Mental Illness | Co-Occurring Disorders
Eating Disorders and Substance Use
Eating disorders and substance use often co-occur. To explain why and more, please find the following guest post by Adrienne Ressler, LMSW, CEDS, and Vice President, Professional Development at The Renfrew Center Foundation, which was established in 1990 due to the strong need for public and professional awareness regarding anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder. Today,…
Read MoreHate My Body
Hate my body | hate my hair | hate my flabby arms | hate my nose … how is it we get these messages so deeply embedded in our thoughts? How is it the headlines still scream for us to change some piece of our appearance for a better life? “Why is it that reporters…
Read MoreScreening for Mental Illnesses | Depression – Anxiety – PTSD – Bipolar
Screening for mental illnesses, such as depression, anxiety, PTSD and bipolar, just might give someone the insight they’ve needed to believe that what they’re experiencing is beyond their control. It may also save someone’s life from death by suicide. One in four Americans or nearly 60 million people are affected by mental illness every year.…
Read MoreEffective Dual Diagnosis Treatment | Relapse Prevention
What does it mean to have a co-occurring disorder (a dual diagnosis)? What constitutes effective dual diagnosis treatment? What does effective dual diagnosis treatment have to do with preventing addiction relapse? In simple terms, a dual diagnosis means to be diagnosed as having two brain diseases (aka disorders): an addiction and a mental illness. This…
Read MoreAddiction Treatment Medications | Are They Cheating?
I was speaking at a forum recently and this question came up (it actually comes up quite often), “Aren’t these addiction treatment medications sort of like cheating?” And then the person asking the question went on to say, “I mean, in AA they say you can’t take other medications because that’s being addicted to something…
Read MoreWhy Is There Depression If We Can Control Our Thoughts
Why is there depression if we are supposedly able to control our feelings by changing our thoughts? This question struck me this week as I grappled with my own several days of feeling sad, blue, kinda lost, asking myself, “What am I doing?” It started off on the heals of a few days of some…
Read MoreThe Transformation Factor: Addiction | Trauma | Recovery
Addiction | Trauma | Recovery – guest author by Rivka Edery, L.M.S.W., explains what it takes to help a trauma survivor. If this individual is also an addict | alcoholic, it is especially important to understand this because trauma causes brain changes that can contribute to the person developing an addiction in the first place.…
Read MoreAffordable Care Act Mental Health Coverage – Will It Improve Things?
Affordable care act mental health care coverage – will it improve the treatment of mental health, and if so, how? To help us understand the implications of the Affordable Care Act for mental health coverage, Michael Cahill, Editor of the Vista Health Solutions blog, provides the following guest post. Cahill has a degree in Journalism…
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