Posts by Nate Anderson

Ward Greenberg, an American lawyer working in Germany, said he was going to give up drinking temporarily for Lent, but when the coronavirus pandemic hit, he decided it would be sufficient to stay dry just on weeknights. But he soon decided five nights without a drink was too many. “Now it’s no drinking midweek — so Wednesdays…

It’s no surprise that people are feeling anxious right now. Workers are worrying about how they’ll pay the rent as hours are cut back. Young parents are trying to do their jobs remotely while watching their children who are home from school. Older people are weighing the health risks of making a quick run to…

CHICAGO — In the basement of the Mustard Seed, a red brick building in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood that hosts dozens of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings each week, a handful of people gathered on a recent night to discuss a different addiction. They were members of Marijuana Anonymous, a rapidly expanding 12-step organization that serves those…

The rate at which Americans are drinking themselves to death has risen sharply in recent years, particularly among women, according to a study published this month in JAMA Network Open. Using death certificate data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the study’s authors identified 425,045 alcohol-induced deaths in the United States between 2000 and…

People struggling with addiction who share a lethal dose of drugs are being prosecuted as killers. By Paige Williams Jamie Maynard’s husband, Timothy, abused drugs, and he hit her. In 2012, after four years of marriage, she left him. Jamie and her two small sons moved in with her parents, postal workers who lived west…

For years the struggles that musicians have had with mental issues and substance abuse, have led to very tragic ends. Yet, this is something that has been even romanticized and sort of accepted into the culture of the music industry.     As studies continue to shed more light on mental health issues it is…

2019: Phew, what a decade this year was. Or at least it felt like it. With everything happening all the time, it’s easy to forget to take care of yourself. How can we focus on ourselves when there is so much going on around us, not even to mention worrying about careers, families, money, stress…

Niki Tartal once lived on the streets of Palm Beach County, hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol. The Lake Worth Beach mom shares how her Christmas miracle unfolded, one step at time. Niki Tartal’s Christmas story begins with Christmas past. One in which the twentysomething was sleeping rough, just beyond Lake Worth Beach’s main streets,…

When former vice president Joe Biden asserted over the weekend that marijuana shouldn’t be legal because it might be a “gateway” to hard drug use, pro-legalization critics were quick to paint him as an out-of-touch codger still fighting the last drug war. But the reaction isn’t entirely fair: Yes, the marijuana gateway theory that was…

Let’s just focus on eating the pie, shall we? The holiday season has arrived. And, just like every year, it brings with it a mix of emotions for all of us. Whether you’re excited, anxious, or a little bit of both, remember that the holiday season can be a great opportunity to flex your sober…