Blog & Announcements

Providing you with the latest news & updates.

Stay up to date with Foundry Treatment Center.

Featured





May

Do Drugs and Alcohol Permanently Affect Your Brain?

We’ve all heard clichés like “alcohol kills brain cells” or “drugs fry your brain.” Watching someone who’s under the influence of drugs and alcohol, few of us are inclined to doubt it. However, the idea that a period of heavy substance use can leave you mentally damaged for life is also terribly discouraging. If you’ve struggled with drugs and alcohol, the following can give you some idea of how that might have affected your brain.

‍

Most effects are temporary.

First of all, the vast majority of effects from most drugs only last as long as the drugs are in your system. If you drink too much, you can sleep it off. The next day or two might be rough, but you’ll be okay before long. Our bodies are pretty good at maintaining equilibrium, so individual episodes of drinking or drug use typically won’t have lasting effects except perhaps in extreme circumstances, like an overdose. It turns out that the anti-drug scare tactics of the 1980s and 1990s largely backfired, so it’s not a good idea to overstate the dangers of isolated drinking or drug use. It’s worth noting, however, that substance use does have a larger effect on the developing brain and people who experiment with drugs and alcohol at a younger age are more likely to have substance use issues later in life.

‍

It may take months for your brain chemistry to rebalance.

A bigger concern than isolated use is developing a tolerance, which is another way of saying developing a dependence. This is when your body is so used to the presence of drugs and alcohol that it compensates in order to bring you back to equilibrium. Once you’ve developed a dependence, you need drugs or alcohol in your system to feel normal — and when you quit, you will probably notice some emotional and cognitive effects.

Exactly what those are depends on what substance you’ve recently quit. If you’ve quit drinking, you’re likely to experience irritability and insomnia. If you’ve quit cocaine, you’re likely to feel lethargic and unable to focus. While the effects of the drugs themselves might wear off pretty quickly, the effects of withdrawal might hang around for a while. Acute withdrawal typically only lasts about a week or two, but many people experience post-acute withdrawal syndrome, or PAWS. Symptoms of PAWS often include emotional numbness, depression, trouble concentrating, and lack of motivation. These are thought to be caused by changes in your brain’s dopamine system, which is related to motivation, reward, and goal-seeking behavior. This typically lasts a few months, but some people report symptoms lasting up to 18 months.

‍

The long-term effects of addiction aren’t entirely clear.

There’s still quite a bit of discussion in the scientific community over whether addiction permanently changes your brain. We know that addiction does appear to cause some structural changes in your brain. As noted above, some of the most important changes have to do with the dopamine system. The dopamine system is designed to reward behaviors that keep us alive and help the species propagate. However, drugs and alcohol can throw this system into overdrive — especially among people with the right genetic predisposition.

This overclocking of the dopamine system has downstream effects, too. In your prefrontal cortex, there’s a region that becomes sensitized to stimuli that might lead to substance use. We call these stimuli “triggers,” and they are a direct result of the dopamine system realigning your brain’s priorities.

There is also a region of the prefrontal cortex that is primarily in charge of inhibiting behaviors — a sort of mental brake — and this region becomes weaker as addiction progresses. The result is that after a certain period of addiction, you have a brain that is completely bored with anything other than substance use, is extremely sensitive to the possibility of substance use, and is less able to inhibit behavior related to substance use.

Much of the debate around this subject relates to whether this structural change can go back to normal. It’s possible that some people’s brains were never “normal” to begin with. As noted above, there’s research showing that some brains are just wired to respond more strongly to drugs and alcohol. However, we do know that the dopamine system will gradually respond more normally to other stimuli over time and that the prefrontal cortex can change its structure in a matter of weeks using techniques like mindfulness meditation. In other words, we don’t know for sure whether your brain can ever return to some pristine, pre-addiction state, but it can certainly get much better.

Damage from long-term, heavy use may be permanent.

There are a few cases where brain damage from substance use may be permanent. Inhalants, for example, are extremely damaging to the brain. There’s also a condition called stimulant psychosis, which is usually temporary but may be permanent in a small percentage of cases. Korsakoff syndrome, also called “wet brain,” is typically caused by decades of heavy drinking and results in severe memory impairment, confabulation, and apathy. Probably the most common concern in terms of mental impairment is early-onset dementia. A large study¹ of more than a million patients in France found that alcohol use disorder was the single biggest cause of early-onset dementia.

Brains are more resilient than we used to think.

The good news for anyone recovering from addiction is that our brains are extremely adaptable and resilient. Even people who have had strokes that would have been debilitating 20 years ago are able to regain much of their original function. As recently as ten years ago, most neuroscientists believed the adult brain didn’t create new neurons, but now we know it does and that exercise promotes this function. In general, our brains will typically figure out a way to do what we repeatedly ask them to do and new methods and technologies can help them heal even faster.

It’s normal to worry that maybe you’ve abused your brain so much that it will never work quite right again. In some cases, your brain might have undergone some permanent changes, but our brains change anyway, whether we’ve struggled with substance use or not. The important thing to know is that brains are adaptable and they can always get better. At The Foundry, we use a variety of evidence-based methods to help our clients heal and create better lives. To learn more, explore our website or call us today at 1-844-955-1066.



May

Five Challenging Activities to Try in Addiction Recovery

When you’re recovering from addiction, it’s a great idea to pick up a new interest, hobby, or activity. These do several good things for you. Perhaps most importantly, especially early on, they give you something to do.

Too much boredom and restlessness are not good for recovery, and having a new pursuit gives you something to do. Also, if it’s something you enjoy — which it should be — it gives you something to look forward to every day; a sense of direction or focus. Finally, when you learn new skills and see them improve day by day, it increases your sense of self-efficacy: the feeling that you are in control of your life.

There are many possible challenges to take on in addiction recovery. The important thing is to find something you enjoy and something that connects with your values. You may have to try out a few things to find what you like. Here are some suggestions to get you started.

Learn to play an instrument.

Any kind of expression is good for recovery and music has some attributes that make it especially good for some people. First of all, music therapy is an alternative form of therapy that involves many different ways of engaging with music.

It often helps people who aren’t helped much by more conventional modes of therapy. A number of studies have found that it can be particularly effective for treating trauma and depression. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5500733

However, the benefits don’t stop with therapy. Several studies have found that the act of making music in itself can improve your mental health. For example, researchers at Oxford¹ have found that singing in a choir can have many benefits, including increasing your feelings of happiness and wellbeing, reducing pain, and even improving your immune system.

Music is good for you because it is a complex activity that promotes social cohesion. Music requires cooperation between many parts of your brain in both hemispheres. It is one of the best workouts you can give your brain and some studies suggest practicing music can even stave off dementia.

Get fit.

No matter what, a certain level of fitness should be part of your recovery plan. Few things are as good for your physical and mental health as daily exercise and emerging research even suggests that it may help prevent relapse.

However, a basic level of self-care is not the same as making sports or fitness a particular interest in recovery. All you really need to be healthy is to walk about 30 minutes a day, but that won’t provide as much of a challenge or motivation as an activity.

For that, you need something that gives you plenty of room to grow — something that requires strength, skill, and stamina. Team sports are a great place to start, because they not only require skill and keep you active, but they also add a social element that holds you more accountable and helps you feel more socially connected — one of the most powerful aspects of a strong recovery².

Even if you never thought of yourself as a sports person (perhaps especially if you never thought of yourself as a sports person), learning a new sport can be a huge boost for your mood and confidence.

Make art.

As with music, art is a great recovery activity because it emphasizes self-expression. Much of what you go through in life may be hard to put into words, but you still need some way to express it.

Drawing, like dreaming, can be an expression of your inner world. Most of us were encouraged to draw when we were kids, but creativity is discouraged as we get older.

Making art, whether it’s drawing, painting, sculpting, knitting, collaging, or anything else, is often a great way to get back into contact with the parts of your mind that can’t easily express themselves in words.

Learn a new language.

Most people only learn new languages for the sake of practicality. It takes a special kind of person to do it for fun.

However, if you’re that kind of person, learning a new language can be a great recovery activity. For one, it opens up a whole new world that wasn’t available when you were limited to English.

The change of perspective when you can suddenly read a newspaper from Mexico City or Berlin is startling. Perhaps more importantly, a new language connects you to new people.

Language is fundamentally social and even the process of learning a new language can help you build new relationships. Like music, language learning is also great exercise for your brain.

Write.

If you’ve been through an addiction treatment program or worked with a therapist, there’s a good chance you’ve already done quite a bit of writing as part of recovery. However, there’s no reason to stop there. Like art and music, creative writing, such as poetry and fiction, can be a way of exploring thoughts and feelings you can’t quite articulate directly.

