How do you celebrate July 4? The traditional ways in which we mark Independence Day are a minefield not only for those in recovery, but also for those on the roadways. Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on traffic accidents and fatalities on July 4, 2012, show just how many lives are turned…
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Often, the sooner someone speaks up about something that is bothering him or her, the better. Thoughts don’t have time to brew, become distorted, and get out of control. The same is true for fighting the power that a mental illness can have over the mind. The sooner the mental illness is diagnosed and treated,…
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The Right Step Galleria in Houston, Texas, is introducing New Leaf, a drug and alcohol addiction treatment program designed to address co-occurring mental health disorders, such as anxiety, depression and trauma.
When I set out to write this article, I thought I’d provide some statistics to give readers a sense of just how prevalent traumatic experiences are for women—whether the trauma comes from being the victim of a violent crime, sexual abuse or a different source, I knew the statistics would be terribly high. I started…
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Addicts of all types have ongoing issues with healthy emotional and sexual intimacy. This is hardly surprising when one understands that addicts engage in their addictive behaviors not to have a good time (even if that’s how their use began), but to self-soothe and avoid the pain of life. In other words, addicts drink, use,…
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New mothers and infants are associated with feelings of excitement, joy and love. But for those mothers who suffer from postpartum depression, childbirth can also mean mental health issues that overshadow child rearing, and share similarities to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
While many of us may talk about feeling depressed, what we often mean is that we are not as ‘up’ as usual. True depression is a lot more than feeling a little bit blue. When depression strikes teens it can affect nearly everything in their lives: how they are able to perform at school; parent/child…
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The recovery movement—Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and all the groups that have subsequently adopted AA’s model—has been helping people get sober since the 1930s. Positive psychology, while a young field within psychology, has been highly influential in treating substance addictions as well as many other illnesses since the late 1990s. Finding ways to blend the best…
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According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, mental illness is defined as “health conditions that are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood or behavior (or some combination thereof) associated with distress and/or impaired functioning.” Because mental illness is a long-term condition, these difficulties can persist year after year. When a young person…
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Graduation is an exciting time in the lives of teens as well as in the lives of their parents. Like other important rites of passage, such as going to prom or getting a driver’s license, reaching the milestone of completing high school or college is often accompanied by intense feelings of excitement. For many teens,…
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