Sharing your recovery story can be difficult, but it can also be inspiring and generate hope in others. Sharing your personal journey through the ups and downs of living with addiction and mental health issues can let others know that help is out there, ans there’s a better life waiting for them. Sharing a personal…
One of the biggest complaints from recovering addicts, in their new-found sobriety, is boredom. Before recovery when they were bored or had nothing to do, they would get high or drunk, they would go to a bar, concerts, raves, or any other gathering where they could use or find their substance of choice. In treatment…
Just as there is a constant debate over the idea of which came first, the chicken or the egg, there has been a constant debate over the correlation between addiction and poverty or income levels. For a long time, it was believed that all addicts were or would eventually be under the poverty line or…
Whether you are a mother or father, watching your child become an addict is one of the most difficult things. Here is your baby, someone you nurtured and cared for their entire life, someone you have an unconditional love for, someone who you tried to give the world and anything their heart desired, someone who…
Stigma is defined as a mark of disgrace associated with a particular circumstance, quality, or person. For decades addicts were only thought of as bad people who choose to continue to abuse substances, even associated with criminal activity. A study done by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in 2014, the general public was…
According to the April 2013 Utah Statewide Substance Abuse Epidemiology Profile Report, Utah is one of the youngest states in the nation, with over 31% of the population under the age of 18 (vs. 24% for the nation), and only 9% of the population over the age 65 (vs. 13% for the nation). Educationally, 30%…
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) published a report in 2015 based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). NSDUH defines illicit drugs as marijuana/hashish, cocaine (including crack), inhalants, hallucinogens, heroin, or prescription-type drugs used non-medically. Heavy alcohol use is defined as drinking five or more drinks on the same…
Tomorrow is Mardi Gras and you are sober, boring right? Wrong. While many of us hear “Mardi Gras” and instantly imagine parades, lots of alcohol, and New Orleans, there are many other things associated with this holiday. Mardi Gras holds many religious, cultural, historical, and culinary aspects that help make the holiday what it is.…
There is a “definite connection between mental illness and the use of addictive substances,” according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. They say that mental health disorders patients are accountable for the consumption of 38% of alcohol and 44% of cocaine. A big cause of this is patients trying to self medicate and treat…
“What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” – Phil Connors (Bill Murray in Groundhog Day,1993) Anyone who suffers with addiction can relate to this quote on any day of the year not just Groundhog Day. You open your…
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