What’s more, writing is a great way to process what you’ve been through and find meaning in it. Think of all the people who have been through horrible things and then redeemed those experiences by writing about them — from Victor Frankl and Malcolm X to the many excellent recovery memoirs that have come out in the past 10 years or so.

Writing your story is a way to own what you’ve been through and create a story where you’re the hero rather than the victim.

There’s essentially no limit to possible activities to engage in during recovery. The great thing about recovery is that your future is no longer about drugs and alcohol; it can be about anything you want. The more you challenge yourself, the more you’ll grow. At The Foundry, we know that recovery isn’t just about abstinence; it’s about living better. For more information about our treatment programs, call us today at 1-844-955-1066 or explore our website.

Launay, J. (2015). Choir singing improves health, happiness – and is the perfect icebreaker. The Conversation.

Twark, C. (2018). Can exercise help conquer addiction? Harvard Health Publishing.

‍



Jan

Wellness and the New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

Don’t you just love this time of year? A time for new beginnings, a time to dream, to make goals, and turn words into action. A time to let go of the past and to look toward the future! The beginning of the year always feels so fresh and exciting to me, and this year is no exception. Fun things are on the horizon here at Foundry Steamboat, and I can’t wait to share with you what we have planned! To kick off the year, here is what the Wellness Program has been up to in January!

Healthy Habits

This month our Healthy Habits group focused on Sleep Hygiene. Sleep is so important for not only our physical health, but our mental health as well. Getting quality sleep every night can set the foundation for your day. A good night’s sleep can boost your mood, improve memory, strengthen your heart, bolster your immune system, increase your exercise performance, and improve your productivity and your overall quality of life.

We can all agree sleep is vital to our health, so then what the heck is Sleep Hygiene?! Sleep Hygiene is defined as various practices and habits necessary to have good nighttime sleep quality and full daytime alertness. You might not have good sleep habits if you have frequent sleep disturbances, daytime sleepiness, or it takes you too long to fall asleep.

If you are struggling with Sleep Hygiene, here are a few things you can implement to help you get quality sleep:

∙ Limit daytime naps to 30 min (or avoid them altogether, if you can)

∙ Avoid stimulants such as nicotine or caffeine close to bedtime

➣ You may even need to limit caffeine to before noon in some cases

∙ Exercise!

➣ As little as 10 min of aerobic exercise can improve nighttime sleep quality

∙ Avoid food that can cause indigestion right before sleep

∙ Get adequate exposure to natural light

➣ Exposure to sun during the day and darkness at night helps with a healthy sleep/wake cycle

∙ Establish a relaxing bedtime routine

➣ This helps the body recognize it is time for sleep

➣ Your routine can include warm shower or bath, reading a book, or light stretches

∙ Avoid blue light from phone or TV right before bed (zero screen time 30 min before)

➣ Blue light can make it difficult to fall asleep because it suppresses melatonin production in the body, tricking your brain into thinking it is daytime

∙ Make your sleep space pleasant and relaxing!

➣ Comfy pillows and mattress

➣ Temp between 60-67 degrees for optimal sleep

➣ Can include a noise machine, fan, ear plugs, eye mask, or blackout curtains to create a pleasant sleeping space

∙ Only use bed for sleep and intimacy!

➣ Reading, watching tv, or working from your bed, can make your brain associate your bed with a place of wakefulness, instead of a place to sleep!

Try a few of these tips to see if they improve your quality of sleep. To track their effectiveness, make note of how many nights a week you utilize these tools to see which ones work best for you. Keep in mind, the more you practice them, the better they work! For more information about sleep hygiene visit www.sleepfoundation.org.Happy sleeping!

January Wellness Activity Highlight

This month we took advantage of the sunshine and got outside on our snowshoes around the ranch! At the time of the activity, we had recently had a snowstorm which made the perfect canvas for us to think outside the box and make some art with our snowshoes. The residents and staff got creative out in the hayfield and did a collaborative Snowshoe drawing. This activity was perfect for mindful movement and cardio! The end result was so cool, and we even got aerial photos and a video, thanks to one of our staff members with a drone! You can check out our aerial video by going to our YouTube channel or our social media platforms. We have big plans for our next snowstorm, we can’t wait!

‍

Fitness

In the fitness aspect of theWellness Program, we focus on functional movement; movements that mimic everyday life. Functional Fitness is a classification of training that prepares the body for real-life movements and activities. It trains your muscles to work together and prepares them for daily tasks by simulating common movements you might do at home, at work, or in sports. While using various muscles in the upper and lower body at the same time, functional fitness exercises also emphasize core stability. Movements such as squatting, reaching, pulling, and lifting will be made easier with functional fitness integrated into your exercise routine.

Some of the benefits of functional fitness include increasing ease of everyday movements; increases flexibility, coordination, balance and posture; helps reduce joint pain; reduces the risk of injury; can be tailored to any ability; and builds muscle. Here at Foundry Steamboat, we incorporate three functional fitness workouts a week.

Below is one of the full body workouts we did this month:

For 12 min, do as many rounds as possible of:

- 5 pull ups (modifications: assisted pull ups, ring rows, or bent over rows)

- 10 push-ups (modification: elevated push-ups)

- 15 air squats

- 20 sit ups (modification: crunches)

- 3 – 5 burpees

That’s a wrap on January for the Wellness Program! Stay tuned for what we have going on in February!

Cait Mowris, Wellness Director, Foundry Steamboat

‍



Nov

My Son is an Addict

My son is an addict. It's not the first thing you’ll hear me say if you ask me about my kids. Truthfully, I’ve never said it until now. I usually skirt around the subject, saying my oldest son has had some struggles with drugs and alcohol.Not because I am ashamed or embarrassed, but in my eyes, my oldest son is not one thing. He’s a million things — an amazing living, breathing, walking, talking human being with a "heart so big it could crush this town," to borrow a few words from Tom Petty. (For future reference, my mind is prone to bust out in a song lyric at any time.) Yes, I’m his mother and his biggest fan, but I’ve never liked the smallness a label dictates. I don’t even like to label myself as a writer, songwriter, musician, wife, or any other word that defines a role I play. Instead, when someone asks, I say I write stories and songs and do stuff. That pretty much sums it up.

I’ll be the first to admit that I like to look at the bright side. I see the good in others and especially my children. At times, I’ve been accused of being too damn optimistic. But I’m a believer. I know, that's a label, but it’s also what I do. I believe there is always a way, a solution, a miracle waiting around the corner, and that things will get better. This doesn't mean that behind these rose-colored glasses, life is always beautiful. I've spent many sleepless nights and cried rivers of tears. I've also had times when it felt like my heart was physically being ripped out of my chest. But most times, I try to “keep on the sunny side.” I did tell you about the song lyrics. Right?

Being the mother of a son who is an addict has taught me a lot of things. But first, what is an addict anyway? There is such a stigma attached to the word. When I used to hear the word addict, my mind conjured up the image of a guy lying in a dirty New York City back alley, fighting off rats, surrounded by syringes and needles - thank you,Al Pacino. But now, I know better. Addicts are brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, nieces, friends, acquaintances, and ancestors. Many have very successful careers. Some give TED talks, climb mountains, play big stages, and shine bright…at least for a while. Recently, when my son lost a close friend to addiction, I wrote a song to try and bring some comfort into the raging sea of heartbreak.

Some stars shoot across the sky and light the world on fire as they go by

Some fade out of sight, while others still burn bright and keep on shining,

They just keep shining, I’ll shine on for you, and I’ll shine on for me

- lyric from Shine On

Addiction is painful on all sides. It's not something you can sweep under the rug and talk about later or chalk up to “sowing a few wild oats.” I wish I would have known that a long time ago.Addiction is real. It’s not some phase that people go through with a clear beginning and end. It’s a disease, a dragon that can bare its teeth at anytime. And it runs in my family, in my blood, a gene that can be “on or off.” I didn’t know any of this back then.

I just kept believing. I believed my son when he said he didn’t leave the pipe in my glovebox. I believed him when he said he was camping in a blue tent on the Colorado River. I even went to the place where he said he was with a care package of food and supplies and a guitar for him to play. There was no blue tent. The other people camping there said they hadn’t seen or heard of him — I believed them, maybe. For a year, I didn’t know where he was. I thought I saw him everywhere — the face of a homeless man in San Francisco, or hitchhiking on the side of the road. I believed I could help. What I didn’t know was that my love wasn’t enough to save him. He needed more than I could offer.

