James M Strawbridge
VerifiedPh. D.
Psychologist
Boynton Beach, Florida, USA
Answers questions in Alcoholism · Alternative Therapies · Christian Recovery
What I do
Activities: Hospital volunteer
I have been providing psychotherapy for over 4,000 individuals, families and groups affected by addictions from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and different circumstances.
My story
These were people who had developed addictions that have adversely affected themselves, their work, their families and various activities---but good and bad
My avocation is working with abused animals. People who do this seem to be addicted to power. They suffer from serious, psychological problems that will probably not go away on their own. They need the help of a professional--like a psychologist. Without help, the psychological problems these people have can haunt them for their whole lives.
Why life is worth living
because you can start your day over any time.
Treatment Offered
Specialties
Therapy approaches
Patient population
Modalities
Answered Questions(37)
Heroin Addiction & Dopamine
I have been a daily heroin user for more than 7 years. i have gone through detox a couple of times but I have never stayed clean for more than a couple of weeks at any one time. One thing that always gets me is how crappy I feel when I don't use, even after I am over the worst of the withdrawals. I understand that my dopamine systems can be damaged for a long time after a long time of heroin use and that this can make it hard for me to feel pleasure like I used to feel before I started using heroin What I want to know is how much of my dopamine systems I can expect to recover and how long this is going to take. If I know that things will get better then maybe i will be able to stick it out when I try next time.
Read answer →Alcohol Liver Disease
I am a long time heavy drinker. What are signs that I need to be on the look out for that would point out that I am starting to damage my liver?
Read answer →Alcohol Abuse vs Alcohol Dependence
Can you recommend a good self help book for someone who wants to work on what is I guess called alcohol abuse but not alcoholism? I want to try to fix things on my own if I can but so far I am not doing very well at reducing my intake.
Read answer →Alcoholism and Parkinson's Disease
Does alcoholism increase a persons risk for Parkinson’s disease? When my brother gets very drunk which is something that happens every day he starts to move back and forth like he doesn't have control over the muscles in his head and neck. It looks just like what my grandfather used to look like and he had Parkinson’s. my brother is only 38 year old but his body is not in good shape from a lot of years of very heavy drinking.
Read answer →Alcoholism and Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome
My ex-husband and father of my child is a chronic alcoholic and was already showing signs of brain damage from the disease in 1997. He is a chronic alcoholic and basically drinks every waking moment. He had a bad fall recently and had to undergo emergency brain surgery. He is in a coma (not drug induced) and on a ventilator. I need some more info on the chances of him recovering from this. I am certain that by now he has severe wet brain syndrome and he has also had a couple of operations on his pancreas. I need to be able to tell my son what the probable outcome of this latest catastrophe is going to be. Please could you help. I am a member of Al-Anon and have a great understanding of this terrible disease.
Read answer →Caution: Alcohol + Tylenol or Advil ILL Advised
Is it true that you should not take tylenol or advil after a big night of drinking because it is hard on your liver?
Read answer →Al-Anon, the Helpful Fellowship for Families
Are there any on 12 steps based programs for family members of alcoholics. I have tried alanon and it was not a good fit for me.
Read answer →Bedwetting and alcohol drinking in adults
Sometimes when I get very drunk I wet the bed in the night (with urine). This only happens once or twice a year. It happened last night and I had my new girlfriend sleeping over. This was very embarrassing. Should I be worried that I do this? I have never really talked to anyone about this before because it is fairly embarrassing to admit. Is this a common thing or do I need to get checked out medically?
Read answer →Use of Alcohol And Cocaine Creates A Third Drug
My brother gave up drinking and drugs last month. I don’t know exactly what he was using but I know he was drinking every day and doing cocaine and if he is like everyone else around here I am sure he was doing a lot of pills too. I am really proud of him for quitting but ever since he quit he has just sat at home and watched TV, like all the time. At first I was just happy to see him not drunk or stoned but now I am starting to worry about him. Is this normal behavior for the first month of being clean and sober? He is generally a really sociable guy so to see him at home all the time and by himself is really out of character. He is just so down and he doesn’t want to do anything. Should I encourage him to get out and do more or should I just leave it alone since he isn’t drinking or using drugs?
Read answer →Dynamics of Alcohol Abuse
We moved for my work a year ago. Since that time my wife’s drinking has gotten increasingly out of control. She drinks a bottle of wine at least every day. We are scheduled to move back home in 6 months. She says she is only drinking so much now because she is so bored and once she goes back to her life at home she will cut back to a healthier amount. I am kind of worried that she is becoming an alcoholic. Is it very risky for me to wait 6 months to see if what she is saying is true? Should I force the issue now or wait and see? She is not causing any problems to our relationship but I just do not think it is healthy.
