Establishing Appropriate Boundaries
Therapeutic relationships are intricate, dynamic systems of healing and trust, defined by boundaries. Similar to state lines on a map or borders between countries, however, many boundaries are invisible and, in certain cases, imperceptible to those engaged in a therapeutic relationship. Although many people find maintaining healthy boundaries in a therapeutic relationship relatively easy, certain…
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The Art of Asking for Help
“We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him.” –The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Step 3 Besides turning yourself over to the care of God (or whatever name you call your Higher Power as you understand it), effective recovery from addiction requires…
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How a New Scientific Discovery Is Leading to New Treatments for Addiction and Other Mental Health Problems
Last month researchers at Rutgers University cracked a code in their effort to demystify how addiction affects the brain, and their discovery may lead to more new medications for cocaine and other addictions and co-occurring mental health problems. The researchers were studying cocaine-addicted rats when they made the following groundbreaking observation: that cocaine use caused…
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What Does “Higher Power” Mean to You?
“We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” –The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Step 2 When Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935, few Westerners had seriously considered any concept of “God” besides the traditional Judeo-Christian version: a single masculine supreme deity, in ultimate control of the universe,…
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The Difference Between Giving Up and Admitting an Uncontrollable Weakness
“We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.” –The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, Step 1 The idea of admitting you’re powerless over an addiction sounds to many people like a cop-out, akin to the infamous “Twinkie defense” which amounts to, “If you can’t help yourself, you can’t be held the…
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Breaking Free From Codependent Relationships
A strong, positive network of support from family, friends, and the community at large is critical to recovery. Without a sufficient support network, someone struggling with isolation—a defining characteristic of addiction—will resort to the same self-destructive behaviors that created their addiction in the first place. Although many relationships are balanced, healthy and positive influences, some…
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“Opioid Crisis Response Act” Passes, Including Key Recommendations from Executive Chairman Chris Christie
Last week, the U.S. Senate successfully passed the “Opioid Crisis Response Act”— a wide-ranging set of bills that contains many of the same recommendations of the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis, which Beach House Center for Recovery Executive Chairman Chris Christie chaired in 2017. The new legislation, authored largely by…
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How Recovery Is About Who You Know
Recovery is a lot about who you know. Let me explain…. In a month devoted to the topic of social pressure and its relation to substance abuse, there is great utility in revisiting the following key tenet of recovery: that the company you surround yourself with is as critical as the medications I (or any…
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How Grief Support Needs Are Greater Than Ever for Families in Runaway Overdose Epidemic
Drug overdoses, the vast majority of which are opiate-related, are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50. It’s a runaway epidemic that more often than not is measured in terms of the number of lives it cuts short each year. (In the year 2017 alone, that figure exceeded the…
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Avoiding 6 Major Triggers in Early Recovery
Recovery is a battle that is fought in stages. If you’ve already survived the rigors of detox through inpatient or outpatient treatment, are working a 12-step program, and have made a firm commitment to living a substance-free life, you’ve already won half the battle. The other half of the battle requires careful self-inventory and a…
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Prescription Drug Abuse on College Campuses – How to Understand the Role of “Peer Pressure”
Prescription drugs are among the most popular drugs of abuse among people ages 14 and older. On college campuses especially, prescription drug abuse constitutes a growing trend. For example, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has found that over one quarter of all college-aged young adults say they have misused a prescription psychotherapeutic…
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Beach House Center for Recovery’s Chris Christie to Keynote National Mental Health Conference
Beach House Center for Recovery’s new executive chairman, Governor Chris Christie, will open this year’s Moments of Change conference (October 1-4) with a keynote speech that addresses the U.S. opiate crisis, including the urgently needed federal policies that can save more lives from addiction and overdose in 2018 and beyond. The annual event (Moments of…
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National Suicide Prevention Week Prompts Closer Look at Link Between Drugs, Alcohol and Soaring Suicide Rates
Yesterday was “World Suicide Prevention Day,” which kicked off National Suicide Prevention Week (September 9-15). The annual campaign, marked by events around the country to raise awareness about suicide prevention among health professionals and the general public, comes on the heels of June’s news regarding celebrities Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain— and, at a time…
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How to Overcome the Learned Helplessness of an Addiction with the Help of Friends
“Learned helplessness” is a term from the world of psychology that has been around for a while. It was first coined during experiments with lab animals that over a prolonged period of exposure to acute stress (electric shocks applied to their cage) stopped reacting to the stimuli by trying to run away or escape. Instead,…
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