If you’ve achieved sobriety for even one day, take a moment. Moments can lead to long-term sobriety. Exercise gratitude. Feel thankful for your sobriety. For some, dealing with sobriety presents a completely new way of life. Sobriety challenges us. It means setting boundaries. Telling ourselves “no.” Developing new habits and untangling old ones. It means […]
Why Should I go to Rehab? You’re fine, right? You’re doing just dandy. The world is your peach. You can quit anytime you want. You just don’t want to. Only alcoholics go to meetings. You only smoke, drink, snort, inject, whatever, to keep yourself calm. It’s the world that needs to sit itself down. Mellow […]
Language And Thought In 1946, George Orwell published an essay called Politics and the English Language. He wrote, “A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. […]
Parental Instincts You love your children. You believe in them. They mean the world to you. You want the best for them. You want to do your best for them. You worked hard to provide for them. Put a roof over their head. Made sure they were fed. Gave them a place to sleep. You […]
At the end of 2019, Jarad Anthony Higgins, known around the globe as rapper Juice Wrld, passed away. A coroner’s report released the following January attributed Juice Wrld’s cause of death to oxycodone and codeine toxicity. Juice Wrld died on December 8, seven days after his twenty-first birthday. Gustav Elijah Åhr, who performed under the […]
Sponsorship is an integral part of any 12-step recovery program. Most people begin by simply attending meetings and for some, that may be all they ever do. It is important to understand however that going to meetings alone does not constitute “working a program”. In terms of the 12-step recovery programs, the work is in […]
What Is Outpatient Detox? Everyone’s addiction journey is unique. No two journeys are the same. So not everyone requires residential treatment. Outpatient detox is a non-residential care option. It is specifically designed for people who have obligations for work, school, or family life. For a person struggling with addiction, outpatient detox offers the therapeutic attention […]
Medication-Assisted Treatment or MAT in the United States typically blends therapeutic counseling with medication management. MAT was most often used for opioid addiction in the past. More recently it has also proven effective for alcoholism and other substance abuse disorders (SUDs). The results achieved by MAT patients are impressive. Patients in MAT programs are up […]
Humans have been using opioids for thousands of years. The oldest evidence of opium production discovered dates back to 3,400 BC in lower Mesopotamia. (1) A multitude of wars have been fought over access to opioids in all their forms. It’s also safe to assume that the phenomenon of opioid dependence is just as ancient. […]
Although many people use terms like ‘addiction,’ ‘abuse,’ ‘problem drinker’ as though they were interchangeable, they can mean different things. This can lead to a variety of difficulties– especially when considering an intervention– so it is imperative that everyone understand these nuances of meaning. Toward that end, this post will discuss alcohol misuse vs. abuse. […]