Why Treating ACEs Helps With Addiction Recovery
Treating ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) can go a long, long way to helping a person with addiction (aka, with a substance use disorder) succeed in long-term recovery. Why? Because of the role ACEs play in changing a child’s brain wiring and mapping, making that child’s brain more susceptible to the key risk factors for developing a…
Read MoreTools to Counter Trauma Triggers
Trauma triggers can come out of seemingly nowhere. A sound, sight, touch, smell, danger producing emotions (anger, fear, frustration), a particular voice, the color of light… and wham! Your heart rate accelerates, you have trouble breathing, you feel panicky or find yourself frantic and in your frenzy unable to hold a thought or utter a…
Read MoreAlcohol Use Disorders | Secondhand Drinking | ACEs – Trace Your Family ACEs Tree
Alcohol use disorders | Secondhand Drinking | ACEs — often, it’s a cycle. The behaviors of a person with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) cause secondhand drinking (SHD), and both AUD and SHD can change an entire family system. A changed family system can cause adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) for the current generation of children.…
Read MoreAlcohol Use Disorder Prevention – Raising Awareness About Brain Development and the Risk Factors | Alcohol Awareness Month
Alcohol Use Disorder Prevention – why is it that one teen or adult in a group of friends who drinks too much finds themselves struggling with an alcohol use disorder and the others do not? How is it possible that a teenager can develop a severe alcohol use disorder (aka alcoholism or alcohol dependence) —…
Read MoreThoughts on Disease and Recovery – Addiction and Cancer
Disease and Recovery – most people do not understand addiction to be a chronic disease like other chronic diseases. In today’s guest post, John M McNamara shares his thoughts on disease and recovery – his own (cancer) and his wife’s (addiction) – to emphasize his point that addiction is a disease, as is cancer, and that…
Read MoreUnderage Drinking Prevention | Intervention Tools for Parents and Caregivers
Underage drinking prevention | intervention efforts run a gamut from just say “no,” to teaching young children to drink by allowing them to drink at home, to a resigned “I drank as a teen and I’m fine; it’s just a phase all kids go through” to “the Europeans don’t have a problem because they teach…
Read MoreWomen’s History Month – Celebrating Women Leaders in the Addiction and Family Recovery Movements
Women’s History Month is celebrated annually during the month of March. The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum celebrate Women’s History Month to recognize “the great contributions that women have made to our nation”…
Read MoreAn AA Regular Adds Al-Anon to the Mix
“An AA Regular Adds Al-Anon to the Mix” is a guest post by Jim Anders, former advertising copywriter and the author of All Drinking Aside. In this article, Jim explores the roles AA and Al-Anon have played in his continued long-term recovery. Jim can be reached via email at alldrinkingaside@yahoo.com. You may also want to explore his…
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