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Mental Health

The Role of Shame in Addiction

Addiction has been defined as a pathological relationship to any mood-altering substance, experience, relationship, or thing with life-damaging consequences. Addiction is pathological because it is rooted in denial. There is no other disease; the worse it gets, the more the patient denies having it. It is also clear that… Read More

Link Between PTSD and Violent Behavior is Weak

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/link-between-ptsd-and-violent-behavior-is-weak/2012/03/31/gIQApYFZnS_story.html The political and emotional complexities of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and TBI (traumatic brain injury) can lead to stigmatization and inaccurate attributions. It has long been assumed that soldiers, especially those who have served in combat, are at higher risk for violence. Following… Read More

ADHD, Income Taxes, and Unopened Envelopes

By Bonnie A. DenDooven, MC, LAC Many Americans have a visceral, gut-wrenching reaction to the terms “IRS” and “taxes”. It is a response quite similar to the way certain war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) overreact to the sound of a car backfiring. For those who suffer… Read More

Pain: Healing, Growth, and Awareness

Emotional pain often brings people into therapy and/or recovery. This may be the pain of depression, another relationship ending badly, or finally hitting rock bottom. In a very real sense, addiction is the result of pain avoidance. However, in the end, addiction creates more pain than it avoids. Entering… Read More

Healing our “Connective Tissue”

Yogis have long known the healing power of turning into oneself and deeply stretching one’s muscles and ligaments – while also stretching one’s mental focus, tuning out the static and noise of the world outside. This practice, thousands of years old, has far-reaching physical, mental, and spiritual benefits for the… Read More

Borderline Personality Disorder and Sex Addiction: Interesting Bedfellows

The fields of psychiatry and psychotherapy are peppered with uninformed beliefs and misjudgments. For instance, individuals can be pejoratively diagnosed as borderline or, perhaps more accurately, viewed as exhibiting symptoms of complex traumatic stress. In cases of the latter, old unresolved traumas are reenacted in the here and now and,… Read More

Letting Go of Resentment

The following is excerpted from a presentation, “Eliminating Resentment… Solidifying Recovery,” given as part of The Meadows’ Michigan Lecture Series on November 10, 2010, by Dan O’Neil, MALLP. What is Resentment? The word “resentment” has two parts: “re,” which means “again,” and “sentiment,” which is “to feel.” So resentment is… Read More

Self-Esteem: An Inside Job

Note: This article was originally published in the Spring 2005 edition of MeadowLark, the magazine for The Meadows alumni. By Kingsley Gallup, MA, LISAC The concept may be nebulous, but it’s by no means inconsequential. Our very lives are a testimony to our self-esteem, the condition of which is the… Read More

Rigorous Honesty: From False Pride to Authentic Self-Respect

Note: This article was originally published in the Spring 2004 edition of MeadowLark, the magazine for alumni of The Meadows. By Kingsley Gallup While in our disease, we may have prided ourselves on many things – perhaps even our “honesty.” In recovery, however, we come to see the truth… Read More

Remembering Who We Are: Tools to Gain Clarity

Note: This article was originally published in the Fall 2005 issue of MeadowLark, the magazine for alumni of The Meadows. Kathleen O’Brien, LCSW “I want to change, but I don’t know how.” How many times have you heard yourself utter these very words? Most people come to counseling knowing… Read More