Dear Rae: No Alcohol for the Holidays? I’m Mad!
Dear Rae: I just got an email from my aunt saying our cousin (we’ll call him Bill) is in early recovery from addiction, and to support him, she is not allowing any alcohol in her house for the holidays. I have to admit it makes me mad! My aunt is always the center of our […]
Anorexia in Larger Bodies? Busting Misdiagnosis and Stigma
When you think of anorexia, what is the mental picture you have? Images of an emaciated individual come to mind: a whisp of a young woman, clothes hanging off a skeletal frame. In reality, serious eating disorders can occur in individuals of all body sizes, any gender, and most ethnic groups. Only 7% of […]
Focus: First Responders – New Podcast for Sanford
How do first responders manage the stress of the job? In a new podcast, Focus: First Responders, host Matthew VanLiere explores the mental health issues associated with being first on the scene to face challenging, dangerous, and exhausting situations. Matt comes by the subject naturally, as a 29-year veteran of the Ottaway County, Michigan […]
Raising the Bar on Behavioral Health – MiBiz Interview
Sanford West Behavioral Health Campus Thanks to Mark Sanchez and MiBiz magazine for the coverage of the newest addition to Sanford Behavioral Health’s services in Greater Grand Rapids, Michigan. Sanford West Behavioral Health Campus is raising the bar on behavioral health in the state and beyond. The campus contains a Detox Center, and a […]
Binge Eating Disorder and Diet Culture
Binge Eating Disorder (BED) is characterized by the consumption of a large amount of food in a discrete period of time. It is the most common eating disorder in the United States, and it affects people of all racial and ethnic groups. About 1.25% of adult women and 0.42% of adult men have binge […]
Do Alcohol Delivery Apps Feed Isolation & Addiction?
For someone in recovery from an alcohol use disorder, there are a few simple tenets. Be careful of the people, places, and things that might cause emotional triggers. Take things one day at a time. And the one that has become a sticky wicket in the past three years: do not isolate. Isolation and alcohol […]
Studies Show 75% of Individuals With Addiction Recover
In a world of doom and gloom news, addiction from drugs and alcohol gets its share of bad press. The CDC reported more than 100,000 overdose deaths from April 2020 to April 2021. This is the single highest death toll recorded in a 12-month period. We also hear about the tsunami of increased alcohol […]
The Importance of Human Connection. Pandemic’s Silver Lining?
There is no argument – 2021 has been a tough year on our mental health. We have been challenged by the seemingly never-ending COVID pandemic. And in the behavioral health field the increase in overdoses, caused by multiple factors linked with the pandemic, resulted in more than 100,000 deaths. Is Connection the Pandemic’s […]
Working from Home – A Mental Health Battlefield
It’s almost always an uncomfortable experience to be at the whim of something out of our control. It leaves us feeling vulnerable, hopeful, and stressed all at once. Like most others, I had anticipated this COVID-19 situation would last a few months, maybe more. As we approach the year-mark since the first few cases […]
Continuum of Care, MAT, Telehealth: Limelight Interview
The “continuum of care” in addiction treatment describes a system in which individuals enter treatment at a level appropriate to their needs. As monitoring progresses, they step up to more intense treatment or down to less intense treatment as needed. Care is individualized and incorporates the following, no matter the level in which a […]
