In the coming days, otherwise reasonable and intelligent people are going to set themselves up for failure. It’s our annual ritual of self-deception: establishing New Year’s resolutions. We’ll decide that it’s time to, “go on the wagon.” We’ll talk about cutting down our use, lowering stress, getting to the gym,
Debunking: Alcohol Is Never Good For You
In the midst of America’s opioid epidemic (roughly 72,000 deaths annually), the increased devastation caused by alcohol is being overshadowed. Our country is losing approximately 88,000 people each year to alcohol-related deaths. A recently released study from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington shows
Using music to boost your recovery
It’s endlessly amusing to me that for all my training and education, I quote Facebook memes all the time. One of my current favorites: “I love music because it stays when everything else goes away.” If you’ve been through addiction or any other kind of hell, there’s an excellent chance
Addiction Looks Like Mental Illness
One of the biggest failures of dual diagnosis treatment is that we often label those active in addiction or early in recovery with mental health conditions that they don’t have. One of the benefits of “old school” treatment was the recognition that an accurate baseline is unattainable prior to significant
Doing Recovery Alone: The Hamster Wheel @ 100 MPH
One of the best (though sadly, true) statements I’ve ever heard about active addiction comes from the television series, Suits. “An addict will jump out of a third story window because they’re afraid of falling out of the penthouse.” Halfway between where you were and where you want to be
Brutal Honesty About Recovery
It’s a rare person that will give you their truth (more than simply an opinion) in no uncertain terms. I’ve learned that the best service I can provide to people like me is to point out self-deception (denial, rationalizations, justifications and minimizations). I don’t profess that my truth is THE
Safety is Key to Recovery
Addiction is most often rooted in surviving trauma. For millions of us, seeking recovery is, therefore, a two-fold pursuit. Developing skills and resources that increase a sense of personal safety are vital to the pursuit of addiction recovery. The traumas of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault often leave
Chasing the Dragon
To say that people abuse drugs/alcohol is absurd. Drugs/alcohol are inanimate objects. People and animals get abused, not objects. Addicts and alcoholics are most often those of us who found a place to hide that felt safe and liberating. Staying in that place leads to our inevitable bondage and destruction.
Relapse Prevention Made Simple
Anyone who stops drinking or drugging, no matter who they are or how determined they are, experiences times in their recovery when the cravings to use or drink are overwhelming. A high percentage will relapse during these periods. We’ll take a drink, or ten. We’ll resume using with the lie