Author: Cindy Hardy

Expert Advice

Personal Motivations in Recovery

External and Internal Motivations for Treatment Many people enter treatment for co-occurring disorders with motivations from external pressure. A person might experience pressure to start treatment from the legal system, significant others, family, friends, employers, housing authorities, child protective services, and doctors. In other words, there is usually the handprint on someone’s back pushing a … Continued

Expert Advice

Changing Behaviors

Change Is Inevitable, but Positive Behavior Change Takes Work Change is rarely something a person does willingly. It’s human nature that doing things in a certain way becomes comfortable. A person tends to choose familiar over the unfamiliar and the known over the unknown. Even when a person is doing things that aren’t healthy, those … Continued

Addiction

The Increasing Frequency of Addiction and Co-Occurring Disorders

How Common Are Co-Occurring Disorders? Individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders are presenting in increasing numbers in a variety of treatment settings. Why is that? The increase can be traced by several reasons; first, there is an increase awareness of co-occurring disorders in addiction treatment. To some extent new information and a … Continued

Expert Advice

The Brain and Body Connection

What Is the Brain and Body Connection? The brain and body connection is like in marriage, “in sickness and in health.” The brain doesn’t get sick without involving the body, and the body doesn’t become ill without affecting the brain. A person can’t effectively work a recovery program on just one, the brain or the … Continued