Mental Health Awareness Month – Join the Community
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, the time to bring attention to mental health and its importance to overall health and well-being. At the same time, we are also experiencing a mental health crisis in the United States. In a new Surgeon General’s Advisory, Dr. Murthy raises the alarm about the impact of loneliness […]
Recreational Therapy for Eating Disorders – Limelight Interview
Recreational therapy at Sanford Comprehensive Treatment for Eating Disorders (Sanford CTED) is “a bit hard to define,” according to Tori TerAvest, CTRS, and Raina Bawden, CTRS. Both are certified DBT specialists, and Tori is a certified yoga instructor, but they wear many hats. You might find them running process groups, leading a light yoga session, […]
Dear Rae: How Do I Talk to My Spouse About Their Drinking?
Updated 1/2/25 Dear Rae: I’ll get right to the point. Lately, my husband has been using alcohol as a crutch. In other words, he drinks to reduce his stress, but it adds to the stress in our home. He drinks every evening (sometimes starting at lunchtime). It definitely impacts our relationship because when he drinks, […]
Myth Busting – Non-Drinkers Are Not BORING
Updated 12/6/2025 On a recent long road trip, I listened to the podcast Smartless for 17 hours. The podcast was my only entertainment, aside from noting the decor in rest area bathrooms and the displays in roadside gas stations (which morphed from Slim Jims and antifreeze to oranges and baby alligator heads). Smartless is hosted […]
Happiness in Recovery – Reset Your Day!
It has been a long winter, and some of us may be feeling a bit down lately. To be sure, there’s nothing wrong with feeling down. Happiness is not a prerequisite of recovery for our clients at Sanford Behavioral Health. However, we do teach coping skills to help our clients move through the rough patches: […]
Awe Walks for Mental Health
Updated 2/15/2025 I am a self-described, often awestruck, nature nerd. I have written about the joys of Michigan winter in late February (when most Michiganders are tolerating the dreary days until spring). Other topics I have covered are finding joy during the pandemic, how a $75 blowup kayak can change your life, and the mental […]
Women’s Binge Drinking Outpaces Men’s After Pandemic
During the pandemic in 2020, binge drinking among college-age students declined. The decline was attributed to the lack of gatherings and the isolation as classes went online. However, in the wake of the pandemic, overall drinking for young adults is on the rise. And in a Washington Examiner interview with Dr. George F. Koob, director […]
A New Look at 10 Addiction Relapse Triggers
You are new to recovery and innocently pushing your cart down the aisle at the local Fresh Market. Let’s say it’s a gloomy Sunday afternoon. You round the corner, and there in front of you is the alcohol aisle. Aisles more like it, all shapes and sizes of beer and wine stacked and displayed artfully. […]
The History of Women and Wine Culture
The United States is the largest wine consumer in the world, exceeding the wine-producing European countries such as Italy and France, which long dominated world markets. According to the Beverage Information Group, 52 percent of women prefer wine, compared to 20 percent of men. Women make up 59 percent of wine buyers. It bears […]
Real Life Recovery: Day Treatment for Addiction
A standard directive in 12-step or addiction recovery meetings is, “Go to 90 meetings in 90 days.” They say this to encourage anyone new to recovery to immerse themselves in recovery in the same way they immersed themselves in their addiction. Recovery is the most important thing a person can do. But what if […]
