Anxiety and the abuse of medication
When “just to take the edge off” becomes the new dependency Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people walk into a doctor’s office asking for help, and one of the most common reasons …
Dysfunction Is Not a Personality, It’s a System That Protects Addiction
Dysfunction Is Not Random Most families dealing with addiction do not wake up one morning and choose chaos, they get there the way people get to any bad normal, slowly, through adaptation. A drink becomes …
Cannabis and Sleep, Why Knocking Yourself Out Is Not Rest
Cannabis Is Often Used to Knock the Body Out Rather Than Let It Rest Many people turn to cannabis because they struggle to sleep. Racing thoughts, anxiety, and restlessness make bedtime feel impossible. Cannabis appears …
The Hidden Alcoholism in Women
Why Women Drink Alone The quietest crisis in South Africa is not happening at bars or parties, it is happening behind closed doors, in kitchens, bedrooms, bathrooms, and cars, where women drink alone to survive …
Why Addicts Destroy Progress When Life Finally Starts Getting Better
Understanding the Emotional Whiplash of Early Recovery Early recovery is a psychologically volatile period, not because the person is weak or confused, but because the emotional shift is jarring. People go from numbing their emotions …
The Hidden Link Between Trauma and Addiction
The Wounds You Can’t See Shape the Behaviours You Do Trauma is not always dramatic or obvious. It is not limited to violence, accidents, disasters, or extreme events. Trauma often hides inside moments that felt …
Addiction, When Families Are Tired, Angry, and Out of Solutions
The Quiet Exhaustion Families Carry Alone When a loved one struggles with addiction, families often enter a world they never prepared for, a world of chaos, emotional whiplash, and relentless uncertainty. At first, there is …
The Addict’s Algorithm, How Technology Predicts Your Weakness
If addiction once lived in bottles, pills, and needles, it now lives in our pockets. The digital world has become the new dealer, infinitely patient, endlessly personal, and frighteningly precise. Your phone knows when you’re …
The Abandoned Promises of the Treatment Industry
Once upon a time, rehab was a word that meant hope. It meant transformation, a lifeline, a turning point. But somewhere along the way, recovery became an industry, and when industries chase profit, people become …
The Mercy Myth, When Forgiveness Feeds the Addiction
We love the idea of forgiveness. It feels noble, healing, spiritual, the high ground of humanity. In addiction recovery, forgiveness is often treated as sacred. Forgive yourself, forgive others, and let go. But what happens …