AA's most famous touchstone was written by an anti-Nazi theologian who was battling against an evil beyond his control.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="zemanta-img" style="text-align: left;"> <div class="zemanta-img"> </div> </div> <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-size: large;">AA's most famous touchstone was written by an anti-Nazi theologian who was battling against an evil beyond his control.</span><br /> <h3 style="text-align: left;"> <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><br /><br /><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/VPXf4hQ9sVWwYCb_tABFQSW5CmpjH18XlW4TmnXljiv7q7MZt5GJ9BUNqlcgiUCRSPM2uPAtwCdk4j6dbkaGJwE_ERJoXPsJGMCv1pLgLY2ROvSA3Z-_jORQxxeMTSZWJ70" /><br /><br />For many people who attend twelve-step programs, reciting the Serenity Prayer comes as naturally as breathing. So it may come as a surprise to learn that the prayer was originally conceived not as an antidote to addiction but in response to the barbaric evil of Nazi Germany that threatened civilization itself during World War II. Written during the darkest depths of the war by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, a first-generation German-American, the prayer captured the dreadful ethical predicament faced by Niehbur and his fellow German anti-Nazi émigrés in the United States, who were safe from persecution but powerless to intervene against Hitler.<br /><br /><br />When he wrote it, Niebhur was particularly haunted by the decisions made by his closest friends and fellow teachers at New York's Union Theological Seminary, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose responses to the war in their homeland were very different but equally fateful. “The historical meaning of this quite modern American prayer is bound up in the war against one of the greatest evils posed during a violently evil century,” wrote Niebuhr’s daughter Elisabeth Sifton in <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week719/exclusive.html">her 2003 book</a> The Serenity Prayer.<br /><br />The original version of this famous prayer was delivered by Niehbur at the conclusion of a sermon he delivered at tiny Union Church in Heath, Massachusetts, a farming village where he summered with his family. At the time, the United States was still mired in war on the Western Front. Though the German Army had recently been defeated in the Battle of Stalingrad, the genocide of Europe's Jews was still in full swing. Few people at the time yet realized that the tide had turned against the Third Reich.<br /><br />What would become of German Christianity, the legacy of Martin Luther and the Reformation, in a Germany where theologians and church leaders had either been outlawed or co-opted by evil? And what should—what could—prominent dissidents like Niebuhr, Tillich and Bonhoeffer do about it? “God give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,” Niebuhr prayed with his small congregation an ocean away from the cataclysm of destruction, “courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”<br /><br /><br />“God give us the grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed,” Niebuhr prayed with his small summer congregation an ocean away from the cataclysm of World War II,“courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”<br /><br />Accepting tragedy with serenity was the approach embodied by Niehbur's close friend Paul Tillich, who was a respected writer and professor at the University of Frankfurt when Hitler first emerged on the political scene. An early opponent of the rising Nazi movement, Tillich used his prominent perch to lecture movingly against National Socialism, and was ditched from his post in 1933, soon after Hitler was elected chancellor. The professor's prospects in Germany were dire. So when Niebuhr offered him a position at Union Theological, Tillich quickly accepted. Moving his family to New York, he learned a new language, and eventually established himself as one of the 20th century’s most important Christian theorists. During the war, from 1942 to 1944, he faithfully broadcast, through Voice of America radio, hundreds of political pleas to his fellow Germans, urging them to recognize and resist the moral horrors being committed in their name by the Hitler regime.<br /><br />Their friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer took a far different path, choosing the courage to change. The wealthy and dashing Bonhoeffer was one of Germany’s most outspoken critics of National Socialism and German Christianity’s rabid antisemitism. He started an anti-Nazi Church and an underground seminary before fleeing Berlin for New York City in 1939. But despite strong pressure from his friends, he soon regretted his decision to leave his embattled homeland.<br /><br />“I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America,” he wrote to Reinhold Niebuhr. “I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany….Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.”<br /><br />Bonfoeffer ended up returning to Germany on the last steamer to cross the Atlantic. Back in Berlin, he immediately reconnected with the underground and joined first a secret effort to rescue Jews and then a secret plan to assassinate Hitler, which he hoped would bring the catastrophic war to an end. But in the summer of 1943 the assassination plot was exposed and Bonhoeffer was sent to prison. He was hanged in April 1945, just weeks before Hitler’s own suicide and the Nazi surrender. When he wrote the prayer, Niebuhr was in a kind of sympathetic spiritual agony over the alternately failed and doomed choices his two friends had made.<br /><br />Niehbur's Serenity Prayer struck an immediate chord. His Massachusetts neighbor, Dean Howard Robbins of the Federal Council of Churches, asked Niehbur if his little prayer could be included in material that the Council provided to army chaplains in the battlefield. In 1944 it was published for the first time in The Book of Prayers and Services for the Armed Forces. At the time, Alcoholics Anonymous was still in its formative years. Someone in the fledgling fellowship apparently saw the short prayer and brought it to the attention of AA founder Bill Wilson.<br /><br />With Niebuhr’s permission, Wilson began using a shortened version of the prayer in meetings he led in his wife’s house in Brooklyn and in Akron, Ohio, where he was working with Dr. Bob Smith to convert alcoholics to sobriety. Less lyrical and less theologically complex—the plea for God’s grace is eliminated and the things that “should” be changed become the things that “can” be changed—the Serenity Prayer soon became as familiar at AA fellowships as the window shades at the front of the room printed with the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions.<br /><br />It's rare for us to be able to see and touch evil in our daily lives. We sometimes recognize such moments as a result of other people’s behavior—and our own complicity or silence. There are times when human beings—individuals, families, even entire societies—are possessed by powers that seem to contradict everything we think of as human. Occasionally these times are so disorienting that the victims can often seem stranger and crazier than the perpetrators and bystanders. That is what it was like to live in Germany under Nazism, and, on a much smaller scale, that's often what it's like to live in an alcoholic household. Action seems necessary, but confusion, danger or powerlessness render action seemingly impossible<br /><br /><br />Addiction may be a disease, but it is also an evil that many people prefer to ignore. All we can hope for is the courage to strike out against it when we can, and the serenity to accept its existence when we can’t. <br /><br /><br /></span>Related articles</h3> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/god-please-send-me-someone-to-help-today.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="https://i.zemanta.com/162172779_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/04/god-please-send-me-someone-to-help-today.html" style="display: block; 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AA's most famous touchstone was written by an anti-Nazi theologian who was battling against an evil beyond his control.

