Finding Balance when Helping
Let’s be honest: loving someone with an alcohol/drug problem can be brutal. Fear, anxiety, hope, disappointment, painful truths, even more painful lies. And…as long as there’s still love, there’s a lot to keep fighting and hoping for. But what to do? How to respond? What does “keep fighting” or helping really look like? You may […]
How Do My Substance Use Choices Influence My Child’s Choices?
If your teenager or young adult is beginning to experiment or use drugs and/or alcohol, you may be wondering what you can do to help them make healthy choices. While there are a variety of ways you can reinforce certain behaviors over others (coming home after school clear-headed instead of high) and put consequences around […]
Putting a Face on Alcohol Abuse
We live in a country where the attitude about people who struggle with substance use issues is one of disdain, disbelief and disregard. When Jeff Foote and I opened CMC, one of our main goals was to change this. The negative stigma associated with substance use issues, the lack of information about effective treatment options, […]
My Resolution is to Suffer More
This year, I resolve to feel bad about myself. I am going to worry that I am not meeting my goals, and have negative thoughts about my weight, my job performance, and my parenting skills. I’m going to have anxiety about social situations. And, I’m not going to try and avoid these feelings, or try […]
Making Space for Quiet Reflection
Who wants to make a New Year’s Resolution? Nobody! They can feel trite, forced, and pointless: Why now? Will it really last? With all the problems in the world, what behavior change would even make a dent? The articles we usually write are about how to take small steps toward change, be SMART about goals (Specific, […]
Thank You Parent Support Network!
Surveys of adolescents (12 to 17) and young adults (18 to 25) suggest that 10 % to 15% of adolescents and 30% to 35% of young adults report using illicit drugs in the past year. When you factor in alcohol use the percentages significantly increase (20% of adolescents and 72% of young adults report drinking […]
Detach No More
Lately, things around the world have been difficult, to say that least. There is political unrest and people are clamoring to feel that their voices are being heard. Many people feel like their chances of making change in their world are stalling, or even going backwards. In the midst of all this unrest, we think […]
How to Help: Sifting Through Advice
At CMC, we have lots of family members call us to ask for advice about how to help someone they love who they think is struggling with a substance use problem. We get mom’s calling about their children, husbands calling about their wives, adult children calling about their parent. And one of the things we […]
Understanding OCD
We all have random thoughts that pop in and out of our minds. For most of us, these thoughts do exactly that, pop in and pop out, and we are able to move on with our day. For people who struggle with an anxiety disorder, and especially those who struggle with Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD), getting […]
Medication Talk: Adult ADHD with Dr. David Cooperman
In this month’s edition of Medication Talk, we are talking with Dr. David Cooperman about ADHD in adults. ADHD is usually diagnosed in childhood. Is it something that can be missed and only first diagnosed as an adult? Can you develop it later in life, or would people with an adult diagnosis have had it […]