When he did surface again, I got a phone call from jail. Letters followed, and I began to understand. I’ll never forget the first time I went to visit him and saw him behind the glass, dressed in orange. I couldn’t stop crying. I wish I could have held back the tears and offered an encouraging word, but I wasn't that strong. I just bit my lip, tears streaming down my face. He apologized over and over. I didn’t need an apology. I just wanted him to be okay. I studied his letters and tried to read between the lines. When he decided to goto an addiction/behavior modification treatment center, at a cellmate's suggestion, I took him there. The 24 hours between the time he was released from jail and admitted to the treatment facility felt like an eternity. He was so fragile, fractured, and torn.

As his mother, I wanted to take the blame, and for a while, I did. I wasn't a perfect parent. I have a laundry list of things I could have done differently. I tried to mold my children into what I thought they should be. Ouch, that truth still hurts. To top it off, during a crucial time in his life, I walked out on my marriage of 18 years, shattering the illusion I had created of the perfect "Leave it to Beaver" family. I often wonder why children are given to the young, who don’t know what they’re doing. But as I get older, I realize age doesn't matter all that much. I still don’t have all the answers. I know more things, but for the most part, I’m making it up as I go. However, what I do know is that my children never suffered from a lack of love.

So what has all this taught me about addiction? Forgiveness is key. Always. Every day, all day — especially when it comes to forgiving myself. And to never stop believing. Ever.

‍

Written By:

Trisha Leona Sandora

Words & Music

www.trishaleone.com

‍

At Foundry, we know that addiction is a problem that affects every area of your life and therefore requires holistic solutions. We don’t just teach skills to help you abstain from drugs and alcohol; we teach skills to help you live a happier, more purposeful, more connected life. To learn more, call us at (844) 955-1066.

‍



Mar

COVID-19: From Our CEO

As coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to gain momentum and impact others across the globe, proactively communicating the safety precautions that we have taken to ensure the safety of our participants and staff is necessary. The evolution of this pandemic has been, and will be, something that we closely monitor and thoroughly heed the instructions given by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

‍

Due to the highly contagious nature of this virus, we felt that our two-tier detox continuum needs to be Highlighted. Two years ago, we partnered with Steamboat Emergency Room (SBER) which has become our first line of defense for situations just like the one our country is currently experiencing. Every participant’s journey with Foundry STARTS here, where they are promptly taken to a private room and immediately seen by medical professionals. During this first phase of our detox and assessment process, they are given a comprehensive physical and thoroughly screened for symptoms of COVID-19 following the strict protocol enforced by the CDC. Once cleared for residential treatment, they are transported to our facility (15 minutes outside of town on a secluded 48-acre Ranch) for the second phase of our detox process, and continued monitoring from members of our medical team for at least 24 hours. Once in our care, the following steps are being strictly enforced by every member of our team at Foundry Treatment Center Steamboat.

1) The clients will have limited "off campus" activities. This means they will not be attending 12 step meetings off campus. They will either take part in an in-house or online meeting, structured by our lead residential managers. Wellness activities will either be on campus or involve limited exposure to those in the community.

2) All staff are expected to immediately wash their hands upon arrival on the Foundry campus with soap and water for at least 20; or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol if soap and water are not available.

3) Throughout their shift, staff are required to frequently maintain CDC standards of hand washing hygiene.

4) Did we mention we are encouraging staff and clients to WASH THEIR HANDS with soap and water?

5) Staff will wipe down the facility at shift exchange with soap and water or wipes. This means the office will be wiped down a minimum 3x per day.

6) During morning opener, clients will be asked if they are experiencing a fever, lower respiratory symptoms, coughing, shortness of breath. If a client endorses any of these symptoms they are to be removed from the milieu and stationed in their room until medical can meet with them to determine next steps. When staff enters a room in which a client may be ill, they will wear a mask and gloves, disposing of the mask and gloves and immediately washing hands once removed.

7) Staff will contact their superior immediately and stay home if they feel ill (fever, respiratory difficulty, cough or just not feeling well) to protect co-workers, clients and the program as a whole.

8) Staff and clients are asked to cover their cough or sneeze with a tissue, throw the tissue in the trash, and wash their hands immediately after.

The SAFETY of our Participants has been and will always be our #1 Priority and will continue to follow the instructions given by the professionals on the front lines of this pandemic.

‍



Latest Posts

Nov

Community, Connection, and Compassion

WOW!! I really struggled with this month’s article. I scribbled ideas on paper for a few weeks throwing ideas around. Should we talk about COVID FOMO?! Is that really a thing?! People feeling like they should be cleaning out their closets or learning a new language because everyone else SEEMS to be doing it. Should we talk about the things we CAN control, our fitness, our food intake, our own positivity?!Should we talk about the amazing resources that have come to light during such a dark time?! Should we make a top ten list of things we can do right now, get good sleep, keep a routine, reach out to loved ones?! Should we talk about what kind of humans we will come out on the other side as, more compassionate, more aware, with better hand washing skills?! You can see my dilemma, right?!

All of these things are justas important as the next. We scroll through social media, we watch the news, we listen to those we trust and respect yet the fear still looms. How long will it last?! What will happen to my job?! Will someone I know get sick?! What will normal look like?! Will I ever hug my friends again?!

We can only rely on what we know now more than ever. And, that my friends, is COMMUNITY! This is your crew, your squad, your family, your town, your world, your community. Helen Keller’s famous words, “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much,” hang right above us.

We are truly in this together more than ever and more than anything we have ever faced. It is time to unite and fight as one. Do you part.

So, here is your go to list of how to connect, be compassionate, and help serve or ignite YOUR community all the while practicing your best shelter in place and hand washing skills.

Remember to keep it simple.Don’t overwhelm yourself with huge to do lists to add to anxiety. Pick one thing and make it great.

1. MOVE DAILY (alphabet movement, dog walks, zoom workouts)

2. CONNECT (try calling a friend this week that you haven’t touched base with in a while or setup a FUN zoom happy hour or game night with friends)

3. LIMIT YOUR SCREEN AND NEWS TIME (schedule these things in as if they were an appointment, when time is up, move on)

4. GET OUTSIDE (as much as you can, fresh air is an instant mood lifter)

5. CALL YOUR PARENTS(they will LOVE hearing from you)

6. HAVE SOME SCHEDULED DOWNTIME (just like the screen time, schedule it, make it happen and get creative-this might mean learning something new to some and a nap for others)

7. SHOP LOCAL (buy a gift card to support a local business or get some take-out food, even better get some take-out food for a neighbor)

8. OFFER HELP (seek out those who can’t shop or offer to help someone in need)

9. SMILE (it will help your mood instantly and remember to smile at others even if that is from your window)

10. MAKE A SIGN (sing at 7pm, howl at 8pm, whatever it means to you, show your support for those working the frontlines)

For those of you struggling mentally or physically, reach out! There are so many online resources to connect and meet-up. On the walls of many AA or NA rooms, we see these words, “We don’t heal in isolation but in community.” S.Harrell

WE GOT THIS COMMUNITY! Try asking yourself these daily questions to remember all the things we are grateful for. See you on the other side for a GIANT hug!

‍

Sarah Coleman

Wellness Coach, Foundry Treatment Center

Personal Trainer, CrossFitter andCoach, Steamboat CrossFit

Food connoisseur /Culinary Artist, Bitchin’Kitchin’

Outdoor Enthusiast, Everywhere

‍



Nov

Listen Like a Dog

A wise woman once told me that we only listen in order to respond, anxiously waiting our turn to speak. How, then, can we really ever understand, have compassion, or actually hear what a person is saying? Here are a few tips from a girl’s best friend, the ever loyal, ever compassionate, best floppy ears out there,Fido! I cannot take full credit for this novel idea and must give some credit to the book, How to Listen Like a Dog.

Here is how:

-Make eye contact: Ever notice when you talk to the dog, he can’t take his eyes of you. He hangs on every word hoping you drop a small piece of food or scratch behind his ears. Try this the next time someone tells you a story. Dedicate your focus to their face and really take in the whole story thru their eyes. Try to maintain this for the duration of the story without letting your eyes wonder to other things. You will be amazed at how much more you absorb!

-Listen without judgment: That sweet dog of yours never judges you or compares you to other people. What a great idea. The next time a friend needs an open ear and mind, try to listen without judgment. Take it all in without mentioning yourself, anyone else, or the better behaved dog next door.

-Don’t interrupt: This might be the most important one of all. Just listen. Don’t talk. Just listen. Then, listen a little more. Try not to interrupt until the conversation asks for it. Just try it! I mean, if the dog can do it, why can’t you?!

-Give positive reinforcement: We all need a little encouragement no matter what. Try positive feedback without talking. Nodding your head, wagging your tail, smiling. It can really enhance the listening experience and, even better, the speaker’s experience.

