A Letter of Hope and Strength — This piece is for all the addicts, alcoholics and anyone diagnosed (or yet to be) with substance use disorder. You might not want to admit it yet, but you know who you are. You are not alone. Maybe drunken holiday party antics cost you a job. Maybe you’ve wrapped your…

Telling This Secret Helps Me Heal — If there’s one way to ensure you’re not getting my business, it’s to attempt a hard sell. There’s just something about being sold that really sets me off. Granted, most people don’t like being sold. It just pushes me to a different level. I feel personally offended — like it’s…

Every Client Inspires Me to Be a Better Version of Myself — I like to say every day is an adventure. Working as an addiction therapist, I never know who or what will cross my path next. Maybe I’ll need to do a call with Child Protective Services (CPS) to advocate for a client; maybe a client will show up drunk to…

How I Used Leisure Sports to Justify my Addiction — The afternoon was sticky, and the air hung heavy. I was sweating bullets (and my morning vodka) before we even stepped off the putting green. We were a rag-tag bunch playing in a golf tournament for police officers. …

Did you ever “drink at” someone? — Let’s talk relapse. It’s been a persistent guest in my addiction treatment center lately — so let’s pay it the respect it deserves. There are endless reasons why people relapse. Sometimes we’re in the wrong place (bar) at the wrong time (hangry/sleep deprived) and can’t bear the weight of drinking…

An Addiction-Enabling Concept Build Upon Defense Mechanisms — I’ll bet you know someone who proudly proclaims themselves to be a “high-functioning alcoholic.” It’s a pretty safe bet given that JAMA research shows that one in three Americans (30.3%) will experience alcohol use disorder at some point during their lives. It could be the colleague who tries to recruit…

An Inpatient Rehab Story about Life and Death — We were sitting in a circle and couldn’t contain ourselves. The atmosphere bordered on locker-room raucous — no surprise for a room full of addicts. We’d forgotten how to laugh. We’d lost that spark in the darkness of our addiction. Now it poured out recklessly. Dirty jokes. Name calling. Poking…

A Common Reservation in Addiction Recovery — Maybe. But only the ones worth losing. People enter into addiction recovery with a lifetime supply of concerns and reservations about giving up drinking. One of the biggest reservations is relationships. It’s quite common for people in early recovery to hide their treatment and new-found abstinence from friends and family…

Harsh Truths from a Therapist’s Therapist — I’ll bet there’s someone out there who really grinds your gears. It could be a micromanaging boss, a judgmental in-law, a one-upping sibling, an over-involved stepfather, a credit-stealing colleague. You know who it is. Try as you might to control your reactions — these button pushers activate your defenses and…