Routine in RecoveryAs a general rule, we are believers in the power of routine in recovery.A good slate of routines can go a long way toward helping you maintain your sobriety. For example, it is a good idea to have a set of routines around things like attending 12-Step (or other) recovery meetings, meeting with...Read More

You have probably heard the old song that opens: “Summertime and the livin’ is easy.”It is a nice thought, isn’t it?As the summer arrives in full force, it is nice to think that perhaps the living will, in fact, be easy.Turns out, however, that the season of the year has very little to do with...Read More

How Can You Help Your Loved One?When someone in your life is struggling with drugs or alcohol, it is only natural to want to help. It is also natural to wonder just how you can help.After all, a person with a substance use disorder is often unpredictable, unwilling to listen, and unable to make clear...Read More

In the first entry in this miniseries about the different kinds of therapy, we explored cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, and family systems therapy. Finding the Right Therapeutic Approach Our point, as you may recall, is that “therapy” is a generic word that can be applied to quite a...Read More

Codeine Misuse Can Lead to Bigger Problems When you think about the opioid epidemic in the United States, the odds are pretty good that codeine does not immediately jump to mind. Instead, you may think of codeine as a mild cough suppressant and source of pain relief. That is entirely understandable. Codeine has been around...Read More

Variety Packs You are probably familiar with variety packs. You find them in the grocery store, and they tend to have small individually packaged portions of something. Ten little cereal boxes with two boxes of five different kinds of cereal, for example. Or a big bag of candy that has mini versions of several of...Read More

“Top Five Answers Are on the Board”If you found yourself on a quiz show and the topic was “names of substance use disorder recovery programs” (we admit this would be an odd category), how many could you name?There’s an excellent chance you could name one—and a pretty good chance you could name two.The sure thing:...Read More

Benzodiazepine AddictionThere are so many different stressors in our lives. So many, in fact, that it might seem impossible to even begin to list them. But here’s a stab at such a list—woefully incomplete though it is:We have stress in our family lives. Our partners, kids, parents, in-laws, and on and on are a source...Read More

There is a famous moment in William Shakespeare’s play The Tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark in which Hamlet asks a group of actors to put on a play that bears a strong resemblance to some misdeeds he believes his uncle and mother have committed. The goal, as Hamlet puts it, is to “catch the conscience...Read More

It Is Easy to Make Exercise ExcusesSometimes it can seem as if there are only two levels of exercise: intense and none.And let’s face it, given those choices, a whole lot of us are going to go with the second option.Of course, we all know that it is a good idea to exercise. But that...Read More