If you’re fresh out of rehab, or if you’ve been out of rehab for years, the holidays are often challenging times. You will be seeing family and friends who you may not have seen since you became sober. Someone may not be aware of your new lifestyle and offer you an alcoholic beverage. If you’re…
Fear Losing Your Medical or Nursing License? Common Misconceptions about Physician Health Programs, PRN, IPN and Substance Use Disorders “Impaired practitioners can easily lose their licenses through suspension due to not being willing to get help. Getting help quickly often prevents catastrophic career consequences. It is not getting help that causes the suspension, it is…
“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.” — Norman Cousins One of the most powerful “mantras” I heard when I was new in recovery was: “Play out the tape all the way through to the end.” And recently, I was able to help someone out by sharing some of my experience with it, which…
“Nature never sends a great man into the ground without confiding the secret to another soul.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “confide” as follows: ‘to trust’ And it defines “trust” as: ‘reliance on the character, ability, strength or truth of someone or something’ So, what does confiding in someone, trusting someone,…
“In family relationships, love is really spelled T.I.M.E.” – Dieter Uchtdorf When I was relatively new in recovery, it was pointed out to me I would do well to choose wisely who I spent time with, in order to more readily heal and strengthen—certainly not toxify or stress out further—my mind, emotions and spirit.…
A longtime physician with whom I’ve become good friends once told me he had a really hard time reconciling in his mind that he had a substance abuse disorder, i.e., identifying he was an addict. When I asked him why, he said something to the effect of, “I think it’s because I’d always thought an…
Make no mistake, vaping behavior is a gateway to harder drug use. Getting hooked on nicotine through smoking is already the top addiction. Now, vapor delivers nicotine to the brain much more effectively than smoke. Higher blood concentrations of nicotine occur in “vapers” versus smokers, generally. But set aside physical addiction, the chemical and structural…