We’ll share our next two lists in a moment. First, however, we’ll offer the same advice we offered at the beginning of Part One: the most important part of staying sober all summer having a recovery plan and sticking to it. If you’ve had professional treatment and support, you probably created your recovery plan with your therapist and counselors before discharge. If you haven’t had professional treatment and support, we encourage you to either 1. Seek treatment, or 2. Find a sponsor at a 12-step meeting or similar recovery group to help you create a personalized plan for the summer – and beyond – that increases your likelihood of sustainable, lifelong recovery.

You can also navigate to the blog section of our website and read our previous posts on staying sober in the summertime:

Our Summer Sobriety Tips: A Reading List

Summer Recovery Tips: 8 Ways to Stay Sober During 4th of July

Summer Recovery Tips: The Potluck Picnic (Recipes Included)

Having a plan, having a sponsor, and having a robust support system are core components of a successful recovery. In addition, evidence shows that the earlier a person with an alcohol or substance use disorder (AUD/SUD) receives professional treatment, the better the outcome. Therefore, if you think you need help, we encourage you to contact an experienced mental health provider for a full mental health/addiction assessment.

Remember the Basics

We can’t write an article about staying healthy, happy, and sober in the summer months without saying this:

Stay hydrated!

We know, we know. Everyone says it – but they say it for a reason. You don’t have to carry a fancy water bottle around everywhere you go. Just make sure you drink water throughout the day, because it helps al the cells in your body function smoothly and efficiently. And in the summer, your body loses water while regulating heat – i.e. sweating – so it’s important to drink more water when you do any kind of outdoor activity while it’s hot outside.

With that said, we’ll move to the topic at hand, which is how to fill your summer with activities that are recovery friendly. We’ll share two lists in this article: places to swim and places to escape (in a good way).

Sober Summer: Places to Swim

Public Pools

Most of us lived for the pool when we were kids. But we didn’t think about everything that went into getting to the pool. Was it a public pool? A friend’s pool? Were you a country club kid? Or maybe a swim team kid who went to the YMCA for lessons and then joined a swim club. Whatever you did as a kid, now that you’re an adult, you have to figure it all out for yourself, and the first thing you realize: it’s not free!

That’s why public pools are a blessing. They’re usually inexpensive, if not free, and their goal is your goal: make it possible for everyone to have a good time swimming during the summer. In case you’re skeptical about whether there’s actually a public pool near you, we went ahead and did some research for you. We chose a city/town at random from each of the nine states where we own and operate treatment centers, and found links for the public pools in that city/town. If your town isn’t on the list, then do what we did: google “public pools [enter location]” and you’ll find a pool. Here’s our list of links:

• Bakersfield, California: Bakersfield, CA Public Pools
• Canton, Georgia: Cherokee County Aquatic Center
• Martinsville, Indiana: Martinsville City Pool
• Elizabethtown, Kentucky: American Legion Water Park
• Boone, North Carolina: Watauga County Pools
• Pennsauken, New Jersey: Pennsauken Municipal Pool
• Cincinnati, Ohio: Cincinnati Recreation Commission (25)
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Citiparks Outdoor Swimming Pools (15)
• Fredericksburg, Virginia: Doris E. Buffet Pool

From small towns like Boone, NC, to larger metro areas like Cincinnati, OH, public pools are there for you. Check the list, or search in your town: you can recreate those awesome summer pool days you may remember from childhood, or make your own memories, starting this summer.

Condo/Apartment/Neighborhood Pools

We don’t have a list of apartment pools near you – all apologies. However – unless you live in an apartment, condo complex, or neighborhood with a free pool, then this suggestion combines two things that can help you stay on track this summer: staying connected to others, and of course, going swimming. Finding a friend with a pool is easy: all you do is ask. Ask coworkers, ask old friends, ask people at 12-step meetings. Better yet, hang around by the coffee after a 12-step meeting and find a small group and organize a sober/recovery friendly pool party. You never know: you might start an annual summer tradition. Sober 4^th of July part, anyone?

