recovery

Purple background with two hands holding out a paper cutout of a family holding hands, and the text "It runs in the family" above.

A New Take On Life

By Jessica Pottorff / September 25, 2023

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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Orange dining plate in the top right corner, with a napkin that reads "Go with your gut feeling"

A New Take On Life

By Jessica Pottorff / August 18, 2023

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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Close up image of woman's hands holding pencil and writing in a notebook- one word writen: "grateful". All around notebook are candles, pumpkins, and fall gourdes. Words on yellow box "Practicing gratitude in recovery"

Practicing Gratitude in Recovery

By Jessica Pottorff / November 9, 2022

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 Addiction Books

26 Outstanding Books about Addiction and Healing

By Jessica Pottorff / August 26, 2022

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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pink background with blue and black triangles with the words Use, Misuse, Abuse, and Addiction on the triangles.

6 Myths About Addiction

By New Life Counseling / March 31, 2021

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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