Motivating Recovery in a High Functioning Person with a Substance Use Disorder As a professional who specializes in treating high functioning persons with a substance use disorder (SUD), I spend a lot of time assessing what motivates people to seek treatment, and what motivates people to stay engaged with habits and activities that support the bio/medical/psych/social/neural changes necessary for contented...[ read more ]
Defense Mechanisms Threatening, Blaming, Shouting, Defiance This is the next in my series on Defense Mechanisms used in addiction: drug, alcoholism, or behavioral (also known as process) addiction. Defense mechanisms are the behaviors that persons with a SUD use to protect their use by keeping those close to them away. These methods can be passive, aggressive, cooperative, or hostile. What...[ read more ]
Defense Mechanisms (Denial Series) Manipulation, Accusing, Judging, and Projecting We have been introducing and delving into various defense mechanisms that persons with a substance use disorder (SUD) use with family members, friends, and even themselves. The introduction to the series is here featuring denial, lying, silence. The post discussing the use of humor, compliance, and minimizing is found here. Our...[ read more ]
Defense Mechanisms (Denial Series) Humor, Compliance, Minimizing In a series of blog posts, we are highlighting and discussing in detail defense mechanisms of persons with a substance use disorder. To help concerned family members and loved ones understand the forms that "denial" takes, we are looking at the various ways an addicted brain finds to protect the addict’s use of...[ read more ]
What Is Addiction, Anyway? First, a brief science summary: A brain that is hijacked by substance use disorder (SUD) seeks to protect the use of substances (or the behavior – process addiction). A person who suffers with this disease will develop defense mechanisms – what most people call “denial” – in order to keep people away from identifying the truth...[ read more ]
Show Me The Money Money is not talked about nearly enough in the recovery community. That’s unfortunate; it is one of the areas that can have a significant impact on the quality of sobriety, happiness, and personal growth and integrity. It’s common for persons with the disease of addiction to have had a damaged, dishonest, and dangerous relationship with...[ read more ]
It's complicated living with people who have a substance use disorder (SUD). To be honest, it doesn't get less complicated when that person is in recovery. It gets even more challenging with young family members who are able to understand and observe the patterns of behavior that go with a SUD but not old enough to grasp concepts such as “brain...[ read more ]
What They Say About People Who Abuse Substances “They have to want it.” “It will only work if they are ready.” “You have to let them hit rock bottom.” These are common sayings in 12-Step meetings, in recovery communities, by family members and friends. It’s even sometimes (unfortunately) said in professional treatment. To be fair, it’s said out of love...[ read more ]
