When someone enables a loved one, they may not realize the behavior is happening until much later, if at all. Sometimes, in recovery, families can walk through together and do therapy to understand the mechanisms of addiction but realize they’ve enabled someone’s addiction rather than helping them seek treatment. The challenge is to realize enablingRead More
Emotional functioning often refers to a person’s functioning in awareness, expression, and overall regulation of emotions. Awareness refers to one’s ability to recognize one’s thought processes; expression refers to the ability to effectively communicate and show others one’s emotions, and overall regulation means to be able to experience emotions moderately and appropriately. People with obsessive-compulsiveRead More
Postpartum depression (PPD) can occur for some women following the birth of a child or children. Mothers who are in the first year after birth are most susceptible to the emotional and hormonal shifts they experience. There is an increased risk of addiction for mothers who experience postpartum depression but they are not always noticeableRead More
Dissociation occurs when a person experiences a lack of connection between their thoughts, memory, and overall sense of identity, as explained by Mental Health America (MHA). Oftentimes, dissociation is often described as watching oneself in a movie or feeling as though one is outside of one’s body; milder forms of dissociation often occur when aRead More
Women have unique experiences with mental health issues apart from men. In spite of physiology, they also experience hormonal shifts due to the ability to get pregnant, carry a baby, and give birth. These are difficult experiences for some women. If trauma from the past is involved, it can bring up difficult emotions or evenRead More
Family and loved ones who struggle with addiction may go through varying emotions. Once they enter recovery, it is not a cure-all for their addiction. They will have times when they feel sad or when they feel like they need help dealing with the challenges. Grief and loss are real emotions in recovery. In theRead More
Have you ever had difficulty finding certain words to describe your experiences, or unable to locate your emotions on a certain subject? With many creative approaches to mental illness and addiction recovery, there are many opportunities to discover inner feelings by unleashing a part of us that may not get exercised that often: creativity. ARead More
Addiction is hard on everyone in the family. Sometimes the children are not considered at first when a loved one needs help for addiction. They are impacted the most by instability and volatility that comes with addictive behavior. Children of parents with substance use disorder are not able to live a childhood where they canRead More
Spirituality is a component of recovery that can or cannot be incorporated. Some organizations, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) promote connection to a Higher Power through 12 steps that all participants must actively work towards. Other places, such as SMART Recovery, focuses on cognitive behavioral approaches. No matter whether you identify with a spiritual elementRead More
Study drugs are those prescriptions that are used to treat one thing but are used to help stay alert and ready to pull all-nighters in school. Whether it is high school or college, drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and others are being misused for other reasons, and sometimes not even by theRead More