Rivers/Lakes

Sometimes a pool won’t cut it. You need to get out in nature and immerse yourself in water that’s not chlorinated, get mud between your toes, and look up and see trees and the sky, rather than a canvas awning. The best way to do this is to find what country folk call a swimming hole. Those might be in rivers, lakes, or even creeks. Local knowledge is best, so you need to ask friends, or think way back and remember any non-pool places you went to swim when you were a kid.

Or you can use this list we compiled to help you find a good ‘ol swimmin’ hole in your state:

• California: Find a California State Park (By Activity and Type)
• Georgia: Swimming in Georgia State Parks
• Indiana: Accessible Beaches/Indiana Department of Natural Resources
• Kentucky: State Parks With Beaches in Kentucky
• North Carolina: Swimming at State and National Parks in North Carolina
• New Jersey: State Parks With Swimming/New Jersey Park Service
• Ohio: Family Friendly Swimming in Ohio
• Pennsylvania: Swimming in Pennsylvania State Parks
• Viriginia: Swimming at Virginia State Parks

Every state where we operate treatment centers has parks where swimming is easily accessible. Check these links and plan a fun swim day, a quick getaway, or – if you have time and can make it happen – and actual vacation.

The Beach!

Who doesn’t love the beach? Well, we suppose some people don’t: that’s okay – there’s plenty for you to do if you don’t like the beach. But we’re beach advocates and think the beach can be a great place to relax and recharge during recovery. If you live near the ocean, you know going to the beach doesn’t have to be a big production: you can just take a day and go for it. If you’re in the middle of the country, though, we have good news: plenty of state parks and rivers have recreational beach areas. Use the list of links above to find a state park on a lake or a river – and make plans to go.

One last thing about swimming, especially in rivers, lakes, and oceans: jumping into ice cold water during the summer feels amazing, and might just be the most refreshing thing, ever.

How to Escape Without Running Away

This list gave us pause, because the idea of escaping or running away/getting away from it all is dangerously close to the reason many people develop an alcohol or substance use disorder: they want to escape. Escaping with alcohol or drugs will backfire over time: we all know that. Nevertheless, we all need to escape sometimes. We all need to get away from it all sometimes. And that’s okay. But if you’re in recovery, escaping and getting away from it all can’t mean you forget or ignore the basic reality of your situation, which is that recovery comes first.

When we’re in recovery, we escape to recharge, rather than deny reality. With that in mind, here’s our next list to help you fill your time with recovery-friendly activities for a sober summer.

Places to Escape (Without Running Away)

Bookstores

Bookstores still exist. They exist in all shapes and sizes. They’re in every big city in the country. You can find them in small towns, too. The gist of what we’re saying here is that although Amazon sells more books than anyone on earth, you can still find a brick-and-mortar bookstore filled with real books on real shelves. Whether it’s a small independent mom and pop or a big chain like Books A Million or Barnes and Noble, bookstores are still out there. If you’ve never escaped in a bookstore before, here’s how:

1. Find store
2. Get a stack of books
3. Find a quiet corner – a chair or a spot on the floor – and lose yourself in those books.

Don’t worry. Anyone who works in a bookstore has done this a thousand times, themselves. They won’t hassle you because this is perfectly acceptable bookstore behavior. Honestly, they’ll be jealous they have to work while you get to read.

Movies

No explanation needed: going to a movie is a great way to escape from reality for a short period of time. Nothing beats sitting back in one of those big comfy movie theater seats, waiting for the lights to go down, and losing yourself in a comedy, romance, or action movie.

Live Theater

When was the last time you went to see a play? If it’s been a while, we encourage you to reconsider. While some theater tickets are pricey, most theaters have discount days or special deals for afternoon performances. There’s something magic about the theater that you don’t get with movies or television. You see real live humans right there in front of you, performing lines from memory with no second takes, no computer effects, and no stunt doubles. A movie or TV show is what it is: it’s fixed forever, frozen in the final edited form. But theater? When a performer steps on the stage, anything can happen. Sure, there’s a script and they’ve rehearsed the scenes, but the potential is there: when the house lights go down and the stage lights come up on a real human, it’s true: anything can happen. That’s where the magic is.

