By Shannon Koehle
EmpowHer.com's Health Reporter

Household closets overflow with garb. Items still wear their price tags. Unworn shoes peak out from under the bed. Credit cards reach there limit.

These are signs of shopping addiction.

According to a 2006 Stanford study, 6 percent of Americans may be considered compulsive shoppers.

Composed of five forms of addiction – compulsive, trophy, image, bargain, and codependent – compulsion seems to be the most common shopping addiction.

A recent article in the New York Times said that the rate of deaths caused by prescription and other legal drugs (in Florida) was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined!

Do you think there is a prescription drug abuse epidemic? Is it happening in your community or elsewhere? What can we do about keeping our medicine and other drugs (including alcohol) out of the hands of the mis-users?

Have your or a loved one had a problem with addiction to any prescription or non-prescription drugs? What helped you overcome this?

LONDON (Reuters) - Amy Winehouse was arrested on suspicion of drug offenses on Wednesday, police sources said.

The Grammy-winning soul singer, who was arrested for assault less than two weeks ago but released with a warning, was being held after she turned herself in at a London police station.

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When asked about the effects of smoking, the question usually refers to how smoking is detrimental to our lungs, throat or mouth. Did you know that cigarettes effect every organ, nerve, muscle, brain receptor site, artery, vein and tissue in our bodies! When we smoke, the drug nicotine, tar and other additives travel through our blood stream throughout our entire body. We have heard that smoking causes lung cancer...did you know that it also causes bladder cancer and harms our reproductive systems? However, perhaps the most significant organ effected is our brain.

I'd like to hear feedback on the idea of food being an addiction, much as drugs and alcohol are. Can someone be addicted to food - in a physical and psychological sense?

Should some clinics or rehab for food addicts be free, like they are for drug and alcohol patients?

Does an obese person (through over-eating) need therapy to stop, or do they just need more self-control and a change in lifestyle?

Everyone who smokes has a love-hate relationship with their nicotine-of-choice, be it cigarette, cigar, smokeless tobacco or other form.

Get to know your love-hate relationship better. It is the first clue, and a powerful cessation method, to understanding your triggers, cravings and barriers to quitting.

There are quite a few prescription drugs on the market to help you quit smoking, and they work by "fooling" your neurotransmitters into not craving the nicotine. They have worked successfully for many, many people.

The power of a cigarette. I've heard cigarettes referred to as one of the greatest drug-delivery devices ever invented. Think about it: they're relatively cheap, legal, accessible, the drug (nicotine) provides the user with either a quick pick-me-up or a nice stress-reducer, which ever is needed. And, it is always there for them. Smokers can (usually) take more breaks, have some more social time outside; some even have their own special designated place!

By Laurie Sandell
Glamour

At the peak of my sleep crisis, I was an Olympic endurance insomniac, often awake for 48 hours straight. During those endless stretches of time, I watched TV, called friends in California, whimpered, wept, beat my pillow, flipped through tabloids and surfed the Internet. I didn’t write, though I am a writer — I wasn’t capable of forming thoughts, much less sentences. So by the time I turned to the sleep aid Ambien for relief, I was desperate — and primed to become an addict.