Read answer →Alcohol Recovery Is Not A Solitary Exercise
I am 2 months sober. I am doing it on my own and it is working Ok for me. The problem I have is that it does not seem to be getting any easier. Every night I am on the edge of going and buying a bottle and every night I have to fight it. How long does it take before I won’t have to fight so hard not to drink every night? I am willing to keep fighting but I would like to know that it is going to get easier at some point.
Read answer →Narconon: A Residential Program with Merit?
Should I be weirded out by the scientology links at narconon? I am not a religious person but I’d go to a Christian rehab if I thought it would help me get quit drinking and pot. To me the sound of not using more medications and sweating out the toxins in my body makes a lot of sense. I don’t care if people around me are into weird religions as long as they don’t pressure me on it too much. Do you know much about the narconon treatment programs? They have a very high success rate.
Read answer →Alcohol and Older Adults
How much alcohol should a woman in their 60s drink each day? My mom has a couple of glasses of wine each night, which I understand is well within the normal parameters and is even a healthy amount for heart health. However it seems to make her a bit drunk and It seems to me that if she is consuming an amount that is enough to get her tipsy on a daily basis that this is not ideal for other reasons.
Read answer →Alcoholism: A Self-Preserving Disease
Hi, my name is Carla. I am writing to you about my 68 father. Today was a very bad day. We had a family day planned and again my dad had to ruin it by drinking rubbing alcohol. He is a very heavy drinker but now has turned to mouthwash, hand-sanitizer, rubbing alcohol... This has been going on for more than 30 years but has just gotten worse. He says he dosen't want to live anymore and my brother and sister back me up with whatever im going to do. I need to know whom my I talk to about this before he really hurts himself.
Read answer →Can Interventions Help with Codependency?
How can I convince my parents to stop enabling my brother? He is an alcoholic and he has never really had a job that he can stick with for longer than a few months. He is in his 30s now but he still acts like a child and relies on my parents for everything. They still pay the rent on his apartment so any money he makes he can pretty much just spend it all on alcohol, but even with that he still managed to get evicted for taking that rent money for a couple of months and pouring it down his throat. He was the life of the party in his teens and early 20s, but now all his friends have moved on and he just stays at home alone and drinks by himself. My parents just can’t bear to see him face the consequences of what he’s doing to himself. But how is he ever going to stop when he has this easy life, and my parents are also getting older. What’s going to happen to him when he’s in his 40s and all of a sudden there is no one around to take care of his every need. They need to stop treating him like a child and he needs to man up and start taking care of his own self. He is smart and big and strong and there is no reason why he can’t take care of himself. I am so frustrated because I have worked so hard on him to try to get him to take some responsibility for himself and to try to get him to drink less but I feel like my efforts are just so totally undermined by my parents so it’s just all a waste of time.
Read answer →Drug Abuse Can Be Prevented
Hello Dr. Strawbridge, As of September 2012 I will start taking classes in the field of Alcoholism and Drug abuse counseling. Can you tell me in what area there is the most need and demand; either in the field of prevention or cure? Also, how is the field of drug and alcoholism prevention utilized?
Read answer →Emotional Dysregulation / Borderline Personality Disorder
My 48 year old brother has borderline personality disorder and he also has diabetes and hepatitis C. He lives independently on a disability check in a room he rents near my home and since our parents passed I have been the person that kind of looks out for him. His health has worsened lately and so he has become eligible for home visits from a nurse and some sort of healthcare assistant. This has been really great because it took a lot of the burden off of me. The problem is he very hard to deal with and because can be very verbally abusive it has gotten difficult for the agency to find nurses who are willing to continue to visit him after a few visits. He can be very pleasant and charming at times, but as soon as something doesn’t go his way his entire personality changes and he can be very scary. He is a big guy and people often feel threatened although he does not ever become violent. I have tried talking about this with him and he really wants the home visits to continue but he just doesn’t seem able to control himself. I can’t bear the thought of losing this help. It has really changed my whole life for the better in a very big way. I can’t go back to the way it was before. Is there anything that could be done to control him better? I am close to washing my hands of him but without anyone he will just die and I can’t live with that either.
