Family Recovery – Holiday Survival Guide 2020
Here we are, holidays 2020, and living through our second COVID-19 surge. Things are battening down again, and it remains challenging to find safe connection with others in recovery. But there is no closing down for addictive disease progression. And there is no closure for the angst experienced by family members who love a person […]
RIP Santino – Beloved Pet and Trusted Therapy Dog
It is with a heavy heart that we announce Santino, beloved pet and Sanford therapy dog, has died. Santino touched many lives at Sanford. Often, our clients responded to Santino before they were prepared to respond to people. And communing with Santino was a first step in their re-connection to family and friends. Jacqueline Green […]
Mothers of Addiction – Women Influence Treatment Outcomes
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make 80 percent of health care decisions in the United States. I’m not surprised. As a mother of grown children, I can attest to the fact they never really leave the nest. And women still take on the primary role of caregiver in families, even if […]
Manipulation – The Fourth Defense of Addiction
This is the fourth and final article in a series on understanding and dealing with the primary defenses of addictive disease. Please notice my choice of words, “the defenses of addictive disease”. Not, “the defenses of the person you love”. There is a difference between the person you love and the disease process in […]
Dear Rae: Should We Delay Treatment for Our Son?
Dear Rae: Should we delay treatment for our son? Since March, our 21-year old son has been showing signs of alcohol and marijuana addiction. He is always sneaking off in our back yard, and there have been many times when he has been staggeringly drunk or high. I guess we are seeing it now that […]
Deception as a Defense in Addiction – Third Stage of Change
This article is the 3rd in our series of 4 articles on the primary defenses of addiction. In this article we will focus on deception as a defense in addiction. Families and loved ones are the brunt of deception by those developing a substance use disorder (SUD). This defense is not only acted out […]
Humor as Therapy – The Limelight Interview
Addiction treatment has been impacted by the uncertainty and isolation of the past few months. During this time, we learned that group therapy can be conducted, with positive outcomes, via telehealth. And we also learned that glimpses of the lives and living environments of our clients and therapists during virtual treatment creates a new intimacy. […]
Boundaries in Recovery – The Freedom of Setting Limits
From the presentation “Establishing Healthy Boundaries in Recovery” – Families Against Narcotics (FAN) Washtenaw County Family Forum, May 11, 2020 by Rae Green, JD, LPC, CAADC and Ellen M. Sork, LLMSW. What are boundaries in recovery? “Boundary” is a word that has found its way into our everyday vocabulary and popular media. The concept […]
Do You Know How Active Addiction Feels?
As an adult, in a family with a member who has an active addiction, it is likely you are having feelings and thoughts reported by many other family members who deal with addiction in their midst. You feel hurt, anger, frustration, self-doubt, confusion, anxiety, fear, sadness, and hopelessness. You might also believe you have tried […]
Alcohol Ruins Relationships and Marriages, Even Brad Pitt’s
In a spate of articles and talk show banter over the past few years, actor Brad Pitt has blamed his alcohol use for the demise of his marriage to Angelina Jolie. It seems there was a defining incident on a private plane when Brad was inappropriately rough with one of his children. I can […]
