Self-care is an important recovery tool. Engaging in self-care is an appropriate and healthy way to bolster physical and psychological well-being. During the dark winter months which include the stressful holiday season, uncomfortable feelings or situations can easily threaten emotional stability and potentially trigger relapse. Self-care has been defined as providing adequate attention to… Continue Reading Support Series: Self-Care
“Why is it that nutrition and fitness are ignored as part of mental health treatment?” asked fitness blogger Amanda Webster in a recent post. “If we want to reduce our stress, anxiety, and symptoms of depression, we are immediately drawn to taking pills without any reflection as to why these things might be afflicting us… Continue Reading The Benefits of Physical Exercise and Mental Health
If you have a loved one or a close friend who is struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction, you have an opportunity to change their life for the better. While learning how to stage an intervention is never easy, and sometimes extremely difficult, it is always worth it if you can save someone’s life and… Continue Reading How to Stage an Intervention
Dual diagnosis is a term that treatment professionals use to identify mental illness and co-occurring substance use. Both conditions form a symbiotic relationship in which one either contributes to or draws from the other. For instance, a client may self-medicated to cope with a mental illness. Likewise, excessive substance use can intensify the symptoms of… Continue Reading What is Dual Diagnosis Treatment?
What you eat while recovering from addiction is extremely important. There are now many studies showing the impact your diet has on your mood. So far, all of these studies have found that a diet high in fat, sugar, and processed foods make you more anxious, irritable, and depressed, while a diet rich in whole… Continue Reading What to Eat Early in Recovery
“Drunkorexia” is a colloquial term combining an eating disorder and binge drinking. It is the practice of offsetting calories from binge drinking by skipping meals or purging so that the binge drinking doesn’t lead to weight gain. While the practice is particularly common among college aged women, men do it as well. A study by… Continue Reading What is “Drunkorexia”?
Prescription opioids have been a major driver of the opioid epidemic that claimed nearly 60,000 American lives in 2017. Many people who would not otherwise have been exposed to opioid drugs were prescribed excessive amounts of painkillers following surgeries or other medical procedures, developed a physical dependence, then became addicted. Some of these people turned… Continue Reading How to Limit Your Risk of Addiction After Surgery
Getting enough quality sleep is one of the best things you can do for yourself, especially if you’re recovering from addiction or a mental health issue such as an anxiety disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, or others. Even a few nights of too little sleep can lead to significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, and suicidal… Continue Reading 7 Ways to Sleep Better in Recovery
The new year is a time for taking stock of where you are and where you want to go. If you’re recovering from a substance use disorder, the new year might be a good time to renew your commitment to sobriety or challenge yourself to take the next step, whatever that is for you. When… Continue Reading 5 New Year’s Resolutions for People in Recovery
This is the first of three posts based on the work of writer Johann Hari, whose search for answers about his own depression led to his book Lost Causes: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression–and the Unexpected Solution. Most of us are familiar with the standard explanation for depression: depression is the result of a… Continue Reading Depression Isn’t All in Your Head, Part 1: Problems with the Standard Model
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