All About: Coping Skills
As you consider making a behavioral change (whether that change is reducing or stopping substance use…changing general lifestyle habits to more healthy habits), you will likely encounter something very difficult: fear of the future! What if you don’t like the changes you are trying to make? What if you can’t change? These fears are understandable […]
Don’t Feed the Tigers!: Facing Your Feelings
There is an unfortunate reality in life, sometimes you don’t feel good. This is not “news” to anyone reading this . . . you may even be having a bad day right now! In these moments, do you have the impulse to use a substance to change how you feel? Or engage in some other […]
Let Values Motivate You To Change
We are often motivated to make a behavioral change because we want a bad feeling or a negative behavior to go away. If someone is drinking too much and getting into fights with their friends that they regret, maybe they will want to drink less or stop altogether. If someone is having panic attacks or […]
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is an offshoot of Taoist and Buddhist practice which focuses on putting yourself in the present moment. While there is no one accepted definition of Mindfulness, one common one (and the one we will be using in here) is this: Mindfulness is being completely and utterly in the present moment, in a non-judgmental way. […]
Improve Communication Through Greater Awareness of Triangulation
We’ve all been there. You get in a fight with your mother and immediately call your sister to tell her all about it. You and your sister commiserate on how horrible your mother is, you start to feel better, and you’ve got an ally against your mother. Sound familiar? What you’ve created in this situation […]
I’m Freaking Out . . . Now What?
One major reason people start and continue using substances (or engaging in other compulsive behaviors like shopping, gambling, etc.) is that they are “mood altering.” At least initially, most substances have a euphoric effect that can shift negative mood states like loneliness, sadness, anger, confusion, anxiety or boredom. Substances can also make difficult situations feel […]
How To Be More Mindful This Week
Mindfulness is all over the news. It’s the treatment du jour, and has been found to help people with everything from finding happiness to being more productive. When you are working to change behaviors, like substance abuse or any problematic behavior, being more mindful can be the key to figuring out which behaviors to target, […]
A Change in Treatment Begins with Increased Consumer Knowledge
David Sheff, author of Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy, and Beautiful Boy: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Addiction, wrote a small piece on Time.com about the need for more treatment programs to use evidence based treatments for substance abuse. In the author’s box at the bottom, there is a very common disclaimer, […]
Rethinking “Addicts”
This is part 1 of two responses to the New York Times article about Dr. Carl Hart’s research at Columbia University. You can read Part 2 here, or the original NY Times article here. Stereotypes are pretty dangerous things. They bias opinion about a group of people, and are the basis for racism and bigotry. […]
The Anatomy of a Relapse
Relapses (and lapses and slips, whatever you want to call a return to old behavior) are frustrating events. Sometimes it feels like you’re (finally!) on the path you want to be on, and then, out of the blue, you fall off of that path and feel like you are back at the beginning (and that […]