AA's most famous touchstone was written by an anti-Nazi theologian who was battling against an evil beyond his control. For many ...

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It is kind of like going down a steep hill so you have to start riding that brake really hard

<p><p>US researchers have uncovered part of what's happening, on a cellular level, to make cocaine addicts going cold turkey feel so awful.</p><p>The results provide a better understanding of what's creating that crashing low of withdrawal - and may offer a clue for researchers looking to mitigate the symptoms and keep the user from relapsing.</p><blockquote><p>It is kind of like going down a steep hill so you have to start riding that brake really hard. </p><cite>Bradley Winters</cite></blockquote><p>Studying genetically-engineered mice, the researchers focused on a molecule - called cannabinoid receptor 1, or CB1 - that slows communication between nerve cells.</p><p>The molecule is particularly important in what is called the nucleus accumbens region of the brain, which governs emotion and motivation.</p><div id="adspot-300x250-pos-3">It was already well-known that cocaine produces strong effects on that part of the brain. But this is the first study of cocaine's impact on CR1 production, and what that means for the nucleus accumbens during and after a cocaine high.</div><p>When a person is high on cocaine, "it speeds everything up, pushing you to a highly rewarding emotional state," said lead author Bradley Winters.</p><p>The cocaine caused the mice to produce an excess of CB1, effectively slamming the brakes on the brain's hyper-activity in the nucleus accumbens.</p><p>"It is kind of like going down a steep hill so you have to start riding that brake really hard," Winters explained in a statement.</p><p>The problem is that the brain doesn't seem to know to let up on the brakes, after the cocaine high wears off.</p><p>"You're still riding that brake just as hard. Now you're going down a regular, low-grade hill but you're going two miles per hour because your foot is still jammed on the brake," he said.</p><p>"The state is like, 'I feel terrible and I don't want to do anything," he continued, adding that's "what brings you back to the drug because you want to feel better and the drug is the only thing you feel motivation for."</p><p>The study was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.</p><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 17px;"> </p></p>

It is kind of like going down a steep hill so you have to start riding that brake really hard

US researchers have uncovered part of what's happening, on a cellular level, to make cocaine addicts going cold turkey feel so awful. Th...

