theater production Sunday March 9Th, from 2-4pm in Denver.