Read answer →Paradoxes and Contradictions: Alcoholism
I am ready to quit drinking. I can say that I am an alcoholic. Over the last few years I have drank about 15 or 20 or more beers every day. There has not been one day over the last years that I have not drank. I am going to lose my family unless I do what I have promised which is to stop drinking entirely. I do not have money for alcohol treatment but I there is an AA group meeting at a nearby church which I plan on attending as soon as I can get sober. The problem is I am finding it quite hard to stop drinking. I get the shakes and I know it can be dangerous to stop very suddenly. What I would like to know is how slowly I need to wean myself down off the beers before I can stop without it being dangerous. I am thinking I will have 12 beers today and 10 beers tomorrow and 8 beers the next day and so on until I get to zero. I realize that you cannot give me medical advice without examining me but in general, does my plan make any sense to you?
Read answer →Planning an Intervention
My son is an extremely bad alcoholic. He is now on his 6th day of his latest binge. We are going to try and have an intervention with just the family tomorrow, but since we can not afford to pay we are doing it on our own. Are there any specific things we should or should not do? We are at the breaking point and he just keeps getting worse.
Read answer →Alcohol Works Even When You're Not Drinking
I am a recovering alcoholic. Right now I am having a lot of trouble with insomnia and I can’t take it anymore. I am thinking about trying some sleeping pills. I would not want to take any pills that can be ‘addictive’ or that can get me high because I know that this would be a bad decision for me. Is there any reason for me to avoid over the counter sleeping medications?
Read answer →Treatment of Alcoholism With LSD?
I recently read an article that was discussing the use of LSD for the treatment of alcoholism. What are your thoughts on this? When I was a kid (I'm 56 yrs old now) the use of LSD was illegal, how can a psychedelic drug be given by prescription when it can and will be used illegally just for kicks by our children in the schools? Any thoughts?
Read answer →Symptoms of Alcoholism Are Deceiving
I am a bit confused about whether or not my brother is an alcoholic. He drinks a lot, like every night to the point of intoxication for 9 months of the year. Then, on January 2nd of every year he goes on the wagon for three months and he uses those three months to get back into good physical shape and to lose a lot of the weight that he puts on from drinking so much beer. He has been doing this for years and whenever anyone gives him a hard time about his drinking he points to the three months he takes off every year – he says it is no problem for him to do it – as evidence that he doesn’t have a problem with alcohol at all and that he can stop whenever he wants to. I am confused. Is it possible for a person to be an alcohol if he can stop drinking every year for three months without too much difficulty? For the rest of the year though, he sure seems like one.
Read answer →Socializing Your Children: Quality vs Quantity
My wife and I both come from families that with a lot of addiction and alcoholism. Neither she nor I drink alcohol or do drugs because of what we saw growing up. We now have 2 young children and the oldest one is about ready to start pre-kindergarten. My wife was a legal assistant prior to taking maternity leave and eventually taking a few years of to be with the kids while they were very young. Money is tight for us and now that the kids are approaching school age we are discussing when, or if, she should go back to work. If she did, the kids would obviously spend a good part of the day at school and in daycare. I am concerned and have read that when children begin spending a lot of time without their parents they become more socialized by their peers, rather than mentored by an adult. In a daycare situation, there are obviously adults present, but the level of supervision does not equal that found in a family home. I have read that children in such situations grow up to be more susceptible to things like addiction and to other behavioral problems. I realize that without really knowing our situation it is difficult for you to comment on our particulars, but in general, would you say that there is any truth that having one parent remain in the home as a stay-at-home parent offers any long term protection against the problems that kids can run into when they become teenagers, like drinking, and drug use and promiscuity and criminal acts etc.? Although money would be tight if my wife or I chose to stay home, money is not the only or most important thing for us.
Read answer →The Dangerous Relief of Opiates
My boyfriend is addicted to heroin. He always says he will quit but never does. I found a 10 pack of syringes in his room with only 3 left. What is the point of no return with this drug? How easy is it for him to overdose and die from shooting up?
Read answer →Addictive Thinking and Enabling Have Much In Common
I don't know what to do with my husband at this point. I don't want to give up on him. He has been an alcoholic for a little more than two years. He has been to rehab. He has been to multiple meetings. For a while he knew he couldn't drink. Now, he constantly lies about the drinking and he thinks that he controls it. He thinks that drinking a little before work or whatever is okay. He thinks that is, "controlled." He thinks that he is not effecting anyone. Well, he is really affecting me, my students, and all my family because I am not my normal chipper self. I tell him all the time, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. Do you have any suggestions? My family tells me that he needs a long term live in place, but he doesn't seem into it. I told him if he loved me he would go, but that doesn't seem to matter. He thinks that if he has a real job, he would be better. I've been the one with the job for the last 6 years. He used to work for the forest service before that. He only did it to pay for school so that he could teach too though. When he got his credential though, no teaching jobs were there, so, he's been subbing. I think he might go back to the service. I feel really stuck.