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I am worthy of success.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <div class="zemanta-img" style="text-align: left;"> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36495803@N05/6943704482" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Romantic Couple Proposal for Wedding" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="112" src="http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7071/6943704482_9ffba4f61e_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="200" /></a></div> <div> <div> <div> <div> I am worthy of success.<br /> <div> </div> <div> As I become more successful those I Love will still Love me.</div> <div> </div> <div> Life Loves me and will never abandon me.</div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div> <div> <div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; 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I am worthy of success.

I am worthy of success. As I become more successful those I Love will still Love me. Life Loves me and will never abandon me....

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The belief that one is fundamentally flawed in some way is an immense barrier to optimal experience.

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">  And it brings with it a related fear: If you did make a commitment to fully using your unique gifts, you might fail. This belief tells you to play it safe and stay small. That way, if you fail, at least you fail small.<br /> <div> </div> <div> Hidden Barrier No. 2: Disloyalty and Abandonment.<br /> <br /> This barrier is the feeling that I cannot expand to my full success because it would cause me to end up all alone, be disloyal to my roots and leave behind people from my past.</div> <div> </div> <div> Here are two questions that can help you discover if you have this barrier: Did I break my family's spoken or unspoken rules to get where I am? Even though I am successful, did I fail to meet the expectations my parents had of me? If you answered yes to either of those questions, you're likely to feel guilty as you become more successful. The guilt you feel makes you put on the brakes, holding you back from ultimate success and keeping you from enjoying the success you already have.<br /> <br /></div> Hidden Barrier No. 3: Believing That More Success Makes You a Bigger Burden.<br /> <br /> This barrier is the feeling that I cannot achieve my highest potential because I'd be an even bigger burden than I am now. This barrier held one of the biggest challenges for me.<br /> <br /> <div> Hidden Barrier No. 4: The Crime of Outshining.<br /> <br /> The unconscious mantra of the outshining barrier goes like this: I must not achieve my full success, because if I did I would outshine someone and make him or her look or feel bad. This barrier is very common among gifted and talented children. They get a lot of their parents' attention, but they also get a strong subliminal message: Don't shine too much, or you'll make others feel bad or look bad. One unconscious solution that gifted children devise is to turn down the volume on their genius so others don't feel threatened by it. The other solution is to continue to shine brightly but turn down the volume on their enjoyment of it.</div> <div> <span style="color: black; font-family: georgia; font-size: small;"><br /></span></div> <br /> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://mylittlemr.com/2013/02/04/tips-for-nurturing-gifted-children/" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/142827459_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; 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The belief that one is fundamentally flawed in some way is an immense barrier to optimal experience.

 And it brings with it a related fear: If you did make a commitment to fully using your unique gifts, you might fail. This belief tells you...

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changes most likely have a neurochemical basis, and persist for months or years after initiation of cocaine abstinence in some former abusers

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64445411@N00/794969130" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:left;"><img alt="Eric Torrey, Jason Martinez, and Cocaine" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="192" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1146/794969130_6d5d4a772d_m.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="240" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 240px;">Eric Torrey, Jason Martinez, and Cocaine (Photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64445411@N00/794969130" target="_blank">Eric Mill</a>)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div> The most significant psychopathologies observed in cocaine addicts</div> <div> include anhedonia, anxiety, anergia, paranoia, depression, and bipolar</div> <div> mood disorder, which may predispose to suicide and are believed to</div> <div> contribute to cocaine craving and relapse. These changes most likely</div> <div> have a neurochemical basis, and persist for months or years after</div> <div> initiation of cocaine abstinence in some former abusers</div> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/cocaine-abuse-addiction-and-dependency.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_125_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; 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changes most likely have a neurochemical basis, and persist for months or years after initiation of cocaine abstinence in some former abusers

Eric Torrey, Jason Martinez, and Cocaine (Photo credit: Eric Mill ) The most significant psychopathologies observed in cocaine addicts...

