You’re sitting at home one night watching your favorite show or reading a new book or helping your kids with their homework when all of a sudden the lights go out. It’s a blackout. After you find a couple of flashlights or light a few candles, you will turn your attention to the source of...Read More

What Is Boredom? It happens to all of us from time to time. You are simply going about your day when suddenly you find yourself feeling restless or distracted. Whatever you are doing right at that moment isn’t any fun—and worse, you can’t really think of anything else to do that would be fun. Maybe...Read More

Drug and alcohol addiction treatment in a professional setting is critical for anyone with a moderate to severe addiction. It may seem like the solution is simple – just stop using the substance. But willpower alone is not enough. Addiction is a chronic brain disease that responds best to medical and therapeutic intervention. What Happens...Read More

You have decided now is the time. You are going to get the help you need for your substance use disorder. That’s great news. It is also news you are going to need to share—in greater or lesser detail—with a significant number of people. That might seem scary. Especially if you have been effectively hiding...Read More

Heading back to work after you have been away can be challenging. Think about the final day of a vacation. No matter how relaxing your time away has been, the odds are pretty good that on that last day, you are already thinking about all the emails and projects that await you when you get...Read More

You have heard the expression, “ Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” It is an idea dating back to the 1600s—and many of us simply accept it as true. We believe that if we apply our willpower, we can find a way to accomplish just about anything. It’s a nice, motivational idea. But it...Read More

Core Principles There are times when advice becomes so familiar that it is easy to stop hearing it. For example, if you are in recovery from a substance use disorder, you are likely familiar with the 12 Steps (or some variation on that theme) associated with Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous. You might even be overly...Read More

To Languish Is to Struggle Many people are struggling right now. The public health emergency (which is, unfortunately, ongoing) has upended our lives in so many ways. And while we have dealt with all of the changes—and the changes to those changes—brought on by the pandemic, there have been plenty of other things that have...Read More

Loneliness Is the Enemy of Sobriety In a recent blog entry, we discussed the various ways in which staying single in the early days of recovery can be a good idea. Rushing into a romantic entanglement can add complications to an already challenging situation and is often not the best strategy for maintaining your hard-won...Read More

The modern world—and social media in particular—has changed the way we think about the word “friend.” Heck, in current usage, the steadfast noun can even be used as a verb, as is: “Hey, I friended you. Why haven’t you accepted my friend request?” Friends vs Acquaintances But let’s face it, the vast majority of people...Read More