Help for Families | Secondhand Drinking | Codependency
Drinking Alcohol During Pregnancy – Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
Drinking alcohol during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs), which are a group of conditions. These conditions may include: abnormal facial features, growth problems, and central nervous system (CNS) problems, or problems with learning, memory, attention span, communication, vision, or hearing. Often children with FASDs have a hard time in school and trouble…
Read MoreBreakingTheCycles.com 10 Year Anniversary | Sharing Favorite Posts
BreakingTheCycles.com 10 year anniversary — its hard for me to believe it’s already been 10 years! I started BreakingTheCycles.com in 2008 to provide education, prevention and intervention information and services rooted in 21st Century brain science for a range of addiction-related concerns, including: substance abuse, mental illness, addiction* as a brain disease, secondhand drinking, toxic stress,…
Read MoreAlcohol’s Harm to Others | Secondhand Drinking
Alcohol’s Harm to Others | Secondhand Drinking are two terms that identify the very real, health-harming, quality-of-life impacts that a person’s drinking has on others. Secondhand Drinking is a term I coined in 2009 to raise awareness about the negative impacts a person’s drinking behaviors has on others. Drinking behaviors include: verbal, physical, emotional abuse; neglect; blackouts; unplanned/unwanted…
Read MoreTriggers and the Codependency Connection | Darlene Lancer, JD, MFT
Part of what keeps a person in relationship with a loved one who has a substance use disorder are their own triggers. Triggers can be thoughts, feelings or emotions triggered by another person’s behaviors or shaming words. Darlene Lancer, a frequent guest blogger on BreakingTheCycles.com, helps readers understand triggers and the codependency connection and what a…
Read MoreUnderstanding Codependency – Do You Have to Lose Yourself to Love Someone
Understanding codependency can help you appreciate that you do not have to lose yourself in order to love someone. To help readers better understand this concept, Darlene Lancer, JD, MFT, shares the following post, originally appearing on her blog under the title, “Do I Have to Lose Me to Love You?” To read her longer…
Read MoreWhy 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.…
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