Read answer →Social Anxiety is a Heavy Load
I have got really bad social anxiety. Should I use kava extract to help me get over it? I am kind of not sure if it is the kind of thing I have to take every day like an antidepressant or, better, if it is something I can just use when I need to go into social situations…like I use a alcohol drinks now….the problem with the alcohol is when it wears off sometimes my anxiety is even worse than ever.
Read answer →Enabling is a Waste of Time
Our 34 year old daughter is in an in-patient facility for opiate use. We realize we have enabled her for many years, and are now learning that we need to stop. However, when she is released, she will still have a job (as an RN) but no money & many bills because she & her boyfriend used the last of her money before we forced her into rehab by telling her she needed to move out of the trailer she is renting from us if she did not get help. My question.... Do we help her with these bills to reduce her stress during the critical weeks after rehab, or tell her that she's "on her own" because we are no longer going to enable her?
Read answer →Struggles And Acceptance
My wife has terminal stage 4 cancer and is in hospice care now. I am 18 years sober. We have 2 kids who are grown and living on their own now both out of state and when my wife dies it will be me alone at home. I have been very in control of my sobriety for a long time now but lately I have been having strong cravings to drink. I have been keeping things together for now but I am worried that after my wife passes and I don’t have to think about taking care of her each day I am not going to be able to resist any more. I tried AA 25 years ago and it never felt right to me and it still doesn’t. I feel like I need some support or I am going to relapse but I am not sure where to turn to? Can someone who is still sober and who hasn’t started drinking again get into a treatment program for alcoholism? It doesn’t seem quite right that but it’s all I can think of for people with drinking problems.
Read answer →Vicodin Withdrawals
Does acupuncture really help with opiate withdrawals? My wife is trying to taper off a very nasty vicodin habit. It is really hard for her and it is taking a really long time and she is really suffering with it. She is so determined to make it though and I really admire her for this. I have been researching things that might make it easier for her and I came across some papers that suggested that acupuncture on the ear relieves withdrawal symptoms. If it did anything at all to help her it would be worth giving it a try. I don’t really believe in Chinese medicine but at this point anything that might help is under consideration. If you had any other suggestions for things that might help to alleviate some of the pains she is going through I would really appreciate any info that you could offer.
Read answer →Abstinence and Stress
I have heard that yoga and meditation can be helpful for people in recovery. I am not really a yoga kind of guy but I know my last relapse was caused by my inability to handle stress very well. I would like to know if practicing martial arts like karate offers the same benefits as activities like yoga and meditation. They seem sort of similar to me, but I am not sure…
Read answer →I Have A Drinking Problem
I have a drinking problem. When it gets too out of control after a long stretch of going really heavy I usually try to dry out for a month or so, just so that I keep things under some degree of reasonable control. Whenever I dry out I just switch to smoking grass for a month or so. I do not like grass as much as I like to drink but I find quitting drinking without smoking grass too hard for me. I have been drinking a little too hard now since well before the holidays and I need to take a break. The problem is I am currently in a country where buying a little grass is not an option. Is there some pill I can take that is not addictive (I do not want to mess around with opiates and all that shit) but that will get me a little mellow so that I can take a couple each night instead of drinking and then after a month or so just stop using them?
Read answer →Is There Really A Problem?
I made a new year’s resolution to stop drinking for 3 months because I have been drinking too much for the last little while. I have drank every night since I made that commitment to stop drinking and so I think I am going to need some help to be able to do what I need to do. I don’t think I am an alcoholic or anything like that since I still hold down a very good job and go to work every day and take care of my bills and my responsibilities. But I do recognize that the alcohol is affecting my health and even more than that I am worried about the example I am setting for my two preteen children. I think I need some sort of assistance to help me get over the initial hurdle of managing to quit but I don’t think I fit in at AA or anything like that. I have been drinking moderately heavily for a few years now but I have never really made a serious effort at quitting before. What kind of assistance could a person who is not an alcoholic and who doesn’t need to go to rehab or anything that serious get to stop drinking?
Read answer →Why is Enabling a Common Response to Addiction?
