Q: Someone who lives with me has their gf over. The guy and his gf go off with someone I don’t know. Each time they come back, she starts flailing around and making weird noises and asking invisible people to help her. She claims it’s just a panic attack. So…
Life can get stressful and overwhelming, and sometimes our methods of dealing with it are helpful in the short term but become more problematic over time. These unhelpful behaviors are referred to as “maladaptive behaviors” or, more specifically, actions or responses that are not suitable or effective in a given…
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marijuana is the most commonly used federally illegal drug in the United States (though it is now legal on the state level in the majority of states) – with 48.2 million people, or 18% of Americans, reportedly using it at least…
As with any other mental health condition, comprehending what causes depression is crucial to managing and treating depressive symptoms. This starts with understanding that depressive disorders have no singular cause but a set of factors that are all involved in the development of depressive symptoms. With this in mind, the…
According to the National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health, 9.2 million adults in the United States struggled with substance use disorder and another mental illness (such as an anxiety or mood disorder) in 2018. These statistics show that substance use disorder and other forms of mental illness tend to…
While talking to a young woman in recovery (with over 100 days), the topic of change arose. She said that she was unhappy with who she was. I probed further, asking what worried her about her life. She went on to tell me about all of the things she’d done…
Substance use disorders (SUD) start with “I’ll give it a try” and “why not just once”—but they turn into greedy, unshakeable, demanding monsters. Once you’re hooked—whether it be on alcohol, opioids, or another drug—your entire life changes before you. You feel like you can’t live without the substance: you have…
Interesting College Alcohol and Drug Use Statistics In the year 2000 there were approximately 85,000 deaths in the US attributable to hazardous drinking—making alcohol the third actual leading cause of death. Abuse of alcohol and drugs on college campuses is a primary concern of parents sending their children off to…
This is a heavier article than most of our self-help and life coaching topics. However, we thought it was well done (Provided by Ryan Neace of The Change Group, Lynchburg, VA). PORTRAITS Geoff has been drinking and drugging since high school. As a matter of fact, he stays up most…