Music

Wherever you want to go, music can take you there. Concerts are great, and if you can afford Taylor Swift or Foo Fighters tickets, go for it. But we suggest finding smaller, less expensive options in your area. Look in your local papers for jazz clubs, outdoor festivals, or small, family friendly venues. Open mic nights and folk nights can be great fun. We advise against the club scene because, well, most aren’t what you’d call recovery friendly. However, we advise for finding any way to experience music as you can. Live music can be transcendental, but so can putting on your headphones, sitting back in your comfortable chair, closing your eyes, and zoning out to your favorite track. That’s a great way to recharge.

Or consider this: remember back when you were a kid and you’d invite friends over just to sit around and listen to records? You can still do that – but now you can make it recovery friendly. We bet there’s a low-key movement for old-school vinyl record enthusiasts in recovery – and if there’s not, it’s time for you to start one.

Staying Sober All Summer

This might be your first summer in recovery. If it is, we encourage you to make a solid plan and follow it. Get help from your treatment team, your sponsor, or recovery peers. Summers can be tough. You may not have realized that in the past, all your free time during the long summer days revolved around alcohol and substance use, and now you need to find a way to fill that free time. You can do it. Use the suggestions in these two Stay Sober All Summer articles, or read the articles and come up a list of recovery friendly summer activities that work for you.

One last thing, in case we forgot: stay hydrated!

The post Stay Sober During Summer Part Two: Places to Swim and Places to Escape (In a Healthy Way) appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

We see you and value you.

We celebrate you.

We’re PROUD right alongside you.

The Pride Month tradition began 54 years ago, with Gay Pride Parades in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta. Those marches and parades honored the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Riots. In the year 1999, President Bill Clinton made Gay and Lesbian Pride Month official. And in 2009, President Barack Obama made it more inclusive, recognizing every June as Lesbian, Gay, and Transgender Pride Month.

To read a quick history of Pride Month, please navigate to the blog section of our website and read our article from Pride Month 2023:

June is PRIDE Month at Pinnacle: The LGBTQIA+ Community and Addiction

We’re proud alongside our LGBTQIA+ recovery peers because we know recovery is hard. Add to that the stigma LGBTQIA+ people face every day, and we understand the strength and courage it takes to navigate the world living your true self and embracing your true identity.

That’s why we’re proud, and committed to welcoming members of the LGBTQIA+ community into our treatment family: we’ll meet you where you are and offer the best available addiction treatment in whatever way you’ll accept it.

Our motto is any door is the right door, and we’re ready to open that door wide for LGBTQIA+ people who need evidence-based support for alcohol and substance use disorder (AUD/SUD).

Recognizing Challenges: Alcohol, Substance Use, Mental Health Issues and the LGBTQIA+ Community

The stigma we mention above is real. Evidence shows that 40 percent of LGBTQIA+ adults experience disapproval from family and friends, while 86 percent of LGBTQIA+ youth report experiencing bullying at school.

The discrimination, stigma, and bullying create significant barriers to overall wellbeing for LGBTQIA+ people. And it starts early in life. Here’s how the experts at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) describe the impact of stigma on LGBTQIA+ youth and teens:

“LGBT youth use alcohol and drugs for many of the same reasons as their heterosexual peers…However, LGBT youth may be more vulnerable as a result of the need to hide their sexual identity and the ensuing social isolation. As a result, they may use alcohol and drugs to deal with stigma and shame, to deny same-sex feelings, or to help them cope with ridicule or antigay violence.”

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the latest facts and figures on alcohol use, addiction, mental health, and suicidality among LGBQIA+ adults, as reported in the SAMHSA publication “Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Behavioral Health: Results from the 2021 and 2022 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health: Results from the 2021 and 2022 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health.”

LGBTIA+ NSDUH: Alcohol and Opioid Use, Alcohol and Opioid Use Disorder (AUD/OUD)

Alcohol and Substance Use

LGBTQIA+ adults 18+:

• 60% reported past-month alcohol use
  • 52.7% non-LGBTQIA+
• 29.5% reported binge drinking
  • 24.3% non-LGBTQIA+
• 9.1% reported heavy alcohol use
  • 6.3% non-LGBTQIA+
• 47.6% reported using any illicit drug
  • 23.6% non-LGBTQIA+
• 7.1% reported opioid misuse
  • 3.1% non-LGBTQIA+
• 8.4% reported stimulant misuse
  • 3.6% non-LGBTQIA+
• 7.4% reported using hallucinogens
  • 2.8% non-LGBTQIA+
• 4.3% reported misuse of sedatives/tranquilizers
  • 1.7% non-LGBTQIA+

