What Children of Addiction Need to Know | COA Awareness Week
What children of addiction need to know is that it’s not their fault. To that end, NACoA is celebrating Children of Addiction Awareness Week (COA Week) February 10 – 16 this year. A 501 (c)(3) Membership Organization, the National Association for Children of Addiction (NACoA) has been working for over 30 years “to eliminate the…
Read MoreEmotional Drinking vs Alcoholism – Guest Author Georgia Foster
Emotional drinking vs alcoholism – is there a difference? This is the topic of today’s guest author, Georgia Foster. As Georgia explains, there are many reasons people drink and not all who drink too much are alcoholics, a fact I explain in my post, “Is It Alcoholism? – How Can You Tell?” People who have not crossed…
Read MoreAbout Those Character Defects – 12 Step Addiction Recovery
About those character defects — you know — the ones you identified in your “searching and fearless moral inventory” when you worked Step 4 of a 12 step recovery program, like AA or NA. Those same character defects you were “entirely ready to have God remove” when you did your Step 6. I’d like to…
Read MoreCognitive Distortions – When Reality Isn’t What You Think | Darlene Lancer, JD, MFT
Cognitive distortions, like overgeneralizing, labeling, self-criticism, and black-and-white/all-or-nothing thinking, can “skew your perceptions” and may be caused by “the anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, or perfectionism that often accompany codependency.” Darlene Lancer, a frequent guest blogger on BreakingTheCycles.com, helps readers understand cognitive distortions, how they harm us, and what a person can do to stop or…
Read More5 Tips to Change a Drinking Pattern and Make This New Year’s Resolution Stick
It’s that time of year when many of us make New Year’s Resolutions. For some it’s about adding more exercise. For some, it’s about eating more nutrient rich foods. And for others, it’s about their drinking. Should they stop all together? Can they just cut down? What can they do to successfully change how much…
Read MoreThe Words We Use Matter – Substance Use Disorder | Mental Health Disorder | Recovery
We all can agree that the words we use matter – regardless the subject – they matter. But as a person who has been working for over 15 years to use current scientific research to shatter the stigma, misinformation and shame that surrounds substance use disorders and mental health disorders (until recently, more commonly known…
Read MoreHow to Best Manage Stress in Addiction Recovery
Managing stress in addiction recovery can be one of the keys to relapse prevention. That feeling of “stress” is triggered by the fight-or-flight stress response kicking into gear without thought when triggered by emotions, sounds, sights, touches, smells, and the like. Often stress and substance use disorders go hand-in-hand because the chemicals in the alcohol…
Read More3 Things You Don’t Know About Dreaming in Recovery
3 things you likely don’t know about dreaming in recovery as a blog post titled grabbed my attention. As someone who has studied the importance of sleep for brain health and wellness, as well as its role as one of the key brain healers people seeking recovery can do, I was happy to share this…
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