Family Intervention and Crisis Prevention

Seattle Teenage Drug Abuse and Addiction Prevention

Teenage Drug Abuse.

Protecting Your Kids from Substance Abuse and Addiction.

+While raising your child is one of the most rewarding aspects of living your life, it is also one of the toughest. As children grow up and become teens, the issues that surround parenting change and many families recognize that their youngsters will certainly be tempted to explore alcohol and drug use. It is certainly6 common to underestimate just how rampant substance abuse among young people is and how early it starts. Parents may also believe that because your child is not exposed to drugs at home this will protect them from experimentation, so some parents may not sense the need to raise the issue. Indeed, a study by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration SAMSA in 2013 found that almost 10% of parents don’t broach the subject of substance misuse with their kids and more than 20% feel that what they say will have little impact on whether their children will choose to experiment. As parents you have an influential role though, so informing yourself with the facts about child and teen drug abuse, and how you can protect your kids from substance misuse and addiction, is vital no matter how old your children are.

Do Twelve Step Programs Like AA Work for You? | Explore Your Alternatives!

Do 12-step programs work?

Again, sort of . . .

A 10-year-long research study published in 2013 claimed to demonstrate a significant benefit for those attending AA meetings, while critics of the organization often point to a 2006 review article that found no quantifiable benefit from AA or other 12-step programs. In fact, it is clear that academic researchers have been complaining for decades about the lack of data on 12-step programs. The Alcoholics Anonymous organization has apparently compiled internal data on membership attrition rates, but it hasn’t done enough to satisfy the demands of an evidence-based medical culture.

Alcoholics Anonymous | Addiction Doctors Fight and Outdated Battle!

Alcoholics Anonymous is, without question, the largest and most venerable addiction recovery group in the world. Founded nearly 80 years ago, AA now boasts or an amazing 2.1 million worldwide members, many of whom attribute their very survival to “The Program.” In the United States, where 12-step programs originated, AA is viewed by many as a national treasure of sorts.

Social workers send patients to AA meetings. Judges condition people’s freedom on meeting attendance. Desperate spouses condition marriages on it. Everyone loves Alcoholics Anonymous. Or almost everyone . . .

Many patients and doctors have grumbled for years about the religion inherent in the Alcoholics Anonymous process: Half of the 12 steps involve God or “a Power greater than ourselves.”

The Ever Present Danger of Relapse in Drug Addictions

Why Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Death Is So Scary
It is clear that the root causes of drug addiction, like those of many multifactorial diseases, are frustratingly elusive — exceedingly nebulous mixture — of genetics, exposure, culture, conditioning, personality and environment . . .

Addiction obviously runs in families, but plenty of addicts come from families with no history of the illness. To be sure, availability plays a role, too—but having access to crack doesn’t make someone a crack addict.

The science addiction treatment and recovery is also hazy: Alcoholics Anonymous, is the most widely used form of post treatment support in the country, has no set structure or methodology, which makes it tough to evaluate its effectiveness. There’s also the fact that its core principle involves anonymity—that members never publicly acknowledge their presence in the program—makes broad longitudinal studies difficult, In-patient treatment “rehabilitation” centers, like the one Hoffman checked himself into last year, have been accused of obfuscating their success rates. Addiction relapse prevention efforts are clearly a life-long mandate for anyone suffering from such illness . . .

Picking Addiction Help | Family Intervention

Addiction is a Family Illness | How Families Can Help

Addiction is a family illness. Families suffer when someone they love descends into the purgatory of addiction. But I take issue with historical confrontational interventions and outdated confrontative “rehab oriented” mandates that families should cut off contact with addicts and allow them to reach “rock-bottom” before they can begin recovery.

Loved ones must compassionately and cautiously recognize that the “rock bottom” in problems of addiction frequently leads to death and destruction in many forms.

It is a dangerous, though popular, misconception that a person that is ill with addiction can only quit using and start to get well when the individual ‘hits bottom,’ that is, reaches a point at which he is desperate enough to willingly accept help.

Rather than coercively abandoning loved ones with old intervention methods that demand abandonment, I urge families to remain engaged, to keep open the lines of communication and regularly remind the addict of their love and willingness to help if and when help is wanted. families must also set firm boundaries — no money, no car, nothing that can be quickly converted into the substance of abuse. Flexible approaches exist for family drug intervention and each case must be carefully tailored to the situation at hand.

Whether or not the addict ever gets well, families have to take care of themselves.

