Author name: JOYSON JOY P

For healthcare providers, the challenge isn’t just identifying drug use—it’s knowing what to do next. If a patient admits to using opioids, does that mean they need rehab immediately? Or do they just need a brief counseling session? Making the wrong call can either overwhelm the healthcare system or leave a patient dangerously unsupported. Clinicians

Most medical tests are specialists. One test checks for alcohol; another checks for tobacco. But in the real world, our habits rarely stay in such neat little boxes. A person might smoke cigarettes to wake up, drink wine to fall asleep, and occasionally use something else to relax on the weekend. To understand the true

When you go for a physical, your doctor checks your blood pressure, your heart rate, and your weight. These are the “vital signs” of your physical body. But there is another set of vital signs that often gets skipped: your substance health. We often treat alcohol, tobacco, and prescription meds as separate things. You might

Asking for help with drug use is terrifying. There is the fear of judgment, the fear of legal trouble, and perhaps the biggest fear of all—the fear of having to stop. Because of this, many people suffer in silence. They tell themselves, “I can handle it,” or “I only do it on weekends.” But deep