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Evidence of Dopamine Deficiency in Cocaine Addicts

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img"> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paralysis_agitans_%281907%2C_after_St._Leger%29.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:left;"><img alt="Illustration of the Parkinson disease by Sir W..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="316" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5d/Paralysis_agitans_%281907%2C_after_St._Leger%29.png/300px-Paralysis_agitans_%281907%2C_after_St._Leger%29.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a></div> </td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Illustration of the Parkinson disease by Sir William Richard Gowers from A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System in 1886 showing the characteristic posture of PD patients (Photo credit: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paralysis_agitans_%281907%2C_after_St._Leger%29.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div> </div> <div> Dackis and Gold (1985) have postulated that chronic use of cocaine</div> <div> appears to lead to dysregulation of brain dopaminergic systems. This</div> <div> hypothesis is clinically supported by preliminary findings showing a</div> <div> lasting decrease in dopamine (DA) in the brains of cocaine addicts</div> <div> (Wilson et al. 1992) and reported hyperprolactinemia (Dackis and</div> <div> Gold 1985; Mendelson et al. 1988). More recent studies showed</div> <div> multiphasic changes in prolactin release that are temporally correlated</div> <div> with different phases of cocaine abstinence: High plasma prolactin</div> <div> levels were observed during the immediate abstinence (crash) phase,</div> <div> reduced levels during early withdrawal, and modestly increased levels</div> <div> during the later phases of withdrawal (Gawin et al. 1993). Deficiency</div> <div> of dopaminergic functions in cocaine abusers is suggested by</div> <div> observed reduced uptake of dopa to presynaptic dopamine neurons in</div> <div> the striatum (Baxter et al. 1988), and by decrease of dopamine type 2</div> <div> (D2) receptor density in the cerebral cortex measured by PET</div> <div> (Volkow et al. 1993). Moreover, the incessant hypodopaminergia</div> <div> accompanied by possible lesions in basal ganglia are implicated in</div> <div> chronic cocaine abusers by persistent extra-pyramidal symptoms</div> <div> including dystonic and choreoathetoid movements, tics, and increased</div> <div> resting hand tremor, resembling those manifestations seen in</div> <div> Parkinson's disease (Bartzokis et al., this volume; Bauer 1993, this</div> <div> volume; Daras, this volume).</div> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/5-htp.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_1_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/5-htp.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">5-htp</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/bill-wilson-helped-me-organize-first.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_54_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/bill-wilson-helped-me-organize-first.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Bill Wilson helped me organize the first Schizophrenic's Anonymous group in Saskatoon</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/depenency-training-as-process-of.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/142514821_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/depenency-training-as-process-of.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Depenency training as process of unlearning as becoming 'more stupid'.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/01/betrayal-runs-deep-and-can-be.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_29_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/01/betrayal-runs-deep-and-can-be.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Betrayal runs deep and can be devastating.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/looking-in-mirror-and-accepting-what-we.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_98_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/looking-in-mirror-and-accepting-what-we.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Looking in the mirror and accepting what we see can be one of the hardest things we ever do.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/01/in-order-to-increase-their-chances-of.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_33_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/01/in-order-to-increase-their-chances-of.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">In order to increase their chances of enjoying the best possible life in sobriety the individual should: dealing with character flaws is a lifetime's work.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/addiction-not-moral-failing-on-part-of.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/172723244_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/addiction-not-moral-failing-on-part-of.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Addiction "is not a moral failing on the part of the individual. It's a chronic disease of the brain that can be treated."</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/cocaine-anonymous-primary-purpose.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/171863665_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/cocaine-anonymous-primary-purpose.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cocaine Anonymous: Primary Purpose beginners Meeting First five steps Group, Stockton-on-Tees we welcome all seeking recovery who may be using any drug at all including alcohol.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/sex-addiction-is-first-and-foremost.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/172820093_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/sex-addiction-is-first-and-foremost.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Sex addiction is first and foremost a disease of the brain.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/very-possibly-youre-regularly-drinking.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/173378411_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/05/very-possibly-youre-regularly-drinking.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">EVOPROJECT: Very possibly, you're regularly drinking something that has some similarities to methamphetamine and crack cocaine</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;"> <a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/?px" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_h.png?x-id=4230d5e7-dc14-4d0a-9eb9-675d1b298621" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div> </div>

Evidence of Dopamine Deficiency in Cocaine Addicts

Illustration of the Parkinson disease by Sir William Richard Gowers from A Manual of Diseases of the Nervous System in 1886 showing the...

