Tag: relationships
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Sober Date Ideas and Tips For Those in Recovery
For those recovering from a drug or alcohol addiction, dating can be a complicated and confusing world. When you finally decide to start dating again, there are several things you should consider before taking the first step towards a relationship.
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Healing for Partners of Sex Addicts
Discovering that your partner has a sex addiction can feel like the ground has been ripped out from under you. The betrayal, the secrecy, the broken trust all hits at once, leaving you questioning everything. While it can (understandably) feel personal for the partner of a sex addict, it isn’t about a lack of love…
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Addressing Attachment Styles
Attachments are the basis of human connection. We form healthy or unhealthy attachments with others based on our experience of relationships and the world around us. Attachment issues in adults can stem from both early childhood and personal development; attachment issues in children are usually formed in infancy, though early childhood relationships can play a…
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Healthy Intimacy In Recovery
If you’re finding your way free from addiction, building intimacy in recovery may be one of your goals. If it isn’t, you may be wondering why it’s such a big deal. If you take a look at how addiction may have disrupted your existing relationships or made it nearly impossible to form healthy new ones,…
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When Abuse Claims are Tried in Public
Considering how shockingly commonplace domestic abuse is, there’s probably a case, or a number of cases, being reviewed in court somewhere as you read this. Nearly 20 people every minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). That breaks down to more…
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Do You Know a Narcissist?
By Anna McKenzie These days, it may feel easy to call a self-absorbed person a narcissist. While many people may display narcissistic personality traits, narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) is difficult to diagnose and often occurs alongside other personality disorders, as well as substance abuse. Only clinicians can properly diagnose NPD after observing a person’s long-term…
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Unconscious Ways We Ask for Help
By Christa Banister Whether it’s the charge led by professional athletes like Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, Dallas Cowboys’ Dak Prescott, or NBA star Kevin Love — or the recent television and social media messages reminding everyone that “mental health is health” — the deliberate effort to destigmatize asking for help when you’re going through a…
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How Traditions Build Self-Esteem and Belonging
By Anna McKenzie We all have traditions that we take part in year after year. We may be more aware of them at the holidays — they’re often what we look forward to as we celebrate the season — but we actually observe rituals year-round. They can be common, like decorating a Christmas tree, or unique…
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A Bad Relationship Isn’t Better Than No Relationship
By Anna McKenzie You may experience plenty of times in your life when you feel like being in a relationship would be better than being single. This can happen especially during periods like the holidays or around Valentine’s Day when it seems like “everybody” has somebody. No matter when it strikes, the feeling of “I…
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Recovery for Partners of Sex Addicts
By Nancy Greenlee, MAPC, LCPC “I am hurt, and I’m devastated. Being married to my husband is like doing yoga on one leg,” a recent workshop participant said. “I’m trying to hold things together, but I keep crashing down.” She made an excellent analogy of what sexual betrayal, relapse, and lack of recovery can be…
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Men’s Trauma Affects Their Recovery and Relationships
Mental health professionals can improve treatment through trauma-centered and gender-responsive approaches. When men seek treatment for addiction, depression, and mental health disorders the outcomes are often quite positive. However, there is still room for improvement, since the risk for relapse after treatment is still somewhat high. Dan Griffin, an American sociologist who has studied gender…
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Becoming Fearless with the Help of Al-Anon
By: the Mother of a Past Claudia Black Young Adult Center Patient As my daughter does her recovery work from drug and alcohol addiction and anxiety, I too work my recovery through Al-Anon. I won’t go into details of how my daughter and I both came to this point because I’m guessing many of you…