Articles and Resources for Recovery

Throughout this blog, we have written about the ways in which a substance use disorder centered on alcohol can upend your life (examples here, here, and here). The problems associated with alcohol use—damage to your relationships, your finances, your ability to think clearly, and more—are all serious and good reasons...

Habits can be good or bad, healthy or unhealthy. If you are in recovery from a substance use disorder (which some people might refer to as a drug habit), you know this is true. What is also true—and perhaps a little less obvious—is that good and bad habits can be...

Have you ever had someone try to pull a fast one on you with a coin flip? Just before flipping the coin up into the air, they might announce, “Heads I win, tails you lose!”  With those “rules” in play, you can’t win the flip. That’s why it is much,...

In this series about healthy eating in recovery, we have written a lot about the kinds of foods that best support your well-being and your efforts to stay away from drugs or alcohol. In this entry, we want to shift the focus from what you should eat to a couple...

The notion of a dinner bell—often a triangle struck with a metal rod which produced a loud ringing sound that would call people from their work to come together to eat—is not terribly common anymore. Its closest analog might be a parent shouting out the front door to bring the...

This is the third entry in our ongoing series of posts about how healthy eating supports your ongoing recovery from a substance use disorder. The first entry was an overview of ways you can make your diet healthier. The second entry focused on breakfast and hydration. In this blog post,...

It is easy to get caught up in a lot of details and strategies and suggestions when it comes to your recovery journey. You focus on the details of the 12-Steps. You develop personal strategies for overcoming strong and sudden cravings. You listen to suggestions from your sponsor, your therapist,...

As a rule, people like to tackle problems by taking action. There is an understandable sense that actions—whether big or small—are the engines when it comes to changing an unfavorable situation into a favorable one. Make the argument, vanquish the foe, or get your hands dirty, and you can make...

Recently, Brian Wilson, the leader and chief songwriter for the legendary Beach Boys, passed away. As often happens when a notable musician passes away, it has seemed like Wilson’s music has been everywhere once again. So many of the Beach Boys’ tunes are classics—the kinds of classics that get stuck...

In the first entry in this series about eating in recovery, we considered the different kinds of foods that make up a healthy diet. We wrote about lean proteins, colorful fruits and vegetables, and several more categories. (You can read the full entry here.) In this entry, we want to...