Mixing Medications With Alcohol? Harmful Interactions by NIH
Since April of 2020 we have experienced a unique set of circumstances as relates to our physical and mental health. With the pandemic came physical distancing and isolation: a sense of being on our own to handle our problems. And with isolation came an increase in both the use of telehealth and the purchase […]
Recovery-Oriented Systems of Care – Limelight Interview
A recovery-oriented system of care (ROSC) is an infrastructure with the resources to address the full range of substance use problems within communities. The ROSC provides a continuum of care, working together with mental health and primary care resources. This includes prevention, early intervention, various treatment programs, continuing care, and long-term recovery. Recovery-Oriented […]
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, […]
Addiction Recovery During COVID-19 – The GOOD News
Judith Snow is the Clinical Manager at the Sanford Outpatient Center, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. And during a time when most of the news is negative about the rise of addiction, relapse, and overdoses during the pandemic, she is a breath of fresh air. As a proponent of Carl Rogers, Judith contends, “You have […]
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 […]
Finding Joy in an Unsettled World
I was sitting on a bench at Kirk Park taking in the fall colors, when a couple passed by. I watched them walk along the path toward Lake Michigan. A gale was blowing and they linked arms and bent against the wind off the water. The beach is eroded at Kirk Park, and there is […]
Adults (Especially Women), Alcohol Consumption & COVID-19
We’ve been under the thumb of COVID-19 long enough now, that the statistics are beginning to come in. There has been a more than 50% increase in national sales of alcohol in 2020. And a new survey by RAND Corporation shows that those over the age of 30 increased alcohol consumption 14% during May […]
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 […]
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 […]
