This article is reposted from www.williamwhitepapers.com with permission from the author. William White is the author of Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America. His collected papers and interviews with leaders in the addictions field can be viewed at www.williamwhitepapers.com. One of the major clinical innovations in the modern treatment of addiction is the community reinforcement approach and family training (CRAFT) intervention developed by Robert J. Meyers, PhD. CRAFT is an evidence-based, nonconfrontational approach that can be used by concerned ..read more

It’s hard enough to live your values at the best of times, but when you’re being forced to socially distance yourself from the rest of the world, it can feel downright impossible! How do you connect with what matters to you when you’re not allowed to connect at all? While the world is in a locked-down state, it may feel like everything is on “hold,” including your values. But, with a little planning and a lot of flexibility, we can still find ways to connect to what’s important to us. A Quick Review: What are Values? Values are the guideposts that help you to make decisions about your life. I ..read more

In the last 3 months our world changed in what seems like a split second and we have all faced the profound fall out of COVID-19 on our communities and the world at large. The ramifications will be long-lasting and each day we are faced with loss of human life, economic security, and the rituals that get us through life like graduations, weddings, and funerals. Many of us are all too aware that the accompanying grief, isolation and fear will result in widespread psychological trauma. A Texas nonprofit, the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute has predicted that if unemployment rises to a le ..read more

If you love someone who struggles with substance, you may be facing increased stress during the pandemic. Maybe you are sheltering in place with the person you are concerned about and coming face to face with the fall out of their use of substances. Maybe you have not been able to have contact with your loved one and are facing worry and feeling out of control. We hope you can find ways to hold onto hope and we know you can be a hugely powerful force in helping your loved one shift their motivation towards positive change. While you might be tempted to express your upset by confronting your lo ..read more

While we are all facing the limitations of our health care system during this pandemic, some people suffering from alcohol use disorder have been struggling unnecessarily for months due to a sudden and unexplained shortage of a life saving medication, disulfiram.  Alcohol use disorder is a medical condition that kills thousands of people every month in the US,  more than double that of opioids every year. Disulfiram has proven to be effective for many people suffering from this condition and it has been readily available for decades. Suddenly, it is unavailable and no one seems to un ..read more

Dealing with a destructive relationship to substances…and doing the huge work of changing that relationship… is a process of mastery. It requires focus, intensity, perseverance, commitment, and courage. It requires getting a deeper understanding of yourself, taking the plunge into some not so happy places of self-reflection, and bringing what you find down in those dark places back up to the surface to be part of a new life. And to create that new life, it also requires looking at relationships, looking at life choices, a willingness to ask “what is actually important to me”, and then (worst o ..read more

The spread of COVID-19 has changed the lives of millions of people all over the world in the last few months. As the virus has spread, people have had a number of questions circling in their minds- How do I stay healthy and safe during this time? How do I protect my loved ones? What should I do if I do feel ill? How do I maintain my mental health? How do I support myself when I can’t go anywhere outside of my home? Some of us have had to grapple with these questions in ways we might be largely unaccustomed to, while others of us may feel terrified to be back in a place of worrying about our ow ..read more

Our world has changed and you have probably read every article about how we need to cope by staying mentally and physically engaged and connected to those we love. All of it is sound advice and worth taking. But, what about your heartache? Your sadness about the world? People are dying and life as we have known it is forever changed. Your future feels uncertain and every time you tune into the news there are more images of loss. You might find yourself feeling numb or kind of blanked out. You might find that you can’t sit still and are trying to do everything you can to stay distracted. You m ..read more

If you have someone in your life who is using substances in a problematic way, you may often wonder what you can do to help them decide to change. You may be frightened or mad at them for making bad choices. It’s also likely you have absorbed the cultural message that there isn’t anything you can do to help because that would be enabling or that the only way they will change is when they bottom out. Science, however, offers some different options about how to help someone change. Step 1: Shift Your Understanding The first step is to shift your understanding of substance use. Your loved isn’t l ..read more

You may have heard about Dry January by now. It’s a movement where people give up alcohol for the month of January in an attempt to start out the new year with a healthy kick. The trend has grown over the last decade and has taken off around the globe. If you are a skeptic, you may wonder, “does taking a month off of drinking really do anything or is this just another gimmick?” Interestingly, there is evidence that taking a short break from drinking can instigate real change, especially if someone has really been struggling with that substance for a while. In addiction psychology, taking a per ..read more