When people hear “Family History Day,” they often picture ancestry websites, old photo albums, or stories about grandparents. For professionals and executives in recovery, though, family history isn’t just sentimental—it’s neurological, behavioral, and deeply practical. Our families are our first blueprint: Our first models of stress. Our first teachers of regulation or dysregulation. Our introduction to connection, conflict, avoidance, celebration,...[ read more ]
Substance Use Disorder is Like Other Illnesses I’d like to discuss relapse prevention using the analogy of disease or illness immunity. I’m going to show how substance use disorder and alcohol use disorder function like other illnesses and how the concept of immunity applies to recovery from substance use disorder. In recent content, we discussed how a substance use disorder...[ read more ]
Relapse and Stress The #1 reason people relapse** to alcohol or drugs or other unhealthy coping is stress. It’s a complicated and multidirectional relationship that we are going to break down and understand through the science. Stress is a known and quantified challenge and trigger in sobriety. Evidence strongly suggests that the neural circuits involved in stress and emotions overlap...[ read more ]
Why You Can’t Think Your Way Into Not Drinking I’ve observed a tendency in my clients that they believe because they have achieved so much, they "should" be able to address their substance use disorder themselves. My clients are mostly high functioning persons with an alcohol use disorder** or substance use disorder**, people who are over-using alcohol, drinking too much,...[ read more ]
A Happy and Sober Holiday Season 2020 Version Last year I wrote a series of posts that I called “Your Definitive Guide to a Happy Sober Holiday Season.” It accurately described many of the challenges persons in recovery** can face during the holiday season. Click here for the blog post on an accurate assessment of recovery status. Click here for...[ read more ]
COVID 19, A New Normal and Being Tired “I’m so tired. Is that normal?” If you’ve ever been in therapy with me, you probably know I avoid the term “normal” in my clinical practice. I don’t find it helpful as most of the topics people ask the “normal” question about are highly contextual and in a range. Examples include...[ read more ]
7 Reasons You Should Start a Gratitude Practice Today November is known in the Recovery Community as “Gratitude Month.” Go to a 12-Step Meeting in the month of November, and the selected topic is even more likely to be “gratitude.” (In case you are not aware, gratitude is a common meeting topic the other 11 months, too.) Meeting attendees are...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: Laughter Before I went to sleep last night, I laughed so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks. When I woke up this morning, my sides hurt. The same thing happened yesterday. This is a special and delightful weekend for the Recovery Therapist. My daughter graduated from college yesterday. That is, of course, one of my...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: Gratitude “Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude.” Ralph Waldo Emerson It was 1991 and a pleasant enough day. I was not employed, but had been...[ read more ]
The Science of Woo: Forgiveness Today – Easter – is a perfect day to feature Forgiveness in my series on the topic of “The Science of Woo.” There are ideas that transcend one religion and are found in all religions, and the idea of Forgiveness is one of those ideas. I am never surprised when those ideas are found by...[ read more ]
