mental health

  While the holiday season may look different this year, many people will find the challenge to stay sober hasn’t changed. Relapsing when alcohol is a big part of celebrating a holiday isn’t uncommon, particularly for people who are newly sober or people who are not actively engaging their recovery disciplines. Just like any other… Read On »

People who have been in treatment multiple times may not realize what’s making it harder to stay sober after a program. One of the factors our treatment team sees affecting recovery regularly is trauma. Those traumatic experiences could be from when you were a kid, a teen, or even since you became an adult. We’ve… Read On »

Dr. John Dyben, DHSc, MCAP, CMHP – Chief Clinical Officer The cannabis plant has myriad chemical compounds (literally hundreds), and various cannabis strains tend to have these compounds in different amounts.  Perhaps the most well-known chemical in cannabis is Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, most commonly referred to as THC.  This is the primary psychogenic compound that causes the… Read On »

Imagine sitting in rush-hour traffic and suddenly feeling an overwhelming desire to take off your seat belt and open a window or door. Or sitting with coworkers at lunch when a sense of panic takes over and drives you away from the table. The next move becomes a critical one, and for some people with… Read On »

For many, talking about mental health is extremely uncomfortable. However, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports that 43.6 million people have experienced some form of mental illness, such as depression or anxiety, within their lifetime. Transparent conversations are the key to ending the stigma surrounding mental illness. When we openly share our… Read On »

In 2018, over 48,000 people committed suicide, making it a leading cause of death with incidences more than doubling the number of homicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people age 10 to 34, and the fourth leading cause of… Read On »

Our brains are prone to negativity. In neuroscience, scientists and researchers call this the “negativity bias.” Since we are inherently social animals fighting for survival, it’s pertinent for us to take special note of negative situations or feelings, as they might be a threat to our longevity. Unfortunately, we can internalize and catastrophize negative messages… Read On »

Most treatment programs offer a hybrid of individual and group therapy sessions, which has proven to be effective in creating substantial progress for the healing process. While individual therapy sessions can offer a set pace for a patient’s growth and therapeutic work, the speed of group therapy sessions can be somewhat unpredictable due to the… Read On »

In our efforts to understand the complex human behavior of dependency, we use all kinds of words, phrases, and imagery, which ultimately get in the way of our understanding. Dependence is something inherent to human existence in life on earth. For example, we often use the phrase “like our lives depend on it.” In reality,… Read On »

By Dr. John Dyben, DHSc, MCAP, CMHP – Chief Clinical Officer  Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and addiction may have a cozier relationship than many realize, at least according to much of the scientific literature. Recent studies have presented estimates that the prevalence of ADHD in adults with Substance Use Disorders (SUD) might be around… Read On »