Addiction | Substance Use Disorders | Treatment
My AA Family – They Loved Me Until I Was Able to Love Myself
There is a great deal of confusion, stigma, shame and discrimination surrounding addiction and addiction treatment and recovery. Yet those who have the chronic, often relapsing brain disease of addiction and are in recovery live healthy, productive, engaged lives — the same kinds of lives as people who do not have this disease. But all…
Read MoreUntreated ACEs Can Make Addiction Recovery Difficult
Compare the changes in the Smart Phone of 2007 to the Smart Phone of today, 2017. Radical, revolutionary, life-changing, who could have imagined? The superlatives to describe this comparison are endless. Those same superlatives can be applied to the changes in our understanding of the human brain; changes that explain how ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences)…
Read MoreI Could Have Developed Alcoholism | I Developed Bulimia Instead
I still look back with great sadness on the 11 years I spent binging and purging (bulimia) and the year I spent “dieting” (anorexia) — my lost years from ages 16-28. To the person whose never been bulimic, it’s impossible to understand why someone would “choose” to eat huge quantities of food and then throw…
Read MoreFinding Happiness After Addiction – Trevor McDonald
There is a great deal of confusion, stigma, shame and discrimination surrounding addiction and addiction treatment and recovery. Yet those who have the chronic, often relapsing brain disease of addiction and are in recovery live healthy, productive, engaged lives — the same kinds of lives as people who do not have this disease. But all…
Read MoreA Son’s Overdose | A Mother’s Profound Grief, Strength and Hope
The following is a guest post by Laura Rosch. She’d shared this as a comment on another guest post appearing on BreakingTheCycles.com. As I wrote to Laura, I was struck by all that she had written, but this part really hit me: “But now I have a life to live and other people that love…
Read MoreMarriage After Sobriety | Darlene Lancer, JD, MFT
Marriage after sobriety can be a rocky time. Both partners feel vulnerable as they transition into their “new” relationship. To help couples during this time, Darlene Lancer, JD, MFT, shares the following post. To read her longer version, please click here. Darlene is the author of Codependency for Dummies and Conquering Shame and Codependency: 8 Steps to Freeing the True You,…
Read More7 Things Every Halfway House MUST Have
Halfway houses, often referred to as sober homes, recovery residences or transitional living homes, can be an important step in one’s recovery from substance use disorders. They can also sideline it. Today’s guest author, Parker Sean, tackles this subject, explaining, “In my recovery journey, I have seen and heard many horror stories about “flophouse” style…
Read MoreChild of an Alcoholic – a Legacy of Untreated Secondhand Drinking-Related ACEs
Each April since 1987, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD) has sponsored Alcohol Awareness Month to increase public awareness and understanding, reduce stigma and encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues. This year’s theme is “Connecting the Dots: Opportunities for Recovery.” In honor of this year’s theme, I’d…
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