Opioid Use Disorder (OUD), Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD), Substance Use Disorder (SUD)

LGBTQIA+ adults aged 18+:

• 4.3% had opioid use disorder
  • 2% non-LGBTQIA+
• 16.7% had alcohol use disorder
  • 11.3% non-LGBTQIA+
• 30.1% had any substance use disorder
  • 17.2% non-LGBTQIA+

Now let’s look at the mental health data from this latest report.

LGBTIA+ NSDUH: Mental Illness, Major Depressive Episode, Co-Occurring Disorders, Suicidality, Adults 18+

Mental Illness

• Any Mental Illness:
  • 43.4% LGBTQIA+
  • 21.8% non-LGBTQIA+
• Serious Mental Illness:
  • 14% LGBTQIA+
  • 5.1% non-LGBTQIA+

Major Depressive Episode (MDE)

• 18.7% LGBTQIA+
• 7.7% non-LGBTQIA+

Co-Occurring AMI and SUD

• 18.6% LGBTQIA+
• 7.2% non-LGBTQIA

Suicidality

• Thoughts of suicide
  • 12.3% among LGBTQIA+
  • 4.3% non-LGBTQIA
• Made a suicide plan
  • 4% among LGBTQIA+
  • 1.1% non-LGBTQIA+
• Attempted suicide
  • 1.9% among LGBTQIA+
  • 0.5% non-LGBTQIA+

Here’s how the authors of the study characterize this data:

“Results from the 2021 and 2022 NSDUHs indicate that lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults are more likely than straight adults to use substances, experience mental health issues including major depressive episodes, and experience serious thoughts of suicide.”

That’s why we join the Pride Movement every year, and why we make it a point to say it loud. We understand our advocacy for the LGBQIA+ community and our commitment to welcoming members of the LGBQIA+ community into our treatment family makes a difference and has a positive impact.

But how can you be an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community?

Things You Can Do as an Ally: Support Your LGBTQIA+ Friends and Family Members

The most important thing you can do is educate yourself about the LGBTQIA+ experience, and understand the significant challenges LGBTQIA+ people face every day, simply because they’re living as their true selves, out in the open. Here’s an outstanding resource – a complete guide, really – for being an LGBTQIA+ ally, published by the non-profit LGBTQIA+ advocacy group, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation:

Report: Being an LGBTQIA+ Ally

In that report, they suggest five simple ways that individuals can, on their own, act as an influential LGBTQIA+ ally:

1. Read a publication by, for, or about LGBTQIA+ issues.
2. Show your support for the LGBTQIA+ community by posting about Pride Month on social media
3. Participate in LGBTQIA+ advocacy efforts, like Pride Month
4. Call or email your elected officials and advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights.
5. Stand up for LGBTQ+ issues in every aspect of your life — even if there are no LGBTQ+ people there to watch.

In addition, you can participate in any of the 30+ Pride Festivals happening this June. For a full list of Pride Month events nationwide, click here.

Find Support, Find Your People: LGBTQIA+ Helpful Resources and Links

The National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) provides this excellent list of LGBTQI friendly mental health resources for you:

• The Association of Gay and Lesbian Psychiatrists provides an updated a directory of LGBTQIA+ friendly therapists.
• The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) is a valuable resource for all things LGBTQIA+
• The GLBT National Help Center provides access to a youth chat line, a crisis hotline, and various other helpful resources.
• The Trevor Project provides specialized suicide and crisis intervention support for LGBTQI youth.
• The American Psychological Association (APA) offers resource for a wide range of topics relevant to the LGBTQIA+ community
• The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association’s Provider Directory offers a list of LGBTQIA+ friendly healthcare providers in the U.S.
• The National Center for Transgender Equality provides a list of trans-friendly healthcare providers in the U.S.
• SAGE National LGBT Elder Hotline maintains a hotline for older LGBTQIA+ people who need support with a variety of health, social, and other issues
• Society for Sexual, Affectional, Intersex, and Gender Expansive Identities (SAIGE) provides LGBTQIA+ friendly mental health resources
• Trans Lifeline connects trans people to various resources to help support them fully live their gender identity
• Depression Looks Like Me is a program designed to support members of the LGBTQIA+ community diagnosed with depression

Happy Pride Month!

