Substance Abuse
A New Take On Life
National Recovery Month:
Promote and support an understanding of mental health and substance use disorders. The official color for National Recovery Month is purple. The theme for 2023’s Recovery Month is: Hope is Real. Recovery is Real. Please visit www.samhsa.gov/recovery-month to find out ways that you can join in the celebration of healing and freedom from addiction!
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A New Take On Life
Substance Use Disorders are characterized by chronic dependence on a substance, despite having mental, physical, and social consequences. They also include socioeconomic, biochemical, genetic (more on this in upcoming months), and increasingly, Smicrobiological underpinnings. It is well known that addiction is a brain disorder and affects the wiring in our brain, but there are new and emerging studies showing the link between the gut microbiome and drug addiction.
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A NEW TAKE ON LIFE
We are born with social attachment points through how our parents try and mold us in childhood. Seeking a hit of certain neurotransmitters, children look for approval from their parents & will try to correlate their actions with positive responses. As adolescents, we replace parents with peers – oxytocin is released as a result of social belonging or validation.
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Kiss me, I’m Sober!
Why do we drink on St. Patrick’s Day? Saint Patrick was born in the fifth century in Roman Britain. When he was 16 he was captured and brought to Ireland, where he was enslaved for six year. Eventually, he escaped back to Britain, where he became a priest and years later, he went back to Ireland and brought Christianity to the region with him. He passed away on March 17th , 461, and Voila!, the date became St. Patrick’s Day. Legend says that Saint Patrick liked to have a drink from time to time- but funnily enough, that’s not the reason people drink on this holiday. Instead, it’s because the celebration falls in the middle of Lent, a 40-day period when Christians focus on charity, fasting, and prayer. Lent’s restrictions are suspended for St. Patrick’s Day, so people have historically eaten (and drank) to their heart’s content to celebrate the holiday.
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Practicing Gratitude in Recovery
With Thanksgiving this month, I wanted to focus on what it means to be grateful, to have an “attitude of gratitude”, and how that can help us in our recovery- whether from drugs, alcohol, or from mental health issues. Being grateful for where you are in this very moment means stopping right where you are and saying thank you; it means recognizing the good things in your life instead of focusing on the negative. Read more on how and why gratitude can help you in recovery.
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26 Outstanding Books about Addiction and Healing
Addiction – It’s not a dirty word. Let’s talk about it. Let’s learn about it. Let’s de-stigmatize it. Let’s understand and empathize with the person who struggles with it. Let’s put a face to it so that when we see it, we do not see just an issue but a whole person that was created…
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If Not You Mom, Then Who?
When a child, adolescent, or young adult is struggling with an addiction or a mental health issue, parents usually feel the need to jump in and fix the problem. While addiction is a family sickness, it seems that mothers are the most impacted by their son or daughter’s substance abuse or untreated mental health. Let’s look at how being compassionate can not only help you but also your child.
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6 Myths About Addiction
Many people don’t understand addiction and substance abuse or dependency. They think those who struggle with addiction must lack moral substance or willpower. In reality, breaking the cycle of addiction takes far more than an iron will or even a desire to quit. Addictive substances and behaviors quite literally alter the chemistry of the brain…
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