If I’m being honest, I’ve been struggling for about as long as I can remember. Social anxiety has controlled my life since I was in elementary school. On the playground, I’d end conversations before anyone could make fun of me for something—because I was certain that would happen. Let’s just…
While many know that drugs and alcohol play a significant role in mental health, it isn’t as clear what that role is: can drug and alcohol use cause mental illness? Or does persistent drug/alcohol use merely signify a mental illness. As it turns out, the answer isn’t so black and…
It might already be universally understood that using alcohol and/or drugs to cope with mental illness is a bad idea, but the “whys” of it might be less clear. It’s a big topic and there’s a lot of information out there, especially with all the discussions around legalization. Coping or…
Many people who don’t experience addiction themselves struggle to understand why and how others become addicted to substances like drugs and alcohol. Some doubt or downplay the suffering that comes with this disease, and others, those who empathize with struggling addicts, just can’t fully grasp the painful, strenuous battle that…
If you drink alcohol from time to time—even a couple glasses of wine or a few beers every so often—you’ve probably experienced its effects on your sleep patterns. Whether you just couldn’t fall asleep, you found yourself tossing and turning throughout the night, or you had some pretty frightening dreams….
You can help your love ones through addiction recovery by supporting and listening to them, but you must be careful about your own words. The wrong words can easily hurt an addict, even when you didn’t mean it “that way,” which means it’s important you know what not to say…
It is all-too-common for individuals living with a range of mental illness to use mood- and mind-altering substances to alleviate their experiences and help soothe their overall experienced psychological condition. It has long been known to experienced addictions therapists that there is an incredibly high degree of overlap between mental…
Many of us enjoy a cold beer or a tall glass of wine every now and again. It helps to “take the edge off,” to calm us down after a long week. But what we often fail to realize is that alcohol affects each one of us differently—and as tempting…
Have you ever witnessed a friend become increasingly aggressive during a night out? As their bar tab grows, so does their aggression and hostility. They get into a silly (but heated) argument with another friend or better yet, a random person minding their business in the corner. And before you…
Lip (short for Phillip) is a strong young adult, who has overcome more than most of us experience in a lifetime. As a teen in high school, his primary concerns were putting food on the table, paying the bills, and taking care of his four younger siblings alongside his older…
Tom caught his very first glimpse of Ana on the last day of classes—she was trying to unchain her bike from a bike rack and clearly in a fit of frustration. So, he stepped in and succeeded to free her ride. This gained him a smile and a quick number…
Learning a new language is all fun and games until somebody asks you to speak it. Spanish class, 4th period, every day for three years. We started out with the basics, of course—I learned all of the colors and animals; then we moved on to elementary verbs; and then to…