-Don’t multitask: This is a tough one. We pride ourselves on being able to do many things at once. I challenge you to try one thing at a time especially when listing. Just listen. Don’t text, don’t talk to someone else, just listen. See if it carries over into other aspects of your life. A dog really only has a once track mind. Eat, sleep, pee, repeat. Can it really be that simple?!

PS… Keep this little tidbit in mind, when the dog nudges you to go outside and play, maybe listen a little extra, and get out there and do something AWESOME with your furry friend!

Happy listening.

“There is no doubt that the ability to listen—to really, authentically listen—is one of the most important qualities of an effective leader, good friend, and successful family member.”

SarahColeman

Health and Wellness Director, The Foundry

PersonalTrainer, CrossFitter and Coach, SteamboatCrossFit

Food connoisseur, My kitchen and yours

OutdoorEnthusiast, Everywhere

Owner, A Weight LiftedFitness Camp

Managing Partner, InspiredLife Network

‍



Sep

5 Tips for Staying Sober as a College Student

Many people assume college students are too young to be recovering from addiction, but the fact is that the age of the typical full-time college student coincides with that age at which drugs and alcohol typically become a problem. It’s also sometimes the case that substance use issues force people to delay their life plans, including education. Therefore, many people find themselves attending college after getting sober. College can be a challenging place for sober people, since drinking is typically considered integral to the college experience, especially in the US. More than half of college students report drinking at least once in the past month and more than a third report binge drinking in the past month. However, that also implies that at least half of college students drink moderately or not at all. What’s more, being sober will give you a significant advantage when it comes to your studies and extracurricular activities. The following are some tips for staying sober in college.

1.) Stay Near Your Support System If Possible

First, try to stay connected to your existing sober support system, whether that’s friends, family, 12-Step group, or whatever else. Social support and connection are some of the most important parts of a strong recovery. People who move away to go to college often face the difficult combination of loneliness and the stresses of school and generally being in a new place. If you can stay where you are, you retain your emotional support system and minimize new stress. To this end, it may be better to attend a college or community college in your area or even comm

ute if it’s not too long of a drive. That assumes there is a college near you and that it’s a reasonable option. If you can stay where you are, at least for the first semester, it will make the transition to college life much safer.

2.) Choose Your Residence Wisely

If or when you do decide to move to attend college, it’s important to choose your residence well. Certainly, avoid living in a frat or sorority house or even in the same neighborhood. Although some groups are certainly better than others, it’s going to be hard for you to avoid drugs and alcohol. Off-campus student housing areas are often just as bad.

The best options for sober housing will usually be either stay on campus or live in a part of town without many students. Most dorms prohibit drugs and alcohol, although how strictly that is enforced varies widely among institutions. Generally speaking, a dorm will probably have less drinking if it’s not exclusively male or not exclusively first-year students. Also, many universities have family housing available. These are typically small apartments occupied mostly by graduate students and foreign students. Therefore, family housing is typically pretty quiet and affordable.

Whatever housing option you choose, it’s also a good idea to find a sober roommate. University housing services may be able to help you with that or you might have to find someone through a service like MySoberRoommate.com. Or perhaps you know someone through your 12-Step meetings or elsewhere who also needs a roommate.

3.) Find a Local Support System

Whether or not you remain living at home while attending college, it helps to have social support on campus. This may or may not be a group of sober people but it will certainly be a group focused on something other than drugs or alcohol. For example, you might find a 12-Step group near campus or you might get involved with activities that support your recovery. For example, most colleges and universities have tons of opportunities to get involved in volunteering, which, in addition to being a positive activity and a great way to meet friends, is one of the 12 steps.

However, campuses have groups of all kinds--languages, games, academic disciplines, sports, activism, and more. These are all great opportunities to make new friends around activities that are more constructive than drinking.

4.) Manage Your Course Schedule

One of the biggest challenges for anyone recovering from addiction is managing stress, which is typically a major trigger of cravings. Managing stress is a whole topic in itself but in the context of college, one of the best ways to manage stress is to manage your schedule. New college students are often surprised by how much they have to study when they first start college. Also, high fees often make students try to pack as many courses as they can into every semester. Unfortunately, that’s a great way to feel stressed, overwhelmed, and helpless. It’s much better to keep your schedule as light as you can within the constraints of academic and scholarship requirements.

Keep in mind that class time is only the tip of the iceberg. Many classes, especially in your first year, will also have study sections and labs, both of which may assign their own homework. Then, there’s just the regular studying you’ll have to do for each class. You’ll typically get more mileage from putting more effort into mastering a few core subjects than by trying to take a huge variety of classes and you’ll feel less stressed that way too.

‍

‍5.) Practice Self-Care

‍
College students aren’t known for their self-care. Rather, they tend to be known to eat a lot of pizza and stay up late. These kinds of habits are bad for both your grades and your recovery. As much as possible, try to maintain any healthy lifestyle changes you’ve made as part of addiction recovery. Try to eat a diet mostly composed of nutritious whole foods with a minimum of sugar and fried food. Get regular exercise, even if it’s just walking a lot.

Most importantly, don’t skimp on sleep. Sleep is when new skills and information are consolidated into long-term memory, so staying up late to study is really counterproductive. Sleep deprivation also impairs your concentration and short-term and working memory. If you’re tempted to stay up all night studying for a test, the reality is that you’ll probably benefit more from a good night’s sleep. Most importantly, consistently getting enough sleep is crucial for emotional stability, so resist the urge to cut corners by cutting sleep.

Although college is known for parties and drinking, that’s only a small part of the college experience. When you consider all the opportunities college offers--not only for classroom education, but also for gaining broader cultural knowledge, meeting interesting people, volunteering, and getting involved in new activities--using the opportunity just to drink seems like a waste of time. Staying sober starts with creating the right conditions, such as where you choose to live, and associating with the right people. There is a fairly strong inverse correlation between grades and drinking, meaning that more serious students tend to drink less. There are always exceptions, of course, but by associating with other people who want to learn as much as they can, you are likely to end up around relatively sober peers.

At The Foundry, we know that recovery from addiction is a process of continuous learning. We also know that the best reason for getting sober is so you can live the kind of life you want to live, which may involve higher education. To learn more about our comprehensive approach to addiction recovery, call us at (844) 955-1066.



Sep

How Do You Know When Drinking Has Become a Problem?

We live in a culture where drinking is common and sometimes even expected. This can sometimes make it hard to know when our drinking is normal or excessive. We are particularly prone to misjudgment because our ideas about normal drinking are most strongly influenced by our immediate circle of friends and relatives. Unfortunately, this standard can be misleading. Furthermore, we are all different--we have different risk factors for addiction, different ability to metabolize alcohol, different states of health, and so on. Whether or not your drinking is excessive depends a lot on your personal situation and the following can help you determine if your drinking is a problem.

Yellow Zone

You don’t necessarily have to have an alcohol use disorder to have a problem with alcohol. Problem drinking comes in many shapes and sizes, including the following.

Moderately High Daily Drinking

When you get outside the green zone of moderate drinking--typically no more than two drinks a day for men and one drink a day for women--you can get into problems pretty quickly. First, it suggests an escalation in drinking, which means your drinking might continue to escalate. Second, over years of mildly excessive drinking, you are still at higher risk of a number of health issues, including heart disease, liver disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Third, you can form a dependence more easily than you might think. For example, if you’re a woman, you may experience withdrawal symptoms after drinking five or six drinks a day for two months.

Weekend Binge Drinking

You typically have to drink most days to develop a dependence on alcohol. A dependence is considered necessary but not sufficient for addiction. However, as noted above, problem drinking comes in many forms. If you don’t drink all week, but then go hard on weekends, you are still vulnerable to many of the negative effects of problem drinking, including alcohol poisoning, blackouts, accidents, fights, and DUIs. Even one such event can seriously affect your life.

Red Zone

The following are some of the clearer signs that your problematic drinking has become an alcohol use disorder.

Canceling Plans to Drink

One of the main indications of a substance use issue of any kind is if it takes priority over other things in your life. So if you’re making room for drinking, especially drinking alone, it’s a clear sign of a problem That includes canceling plans with friends, neglecting family responsibilities, missing work, and so on.

Lying About Drinking

When you’re lying about how much you drink or that you drink at all, it indicates at some level you either know you are drinking too much or you know other people will think you are drinking too much. Neither is a good sign. If you tell your spouse you’re running an errand so you have an excuse to go get a drink, if you’re “priming” before you meet up with friends, or if you’re hiding alcohol around your house or in other containers, it’s a pretty good sign you have an alcohol use disorder. Lying and deception are among the biggest reasons addiction is so harmful to relationships.

Borrowing or Stealing Money to Drink

Another clear sign of addiction is if you are violating your normal ethical principles, including borrowing or stealing money for alcohol. If you don’t have money for alcohol and you have to go to such lengths to get a drink, that’s a huge red flag.

