The Adolescent Mind: Intoxication, Trauma, and Attachment Published in The Therapist: 2021 July/ August edition Courtesy of California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT) Adolescent Turmoil Adolescence is a turbulent time in the best of circumstances; riddled with pressures, paradoxes, conscious desires, and subconscious drives, adolescents are more mature than they’re often given credit for…
A skilled torturer’s goal is to break someone but to keep them alive while doing so. To bring them to their knees yet keep their heart beating and lungs pumping. Chronic pain will not kill a person, yet it can bring them to their knees wishing for death. For those who live with chronic pain…
Awareness of trauma and its impact on the mind, body, and brain is becoming more and more widespread. (Read my article here) Additionally, the understanding of trauma as a gateway to addiction is becoming more and more understood. However, dissociation, which is a natural response to trauma, still remains a mystery to many, even those…
ADDICT OR ALCOHOLIC? First let me start by clarifying something; I see absolutely NO difference between an alcoholic or a drug addict. Regardless of the name of the drug, they are addicted to being intoxicated. So I will be using the two terms addict and alcoholic interchangeably. While there are differences between a heroin addict…
Don’t Treat the Symptoms Survivors of trauma often experience symptoms related to their trauma that are parallel to many of the diagnostic criteria of other DSM disorders, including what are often labeled “Personality Disorders”. What often happens though is these symptoms get labeled as the primary diagnosis and we end up trying to cure the…
I have worked in the addiction field at some capacity since I got sober in 1996. The “12-step social model’ helped get me sober but it wasn’t until I started digging deeper and understanding the underpinnings to addiction (at about 10-12 years sober) did I really start healing. Science has clearly proven that the process of addiction is due…
P.A.W.S. Deconstructed Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS) is not a new concept in the chemical dependency field but is not always understood by addicts or their loved ones. It was taught to me when I went to rehab in 1996 and was around before that. I had been there a couple weeks and my moods…
Relapse should not be taken lightly. Addiction is a deadly and progressive illness, like cancer and diabetes, and should be treated as such. A relapse in either of those diseases can throw an individual and their families into a state of turmoil and possible death; and so can addiction. In fact, for opiate users the…
An Epedemic According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse between 1999 and 2010 prescription painkiller sales quadrupled. They also estimate that 80% of prescription painkillers are prescribed by 20% of the providers. Since 1999, overdose deaths from painkillers and heroin have increased by 300%, a staggering number that reflects the current nationwide opiate epidemic.…
If you have been reading my articles you should know by now I am a huge proponent of practicing mindfulness within our lives and research continues to back up its effectiveness (Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn 2008). The changing of the seasons is always such a great time to help practice mindfulness regardless of where we are.…