Category: Uncategorized

Addiction Recovery: Finding the Center

Addiction can cause chaos, as if life has exploded into thousands of pieces that can’t be put back together. This type of chaos can cause anxiety, an unspecified fear that’s hard to pin down on any particular person, place or thing. Often, when someone…

Dealing With Anger in Recovery From Alcoholism

Learning to deal with anger is vital in recovery from alcoholism. Actually, it’s vital in recovery from addiction to other drugs such as cocaine, opiates, etc. Here, though, I’ll address anger management in recovery from alcoholism. First, it’s important to establish anger as a…

The Beautiful Clarity of Sobriety

Many people hear the word sober and think of dull and boring. In addiction recovery, sobriety means something else entirely. Sobriety in addiction recovery means, among many other things, clarity. For someone who’s lived day in and day out in the mental fog of…

Alcoholism by the Numbers

I post statistics on alcoholism here from time to time as an eye-opener. Most people see only commercials or ads depicting people drinking alcohol and having a good time, and for the majority of people that’s mostly true, but for the millions who become…

Recovery Management

I’m often asked what is the success rate in treatment. When I first started working in treatment decades ago, a counselor once answered that question by saying the success rate is 100%. He said he successfully gives a Recovery Management Plan to every client…

Addiction – From Denial to Acceptance

Most people coming into addiction treatment are in some stage of denial. There are those who deny they have a problem at all, but when we get information from a spouse, an employer, a friend, medical information, DUI history, etc., we get a different…

Celebrating Recovery From Addiction

Those of us who work in the addiction treatment field face resistance on a regular basis. Denial is prevalent in addiction. Many of us were taught to use will power in situations like this, to buckle up and overcome any adversity. Seeking help and…

Addiction Statistics

Addiction statistics are grim. It’s not a pleasant topic, but more people need to know these harsh facts. The statistics below come from the Addiction Center website – please click on the link and read the whole article. As the first statistic shows, the…

Thriving In Recovery From Addiction

Relapse Prevention The basics of addiction treatment have a lot to do with relapse prevention. Especially in early recovery, it’s important to learn skills necessary to avoid relapse — however, avoiding relapse and thriving in recovery are not the same. A person can develop…

When Alcohol Stops Working

I’ve heard over a thousand alcoholic stories — it’s starts off fun and exciting, in most cases. The person can usually hold their drink better than others. Although building a tolerance to alcohol is perceived as a good thing by most people, it’s one…