Articles

Stress is a top trigger for anxiety, depression and relapse. STOP is a quick technique for recognizing and managing stress.

When a loved one is in trouble we want and need to take action, but how do we tell the difference between helping and enabling? How do we get through the situation, "guilt-free" and still in tact?

Over the years we have matured as an industry and have grown to realize that there are many pathways to recovery. To limit ourselves to just one methodology can limit the possibilities of long term recovery. Below is the working definition developed over several years with input from professionals, laymen and individuals in recovery from across the country. Published and developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Recently I received an email from my doctor listing their holiday hours. On the bottom was this little "Oh by the way" type filler which I'm sure most people wouldn't even scroll down to. (I did because I'm learning about social networking etc.). When I read this I thought the patients might have been better served placing this information first followed by holiday hours. I mean, this is good helpful stuff! Yes, much is common sense but always a good reminder. Flu and cold season, holidays, stress, finances. etc. This is a relapse trigger time of year! Apparently even the CDC knows our vulnerabilities! Taking care of the simple things can help prevent a lot of BIG things. Click on this for some helpful steps to keep you and your loved ones safe and healthy.

Marie Kondo is an organizing consultant who became well known for organizing method that is based on choosing to keep only items that speak to your heart rather than deciding what to get rid of. Watching her show on Netflix she would ask her customers, “Does this spark joy”? If the answer was positive, they would keep the item and if it was negative they would discard the item. The philosophy being, “Don’t clutter your life with things and stuff that don’t bring you joy”. What if we were to do the same thing with our intellectual and emotional energy? Reality is we are going to have to do some hard things. Sometimes we will get stuck, but do we have to live in constant paralyzing stress and cognitive overload? When this happens we have to take the steps to get unstuck and find a way to spark joy into our recovery.