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marked abnormalities in cerebral glucose metabolism in several brain areas were noted in cocaine/polydrug abusers as compared to normal individuals

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glucose_metabolism.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:left;"><img alt="English: Glucose metabolism and various forms ..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="233" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Glucose_metabolism.png/300px-Glucose_metabolism.png" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">English: Glucose metabolism and various forms of it in the process. Glucose-containing compounds are digested and taken up by the body in the intestines, including starch, glycogen, disaccharides and as monosaccharide. Glucose is stored in mainly the liver and muscles as glycogen. It is distributed and utilized in tissues as free glucose. Model: Mikael Häggström. To discuss image, please see Template talk:Häggström diagrams (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Glucose_metabolism.png" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <br /> marked abnormalities in cerebral glucose metabolism in<br /> several brain areas were noted in cocaine/polydrug abusers as<br /> compared to normal individuals, with variable direction of metabolic<br /> changes dependent on the stage of cocaine use, withdrawal, or<br /> abstinence. London and colleagues (1990, this volume) showed that<br /> intravenous (IV) injections of cocaine in human volunteers globally<br /> reduced cerebral glucose metabolism in the neocortex, basal ganglia,<br /> hippocampus, thalamus, and midbrain, and that this metabolic<br /> decrease was temporally correlated with euphoria. The acute effect of<br /> IV cocaine contrasted with marked increases of metabolic activity in<br /> orbitofrontal cortical regions and basal ganglia, measured during<br /> early phase of cocaine abstinence (1to 3 weeks) (Flowers et al. 1994;<br /> Volkow et al. 1991). The protracted period of cocaine abstinence was<br /> characterized by decreased metabolic activity in the prefrontal cortex,<br /> particularly in the left hemisphere (Volkow et al. 1992a), and was<br /> accompanied by impaired cerebral blood flow that persisted for at<br /> least 3 to 6 months after detoxi-fication from cocaine (Strickland et<br /> al. 1993; Volkow et al. 1988). London and colleagues (this volume)<br /> demonstrated that polydrug abusers in early stages of cocaine<br /> withdrawal had statistically decreased glucose metabo-lism in visual<br /> cortex when measured in absolute values; when values were<br /> normalized for global glucose metabolism, a relative increase in<br /> metabo-lism was noticed in the orbitofrontal area. The dynamics of<br /> metabolic changes associated with cocaine withdrawal and abstinence<br /> vary for different brain regions (Flowers et al. 1994) and may, to a<br /> certain degree, be correlated with cocaine craving (Grant et al. 1994).<br /> <br /> <div class="zemanta-related" style="clear: both; margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;"> <h4 class="zemanta-related-title"> Related articles</h4> <ul class="zemanta-article-ul zemanta-article-ul-image" style="margin: 0; overflow: hidden; padding: 0;"> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/cocaine-abuse-addiction-and-dependency.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_125_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/cocaine-abuse-addiction-and-dependency.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Cocaine Abuse, Addiction, and Dependency</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/cocaine-doesnt-get-me-high-any-more-and.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_63_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/cocaine-doesnt-get-me-high-any-more-and.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">cocaine doesn't get me high any more and still I can't stop.</a></li> <li class="zemanta-article-ul-li-image zemanta-article-ul-li" style="background: none; display: block; float: left; font-size: 11px; list-style: none; margin: 2px 10px 10px 2px; padding: 0; text-align: left; vertical-align: top; width: 84px;"><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/abstinence-however-does-not-cure.html" style="border-radius: 2px; box-shadow: 0px 0px 4px #999; display: block; padding: 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img src="http://i.zemanta.com/noimg_48_80_80.jpg" style="border: 0; display: block; margin: 0; max-width: 100%; padding: 0; width: 80px;" /></a><a href="http://galatictours.blogspot.com/2013/02/abstinence-however-does-not-cure.html" style="display: block; height: 80px; line-height: 12pt; overflow: hidden; padding: 5px 2px 0 2px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Abstinence however does not cure the underlying faulty biochemistry that caused you to seek relief from drugs in the first place. 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marked abnormalities in cerebral glucose metabolism in several brain areas were noted in cocaine/polydrug abusers as compared to normal individuals

English: Glucose metabolism and various forms of it in the process. Glucose-containing compounds are digested and taken up by the body in...

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