Needing More Alcohol to Feel the Effects

Another word for tolerance is dependence. If you have to drink more than you used to feel the effects, it’s a sign that your body has adapted to the presence of alcohol. The flip side of that is that once you stop drinking--or try to stop--you’re going to experience withdrawal, which is often a major barrier to quitting.

Drinking to Relax

Drinking to relax can be a problem for two reasons: First, it can indicate that you are drinking to cope with stress, which is a problem in itself because it can mean drinking fills an emotional need. Second, it may indicate that you have developed a dependence and you are physiologically unable to relax without alcohol. You may even be feeling some mild withdrawal in the form of irritability, tension, headaches, and so on.

Legal Problems

For many people, running into legal problems is a clear sign their drinking has gotten out of control. It may be a DUI, a domestic violence call, a fight, or other problems that wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t drinking. It’s possible that you just happened to get caught on the one night you drank too much, but that’s very unlikely.

Health Problems

Health problems can be another wakeup call for many people. Drinking may lead to heart disease, liver disease, obesity, diabetes, and various kinds of cancer, as well as other problems. Some of these may appear more quickly than you think. For example, you may have fatty liver disease with no symptoms and at a relatively young age.

Work Problems

Work is often the last thing to suffer when someone has an alcohol use issue. Not only do you need some kind of income to pay the bills, but many people tie their sense of identity and self-worth to their work. They often feel like they can drink as much as they want, as long as they still perform well at their jobs. Therefore, it’s often a sign of a serious problem if you are drinking at work or skipping out early to drink.

Trying to Quit and Failing

Finally, it’s a pretty clear sign of addiction when you think you should quit or you actually try to quit but you can’t seem to manage it. This may take several forms. Perhaps you can’t even get through withdrawal. Maybe you can make it a couple of weeks and then you say to yourself, “See. I proved I can do it so now I can start drinking again.” Maybe you decide to quit and somehow find yourself drinking again the same night, the way smokers sometimes light up without any conscious awareness.

There are many possible signs that drinking has become a problem. If you’re asking yourself the question at all, it’s probably time to take a break. If you are showing some of the more serious signs of an alcohol use disorder, such as lying, borrowing, stealing, needing alcohol to relax, having legal or health problems, and so on, it’s time to take decisive action, whether that’s going to an AA meeting, finding a therapist, or looking into treatment programs. If you have tried several times to get sober and failed, it may be time for something more intensive like residential treatment.

At Foundry, we know that addiction takes a toll on nearly every aspect of your life, including your relationships, your finances, and your health. We also know that recovery is a holistic process, which is why we treat addiction from many angles, including psychotherapy, diet, exercise, and spiritual wellness. To learn more about our approach to addiction treatment, call us today at (844) 955-1066.



Sep

What Is Borderline Personality Disorder?

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a condition that massively increases your risk of addiction. One study estimates that about 78% of people with BPD will develop a substance use disorder at some point in their lives, compared to only about 8% of the general population. However, BPD is a fairly obscure disorder. Major depression and anxiety disorders, for example, are far more common and although there are many misconceptions related to those conditions, people generally understand what they’re about and probably know at least one person who has struggled with them. On the other hand, a condition like schizophrenia is far less common but the sometimes extraordinary symptoms attract a lot of attention. BPD, by contrast, is less well-known and the name doesn’t offer much insight either. Insofar as people know about it at all, they often assume it’s similar to bipolar disorder, which isn’t really accurate. The following is a brief look at BPD, what it is, how it affects your life, and how it’s treated.

Who Does BPD Affect?

Roughly 2.7% of adults have BPD. Although it is often associated with women--perhaps because of stereotypes involving hyperemotionality--BPD affects men and women about equally. The perception that BPD mainly affects women has likely led to it being under-diagnosed in men so it’s important to be aware that men have about equal risk. Symptoms also appear to be more severe in younger adults and often get milder with age.

‍
Risk Factors

BPD is currently not well understood but it appears that many of the risk factors that are relevant for other mental health issues are relevant for BPD as well. For example, there appears to be a genetic component, so if a close family member such as a parent or sibling has BPD, you are more likely to develop it at some point. Childhood environment appears to be another major risk factor as well, particularly any history of abuse or neglect. One central characteristic of BPD is an intense fear of abandonment, so any childhood trauma related to abandonment or neglect--either physical or emotional--may be particularly relevant.

Symptoms

The symptoms of BPD are mainly characterized by two factors: the intensity of emotions and all-or-nothing thinking. In other words, people with BPD tend to feel overwhelmed by their emotions, both positive and negative, and they have trouble coping with the complex gradations that characterize much of our emotional lives. This affects how they relate to themselves and others.

Unstable Sense of Identity

First, the difficulty dealing with emotional complexity, as discussed above, along with other factors make it hard for someone with BPD to form a stable and coherent sense of identity. Much of our identity comes from our relationships to others and if these associations are always fluctuating wildly, it’s hard to know where you stand. Your judgments of yourself are also subject to these kinds of fluctuations. And finally, if your emotional reactions to people, values, and ideas are always drastically changing, it’s hard to form a coherent sense of yourself and this can sometimes be extremely disorienting.

Fear of Abandonment

As noted above, BPD is typically characterized by an extreme fear of abandonment. They may go to great lengths to avoid abandonment, either real or imagined. For example, they may escalate a relationship quickly or completely cut off contact suddenly if they are afraid they might be pushed away. However, like most people, those with BPD want to have stable, intimate, and meaningful relationships. The desire for close relationships and the fear of abandonment can create a lot of emotional stress.

Volatile Emotions

As discussed above, BPD is characterized both by very intense emotions and by all-or-nothing thinking. Therefore, to someone with BPD, someone or something may be either amazing or terrible, with little in between and these judgments may change from one day to the next. They often experience intense anger that they have trouble controlling. They may experience moods that are both intense and changeable and these moods may last hours or days. This is one reason BPD is sometimes mistaken for bipolar disorder, although bipolar episodes typically last something more on the order of weeks.

Relationship Problems

Predictably, emotional volatility, intense anger, fear of abandonment, and an unstable sense of self often lead to relationship problems. Because people with BPD typically fear abandonment, they may adore someone one day and despise them the next for no apparent reason. Obviously, this can be confusing and stressful for the people in their lives. It also tends to confirm the worst fears of the person with BPD when the people they care about start to distance themselves because of this behavior.

Risky Behavior

Impulsiveness and risky behavior is another common characteristic of BPD, and it is especially common in those with a co-occurring substance use disorder. This might include excessive drug and alcohol use, unsafe sex, reckless driving, or spending sprees. This is another behavior that sometimes leads to BPD being confused with bipolar disorder since reckless behavior is also a common feature of manic episodes. Clearly, the mix of substance use with frequent feelings of intense anger and alienation puts someone at high risk for developing a substance use disorder.

Treatment

Treating BPD can be difficult. Not only is the condition poorly understood, but successful psychotherapy depends on a good therapeutic relationship, which is one of the central problems of BPD. However, dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT, has been shown to be pretty successful in treating BPD. DBT is based on the more common cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), but it’s more intensive and places more emphasis on accepting and regulating challenging emotions as well as developing interpersonal skills to improve relationships. To those ends, DBT has both individual and group therapy components, as well as more frequent contact with the therapist between sessions.

BPD is one of the less well-understood mental health issues and it affects a relatively small percentage of people. However, for those it does affect, it is practically the perfect storm for creating a substance use disorder. It undermines relationships and causes a deep sense of alienation, it causes intense and rapidly changing emotions, including anger, and it often leads to impulsive behavior. If you or someone you love shows symptoms of borderline personality disorder, it’s crucial to seek help as soon as possible, whether or not substance use is also a problem.

At Foundry, we know that substance use is usually only the most visible part of a bigger problem. Most people who struggle with addiction have a co-occurring mental health issue and BPD is one of the most challenging. We offer DBT as well as a range of other therapeutic options as part of our comprehensive approach to treating addiction. To learn more, call us today at (844) 955-1066.



Sep

How Do You Teach Your Kids About Drugs and Alcohol?

No parent wants to see their child have problems with drugs and alcohol, whether those problems are short-term like bad decisions or long-term like an addiction. Although many parents worry about their kids using drugs and alcohol, they don’t always know how to talk to their kids about them. The following tips can help you talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol so they are less likely to make bad decisions and less likely to have substance use issues later in life.

