Finding Quality Treatment for Substance Use Disorders

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If you or a friend or loved one is in need of treatment for drug or alcohol addiction, often one of the biggest challenges is finding an accessible and affordable program that provides high quality treatment services. Recently, SAMHSA (the US Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration) published a guideline to help people more easily connect with good substance use treatment programs. The guideline is called “Finding Quality Treatment for Substance Use Disorders.” Let’s do a quick review and see …

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Throwing Up Rainbows

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Stories of Hope: An Interview with Z Zoccolante This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked advocate and aspiring therapist Z Zoccolante about her history of mental health challenges and her current activities. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought treatment? ZZ: My background is 11 ½ years with …

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9 Ways to Take Your Mental Health Advocacy to the Next Level

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If you’re reading this, chances are good that issues surrounding mental health and mental illness are important to you. You may have faced significant mental health challenges yourself or experienced them as you helped a friend or loved one who has struggled with these issues. Or you may have even worked in the mental health field, providing care and treatment to others. Whatever the reason, you care about people with mental illnesses and want to step up to do more …

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Life Can Change for the Better

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Stories of Hope: An Interview with Charlotte Underwood This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked author and advocate Charlotte Underwood about her history of mental health challenges and her current activities. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought treatment? CU: I have been battling against my …

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Lessons Learned from Making a Mistake

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Have you ever made a mistake and then beat yourself up with self-criticism? Did you say negative things to yourself, like “I’m such a loser!” or “I can’t believe I was so stupid!”? Or did you get angry at yourself and end up feeling miserable, depressed or ashamed? Perhaps you even threw things, yelled at the dog or your family, or isolated yourself from others. I’m confident we have all had these experiences and reactions following mistakes we’ve made. They are …

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“Why Don’t People Get Treatment? (& How Can We Help?)” – CXMH Podcast Interview

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I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Robert Vore for the CXMH Podcast. Let me first tell you a little about Robert and the podcast, then we’ll dive into a little preview of what we discussed on the podcast. If you can’t wait and want to jump right over to hear the podcast, the link is at the end of this post. The CXMH Podcast describes itself as “a podcast on faith and mental health.” Robert Vore, who …

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Bipolar is Not Who I Am

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Stories of Hope: An Interview with Clare Malcolm  This is part of a series featuring individuals who share their life experiences with mental health issues. Recently, I asked writer and author Clare Malcolm about her history of mental health challenges and her current treatment. Here’s our interview: DS: Tell us about when you first started becoming aware of concerns related to your mental health. How did these issues continue to affect you before you sought treatment? CM: As far back as my childhood …

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10 Things You May Not Know About Your Therapist

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Like many clinical psychologists, I’ve been fortunate to help a lot of people through psychotherapy. I’ve written before about the significant benefits of therapy, and I do firmly believe that psychotherapy is a highly effective approach to help manage many different types of mental health challenges. I also recognize that there are many different types of competent therapists who treat mental health issues in addition to psychologists. These include social workers, professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, psychiatrists and addiction …

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