Effective Addiction Treatment | Alternatives

It is clear that countless people addicted to drugs or alcohol have managed to get clean and stay clean with the help of organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous or the thousands of residential inpatient and outpatient clinics devoted to treating addiction.

However, if you have somehow failed to achieve lasting sobriety after “rehabilitate,” perhaps after spending tens of thousands of dollars, you’re not alone. And chances are, it’s not your fault.

Astounding is the fact that of the 23.5 million teenagers and adults addicted to alcohol or drugs, only about 1 in 10 gets treatment, which too often fails to keep them drug-free. Many of these programs fail to use proven methods to deal with the factors that underlie addiction and set off relapse.

If you are exploring effective addiction treatment options please feel free to give me a call! 206-547-4357

Writing a Forgiveness Letter Can Change Your Life

Writing a forgiveness letter to someone who has hurt you can be a valuable step in resolving lingering emotional pain. When a past incident constantly replays in your head, it weighs heavily on you and your relationship with the offending person. Moreover, if you are dismissed in a face-to-face encounter, like the author of this article, humiliation or hopelessness can exacerbate the hurt as well. To try and lessen the impact of these feelings, it may be cathartic to physically write out the extent of your pain. Though the letter might never be mailed, the exercise acts a choice to forgive. You can then resolve the situation in your mind, and reclaim your life unburdened.

Blaming Your Parents Hurts You Most

In therapy, to explain why they aren’t successful or happy, some people blame their parents. They believe their parents are responsible for the way they feel and live their lives. Perhaps their parents were emotionally cold or critical, which explains their difficulties in relationships. They may blame their lack of success academically or professionally on the fact that their parents didn’t encourage them. Blaming their parents for their troubles causes them to become stuck in depressed, anxious, or angry feelings and prevents them from thinking about what they can do to make their lives different. Sadly, some of these patients use their lack of success or happiness as revenge against their parents.

ADHD Teens More Likely to Have Substance Abuse Problems

An eight year study from researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, in conjunction with six other healthcare centers across the country, of over 600 teenagers has shown that kids diagnosed with ADHD have a substantially higher prevalence of substance abuse and cigarette use than kids without ADHD, regardless of whether or not the ADHD is being treated. Teens with ADHD are three times more likely to have serious problems with substances. The results showed that 35% of ADHD students in the study had used one or more substances, compared to 20% of non-ADHD students. Ten percent experienced serious problems, compared to three percent of other students.

Diagnosing Substance Abuse and Dependence in Schizophrenia

It has been shown that people with mental disorders are more likely to also have a substance abuse disorder, and the more severe the mental disorder, the more likely it is to have an accompanying substance abuse disorder. The more common severe mental illnesses with the highest levels of substance abuse attachment are depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. Substance abuse makes treating the illnesses harder, so it is important for a therapist to know whether or not a substance abuse disorder exists in their patients. To that effect, Sarah L. Desmarais performed a test to see if there is a superior method of those available to determine substance abuse in adults with schizophrenia.

Addiction and Depression

Depression is one of the most, if not the most, common co-occurring disorders most addicts have. Addicts often feel demoralized and helpless about their health and about their lives, and altered brain chemistry can easily escalate those feeling into depression. Richard Taite, the CEO and founder of the Cliffside Malibu Treatment Center, offers some suggestions on how to alleviate the feelings of depression. The first suggestion is exercise. It doesn’t even have to be going to the gym, but just any activity to get the body moving, whether that is walking up and down the stairs a few times or going out for a short walk.

Project Hope Targets Parental Depression and Adolescent Drug Use

Parental depression causes parents to be less effective in their parenting by making them less engaged with their children and less available to provide their children with the emotional and physical support that they need as they grow older. Without this support, children are more likely to develop psychological problems. In the past, there have been interventions designed to either target parental depression or the bad behavior that the children may have developed as a result of the depression, but only recently has a study been performed to examine the possibilities of targeting both elements simultaneously in a pilot program.

Maintenance CBT Reduces Risk of Relapse for Panic and Agoraphobia

Panic and agoraphobia routinely exact a debilitating affect on daily life for those who suffer from them. While there are many treatments available, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to have a marked impact on the prevention of relapse and remediation of symptoms of panic (it is important to note) more so than medication alone. Encouraging is the finding that after the cessation of medication, a well conceived maintenance program informed by CBT therapists has the most successful prevention of relapse. Any gains made during treatment are significantly less likely to be sustained without such a maintenance program. So for all those suffering from panic and anxiety, including CBT in your long-term treatment plan is crucial for your success.

