Help Us Help Others
Would be willing to help us improve assessment and treatment for those with Substance Use Disorders by filling out this survey? We are working on the idea there is an solution but that there are many paths. We are trying to get input from wide variety of individuals to help us understand what different paths to recovery [...]
The Natural History of Addiction – coming soon – Based on Research from Addiction Research Foundation
A plan is ever changing so accountability must be ever changing also. What works for a person the first year will not work in year two. Likewise what worked in year two will not work in year three and so on. This will go on for the rest of our lives. We will always be [...]
Is This Normal?
Is this normal? Am I crazy?I hear some form of these questions almost every day.Over the years, I have answered in various lighthearted ways that were mostly intended to sooth and encourage.But lately I have been thinking about the question more deeply and more personally.What is normal and considered to be mentally healthy? To compete [...]
Stop Sending People to AA
Stop Sending People to AA It’s easy to understand why it happened. For the first time, there seemed to be a solution for a seemingly hopeless condition (alcoholism). There were many of us whose lives were saved and there just wasn’t another plan that offered any real hope. Punishment and incarceration had not worked. At [...]
Boundaries Part IV By Clay Hightower, LSMW
“When did this happen?” “Have they always felt this way?” “Do they know what I believe in and feel?”
6th Annual New Years Cleanse – Zoom Style
An opportunity to let go of 2020 and community rituals to bring in 2021 An opportunity to let go of the resentments towards self and others and bring in forgiveness. This will be a time of contemplation, meditation, and ritual. We will include self-forgiveness, self-acceptance, and a ritual weaving of all that we are. It [...]
The 4th Horseman of Relapse – Stonewalling By Clay Hightower, LMSW
The 4th Horseman of Relapse – StonewallingBy Clay Hightower, LMSW“If I do not think about it, maybe it will get better.”If you have had a thought like this about a problem before, no matter how big or small, you have engaged in a form of stonewalling. That does not mean that you committed a grave [...]
3rd Horseman of Relapse – Contempt
This is my third installment in the Four Horsemen and Relapse series! If you have missed them, go check out my introduction to the series and the first two pieces already posted on the page! How many times have you used the phrase “I would never do that to you” in an argument with your [...]
1st Horseman – Criticism by Clay Hightower, LMSW
(Note: I will attempt to use real personal examples of each communication behavior when discussing inner talk as well as interpersonal communication. I want this to be as practical as possible when discussing intervention, but I also want to destigmatize these behavior patterns and encourage proactive change rather than responding to crises out of fear [...]