Set a Good Example

The most important thing to remember about minimizing the risk that your children will have problems with drugs and alcohol is that whatever you actually say to them is not as important as other factors, including your own behavior. Your kids watch your behavior and assume that whatever you do is how adults normally behave. If you come home from work every day and immediately have a few drinks to relax, your kids will associate drinking with adult behavior. When they start wanting to assert their independence and act more grown-up, drinking will be part of that template.

If you have a problem with drugs or alcohol, the best thing you can do for your kids, especially when it comes to their own future risk of addiction, is to seek help. Having a parent with a substance use disorder is one of the biggest risk factors for addiction. There are genes related to addiction that you may have passed on, your kids learn your substance use patterns, and addiction makes it harder to provide a stable environment. By getting help for your own substance use issues, you set a responsible example and you show that your family is your top priority.

Create a Healthy Environment

As noted above, one reason a parent’s substance use puts their kids at greater risk for addiction is that addiction makes it harder to provide a safe, stable environment for kids. However, drugs and alcohol are only one factor in the home environment. Many studies have found that adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, significantly contribute to substance use issues and mental health issues later in life. For example, one study found that people who had five ACEs or more were seven to 10 times more likely to struggle with addiction as adults. ACEs are experiences of either emotional or physical abuse or neglect. Experiences such as not knowing whether you’ll get to eat, being abused, either physically, sexually, or emotionally, witnessing domestic violence, having a parent with a mental health or substance use issue, and other stressful experiences each contribute to later addiction risk as well as other mental and physical health issues.

You can hedge against these risks by creating the safest and most stable environment as possible for your kids. They should feel safe, supported, and loved. That means having regular routine and structure, especially for younger children, shielding them from violence, and giving them emotional support. As discussed, if you struggle with any substance use or mental health issues, seek help, and stick to your treatment plan.

Start Early

When it comes to talking to your kids about drugs and alcohol, most parents wait too long. They look at their 12-year-old, for example, and think, “They’re still too young to worry about that.” It may be true that most kids haven’t yet started experimenting with drugs and alcohol at that age but they are already approaching the age when they listen to their peers more than their parents.

That means, if you want to get through to your kids about drugs and alcohol, you have to start much earlier than you think. Even four or five years old is not too young to begin the conversation. Of course, your approach should be age-appropriate. For example, if you give your child cold medicine, make sure to tell them they should only take medicine from a parent or doctor. As they get older and understand more, you can talk more about illicit drugs and alcohol.

Continue the Conversation

Once you’ve broached the subject of drugs and alcohol, don’t just assume that now that you’ve had the drugs and alcohol talk, everything will be fine. Look for opportunities to keep the topic open. For example, if they ask why their uncle was acting strange at Thanksgiving, use it as an opportunity to talk about how alcohol affects your body and mind. Kids need to hear a consistent message over time so don’t tell them about how drinking too much is bad for you and can make you sick and cause accidents and so on but then talk about how much you’re going to drink on vacation. Consistency and repetition are important, as is behavior that’s consistent with your message, as discussed above.

Be Honest

As your child gets older, your conversations about drugs and alcohol can get more in depth. It’s important to remember that you always want to be as honest as possible. Sometimes you have to explain things in age-appropriate ways but nothing should be false or misleading. Don’t try to scare your kids off of drugs and alcohol with exaggerations. That will only harm your credibility. You want them to see you as a reliable source of information on drugs and alcohol and they should always feel comfortable coming to you with questions. Keeping the conversation going, as discussed above, is much easier than trying to talk to your child about drugs for the first time as a teenager and getting them to trust you.

On a similar note, make sure your kids know--at any age--that if they find themselves in a jam, whether they’re with a grown-up who’s drinking or at a party where there are drugs, that you will come to get them with no questions asked. Their safety is always the most important thing and they’ll be less likely to call you if they’re afraid of punishment.

There’s nothing easy about being a parent and teaching your kids about drugs and alcohol is one of the bigger challenges. They get all kinds of conflicting signals on the subject, perhaps even from their parents. Teens are also incredibly vulnerable to peer pressure, making good judgment around drugs and alcohol even more difficult. If you want to protect your kids and minimize the risk they’ll have substance use problems later in life, the most important things are to set a good example and create a safe, healthy, happy environment for them. Then, be sure to talk to them early about drugs and alcohol and keep the conversation going as they get older. Finally, be honest so they know you’re a reliable source. If you’re currently struggling with substance use, getting help as soon as possible may be the single best thing you can do for your kids.

At Foundry, we know that mental health and good family relationships are both incredibly important for a strong recovery from addiction. Our program takes an evidence-based, holistic approach to mental health and involves families in the recovery process. To learn more about our approach to addiction treatment, call us today at (844) 955-1066.



Sep

7 Common Myths About Depression

Depression is both widespread and one of the most common risk factors for addiction. One study found that among people with a mood disorder such as major depression or bipolar disorder, 32% had a substance use disorder, while in the general population, only about 8% of people had a substance use disorder. Substance use helps people cope with the symptoms of depression in the short term, but in the long run, drugs and alcohol only make depression worse. An effective addiction treatment plan must include treatment for any mental health issues, including depression. Depression has gotten a lot more media attention in recent years but unfortunately, there are still a lot of misconceptions about depression. These misconceptions can prevent people from recognizing, acknowledging, and seeking help for depression.‍

‍

1.) Depression Mostly Affects Women

‍
It’s true that depression appears to affect women at a higher rate than men but the difference is largely overstated. For example, in 2017, about 8.7% of women had a depressive episode compared to about 5.3% of men. By comparison, only about 0.54% of men get schizophrenia, 2.9% of men develop bipolar disorder--which is also considered a depressive disorder--and about 4% of men develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). That is to say, that even if men are slightly less likely than women to experience depression, depression is still one of the most common mental health issues men are likely to face.

2.) Depression Is All-Or-Nothing

You may have an image in your mind of what depression looks like--perhaps someone who can’t get out of bed, can’t hold a job, doesn’t shower, has attempted suicide, and so on. This can be a fairly accurate picture of severe depression but depression can vary widely in both symptoms and severity. Most depression is mild or moderate. The problem with fixating on severe depression is that someone with moderate symptoms that are causing significant impairment might think, “Well, I’m not that bad, so maybe I should just stop complaining.” It’s important to keep in mind that just because someone has it worse, that doesn’t invalidate your own experience. If depression is affecting your life and your recovery from addiction, it needs to be addressed.

‍

3. If Someone Has Depression, It’s Obvious

As noted above, depression comes in all shapes and sizes. Certainly, there are cases of people who can’t function but the truth is that most people with depression still manage to get by. Often, you wouldn’t even know they’re depressed by looking at them. Many people with depression are good at keeping up a front, either because they fear being stigmatized or they feel like there’s no point in letting others know how miserable they are. High profile cases of suicide, like Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain, are clear examples of how well some people can hide their pain.

4.) Depression Is a Kind of Prolonged Sadness

Another myth that keeps people from recognizing the symptoms of depression is the belief that depression is mainly just intense or prolonged sadness. Depressed mood is a symptom but it is not the only symptom and it may not be the most prominent symptom. You have to have at least five symptoms, including depressed mood and inability to feel pleasure, for a clinical diagnosis of depression. However, you may more often feel irritable or hopeless, wake up in the middle of the night and have trouble going back to sleep, feel unable to concentrate, or feel unusually fatigued. If you have these kinds of symptoms but wouldn’t exactly say you feel sad, you may be depressed and not realize it.

‍

5.) Depression Is All in Your Head

Similar to the misconception above, many people think depression is all in your head, that if you could just think a little more positively, you would feel better. While it’s true that fixing cognitive distortions is often a useful part of treatment for depression, recent research suggests that depression may be more of a physical problem than previously believed. In particular, inflammation has been implicated in about half of depression cases. In other words, people with depression often have some of the same markers of inflammation you would find in someone with an infection or autoimmune disorder, suggesting that the immune system may have a significant effect on the mind.

6.) You Need a Good Reason to Be Depressed

As discussed above, you can’t always tell who is struggling with depression, and part of the reason is that some people just don’t seem to have a good reason to be depressed, such as the death of a loved one, losing a job, or getting divorced. However, you don’t need an immediate or obvious reason to be depressed, and sometimes you don’t need a reason at all. Childhood abuse or neglect can increase your risk of depression, years later, for example, and people who have had two or more episodes of depression may have recurring episodes for no reason.

‍

7.) Everyone Gets Depressed Sometimes

Everyone gets sad sometimes but not everyone gets depressed. About one in five people will experience an episode of depression at some point in their lives, which makes depression one of the most common mental health issues worldwide, but it also means 80% of people won’t experience it. It’s fairly common--even among people with depression--to assume that people with depression are just not handling normal emotions very well. This assumption can be frustrating for people with depression and their families who don’t quite understand the condition.

