If you’re reading these words, the word resilience no doubt has personal meaning to you. In a nutshell, resilience refers to our ability to bounce back. Resilient people bounce back from trauma, substance abuse, mental health challenges (the list goes…
As a societal unit, families are naturally inclined to want to help their members because there is a strong imperative to keep the group together and healthy as a means of preserving and continuing the group. Therefore it’s understandable that…
You may have heard the term complex trauma and wondered how this type of trauma is different from other types of traumatic experience. Clinicians use the term complex trauma to distinguish repeated instances of abuse or neglect from one-time or…
Being vulnerable to relapse is a very real possibility in the midst of making tough and enduring changes. Whoever coined the phrase, “knowledge is power,” had their finger on the pulse of change. Scholars attribute these words to the preeminent…
When you drink every day, it's easy to feel as if there is no life without alcohol, and quitting can feel impossible. Millions, actually more than 15 million Americans are alcoholics according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and…
Holistic therapies are gaining in popularity as tools for treating substance use in tandem with conventional treatments. Holistic interventions are sometimes referred to as integrative forms of treatment and are intended to treat the whole person: emotionally, spiritually, physically and…
If asked, most of us would agree that being in a lush, green, natural environment would make us feel relaxed and peaceful. Most of us rush from one activity to the next in our daily lives, barely stopping to enjoy…
Addiction recovery does not always follow a straight and steady path. Just as with all things in life, there are ups and downs, challenges, peaks, and valleys. It’s completely normal to not want to consider the possibility of relapse after…
There’s no doubt that addiction can decimate individual lives and tear apart families regardless of gender, ethnicity, or any other socioeconomic factor at play. But many experts believe that gender can and does affect how substance use disorders develop in…
We’ve all heard the mantra that Mother Nature is one of life’s greatest healers. If you thought this was just a nice platitude or a sentimental notion, you might be surprised to know that science is making great progress in…