addiction treatment

Taking Treatment Into the Great Outdoors

Why is being in the great outdoors so helpful to our mental well-being? The benefits of spending time in nature have long been understood, and their value in therapy is beginning to be accepted and documented by psychological research. Read More

What’s So Good About Gender-Specific Treatment?

By Melissa Riddle Chalos When it comes to seeking treatment for substance abuse, it is important to understand gender differences and the role they play in addiction. Women and men develop substance use disorders for different reasons, with unique circumstances fueling relapse and recovery. Women with… Read More

Overdose Risks, Rates, and Repercussions

By Clint Fletcher As data from 2020 continues to pour in from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it’s becoming increasingly clear just how devastating the pandemic was on our country’s health. During a year that was spent mostly in lockdown, overdose deaths… Read More

Addiction Risk and ADHD: What’s the Connection?

By Clint Fletcher Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects about 5% of adults and 6-9% of children worldwide. While the medical community used to believe ADHD rarely continued beyond childhood, longer studies have shown that for millions this disorder carries through to adulthood and continues to have consequences. A… Read More

What Parents and Caregivers Should Know About Program Aftercare

“Aftercare” is a general term for activities and other resources that behavioral health and addiction treatment patients receive after being discharged from a primary care facility. Aftercare answers the question of “Now what?” once your child has completed a behavioral health program. This aftercare can help keep patients on… Read More

Forming Healthy Relationships at College

By Michelle Wells My social media accounts are filled with pictures these days. Teenagers are heading off to college for the first time. Young adults are returning to campus to resume their studies. Pursuing higher education often requires moving and sharing a place with a roommate or two. Though the prospect of independence is exciting, learning to live with someone new is a growth experience. Under the best of circumstances, roommates may become the best of friends or at least suitable living partners. Since it is often easier to build a healthy relationship than it is to fix a broken one, the question becomes, “How do you cultivate a healthy living environment from the very start?” Read More

Do Religious Families Play A Role In Addiction?

Religious Families and AddictionWritten by Thomas Gagliano, MSW In order to understand why religious families inadvertently and at times unintentionally create an environment where their children run to addictions rather than God as their coping mechanism, we must first begin by understanding the mindset of a child. When we look back on our childhood, we look back through adult lenses. Since then, we have grown by our maturity and life experiences, which may have distorted the truth of our childhood. Many of us carry messages that tell us we are bad children if we get mad at our parents or disagree with them. This message can have a profound impact on the way the person feels about himself or herself in adulthood. It is important to respect our parents but we can also have different opinions. A child needs to feel their opinion is important to their parents or the child may feel he or she isn’t important. Validating and acknowledging a child’s feelings is essential if they are to have self-worth. If children are afraid to share their true feelings and doubts in fear of reprisal then who can they trust? All of these messages set up the destructive entitlement that leads to addiction. It’s no coincidence that most addictions begin before the age of 18. Read More

Growing Up With An Addicted Parent

I remember, as a twelve-year-old, sitting alone in our living room after one of our then-typical family meltdowns…trying to make sense of the pain and general devastation of our once very happy family…trying to understand how kind, decent and loving people could cause each other such unrelenting pain, how we… Read More

The Complexity Of Treating Young Adults

By Claudia Black and Leanne Lemire Leah, 22, enters treatment with a history of substance abuse since the age of 14. She also has a history of disordered eating and is addicted to Adderall. By the time she enters treatment, her use of drugs has ranged from alcohol and cocaine to a variety of speed derivatives, yet it is heroin from which she needs to detox. She has been raped more than once while under the influence and has just made her third suicide attempt. Read More