Depression is one of the most common mental health issues in the world and it is a major risk factor for developing a substance use disorder. Getting addiction under control requires integrated treatment for depression. Unfortunately, common misconceptions about depression, especially about who can get it and what the symptoms are like can prevent people from recognizing they’re depressed and prevent them from seeking help. Depression can be treated effectively in most people and even when it can’t be eliminated completely, the symptoms can be reduced.

At Foundry, we know that mental health is the key to a strong recovery and a happier life. We use a variety of methods including cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT, family therapy, Alpha-Stim, as well as healthy lifestyle changes including diet, exercise, yoga, and meditation as part of a comprehensive approach to mental health and wellness. For more information, call us today at (844) 955-1066.



Sep

5 Mental Health Issues That Are Frequently Misdiagnosed

Most people with substance use disorders have one or more co-occurring mental health issues. Typically, the mental health issue comes first and drives addictive behavior, but drugs and alcohol also make mental health issues worse. Accurately diagnosing and effectively treating any co-occurring mental health issues is one of the most important parts of a strong recovery from addiction. Unfortunately, neither diagnosis nor treatment is as straightforward as one would hope. Mental health issues often come in clusters; symptoms overlap and present differently in different people. The following mental health issues are some that are both common in people with substance use disorders and are frequently misdiagnosed.

1.) Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder may be the most commonly misdiagnosed mental health issue. Furthermore, treating bipolar incorrectly may have the most adverse effects. A number of studies have looked at the misdiagnosis of bipolar. One study found that 69% of people with bipolar disorder were initially misdiagnosed and about a third of those remained misdiagnosed for at least 10 years.

Bipolar disorder is most frequently misdiagnosed as unipolar major depression--commonly known as depression. This is because the symptoms of a bipolar depressive episode--depressed mood, inability to feel pleasure, sleep disturbances, irritability, fatigue, sudden weight changes, poor concentration and memory, aches, slow movements, and thoughts of suicide or death--are indistinguishable from unipolar major depression. What’s more, when people seek help for bipolar symptoms, they typically seek help for depressive symptoms and they may neglect to mention manic symptoms, especially if they’re relatively mild. Depression is also more than twice as common as bipolar disorder, so it’s often a reasonable diagnosis.

As a result, people with bipolar are often prescribed antidepressants such as SSRIs, which help with depressive symptoms but may trigger manic symptoms. If you experience manic episodes, such as high energy, little need for sleep, delusions of grandeur or paranoia, hyper-productivity, or starting lots of new projects that you never finish, it’s important to mention those to your doctor or therapist when seeking help for depression.

2.) Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder, or BPD, massively increases your risk for developing a substance use disorder at some point in your life. Although it affects only about 2.7% of adults, about 78% of people with BPD will develop a substance use disorder. BPD is typically characterized by emotional volatility, sudden changes in self-identity, relationship problems, mood swings, suicidal thoughts or behavior, feelings of emptiness, and impulsiveness.

Because these symptoms seem to be a mix of both depressive and manic symptoms, BPD can easily be mistaken for bipolar disorder. Although bipolar is also characterized by unstable moods, the changes tend to happen over longer periods, typically weeks or months. Bipolar is currently treated with some combination of therapy, antidepressants, and mood stabilizers, whereas BPD is treated with an intensive form of therapy called dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT.

3.) PTSD

PTSD requires four kinds of symptoms for clinical diagnosis: re-experiencing symptoms such as nightmares or flashbacks, avoidance symptoms such as avoiding driving after an accident, changes in behavior such as becoming short-tempered or easily startled, and changes in cognition, such as becoming pessimistic or emotionally numb. There can be quite a bit of variation in the way these symptoms manifest and some kinds of symptoms may be far more prominent than others. It would be quite easy, for example, to mistake the behavioral and cognitive changes for symptoms of major depression.

While treating PTSD the way you would treat depression might help--some of the methods, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, and antidepressant medications often help with both--PTSD is a more complicated issue and typically requires reprocessing the trauma for recovery. Considering that as many as 50% of people seeking help for a substance use disorder have symptoms of PTSD, it’s crucial to get this diagnosis and treatment correct. As with bipolar disorder, it’s important to tell your doctor or therapist about any trauma you may have experienced as well as avoidance or re-experiencing symptoms related to that trauma.

4.) ADHD

ADHD is a strange case because experts seem to agree that it is over-diagnosed in children but under-diagnosed in adults. If you happen to slip through the net of ADHD diagnosis as a child, it could be causing you problems as an adult. Typically, as we age, the symptoms of ADHD become less apparent. People learn to control their fidgeting and impulsive behavior to some degree so it’s not obvious they have ADHD but the cognitive symptoms, such as racing thoughts persist. Somewhere between 10 and 24% of people seeking help for a substance use disorder have ADHD, compared to less than 5% of American adults overall.

ADHD isn’t usually mistaken for something else--it’s typically not recognized at all--but occasionally, the symptoms are mistaken for manic symptoms of bipolar disorder. This misdiagnosis might be confirmed if the person happened to have a depressive episode in the past, which is not terribly uncommon. The good news is that controlling ADHD with appropriate medication makes it much easier to stay sober.

5.) Depression

Like ADHD, depression typically isn’t misidentified as something else but rather isn’t recognized at all. While most of us are familiar with some of the symptoms of depression like depressed mood, lack of motivation, fatigue, excessive sleep, and thoughts of suicide, other common symptoms such as irritability, aggressiveness, reckless behavior, substance use, physical pain, and poor concentration are less often recognized. If these are your primary symptoms, you probably wouldn’t think to seek help for depression or any mental health issue and your loved ones might not recognize it either. This is especially true of men, who are both less likely to recognize depressive symptoms and less likely to seek help than women.

It’s crucial to recognize that addiction isn’t only about substances. Most of the time, people with substance use issues have at least one mental health issue to go with it. Drugs and alcohol are often coping mechanisms. If you want to have a lasting recovery from addiction, then it’s vital to identify and treat the underlying causes, especially when those causes include a serious mental health issue. While we expect mental health professionals to diagnose and treat us correctly, it’s important to understand how murky the realm of mental health can be. Your doctor or therapist only knows what you’re willing to share with them. It’s important to be open about all of your symptoms so they can better help you.

At Foundry, we know that addiction is complex, which is why we approach treatment from many angles, including DBT, 12-Step facilitation, family therapy, lifestyle changes, and more. We know that mental and physical health form the foundation of a strong recovery from addiction. To learn more, call us at (844) 955-1066.

‍



Sep

How Do You Know if You Need Residential Treatment for Addiction?

There are many options on the spectrum of care for addiction treatment. For example, on one end, you could attend local 12-Step meetings. They are free, open to everyone, and provide structure and support to people trying to stay sober. However, that level of care isn’t always adequate. Many people, for example, are unable to detox safely or they may have co-occurring mental health issues. Those people might need a higher level of care, perhaps working with a therapist who specializes in addiction. A higher level of care might be entering an intensive outpatient program (IOP).

The highest level of care is a residential treatment program, which may last anywhere from 30 days to six months or more. Since a residential treatment program is a fairly substantial investment of time and money, it’s a big decision whether to go for it. The following considerations can help you decide if a residential treatment program is right for you or your loved one.

You Anticipate a Difficult Detox

Residential treatment programs typically include medical detox. You don’t necessarily have to do medical detox and treatment in the same place, but it does streamline the process. There is more continuity and less opportunity to back out. Also, if you need medical detox, you are probably using drugs and alcohol at a level that could be considered a serious addiction.

While it’s not always possible to predict how detox will go, there are some factors that indicate medical detox is the wiser strategy. The biggest indicator is if you’ve had trouble detoxing before. Perhaps you experienced severe symptoms, such as DTs, or perhaps you only managed to make it a few days before giving up and returning to substance use. Detoxing in a facility helps keep you safe, increases the likelihood that you will complete detox, and helps ensure you will proceed directly to treatment after detox.

You Have a History of Relapse

Another solid indication that it’s time for a residential treatment program is if you have a history of relapse. Perhaps you have tried other options, such as 12-Step meetings, therapy, or IOP and nothing seems to stick. There are many reasons people relapse and it’s not certain that a residential treatment program is the only solution, but it also doesn’t make sense to keep trying the same thing if it hasn’t been working.

A residential treatment program offers far more protection, structure, and support than even an IOP. You live in a place where drugs and alcohol are kept out, you are largely insulated from the everyday stresses of life, and you have a structured daily routine that helps you focus on recovery and wellness. This kind of program can help you break the unhealthy habits that keep you sliding back into substance use and replace them with healthier habits that not only make it easier to stay sober but make you happier and healthier overall.

