Someone you love is in recovery, and you want to help. You also want to know whether they went to their appointment. Whether they are being honest. Whether the silence means they need space or something has gone wrong. Perhaps you have lived through broken promises before. You know how quickly hope can turn into … Read more
October 1 falls on Thursday, and Sober October is almost here. Maybe you’re looking forward to it. Maybe you’ve already made a plan. Or maybe life has picked this week to become especially difficult. The car needs a repair you can’t afford. Someone you love is upset with you. Work was miserable. You got bad … Read more
A craving can feel like an emergency. Your body changes. Your thoughts narrow. The part of your brain that remembers every reason you wanted to stop suddenly becomes much quieter than the part that remembers relief. Use would make this feeling go away. Use would make tonight easier. Just once would not matter. In that … Read more
Build a Plan Before You Want to Use The worst time to decide what you’re going to do about an urge is when you’re already having one. That sounds obvious, but it’s how most people approach change. We decide we’re done. We mean it. We can explain exactly why using has been costing us too … Read more
September is National Recovery Month. We spend a lot of time talking about addiction as if the substance is the problem. Alcohol. Opioids. Stimulants. Gambling. Whatever the thing is. And obviously the thing matters. But if all we do is remove the substance without asking what job it was doing, we may miss the most … Read more
You can tell your child to “just say no” a hundred times. That doesn’t mean the words will come easily when they’re standing in a room full of friends and someone puts something in their hand. Peer pressure works because the decision isn’t happening in a calm conversation at the kitchen table. It happens quickly, … Read more
When someone you love is in recovery, it is easy to wonder whether you are helping or making things harder. Should you ask how they are doing or leave them alone? Should you step in when you see trouble coming? When does helping become rescuing? How do you support someone without taking responsibility for their … Read more
Your teenager probably isn’t going to hear a song about drugs and immediately decide to use them. That would actually make this whole thing easier. The influence of music, movies, social media, and popular culture is usually much quieter than that. Media doesn’t have to convince a teenager to do something in order to matter. … Read more
The transition to college is exciting for almost everyone involved. Your teenager is stepping into a larger world, one with more freedom, more choices, and fewer adults watching what they do with either one. They get to decide when they sleep, where they go, who they spend time with, and what they say yes to … Read more
There is a strange season that happens during real personal growth that almost nobody prepares you for. Not the motivational version of change.Not the cinematic montage where somebody starts waking up at 5 a.m., drinking green juice, journaling under soft lighting, and becoming their “best self” in thirty days. The real version. The version where … Read more