Your First Sober Holiday Season
The routine breaks, the family patterns return, and everyone else is drinking. How people generally plan the first sober holiday season.
Recovery & Behavioral Health Resources
Plain-language guides on substance use disorder treatment, behavioral health and what to expect from recovery, for you or someone you love.
Recent Articles
What Group Is Actually Like in Outpatient Treatment
The fear isn't the counselor. It's the other chairs. Here is what group generally looks like and what you're allowed not to do.
Why You Can't Sleep in Early Recovery
Weeks in and still awake at 3am. What's generally happening in the brain, why it tends to settle, and who to talk to about it.
Isn't Suboxone Just Trading One Addiction for Another?
Someone at the table said it, or you've said it to yourself. Here's the difference between dependence and addiction, and what to say back.
What to Do With Leftover Prescription Pills
Surgery, a dental procedure, or a death in the family can leave pills in the cabinet. Where they go, and why it matters more when someone is in recovery.
Doing IOP While Working Full Time
Most people asking about IOP need to keep their job while they do it. Here's what the week generally looks like and what people weigh at work.
Supporting Someone in Treatment Without Taking Over
They started treatment. The relief lasts about a week. Then you have to work out what your role is now.
Why Substance Use Records Get Extra Privacy Protection
Privacy is the reason a lot of people never call. Here is what the extra federal protection on these records is designed to do.
GeneSight Testing and Psychiatric Medication
If you've tried several psychiatric medications without much result, that's common. Here is what genetic testing can and can't add.
What Happens If You Use During Treatment
The fear of being thrown out keeps people from saying anything. Here is what a return to use generally means for a treatment plan.
What Drug Testing in Treatment Is Actually For
People assume the testing is there to catch them. It's built as clinical information, and the difference changes how the whole thing works.
How to Help Someone Who Isn't Ready
You can't make someone go. That doesn't leave you with nothing, and what's left matters more than it looks.
Paying for Treatment: Cost, Payment, and No Coverage
Cost is the reason a lot of people never call. Here's how the cost conversation works, and why no coverage isn't a reason to skip it.
What Actually Happens at Your First Visit
The not-knowing is usually worse than the thing itself. Here is what a first visit actually involves, start to finish.
What a Peer Recovery Supporter Does
A peer supporter has been where you are. Here is what that role involves, how it differs from a counselor, and where its boundaries sit.
What a Case Manager Actually Does in Treatment
Most people don't leave treatment because the counseling failed. They leave because the bus stopped running or the housing fell through.
Why Mental Health and Substance Use Get Treated Together
Treat the drinking and the depression stays. Treat the depression and the drinking stays. Here is why the two get handled together.
How Medication Assisted Treatment Works
MAT combines FDA-approved medication with counseling and support. Here is how the pieces fit, and the objection everyone raises about it.
What Is Ambulatory Withdrawal Management?
Outpatient detox means medical supervision while you sleep at home. Here is what that involves and where its limits are.
PHP vs IOP: What Actually Separates Them
Both are outpatient. Both are structured. Both let you sleep at home. So what is the actual difference between PHP and IOP?
What Is an Intensive Outpatient Program?
IOP sits between weekly counseling and a residential stay. Here is what that means in practice, and what a normal week actually looks like.
ASAM Levels of Care, Explained in Plain Language
One program says you need residential. Another says outpatient is fine. Here is what the ASAM levels actually describe, and why they can disagree.