Most people spend their entire lives living thoughtlessly and without aim. Your emotional and mental health problems may have caused you to be discouraged and feeling hopeless. Perhaps you have had difficulty starting tasks or following through. Dreams and aspirations fall by the wayside. Time spent planning and pursuing life…
Chronic emotional problems and the need for treatment can often leave one discouraged. Difficult situations, failures, and past disappointments can be emotionally overwhelming and often become the reason to seek help. Challenges from the recent past often affect the present moment, and previous hospitalization or counseling and returning symptoms can…
People struggling with substance use disorders, anxiety, and depression frequently complain about feelings of helplessness. They can point to a series of past life circumstances they had no control over. These experiences often include job loss, marital conflict, death of a loved one, infidelity, divorce, a serious accident, illness, or…
Having committed yourself to recovery, you’re becoming increasingly dedicated to making it happen. Be willing to prepare yourself for long term success. Roger Maris, a famous New York Yankees baseball player from the 1950’s and 60’s, stated “You hit home runs not by chance but by preparation.” In recovery from…
Anticipating enticing and tempting situations and carefully managing them is an essential skill in a successful recovery program. Some circumstances and situations should simply be avoided. Don’t put yourself in harms way unnecessarily when it could be sidestepped. Other events can be managed with some planning. Consider the following refusal…
Refusing an offer to drink or use takes courage, inner strength, and self-confidence. The ability to refuse can be expanded by developing the related skills listed below. Assertiveness — Developing assertiveness skills will allow you to stand up for yourself, stick to your own opinions, protect yourself, and communicate honestly…
The best treatment is the one you get the most from. It’s not the treatment center that has the best staff, or the one with the shortest program. It’s not the center with the best cook and the best food. The best treatment is the one that does the most…
“Never, never, never give up!” – Winston Churchill Plan your course of action and stick with it. My talk today is not about taking vitamins, I promise. However, I do take vitamins every morning and have done so for the past 10 years. I never miss, yet every now and…
Defining Co-occurring Disorders Co-occurring disorders refers to an individual having one or more substance abuse disorders and one or more psychiatric disorders. The mental health problem and the substance abuse problem interact with each other and commonly increase the severity of both. This interaction between the two slows the rate…
Whenever you go through a hardship or a difficulty there are several important considerations. The first, is the devastating nature of the actual event, the second is the way the experience affected you. I tell my clients: “I care deeply what happened to you in the past, but I care…
