Author Archives: Keith R Wilson

The Shrink’s Links: Advance Psychiatric Directives

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. You know what an advance directive is, right? Advance Directives are the legal documents that enable you to state your preferences regarding medical care beforehand and empower someone to make decisions on your behalf when you are unable to do so yourself. They’ll come in handyContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Advance Psychiatric Directives”

Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: What keeps you addicted

Chemistry First there’s the chemical. That calm feeling you get from Percocet is just too good to give up. The sickness you feel when you are in withdrawal is just too bad to bear. Genes get rewritten when you use cocaine often enough, so that nothing but cocaine can make you happy. Your brain cellsContinue reading “Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: What keeps you addicted”

The Shrink’s Links: CrowdMed

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. Do you have frustratingly complex medical symptoms that have you and your doctors baffled? Pay $199, submit your medical history anonymously to CrowdMed, and dozens, or even hundreds, of “medical detectives” will chime in. You get a list of suggestions, based on these detective’s rankings, toContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: CrowdMed”

Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: You can’t stop cravings from knocking at the door, but you don’t have to answer

You could stop using whatever it is that is destroying you and you will still think about it from time to time. You’ll have dreams of using. A beer truck might roll by and you’ll feel thirsty. That old life will seem good every now and then. You could have some very good reasons toContinue reading “Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse: You can’t stop cravings from knocking at the door, but you don’t have to answer”

The Shrink’s Links: The New Year’s Clean Sweep

Bringing you the best of mental health and relationship advice on the internet. Today’s link from the shrink is: The Clean Sweep Program I’ve posted it before, but this is a link that’s worth repeating in this season of setting goals and making resolutions. The Clean Sweep Program is a checklist of 100 items which,Continue reading “The Shrink’s Links: The New Year’s Clean Sweep”

The Shrink’s Links: Bright Ideas for Treating the Winter Blues

Bringing you the best of mental health every week. Christmas time is a busy time of the year for malls, elves, and postal workers, but, despite the myth, it is not a busy time for us shrinks. Actually, it’s April. Nonetheless, there is something about this time of year that makes it hard, especially inContinue reading “The Shrink’s Links: Bright Ideas for Treating the Winter Blues”

Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse, Part 20: Those who care the most about you will be the last to believe in your recovery

If you’re an addict in recovery, you may have already noticed this. Those who are closest to you are the last to believe you’re changing. Your wife, your husband, mother, father, children, close friends, don’t get as excited as you do when you celebrate one week clean, one month clean, or one year clean. They’veContinue reading “Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse, Part 20: Those who care the most about you will be the last to believe in your recovery”

Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse, Part 18: You don’t know what you can do

You could learn a lot about addiction and recovery by watching the Wizard of Oz. I’m not referring to the scene where Dorothy and her friends pass out in a field of poppies. That’s the only outright drug reference I can recall. I’m talking about the way Dorothy and her friends are traipsing all overContinue reading “Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse, Part 18: You don’t know what you can do”