Can you imagine saying you are not culturally competent during a job interview? Probably wouldn’t go too well from that point forward. But I am not culturally competent. That was hard for me to finally understand. I wanted to be competent. I still do. It finally dawned on me that it wasn’t possible. Many

When you can’t find the words to express how you’re feeling, expressing yourself through a craft has been shown to be highly effective. Over 66% of patients in one study even reported that using art as therapy was associated with significant positive changes in mental health symptoms. While addiction treatment takes shape in many different forms, there

I don’t follow a 12-step program. I’ve been to AA meetings, several in fact, and I have received some benefit from going to them. But AA never resonated with me, for many reasons, and maybe I’ll lay those out in anther post…. But one thing has been swirling around in my mind lately… this idea

  I sat alone, the silence deafening and asked myself how did my life come to this?, I knew the drink wasn’t working anymore, It didn’t take away the pain like before. It took away my laughter, my creativity and the years, My head told me I didn’t have the strength or courage to live

  After battling his own addiction, Brian McCall, under the name “B-RAiN” brings recovery focused rap music while touring the country. Brian has been sober for nearly a decade. He tours with his group Cloud Gang and together they endeavor to break the stigma of addiction treatment and connecting those in recovery. As an Outreach

In a previous post to this site on healing an addiction-damaged relationship, I wrote about rigorous honesty (why we need it and what it looks like) and the difference between active and passive truth-telling. In that post, the focus was on repairing relationship trust with a betrayed spouse or partner. This post is on the

  Dear wild bird Flying in your cage swiftly from side to side. Going about your pleasant routine, whistling as if you weren’t tied. Dear sweet bird You need to see that the life that you live is contained. That there is so much more and you allow yourself to be restrained. Dear loving bird

Over 8.1 million adults in the U.S. are coping with a substance use disorder. Drug addiction is known to change the way our brain functions and significantly impacts how our body perceives daily pleasures. One of the most common effects of excessive use of drugs like alcohol is the increased levels of inflammatory lipids in the

  I was never totally scum. Not before I started drinking and during my pre-recovery years. I was also not struck wonderful when I found recovery. However, when I share my story you might think that I was perfectly bad in my “before days” and steadily better on the road of “progress” with occasional bouts

Wannabe  I always wanted to be somebody else, right out of the chute. The notion sprouted in my head when I was a young boy—I wished I was my cousin. The one who lived on a farm with umpteen brothers and sisters, and tons of farm animals, too. Fun and excitement were routine at his