Help for Families | Secondhand Drinking | Codependency
Continuing Care | Important to Addiction Recovery
Continuing care must be a part of addiction recovery. Why? It’s the third phase of the disease treatment model, and addiction is a disease. How? By its simplest definition, a disease is something that changes cells in a negative way. Addiction changes cells in the brain, which is what makes addiction a chronic, often relapsing…
Read MoreDon’t Let Worry About Drinking Sabotage Your Holiday Expectations
Holiday expectations and drinking – sometimes the worry about what may happen can kill the joy that’s possible during family celebrations. Read these tips to help you enjoy yourself this holiday season – even if you’re anxious about a loved one’s drinking. Drinking and Holidays Expectations If you live in a family with alcohol abuse…
Read MoreAlternatives to Control
The following is a guest post from Monkeytraps: A blog about control, which has two authors: Steve Hauptman, LCSW, and Bert. (If you’re new to Monkeytraps, Steve is a therapist who specializes in control issues, and Bert is his control-addicted inner monkey.) (If you’re new to Monkeytraps, Steve is a therapist who specializes in control issues, and Bert is…
Read MoreEating Disorders — Bulimia and Anorexia
Bulimia and anorexia – two eating disorders that can destroy a person’s quality of life in ways similar to the destruction caused by misunderstood, untreated alcoholism or drug addiction. Thanksgiving is my bulimia-free birthday, if you will – it was 30 years ago that I made it through my first T’day feast without binging and…
Read MoreThe Gift
The following is a guest post by Aleta Edwards, Psy.D., who has been in private practice for the past 18 years and has also performed psychological evaluations on children in foster care, conducted disability evaluations, counseled nursing home residents, and worked with active-duty military as a contract psychologist at Maxwell AFB in Alabama. She presently…
Read MoreDry Drunk | When an Alcoholic Stops Drinking or a Drug Addict Stops Using But Does Not Seem to Get Better
Dry drunk is a term to describe an alcoholic or drug addict’s behaviors when they’ve stopped using their substance but their behaviors don’t seem to improve. The following is a guest post by Bill Urell who has been in recovery for 16 years. Bill works as an addictions therapist at a leading residential treatment center,…
Read MoreStress and the Developing Brain
Stress and the developing brain – the impact of the chronic stress a child experiences when living with undiagnosed, unhealthily discussed substance abuse [something I refer to as secondhand drinking / drugging] can have a significant impact on the developing brain. To this point, Bruce S. McEwen’s September 21, 2011 article, “Effects of Stress on…
Read MoreThe Benefits of Therapy
Therapy for recovery from an addiction or chronic exposure to secondhand drinking – what might be the benefits? I read this post by Suzanne Harrington, “Do You Need Your Head Examined?,” appearing on the October 23, 2011 Independent.ie, Lifestyle page. Having spent three years in intensive therapy with an addictions specialist myself, I found her…
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