A Connected Life
It is our hope that “A Connected Life” will engage you in fresh, inspiring ways with what a life empowered by recovery can look like. It’s also our way of staying in touch with you in a conversation that’s alive with practical, new insights and meaningful resources for community and support.
Celebrating Freedom from Addiction: You Don’t Have to Wait for an “Official” Sobriety Anniversary
If you’re a member of any 12-Step group, you’ve heard many of your fellow members announce: “Tonight I’m celebrating one year of sobriety”—or six months, five years or ten years. Perhaps you’ve personally made similar milestone announcements. There’s nothing like a sense of accomplishment to boost confidence. On the other hand, knowing that in four…
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10 Ways to Stop Addiction Before It Starts
Prevention still beats cure for maximum simplicity and minimum pain: so if you’ve escaped addiction so far (or if you want to help others avoid repeating your mistakes), here are ten ways to stay out of the chemical-overuse trap. 1. Remember that not all addiction starts with illicit experimentation. A generation or so ago, people…
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How Rediscovering Romance Can Help Your Sobriety Journey
While it’s not a good idea to get involved in a new relationship during your first few months of sobriety—you have enough life transitions and adjustments to cope with right now—if you’re already in a committed relationship, taking steps to rekindle and nurture the romantic element can be a major help in staying sober: You’ll…
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Why Men Gravitate to Alcohol and Marijuana
Research suggests that gender may have a significant impact on why people with addiction choose one substance over another. The findings show, for example, that females are more likely than males to report non-medical use of prescription drugs. Men are more likely to report marijuana and alcohol use, on the other hand. In this blog,…
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The Top 10 Secrets of Living One Day at a Time
Although “living one day at a time” is a basic tenet of sobriety, you may well ask: Yes, but how do I do it? Here are a few ideas. 1. DON’T CONFUSE LIVING ONE DAY AT A TIME WITH SEEKING INSTANT GRATIFICATION “Live one day at a time” definitely does not mean “Eat, drink and…
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How to Spot an Addiction Before You Get Too Serious About a Relationship
The “reform school” approach to romance is a disaster waiting to happen. It’s one thing if you’re already married to the person with the addiction—which commits you to dealing with the matter as a family problem—but if you’re still in the “falling in love” stage, don’t let yourself convince yourself the other party will sober…
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The Top 10 Secrets of Lifelong Sobriety
It takes about three months to get a chemical addiction out of your system—one week physically and twelve weeks psychologically. Even after that, the danger of relapse remains strong for at least a year, and there are cases of people returning to addiction decades later. Often, all it takes is one major new stress, a…
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What Is Addiction? A Working Definition for Families
As a psychiatrist specializing in addiction, I’m often asked to be a guest speaker for various audiences, including families who want to know how to help a loved one struggling with a substance use disorder (SUD). In these cases, I like to start by answering the misleadingly basic question, “What is addiction?” Because an answer…
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Redefining Your Role in the Household, Post-Recovery
Chemical dependence is always a family problem. If you have an addiction disorder, chances are other members of your household have unconsciously encouraged it, usually in one or more of the following forms: Talking in terms of “needing” or “deserving” a drink or pill Subjecting you to stress in the form of unreasonable expectations Predicting…
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The 4 Biggest Obstacles That Men Face in Recovery
What are the biggest obstacles to recovery for men in particular? That’s a fitting question to explore during Men’s Health Month. Below I’ll lay out some of the more common trends among the male client population that I treat, revealing a number of obstacles to recovery that as a more general rule tend to affect…
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The Best Healthy-Living Tips for Anyone Recovering from Addiction
Even with the best medical care, physical drug detox is typically a miserable experience. Depending on the substance involved, you may develop flu-like physical illness that saps your strength, turns your stomach violently and makes you hurt all over. Or you may suffer days of delusions, hallucinations and surging panic. Or if you’re among the…
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The Link Between Addiction and Antidepressants – What to Know
Like July 4th in this country, recovery is a celebration of freedom: freedom from drugs and alcohol, yes— but also the freedom to be and do what gives you purpose and passion, without having to rely on one or more substances just to function. Such freedom demands tuning in to life, not numbing out. That’s…
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