mental health
Developing Successful Recovery Habits
“In recovery, recovering addicts do more than lose their addictions. Usually, they regain enjoyment of life… Most individuals want to be happy. Addicts learn that they may be happy – even joyful – by appreciating their lives in recovery. Instead of killing themselves with their addictive substances, they live in freedom.” ~Dr. Francis A. Martin,…
Read MoreCan Sad Music Help with Depression?
You might be asking, why would someone who is struggling with depression want to listen to sad music? Most of us would suggest listening to something upbeat and cheerful! It’s not exactly the first thing we recommend when our friends are feeling down. But there’s actually some science behind this suggestion. And it’s related to…
Read MoreKeeping It Green On St. Patty’s Day
In AA we hear the phrase “keep it green” quite often. It is an important concept to maintain a beginners mind and remember where we came from no matter how long we’ve been sober for. The great thing is there are a lot of ways that you can keep it green on a daily basis…
Read MoreContinuing Care for Mental Health in Sobriety
Sobriety is an amazing journey, but the journey does not end when you put down the substance. One of the very first things I learned during my time at High Watch was during a Living Sober group. The group leader exclaimed “life is not all cupcakes and rainbows just because I got sober.” It wasn’t…
Read MoreHow to Avoid Feeling Isolated in Recovery
These are difficult times for all of us, and in recovery it can seem like things are spiraling backwards. Addiction is a disease of isolation, and being forced to physically isolate can have us stuck in our own heads again which can be dangerous. There are, however, certain steps we can take to prevent ourselves…
Read MoreBattling the Winter Blues: Recovery During the Winter Months
The winter months are hard. The weather can be unbearable and there are minimal hours of daylight. Really, who wants to leave the house when it’s 10 degrees and your house is warm and cozy? All in all, it’s really no surprise that a seasonal funk can set in. But we can’t let the season…
Read MoreChristmas
The holiday season is a wonderful time of year, but it can also be incredibly stressful, especially for those of us in early recovery. Holidays are filled with family, parties, and shopping centers that are all but serene. These are a few of the suggestions that I picked up along the way that have helped…
Read MoreOutreach
When you come to High Watch, you become an immediate part of our family. When you leave, that doesn’t end and we want to be with our alumni offering support throughout their entire lives. Just over a year ago, we developed a system to do just that by following up with alumni after they leave…
Read MoreMeeting Disenchantment
Leaving treatment and entering the real world is a big transition and it is very important to have support through this process. But what happens when you’ve been out on your own or living in a sober house for a while, and going to a meeting every day starts to become tedious and repetitive? Meeting…
Read MoreEnjoying your first SOBER Fourth of July
It’s no secret that the Fourth of July is a big drinking holiday, but did any of us really need an excuse to drink and partake in dangerous activities i.e. fireworks?? Just because we are sober now doesn’t mean that we have to give up having fun and celebrating our country’s independence. There are plenty…
Read MorePTSD and Addiction Recovery: A Process of Healing
“Every day I wake up to a different version of me. Will I be happy or sad, will I feel safe or scared? The things I feel because of my post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) aren’t invisible to others. I like to think of myself as a warrior in my own right, because I face invisible…
Read MoreHow Creativity Helps Recovery
A common misconception amongst many creative addicts is the idea that substances such as alcohol or heroin can stimulate creativity. They cite that many creative geniuses have also been alcoholics or addicts. However in a recent study, Roger Beaty, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience at Harvard University, found that creativity comes from using different…
Read MoreHow to Achieve an “Attitude of Gratitude” in Recovery
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” These wise words were from John F Kennedy and got us thinking about how to actually live in continued expressed gratitude. We therefore devised a little guide to help us all live…
Read MoreAn Attitude of Gratitude in Recovery
Practicing daily gratitude has benefits that can help you maintain your recovery. It helps to reduce stress and illness and improves sleep and social connection. When you are focused on what you are grateful for you start to appreciate what is good about your life, instead of what is bad. By being grateful, you can…
Read MoreGifts to Give Someone with Anxiety
If you do not have anxiety, it may be hard to understand what your loved one is going through. Whether it is your loved one’s birthday, a special occasion, Christmas, Chanukah, anniversary, or any other holiday, this present you give them will show them how much you care about their struggles with anxiety and that…
Read MoreLearning From Amanda Bynes’s Struggles with Addiction and Mental Illness
Amanda Bynes had a promising career as a child star with a lot of promise. What looked like bizarre behavior on Twitter and her series of arrests were just a cry for help for her mental health disorder. Bynes showed the world how with the use of the internet, we can see how mental illness…
Read MoreIs Social Media Anxiety Real?
