The ‘Have To” Disorder
Compulsive behaviors are generally thought to stem from anxiety, and that’s certainly common enough among the newly clean and sober.
Category: Addiction Clinicians
Addiction clinicians ROCK! It’s a complex field and evolving all the time. But some tried-and-true tools will never go out of date. Strategies, tips, and even a laugh or two.
Addiction Clinicians
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Still Counting Drinks, Eh?
In practical terms, it’s far more helpful for a working counselor to focus on the problems that result, directly or indirectly, from high-intensity drinking, than on the amounts themselves.
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“It was never a problem”
That’s important in a treatment context, because a history of multiple drug use means they will be tempted to focus on one substance — their “drug of choice”, whatever they may feel that is — while minimizing the importance of the others.
Read MoreBipolar & Addicted
“somewhere between 45% and 70%…who have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder will have at some point in their lifetime met the criteria for a substance use disorder.”
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Revisiting CHS
As of now, there’s no single widely used treatment — other than giving up marijuana.
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A Breakthrough in Depression Treatment?
In the past, the task of selecting the right treatment for a depressed patient has been more than a little hit or miss, involving a certain amount of trial and error.
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The Antisocial Connection
One criminologist I met characterized ASPD as a “job description for a life of crime… especially the sort where you keep getting caught.”
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Borderline, Revisited
The term was invented in the 1930’s to describe someone prone to becoming psychotic or severely disturbed under stress, but who otherwise was capable of functioning normally.
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Has Drunk Driving Changed?
we often find ourselves in the position of addressing what’s really an entrenched pattern of destructive behavior as if it were a one-time error in judgement. Because that’s how the offender sees it.
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What Makes An Effective Therapist?
…the most reliable recipe for a successful therapy experience is that strong therapeutic alliance plus a therapist able to explain the problem and the process skillfully, along with a treatment approach that the patient finds believable.
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Is Treatment via Telehealth Effective?
I noticed early on that some clinicians appeared to acclimate to the telehealth model far more easily than other did.
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Senior Day
I still ran a treatment center, I might seriously consider targeting a group specifically to the needs of seniors, especially those with co-occurring disorders. It’s an underserved population that often doesn’t feel comfortable interacting with younger SUD patients.
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The Meaning of Trauma
…treat the two as independent and coequal in the clinical picture. Address them via an integrated treatment plan.
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