Synthetic Opioids – Increases in Overdose Deaths 2020
A December Health Alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), says overdose deaths accelerated in 2020. The largest increases were from March to May, which coincides with widespread measures taken to slow the spread of COVID-19. Approximately 81,230 drug overdose deaths occurred in the US from May 2019 to May 2020. […]
Principles of Resilience in Recovery 2020
COVID-19 has brought significant upheaval and challenges to millions of families in our country and throughout the rest of the world. In your life situation, as you are reading this article, it’s likely that on top of COVID-19, you have a special person in your life with a substance use disorder. Or you are […]
Sober Cocktails from the Sanford Kitchen
Sober friends and recovery holidaymakers, we are in the heart of the 2020 festivities. Anybody else getting a little club soda logged? Even in the parred down events of this year, you might want to toast your favorite bubble-mate, the coming of a vaccine or 2021. There is something unnerving about a proffered champagne tray, […]
Holidays Past & Time-Honored Tips – Best of Excursions
We’ve all made it through a pared down Thanksgiving 2020. And we’re on to December’s festivities. One good thing about the holidays this year, is that we are dealing with smaller, more intimate groups. For those in recovery, new or long-term, it takes the worry out of attending a large gathering. Or having to “explain” […]
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 […]
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 […]
Watery Me – Crying in Recovery
At the start of the pandemic I cried for two weeks. Not all day, every day, but very regularly. The enormity of the crisis, the fear about the virus, the concerns about lock down – it was a lot to deal with and get my head around. Every time an email came through from […]
Outpatient Addiction Treatment – Limelight Interview
Sanford’s Outpatient Center is abuzz with activity during the pandemic, and outpatient clients are all in groups via telehealth. But even though our programs are being conducted virtually, the administration, assessments, medical monitoring, confidentiality requirements, and stringent standards are still in place. And our outpatient therapists are experiencing the some of the same difficulties […]
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. […]
Power of Pets in Virtual Addiction Treatment
Updated March 2024 Floofer. Doggo. Pupper. Good Boy. These are some of the most cringe-worthy but intensely heartfelt phrases I find flying out of my mouth whenever I see a dog. It can get very embarrassing for those around me whenever I fail to regulate my reaction to pets. All of a sudden, my […]