After spending some time at my mom’s house over the holidays I am convinced that she needs to get some help. My dad died 2 years ago. She has always liked to drink but he really kept her under control. Now that he is gone she has been drinking more and more. She is 74 but she has aged incredibly in the last year and I am not sure if it is because she is always a little bit drunk or not but she is not nearly as sharp as she was just a couple of years ago. Her house was always well kept but now it is dirty and messy and she always used to like to socialize quite a lot but now when I ask her about how she spends her time and who she sees she gets very vague. I get the feeling she doesn’t leave the house all that much other than to go to the grocery and liquor stores. I asked her about her drinking but she got very defensive and angry about it so I dropped it. My brother doesn’t seem to want to get into it with her but my sister agrees with me that something needs to be done. The question is what to do? As it stands right now I do not think she should be living alone. I don’t think she is eating well or taking care of herself, but I do not know how much of her neglect is related to her drinking or if there is maybe some other cause for it. My sister says we should consider asking her to move to a retirement community and that within an assisted living environment she would probably do well and with increased social opportunities she might have more to do each day than get loaded. I am not sure that she needs that just yet because I am not sure we have any idea what the drink is causing and what is caused by other things. I think she needs to get some help for it, but where does a woman in her 70’s go to get sober? I can’t imagine her in some sort of rehab with a bunch of young people. It’s laughable and she would never agree to it. Would an assisted living environment/retirement community likely help her to drink less? If we decide not to go that route, how can an elderly woman get help to stop drinking?
Read answer →Alcohol, Food & Dopamine
It’s funny to me. I am a long time heavy drinker who is probably some kind of alcoholic but I manage to get by OK and I have accepted who I am. Every now and again, I try to take some time off from the drinking, maybe a few weeks or a month at a time, just to keep things from getting too crazy and too lose a bit of the beer weight etc. I have a question about something I have noticed when I periodically quit. When I am drinking I tend to eat reasonably healthily. But whenever I quit drinking I am always craving fast food and I will eat 5 times more drive through burger meals in a month on the wagon than I will in a year or more of drinking. It feels to me like I am using food as a way to get kind of a buzz going instead of drinking. Is this a normal thing and why does fast food do this when a steak dinner, for example, won’t so much?
Read answer →Opiate Addiction & Spirituality
I know there are a lot of Christian drug rehabs but is there such a thing as Buddhist addiction treatment? I am a very spiritual person and am most drawn to the principles of Buddhism and mindfulness in my life. I am addicted to opiates and I hate them because they make me feel so clouded and I need to get off them as soon as possible. I need help but I do not want ‘WESTERN MEDICINE’ help – I have had enough of that for a lifetime. I know there is a temple in Thailand which helps people detox with herbs that make you vomit and then helps you to overcome your addiction through a spiritual contract. Is there anything like that in America?
Read answer →Hypnosis & Meditation
I believe that some experiences with certain drugs and certain altered states of consciousness have really helped me to come to terms and to understand my own spirituality and my own place in the world. I believe that altered states of consciousness give me a different perspective on life and how I should live it and help me to understand God and my place in the universe. Unfortunately, I have abused drugs and now I am no longer really able to achieve altered states of consciousness through chemical means. Are there any types of therapies that help people grow spiritually through the use of altered states of consciousness without using drugs? Maybe trances or hypnosis or meditation based…not sure – but very interested to find out!
Read answer →Decisions & Consequences
My ex was a meth user who abandoned us 3 years ago, when my son was 7. Although my husband was a pretty crap spouse for the last years of our marriage, when he was around he would always try to be a dad, as best as he could and my son worshiped the ground he walked on. Needless to say, it devastated my son when his dad disappeared and it took him years to get over the abandonment. Actually, I don’t think he’s really over it, but at least he has accepted it and he never cries for his dad anymore. It was very hard for him and very hard for me to watch him with such sadness. Well, a couple of days ago my ex showed up waiting for me as I got off work. He says he is back in town now and that he is 4 months clean and that he is born again. He says he is sorry for all the hurt he has caused and he knows that we will never be back together again (he is right) but that he wants to get to know his son again. He knows he was wrong though and he doesn’t want to create any more pain, he says, so he will let me decide and say when and how the two can meet. I don’t know what to do. The last thing my son needs is to fall back in love with his dear old dad only to have his dad screw him over again. On the other hand, if my ex really is sober and going to stay that way, it is too cruel for me to keep him from his son and his son from his father. If only so they can get to know each other. I think I want to wait though until I can see he is not going to go back to the meth before I allow them to get together. How long should I wait to see if this is going to happen? Or maybe I am wrong. Maybe I should let my son meet his dad again while he is clean, because who knows how long this will last. This could be his last chance for all I know. Is it more damaging for my son to met his father again and have him be disappointed or to not meet him at all. I also haven’t told my ex that I am considering not letting them get together at all for a while, so if I say that to him his story might change and he might just show up at the house or something. That would not be totally out of (his old anyway) character.
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