Category: Addiction/Substance Misuse

Part 1 Interview: Dr. Peter Coleman on Addiction Detox and Recovery

Anne Moss Rogers of Emotionally Naked interviews Dr. Peter Coleman, National Medical Director of The Coleman Institute and a person in long-term recovery. Although he obviously runs a business, I trust Dr. Coleman and his knowledge of addiction detox and recovery which he has been doing since 1984. He has true compassion for those with Substance Use Disorder.

So while I don’t “endorse” here on Emotionally Naked, I will choose article writers and interview candidates that are more knowledgeable than I am to help you … Read more...

I’m Going to Teach my Adolescent to Drink Responsibly, ‘Like They Do in Europe’

And Other Well-Intentioned Parenting Myths about Adolescent Alcohol Use
Danielle Dick, PhD
Danielle Dick, PhD

by Danielle Dick PhD, Professor in Developmental Psychology and Human & Molecular Genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University

As a researcher who studies adolescent alcohol use and problems, I frequently talk to parent groups, and I always, inevitably get asked a question along the following lines:

“Isn’t part of the problem that in the United States we make alcohol off-limits to adolescents, and by doing so, make it more attractive to our kids? Wouldn’t we be better off lowering the legal drinking age and allowing our kids to drink

… Read more...

Is there an addictive personality?

The answer is yes. And understanding those personality traits is important in helping someone develop the coping skills associated with that personality trait.

We know, for example, that sensation seeking, anxiety sensitivity, hopelessness and impulsiveness are all traits that predispose someone to substance use disorder.

And we know that often those who are most vulnerable to the disorder suffer from a broken reward system, which is more tied to sensation seekers than the other personality traits. Meaning that these are thrill seekers that need to fly down mountains at 65 miles per hour or jump out of airplanes. These … Read more...

COBE Town Hall- Best deal in conferences

Register

DATE AND TIME
Wed, Apr 18, 2018, 8:00 AM –
Thu, Apr 19, 2018, 4:30 PM EDT

LOCATION
James Branch Cabell Library
901 Park Avenue
Richmond, VA 23284

COST
10-$75, depending on whether you want CEUs or you are a student. This includes parking and lunch both days! And the $75 free includes CEUS and the pre conference motivational interviewing taught on Tuesday, April 16. You can take this one day or combine it with the rest of the conference.

College Behavioral and Emotional Health Institute (COBE) at Virginia Commonwealth University hosts it’s third annual town hall meeting. This … Read more...

Event at Partners in Parenting

Check out her shirt and my skirt! It’s like we shared a memo but we didn’t. I so  enjoyed presenting to Partners in Parenting. This group is one of the referring partners for Beacon Tree and i love what they are doing, focusing on the whole family.

It was after talking to a group of parents that I brainstormed the basis of my next presentation which will be mostly parents at Shady Grove YMCA. Parents are always asking me and I give the same answer and finally I decided to present it and reference the blog post so they … Read more...

Preventure Training in Richmond, Virginia!

Sign up for Preventure Training

I have been working with Dr. Vassileva and Dr. Conrod in Canada for 1.5 years to get this Preventure training to Richmond. This is the program that has been shown to reduce drug and alcohol use in schools by 30-80% at three year follow up.

The intervention was included in the landmark surgeon general’s report on addiction in 2017, this New York Times article and this article in Richmond Family Magazine that was the #1 article of all time for that publication. This program reduces drug and alcohol use by targeting personality traits that have … Read more...

How is grief like nesting dolls?

by Susan Casey, MSW, MFA

Rocky

Four years ago, on a day made for lovers, a day when chocolate hearts nestled in red heart-shaped boxes are given out in abundance, my younger brother’s heart stopped beating. His wife and three-and-a-half-year-old daughter stood outside of ICU, hands pressed against the window, in a Hong Kong hospital, watching as Rocky slipped out of this world and into the next. Alone in a foreign country, they had no one but each other to cling onto.