You Have Co-Occurring Conditions

Co-occurring conditions are extremely common among people with substance use disorders. For example, mental health issues like depression, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, PTSD, ADHD, and schizophrenia significantly increase your risk of addiction. For some conditions, like mild or moderate depression or some anxiety disorders, therapy or outpatient treatment might be enough to get the co-occurring condition under control. However, some conditions are much harder to treat and some of those contribute most to addiction risk. For example, about 56% of people with bipolar disorder develop a substance use disorder at some point in their lives and as many as 75% of people with a borderline personality disorder will develop a substance use disorder at some point in their lives.

These conditions often require more intensive forms of treatment than a weekly visit with the therapist. Borderline personality disorder, suicidal depression, eating disorders, and other serious mental health issues are often treated with dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), an intensive form of treatment that is more easily done in a residential setting. Other conditions may require medication and observation early on and a residential setting is better for that too.

Also, people recovering from substance use disorders sometimes have medical issues that complicate treatment. Long-term drug and alcohol use can cause high blood pressure, heart disease, risk of stroke, liver disease, malnutrition, and other issues. Detox can put a lot of stress on the body, so it’s often a good idea to have easy access to medical treatment. Inpatient treatment can also go a long way to correcting any problems caused by lifestyle issues, such as malnutrition or sleep deprivation.

Your Environment Contributes to Your Substance Use

As noted above, there may be many factors contributing to your pattern of relapse. Dysfunctional family dynamics, job stress, peer pressure, exposure to triggers, and so on can make it very hard to make a good start in recovery. A residential treatment program is a chance to make a clean break. You are shielded from those negative influences while you learn new recovery skills and establish positive lifestyle habits. Insofar as you need friends and family to support your recovery, they can participate in the treatment process too. Getting the family involved is ideal because everyone can learn to communicate better, maintain healthy boundaries, and better understand how to support your recovery.

There Are Few Treatment Options in Your Area

Generally speaking, you want to have the appropriate level of care to suit your needs, but sometimes you just have to make the best choice available. For example, some people need residential treatment but for economic or family reasons, they have to go with outpatient treatment instead. Similarly, many areas of the country--and many of the areas that have the most need of treatment--have few if any treatment options. There are more and more options becoming available but if you live in an area where there are few options and you need a fairly high level of treatment, your best strategy might just be to find a residential program rather than trying to manage a long commute or setting for too low a level of care.

Entering a residential treatment program for addiction is a big decision. It probably won’t be the first thing you consider when you first notice you’re drinking a bit too much or relying too heavily on pills. More likely, you will have tried some other routes to recovery and had a hard time sticking with it for whatever reason. Maybe you’ve never even made it past withdrawal. Maybe there’s something in your environment that’s making it harder for you, such as a loved one who can’t seem to say no. Maybe you have a serious co-occurring condition that requires intensive, integrated treatment. Whatever the reason, residential treatment is the most intensive option.

At Foundry, we know that entering residential treatment is not a decision anyone takes lightly and we’ll use every means at our disposal to help you start your recovery right and make a smooth transition home after treatment. We treat difficult conditions using proven therapeutic methods, including DBT, and we emphasize overall wellness to support long-term recovery as well as physical and mental health. To learn more about our holistic addiction treatment program, contact us at (844) 955-1066.



Sep

9 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Therapy

Therapy is a central feature of any addiction treatment program. The majority of people with substance use disorders have co-occurring mental health issues such as anxiety disorders, major depression, personality disorders, PTSD, ADHD, schizophrenia, and others. Even those without a co-occurring disorder can benefit from discussing their thoughts around substance use and stress as well as learning new behavioral and coping strategies. Getting emotionally healthy is indispensable for a strong recovery. The following tips can help you make the most of your therapy sessions.

‍

1.) Find the Right Therapist

If you are entering an addiction treatment program, there are probably only a few therapists but they should all have experience treating co-occurring addiction and whatever your particular challenge is. If you are choosing your own therapist out in the world, you have to be a bit more selective. Find someone near you--ideally within half an hour travel time--to make it easier to attend appointments consistently. Find someone with experience treating the issues you struggle with. Most therapists have some experience with depression and anxiety but fewer specialize in addiction. When you have narrowed down the field to maybe three candidates, see if you can talk over the phone or have a sort of trial session with each of them to see who you connect with most easily.

2.) Understand That Therapy Is a Collaboration

When you’ve found a good therapist, keep in mind that therapy is a sort of collaboration. Your therapist is like a professional consultant. They need a lot of cooperation from you. It’s not the case that you can walk in, tell them what’s wrong, and expect them to fix you. In fact, it’s a bad sign if your therapist does too much of your work for you--telling you exactly what to do, dictating your goals for therapy, and so on.

3.) Have Some Idea of What You Want to Accomplish

When you go to therapy, it’s a good idea to start out with some idea of what you want to accomplish. What’s bothering you that you decided to seek help? For most people, substance use is only a symptom of other problems but reducing or eliminating your substance use is a good objective to start with. You can work with your therapist to come up with other, more measurable objectives. You want to have some idea of whether you’re making progress in therapy and progress will look different for everyone.

4.) Don’t Censor Yourself

In normal conversation, we hold things back. Sometimes we don’t want to be too honest about our feelings or reveal too much about our past. Sometimes we just don’t want to say something that’s not relevant to the conversation. However, in therapy, it’s typically better just to say whatever is on your mind, even if you think it might be embarrassing or irrelevant. Honesty is essential, and it’s hard for your therapist to figure out what’s going on with you if you’re always being polite and curating your own thoughts and emotions. Furthermore, those odd, seemingly irrelevant thoughts that pop into your head may be more relevant than you think. Don’t worry about your therapist judging you; they’ve heard things you probably couldn’t imagine. And unless you make a credible threat against yourself or others, they are legally prohibited from sharing anything you say in a session.

5.) Ask Questions

Related to the point above, it’s good to ask questions. Indulge your curiosity. Ask questions about therapy, ask questions about psychology, ask questions about your therapist's experience with certain problems, ask questions about whether other people have the same problems as you, and so on. If there’s something your therapist isn’t allowed to reveal--such as information about other clients--they will make that determination. There’s no harm in asking if you’re curious.

6.) Talk About Therapy‍

It’s also good to talk about the process of therapy in your sessions. There may be times when you feel like you’re not making progress, you’re not really connecting with your therapist, or perhaps your priorities have shifted. It’s good to talk about these issues as soon as possible. They are often easy to fix. It takes a while to create a good therapeutic relationship, both in terms of sharing information and building trust, so if you’re in a situation where therapy was going well for a while but now it’s not, it’s certainly worth a conversation before quitting therapy or changing therapists.

7.) Do Your Homework

Your therapist will often ask you to do something between sessions. It may be a practical assignment like asking you to do at least one thing that makes you slightly anxious. Or it could be a written assignment, such as keeping track of times you feel angry during the week and what caused it. It’s important to take these assignments seriously since they are the bridge between your sessions and your life. If your therapist doesn’t give you homework, it’s still a good idea to keep a therapy journal. Write down briefly what you talked about, how you feel about it, and any thoughts or questions you have for next time.

8.) Keep an Open Mind

We all assume we know ourselves better than anyone else. That’s true in some ways, but we all have biases, blind spots, and patterns we’re not aware of. Much of therapy is about becoming more aware of your own behavior. This task is much harder when you cling to preconceived ideas about who you are, how other people see you, and how a person should act. Be open to at least considering suggestions that initially seem off base. Never forget that your best thinking is what got you into this mess to begin with.

9.) Set Boundaries

Finally, it’s usually a good idea to set boundaries around therapy. Some people in your life may be a little too interested in what you discuss in your sessions. They may be afraid they’ll get blamed for some of your problems or they may just be eager to give their own advice. Neither is really helpful. Be careful who you discuss your therapy sessions with. What goes on there is for you alone.

Therapy is central to addiction recovery because so much of addictive behavior is driven by challenging emotions that arise because of mental health issues. Although 12-Step meetings like AA and NA have helped many people, they aren’t designed to treat mental health issues, and so their benefit will be limited for many people. When participating in therapy, the most important thing to remember is that engagement is key. Your therapist may be best thought of as a sort of guide. They can help you get where you want to go, but you have to tell them where you want to go and you have to do the walking.

At Foundry, we know that mental and physical health form the solid foundation of recovery from addiction. We use cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, dialectical behavioral therapy, or DBT, family therapy, group therapy, and other methods to treat co-occurring mental health issues. We also emphasize healthy lifestyle changes as a way to support mental health and addiction recovery. To learn more about our comprehensive approach to treatment, call us today at (844) 955-1066.



Contact Foundry

Call today to get started on your journey or if you have any questions.



(844) 955 1066