Most people who have social media accounts are able to check their notifications without feeling any form of anxiety. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America says that 20% of people with social media account cannot go more than three hours without checking them which can be a symptom of social media anxiety. It is…
Read MoreHow to Help Your Depressed Child
Childhood depression can often be mistaken as just child-like hormones as a part of growing up. According to the Child Mind Institute Children’s Mental Health Report, 60% of children with diagnosable depression are not in treatment. It is important not to ignore the signs of childhood depression and to create a safety plan to ensure…
Read MoreHow to Overcome Anxiety on Your First Day of Work
It can be very stressful starting a new job. Even if this is familiar work that you have done for other companies, every company has their own rules and policies that must be followed. It is important to remember how normal it is to be nervous on your first day of work and to breathe,…
Read MoreHow Do Women Handle Anxiety Differently Than Men?
Because women are expected to be perfect in their roles of wife and mother, there is a lot of anxiety and stress that they experience to ensure they do a good job. The hormones of a woman tend to fluctuate more than a man which can affect their mood and they also do not hold…
Read MoreSongs About Suicide Prevention
When the song “1-800-273-8255” by Logic premiered at the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline rose up to 27%. Sometimes, you just need that one special song to remind you that it is time for you to seek help. By listening to songs about suicide prevention, you can listen…
Read MoreCo-Occurring Disorders: What Are They?
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) conducted a study in 2014 to assess how many people had substance use disorders (SUDs) and how many had mental illness. They found that 20.2 million adults experienced a SUD, while 43.6 million were experiencing a mental illness; of these, a total of 7.9 million people…
Read MoreJournaling Methods to Help with Anxiety
Anxiety means having a lot of troubling, worrisome thoughts racing in your head. If you do not find a healthy outlet for those thoughts, you might feel like you are going to explode one day. By using different journaling methods to clear your mind, you will feel like a huge weight has been lifted off…
Read MoreWhat’s New In Mental Health Science?
Because mental illness continues to have a giant stigma, this makes it continually hard to make advancements towards new treatment methods. The National Alliance on Mental illness say that 43.8 million Americans experience mental illness a year. With that many people struggling with their symptoms, researchers have been making huge leaps in 2018 towards new…
Read MoreThe Best Jobs for Those Living with Social Anxiety
Social anxiety can create a barrier when it comes to applying for companies. You get nervous when you are surrounded by people and in roles where you are forced to socialize with others. If you are struggling with social anxiety, you are better off trying to find jobs where you can work on your own…
Read MoreWhat Should Not Be Ignored When You Are Depressed
Depression can make you feel so sad that you feel no urge to want to get out of bed when you wake up. By doing nothing about your depression, you are only making it persist or get worsen. According to The Power of Positivity, there are certain elements that may seem minor in treating but…
Read MoreHow to Fight Through Depression at Work
Going to work can do wonders for your depression in that it will give you something to do every week that you will enjoy and feel rewarded by the end of your shift. Work can also worsen your depression from the sense of having no control or if you do not like your job. Since…
Read MoreWhat Are The Little Things That Can Help Someone with Depression?
While helping someone with depression can mean learning more about depression itself, it’s also the little things you do that can have a great impact in their overall well-being. According to Huffington Post, the smallest but most important things you can do for someone with depression can be offering gifts of kindness or looking for…
Read MoreWhat Can Make Your Depression Worse
Having depression is when your sadness interferes with your everyday activities. Even if you are in treatment for your depression such as going to therapy and taking medication, it can still mean that you are repeating habits that can make your depression worse. It is important to make a change in your routine to ensure…
Read MoreUnusual Ways to Improve Your Mood
Whether you’ve struggled with addiction, depression, or anxiety, you are likely to have days, or even weeks, when you can’t seem to get out of a funk. If you’ve struggled with depression, you might fear the onset of another episode. If you have recently started addiction recovery, you may be suffering from post-acute-withdrawal syndrome, or…
Read MoreWhy Don’t People Seek Help for Mental Illness?
Awareness of mental illness and the need for treatment has been growing in recent years. This is in large part due to campaigns designed to raise awareness of depression, addiction, bipolar disorder, and suicide, as well as more celebrities being open about their own mental health struggles. Despite this progress, many people who need help…
Read More8 Subtypes of Depression
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 16 million American adults suffer from depression every year. Although we typically talk about depression as if it were one condition, it is actually an umbrella term that includes many related conditions. It may be helpful to know something about these different subtypes, since they often…
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