Dr. Alexa WheelerDr. Alexa Wheeler · 1 min read
Recently I had the pleasure of serving as an Expert Speaker at The Second Course, where I spoke on ‘Your Brain on Drugs’ 🧠💊In this lecture, I shared what happens in your brain when you take certain drugs, how the transition to addiction occurs, and what makes someone susceptible to addiction. In addition, I covered past anti-drug use messaging efforts, the strategies that worked, and what can be improved today. I finished by discussing effective substance use harm reduction strategies as well as resources that are available local in Austin, Texas.
I was grateful for the opportunity to share my expertise and educate the public about specific neurobiological mechanisms underlying certain drugs and the effectiveness of harm reduction for substance use. Increasing education and promoting the necessary resources will allow individuals to make proper safe decisions for themselves. Here in Austin we have a large volume of harm reduction-related resources available, including:
-Central Health Naloxone (NARCAN) vending machine locations (centralhealth.net) -Free Naloxone training in Travis county (traviscountytx.gov) -Texas Harm Reduction Alliance (https://harmreductiontx.org/) -Austin Harm Reduction Coalition (http://www.austinharmreduction.org/)
Proper education about substance use is important, and harm reduction resources are effective and necessary!
For inquiries about future speaking opportunities with me, see: dralexawheeler.com