Addiction & Mental Health Treatment
It’s a reality faced by many in the LGBTQ+ community: the increased likelihood of addiction, whether its smoking, alcohol, or drugs. But why? Let’s explore five reasons that can help us understand.
Today we’ll be learning about gratitude. Because it is an incredible, incredible tool. Some of you may already practice gratitude in your day to day life and some of you may need a bit of a refresher. I think this is always a topic even though I’ve studied it myself and the research on it is pretty good. It’s always something to come back to. I do a lot of journalling and I find that it’s quite useful to be able to put into words pen to paper, what you’re grateful for because it really does change your brain chemistry.
“Minority stress” is experienced by members of marginalized minority groups. It results from discrimination and other forms of adversity that minority individuals face because the dominant culture classifies them as different and lesser than members of the majority group.
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve had several phone calls from recently graduated patients, or their family members, telling me that they are struggling to stay in recovery, and asking for guidance regarding relapse prevention. I think this is largely because of the COVID pandemic’s resulting self-isolation. The consequences of the pandemic—isolation, loss of social connection, being left to our own devices (literally and figuratively), and lack of exercise—all make life in recovery more difficult, and in combination sound like a recipe for relapse. What do I tell these patients and their families?
Today we are here to talk about facing the challenges that come with managing a pandemic. We are in a situation right now that probably none of us have prepared for and it’s very overwhelming, a lot of these challenges that we’re facing. I’m here to help you understand some tools that we can use to help manage the stress associated with these challenges we are facing today. As I said in the introduction, mindfulness can be an amazing strategy to help us in understanding and managing the stress that we’re facing.
