teen anxiety

Anxiety & Teen Eating Disorders: WGVU Morning Show

  Thanks to Shelley Irwin and the WGVU Morning Show for focusing on the rise in eating disorders in the past year. Shelley interviews Sanford’s Gail Hall about the increase in eating disorders, especially in teens.   Eating disorders are a lot about anxiety. And everyone’s anxiety has been ramped up (for good reason) the […]

Men’s Addiction Treatment – Take the Tour

  Sanford House at John Street for Men is a residential treatment facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Following the success of Sanford House at Cherry Street for Women, Founders Rae and David Green looked for a site for their men’s facility. Their goal was to create the same type of gender specific environment for men, […]

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Addiction Stigma – How Person-First Language Helps

Stigma is defined as “a mark of disgrace or infamy”. Stigma in addiction comes mostly from the symptoms of a person’s behavior and other aspects of a substance use disorder. Addiction Stigma It is known that persons who are addicted to alcohol and/or drugs can behave aggressively or dishonestly with erratic behaviors and judgment which […]

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Teen Eating Disorders on the Rise During Pandemic

  Since March 2020, the National Eating Disorders Association helpline has had a 40% increase in overall call volume. 35% of the callers were 13 to 17 years old. This represents a 30% increase in calls over the preceding year for teenagers.   Why are Teen Eating Disorders Impacted by the Pandemic? In a recent […]

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Anatomy of Addiction Episode 2 – Women and Addiction

  Today’s podcast episode is called Women and Addiction. By every marker, women are using alcohol and drugs more, and feeling the adverse effects more. Here’s the catch – women can’t drink or use drugs like men. We’re not built for it! Let’s discuss with Lynnel Brewster, RN, LPC, LLMFT, CCTP, AcuDetox Specialist, and Rae Green, […]

lynnel and rae AOA

Life on Mars – Addiction Therapy Then and Now

  If you have yet to see the television show Life on Mars, in which a police officer is transported back 33 years from 2006 to 1973, you should. It does a credible job of comparing that distant past world to the near-present. For example, DNA testing, penetration of the blue wall, acknowledgment of “compassion […]

mars

Women’s Mental Health 2021 – Best of Excursions

  Sleep problems, depression and anxiety are more common in women than in men according to a recent report by Frontiers in Global Women’s Health. What’s more, as isolation extended during the pandemic, women’s symptoms worsened.   Perhaps not surprisingly, women also reported higher scores on a scale measuring empathy in the report. Empathy is […]

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Surge in Overdose Deaths Increased by Pandemic

  Preliminary data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)  show the highest overdose death toll since the 1990s, when the opioid epidemic began. According to preliminary federal data, there was a 29 percent increase in deaths from overdoses during the period between October 2019 to September 2020, compared with […]

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Here’s Why Women Can’t “Drink Like Men”

Women and Alcohol – Drink Like a Man I spent time in The Bahamas a few years ago. The collective, benign tolerance to extreme drinking was undoubtedly a factor in the misuse of alcohol by the locals (myself included). But even I was often shocked by the drunken antics of women at the local Yacht […]

drink like men

Women’s Addiction – “Pink Flags” for Moms Who Need Wine

  I met with a thirty-something therapist last week who said she was concerned about her peers and their drinking habits. The “Moms who Need Wine” crowd, Starbucks cups filled with iced KJ at the soccer games. Play dates replete with chardonnay and imported cheese. Even baby-carriage walking groups with iced wine in the cup […]

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