The life-altering call came in at 3:30 in the afternoon, as I sat at my desk, preparing for … Read more...

Feedback for Resilience Exercise with Teenagers

I did an event for the Regional YMCA Leader’s Club Rally. Leader’s Club is a club for teens. I so enjoyed myself. I asked the rally coordinator, Janice, for feedback. Since it was the first time I’d done this suicide prevention and  resilience type exercise with the teenagers, I felt like it went well due to the engagement but couldn’t know for sure. I started with my story and was entirely emotionally naked about how I felt when I heard the news and how I fought back to forgive myself after my son’s suicide and what I learned in that … Read more...

Just finished first draft of my book

Wow. I did it. First draft. By no means done but for the most part I had a working draft! Once I got started, I just went with it. Now the part where I need to market it to publishers. But first figure out which ones I might like to work with.

The book is co-written by my late son, Charles Aubrey Rogers, and features a lot of his lyrics as chapters. It’s inside the mind of someone who suffers mental illness, addiction and has frequent thoughts of suicide. I had no idea until I read his notebooks how … Read more...

Preventure grant submitted!

Third time is the charm right? The first go ’round we got reviewed. Which is super news. So many NIDA (National Institute of Drugs and Alcohol) grants just get kicked out and getting reviewed is a big deal. This grant is over 200 pages. How many pages did I do? Maybe 6? This time I just had to edit my part. Just creating these pages was a challenge for me. I’m a pup in the grant world.

It was my job to get all the letters of support. Dr. Vassileva’s post doc Beth (Dr. Long) helped and my friend Pete … Read more...

Defining my boundaries

It’s no surprise that I get messages here and on social media from people struggling with thoughts of suicide. And from parents suffering from a loss or with the active addiction or mental illness of a loved one.

So where do I draw the line? Draw my boundaries?

The truth is, I can only do so much. I have limitations. I can’t offer a magic formula, fix it for another person or take away the pain.

The most important thing I can do is listen. Appreciate that person’s story. Respect their journey and try to point them in the right … Read more...

Someone we care about relapsed

After about 16 months of sobriety, a good friend relapsed. I was worried when I had not heard from him. But then with some investigation, we discovered what we hoped we wouldn’t. Relapse. It happens as part of this disease.

Since his phone is broken, we can’t reach out that way. I just want him to know we care about him. So I texted a friend of his today and bingo. She is in touch. I do think he’ll find his way back to recovery. But I worry in this relapse period if he will do things that takes months … Read more...

Pack up the guilt and jettison it to Mars

So we’re going to do an exercise. We’re going to take all that guilt and package it up and send it away into the universe.

You ready?  Here we go.

All of you who feel guilty because you may have misjudged that shifting line of enabling or rescuing your loved one’s as it relates to addiction.

All of you still torturing yourself over your child’s suicide.

All of you who feel there was something you could have done to prevent that overdose.

All of you feeling guilty for sharing your grief.

Those signs you missed. That time you yelled at … Read more...

Child with SUD and Major Depression asked for help and he got it

Arm yourself with a kleenex. You’ll need it. This is an uplifting story!

2 minutes

This program that helps individual kids is not flashy. It doesn’t touch hundreds or even thousands. Because of that, it’s often less popular to grant funders due to the small footprint. Despite the huge demand, no philanthropist or corporate funder has yet to see the value of this program that helped over twenty grateful local families last year.  Local caseworkers and school counselors love it. Finally, they can help the people who come to them. No one wants to turn down children.

Many times kids … Read more...

Remembering Jeffrey Scott Maurer II

By Ms. Dawn Burton

My son Jeffrey Scott Maurer II, Jethrow to most, struggled with depression and drug addiction for many years and lost his battle. I always thought I would get “the call” but I thought he would OD.

Never in a million years did I think he would kill himself when he just found out he was having a baby boy–one he had wanted for a long time. He told everyone he was gonna get off the drugs before Lucca came. He picked that name and was so proud.

Jeff was a great uncle and would have made … Read more...