The toll of substance abuse, poor emotional health, and mental illnesses takes on America’s children, adults, workplaces and communities is tremendous. Quoting from SAMHSA’s “Leading Change: A Plan for SAMHAS’s Roles and Actions, 2011-2014, Executive Summary and Introduction,” here are some of the numbers: The annual total estimated societal cost of substance abuse in the… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: March 2011
The First 3 Years of Life
The first three years of life on a blog about alcohol abuse, mental illness, addiction, secondhand drinking…? You betcha! The tremendous, far-reaching brain research being conducted as a result of the advances in imaging technologies, such as SPECT, fMRI and PET, is providing a better understanding of just how/why the first three years of life… Continue Reading
Recovery: Six Years One Day At a Time
This guest post by Denise Krochta, author of the book, Sweat, A Practical Plan for Keeping Your Heart Intact While Loving an Addict, and host of the WebTalkRadio.net show, “Addicted to Addicts: Survival 101,” will offer hope for others whose loved one is grappling with an addiction. Today [March 26, 2011] I am here in… Continue Reading
Pocket Stress Reducer
The following is a guest post by Diana “ATL” Winslow, MSW, ACSW, LCSW, in which she offers a great suggestion for reducing stress — something family members can use when coping with a loved one’s substance misuse. Diana is a blogger, writer and historian and is mostly known as a Mom and licensed mental health counselor… Continue Reading
The Importance of Treating Mental Illness
The importance of treating mental illness cannot be understated – not only to relieve the symptoms of the mental illness, itself, but to thwart its role as one of the five key risk factors for abusing substances and/or developing an addiction. This program, “Los Angeles Patches Together Mental Health Care for Juvenile Offenders,“ on KQED’s… Continue Reading
Cat Power Talks About What It Was Like
by Lisa Frederiksen I first saw this video clip on Bill Urrell’s blog, Addiction Recovery Basics. In this video, written by Winter Miller and produced by Erik Olson, you will see The New York Times interview with singer/songwriter, Cat Powers, and get a glimpse of what the spiral into addiction and the road to recovery… Continue Reading
Being an Educated Parent
The following is a guest post by Sue Scheff®, author, parent advocate, and founder of P.U.R.E. (Parent’s Universal Resource Experts, Inc.), an organization helping to connect parents throughout the country that are silently suffering with today’s teens and issues and feel that they are alone in their feelings. Parent denial is probably one of the… Continue Reading
Top 10 Myths About Mental Illness
It’s the myths about mental illness that keep it shrouded in secrecy and shame making it terribly difficult for people to get the information and help they need. The following is a post by Pamela Kulbarsh, RN, BSW, a psychiatric nurse for over 25 years. She has worked with law enforcement in crisis intervention for… Continue Reading