Three Reasons to Reconsider Medication Assisted (Addiction) Treatment If someone you love is considering entering recovery from opioid addiction, know that their first few months without using their drug of choice will be a time of serious transition. As they begin to re-imagine and create a life for themselves outside of addiction, identifying effective support […]
Five Tips for Using Opioid Prescriptions Safely If you’ve recently been prescribed an opioid-based medication following an injury or surgery, one issue that should be on the forefront of your mind is safety. In 2015, nearly two million people struggled with an addiction or abuse of an opioid-based medication. While there are times when […]
Kinder is Stronger: The Case for Self-Compassion When you have experienced a traumatic event or developed post-traumatic stress disorder, it is difficult to have self-compassion. The wounds and untreated symptoms from living with trauma are frustrating, making it hard to go easy on yourself. Yet, developing self-compassion is an important part of overcoming the past […]
What to Look for in an Addiction Treatment Center I very often get letters from frustrated, frightened parents of grown children who are addicts. These family members are desperate for help because they have sent their loved ones to countless treatment facilities to no good end. The addicts are still using and the family […]
Skeletons in the Closet: Three Health Conditions We Need to Talk About Not every topic is considered “polite.” There are some subjects people are encouraged to avoid in general conversation, like religion and politics. But certain health conditions are too often swept under the rug to avoid perceived embarrassment, and as a result people […]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: 3 Reasons You Can’t Ignore Trauma When you face difficult times, you have two options: work through the difficulty you’ve encountered or try to avoid it. For many who have lived through a traumatic experience, going around or burying traumatic memories can feel like the only feasible […]
Yes, You Can: Four Ways to Strengthen Your Resilience Everyone knows someone who’s been through a horrifying experience, yet somehow manages to keep smiling. People like that usually come to mind when we lose it over small things, like having trouble finding a parking spot or unloading the groceries only to realize we forgot […]
Therapy and Horseplay: Four Things You Need to Know about Equine Therapy When it comes to equine therapy, I’ll be the first one to advocate for its use. I’ve been an avid rider all my life, and there were many times I walked away from the barn feeling more relaxed and rejuvenated, and emotionally healthier […]
Six Ways to Maintain Your Sobriety at a Thanksgiving Celebration I first tried to quit drinking on November 11, 1995. By Thanksgiving of that year, I was clean, but I was scared to death of facing a holiday dinner without a drink. I remember standing by the bar in my grandmother’s house, downing Diet Coke […]
I am going to take a break from my regular blog posts about the latest research and developments in addiction treatment to write about something personal. If you have read the book, “Ending Addiction for Good,” which I coauthored with Richard Taite, a book that quickly became a #1 Amazon bestseller, you know that I […]