Conflict with an ADHD Child From a Father’s Perspective

Most of the research on children with attention-deficit hyperactive disorder and the family conflict that arises in their household as they reach their teen years has been based on self-reports from both the child and the mother. Clarisa Markel, from the Human Development and Applied Psychology Department at the University of Toronto, recently led a study on how both mothers and fathers rate the level of conflict with their ADHD child. The study is an attempt to address the lack of research on the father’s perspective in this situation. Specifically, the study focused on whether each parent believed that the conflicts that arose were instigated by the child or not.

Are You Parenting Like Your Parent?

Whether they are good or bad, the traits of our parents live on in most of us. They may sometimes show through in moments of passion where we find ourselves behaving in a way that is not like our usual self. This can sometimes be a good thing, when we see the traits that we admired in our parents manifest themselves unexpectedly, but their negative traits will often linger within us as well, particularly those negative traits that caused negative emotions within us as children, such as fear, frustration, or misery. Fortunately, negative traits or programming can be overcome once the traits and their cause are identified in our behavior.

Culture Stigmatizing Mental Illness Must Change

After a second student from Northwestern University passed away during the fall semester, one by suicide while studying abroad, professors Christina Traina and Laurie Zoloth have written in about the stigma surrounding mental illness that impedes the prevention of such tragedies. The Centers for Disease Control report that suicide is the third most common cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24 and the second most common for people between 25 and 34. Nearly every person who attempts suicide is suffering from an underlying issue such as depression. If the stigma around mental health issues can be raised, action can be taken to address mental illnesses before tragedy strikes.

How to Make Peace With Your Dark Past

Almost everyone has something dark in their past and it is human nature to dwell on that darkness, trying to figure out how we allowed those things to happen. It can become a dark circle of trying to understand what happened and agonizing over the fact that it did. The way to move forward, however, is through acceptance. It is possible for people to accept their dark history and perhaps even become grateful for it, recognizing that while they are not proud of what happened, they could not be the person they are today without it. Once the past is embraced, they can turn their eyes to the present and future.

Bullying and Mental Health: Study Links Anxiety Hyperactivity in Kids to Bullying

A lot of research has been conducted about the effects of bullying on the mental health of the victim and how the bullying contributes to issues such as anxiety and depression. A new study suggests that the relationship between bullying and mental health extends to the bully as well, showing that kids with mental health disorders are three times more likely to be a bully. The study used data provided by the parents of 64,000 children from the ages of 6 to 17 from the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health, and showed that children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, ADHD, and depression were six, three, and three times respectively more likely to be bullies.

Why Domestic Violence Occurs and How to Stop it

The latest Mary Kay Truth About Abuse Survey shows that most domestic abuse shelters have been experiencing an increase in women seeking help. According to the survey, 74% of women stayed in their abusive relationships longer than they otherwise would have because of the economy and 58% of abuse shelters have reported that the abuse suffered is worse now than before the economic downturn. The economy seems to be having a pronounced effect on domestic abuse, but the causes are rooted psychologically deeper in both the abusers and the abused. Two dynamics that contribute greatly to domestic abuse are the “critical inner voice” and the “fantasy bond.”

Why the American Happiness Formula is Making Our Kids Depressed

The American Happiness Formula is a simple equation. Look Good + Perform Well + Get Approval = Happiness. Author Jonathan Hewitt, high school state wrestling champion, former model, and Wall Street intern knew the happiness formula well and followed it for a large portion of his life without ever realizing that ultimate goal of actual happiness. He wasn’t the only one. Studies show that children today are more depressed than children were during either the Great Depression or World War II. Psychology professor Jean Twenge, from San Diego University, has performed research that shows a child’s anxiety level is more greatly affected by the time period they were born in than family environment.

Women with ADHD: More Self-Harm & Suicide Attempts

The results of a recent study published in The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology show that women diagnosed with ADHD as young adults, particularly combined type ADHD, are more likely to attempt suicide or participate in self-harm. In the study, 228 girls between ages 6 and 12 participated, half of whom were diagnosed with ADHD. Every five years, researchers followed up with the participants in a full day of clinical assessments. By the ten year mark, 22% of the girls diagnosed with combined type ADHD reported at least one suicide attempt, compared with 8% of the girls diagnosed with inattentive type, and 6% of the control group.

Dr. Hart