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 “Those Who Care the Most About You Will Be the Last to Believe in Your Recovery”
Tag Archives: Substance Abuse
Recovery is Easier Than You Think
You may think that it’s hard to recover from addiction. Of course it is. But nearly everyone who has experienced both addiction and recovery say the same thing. Addiction is harder. You’re accustomed to all the work it takes to keep up an addiction, so you might not notice it anymore. You may not beContinue reading “Recovery is Easier Than You Think”
Slipstream Change
Change many things at once, rather than one thing at a time Anyone attempting to break a habit can learn a lot from marketers. They’re the experts at getting you to change. They love it when you are at a transitional period of your life. Advertisers love to target pregnant women. They have their ways ofContinue reading “Slipstream Change”
Staying Clean is Not Enough. We Must Also Develop a Personally Meaningful Life
Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse, Part 7 When you are thoroughly caught up in addiction, your priorities are clear; the drug comes first. Everything is done or not done in service of the drug. It’s the first thing you think about in the morning, the last thing you think about atContinue reading “Staying Clean is Not Enough. We Must Also Develop a Personally Meaningful Life”
Addiction Takes Hostages
Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse, Part 5 The further people go into addiction, the more their lives center around it. They discard all forms of recreation in favor of activities that include the addiction. All of their friends become using friends. Non-using friends drift away and the addict is drawn toContinue reading “Addiction Takes Hostages”
Even If You’re Not Ready to Quit, You Can Get Ready to Quit
Get some paper and a pen. Put it by the substance you are thinking of quitting. Even if you are not ready to quit yet, do this one, little thing. Before you use the substance, mark on your paper the time and the date. Write a line or two about why you’re choosing to useContinue reading “Even If You’re Not Ready to Quit, You Can Get Ready to Quit”
Help is Closer Than You Think
Some Things You May Not Know About Substance Abuse, part 4 It is a whole lot easier to get substances that will addict you than it is to get into treatment for addiction. In many localities, there are drug dealers at every corner, but to get to a clinic, you have to take two buses.Continue reading “Help is Closer Than You Think”
A Reflective Eclectic Treatment of Addiction
A Reading of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, Part V When I was growing up, some people in my life drank, but there was only one instance when someone’s drinking resulted in scary behavior. I grew up in the sixties and early seventies and considered myself a hippie, but drug culture passed me andContinue reading “A Reflective Eclectic Treatment of Addiction”
Zero Tolerance or Harm Reduction?
A Reading of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, Part IV My very first client when I began my career as an intern at a VA Medical Center’s Chemical Dependency Unit, confessed to me that he couldn’t stop thinking about having sex with little girls. He explained that heroin was the only thing that helpedContinue reading “Zero Tolerance or Harm Reduction?”
Is Addiction a Disease?
A Reading of The Urge: Our History of Addiction, Part III People have debated whether addiction is a disease for as long as I know and have never settled the matter for me, so that I cannot say for certain whether it is or isn’t. It depends on what you mean by disease. The wordContinue reading “Is Addiction a Disease?”
Keith Wilson - Counseling 