The post Pride Month at Pinnacle: Recognizing and Celebrating the LGBTQIA+ Community appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

But we digress.

May is Mental Health Month (MHM) in the U.S., and during the process of preparing an article to join in the annual MHM advocacy movement, we found an instructive set of statistics in the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2022 NSDUH). Researchers asked survey respondents two questions that interest us:

If you needed treatment for a substance use disorder, why didn’t you get treatment?

If you needed treatment for a mental health disorder, why didn’t you get treatment?

We’ll share the answer in just a moment. First, we encourage you to navigate to the blog section of our website and read out article on Mental Health Month 2024:

What is Mental Health Month 2024? Learn, Act, Advocate

Now let’s look at the answers to those two survey questions.

Reasons for Not Receiving Mental Health or Addiction Treatment

The NSDUH is an important resource for two reasons: its size and its frequency. Researchers distribute surveys to over 70,000 participants across the country. Data from a sample set this large allows us to make population level generalizations. For example, if 50 percent of the sample set says “yes” to a specific question, statistical analysis tells us that – because of the large sample size – it’s almost certain 50 percent of all similar people will answer “yes” to the same question: that’s what we mean by population level generalization.

And that’s why we pay attention when the NSDUH includes questions on why people who need treatment don’t get treatment. We ask ourselves the same question every day. Now – with this reliable data – we can begin to understand.

Let’s see that the survey respondents said.

Substance Use Disorder: Reasons for Not Getting Treatment

• 78.2% of people said they thought they should be able to handle their alcohol or drug use without outside help.
• 61.3% of people said they weren’t ready for treatment.
• 52.9% said they didn’t want to go without alcohol or drugs.
• 52.2% said they didn’t know where or how to find treatment.
• 47.9% though treatment would be too expensive.
• 46.1% worried about what other people would think/say.
• 42.4% said they didn’t have time.
• 41.9% said their insurance wouldn’t cover treatment.

We’re amazed at the first bullet point, and need to editorialize immediately. Please remember:

Asking for help is a sign of strength, rather than a sign of weakness.

We understand the rest of the bullet points, too, and we spend a great deal of time working to remove barriers associated with access, cost, time, and awareness.

Now let’s look at reasons people who needed mental health treatment cited for not getting treatment.

Mental Health Disorders: Reasons for Not Getting Treatment

• 58.9% thought it would be too expensive.
• 51.6% said they weren’t ready.
• 51.2% said they didn’t know where or how to find treatment.
• 48.9% said they didn’t have time.
• 46.8% said they couldn’t find a program or provider they wanted to go to.

We see, hear, and understand – and work every day to remove these barriers to care. We encourage people who need treatment but defer for financial reasons to read these two pages published by Medicaid.gov:

• Medicaid: Substance Use Disorders
• Medicaid: Behavioral Health Disorders

For people who don’t know where or how to find treatment, these free resources can help:

• For alcohol/substance use disorder support: the SAMHSA treatment locator.
• For mental health support: The American Psychological Association (APA) treatment locator
• For opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment:
  • MAT with buprenorphine
  • MAT with methadone

In addition, you can contact us here at Pinnacle Treatment Centers: we’re always just an email or phone call away.

The post Mental Health Month: Why Don’t People Get Mental Health or Addiction Treatment When They Need It? appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

One thing you learn early in recovery is that it’s best to think of recovery as a verb. Meaning recovery is something you do, as opposed to something that happens to you. Recovery means taking proactive steps every day to stay on your program and stay healthy. Let’s look at a definition of recovery that emphasizes this idea:

“Recovery is an individualized, intentional, dynamic, and relational process involving sustained efforts to improve wellness.”

We like this definition because it includes what we think are core components of recovery: it’s a process that involves accountability, personal intention, engaging with others, and improving overall health. Just like health is more than the absence of diseases, recovery is more than the absence of intoxicants: it’s a way of living that prioritizes health, balance, and wellness.

An important part of the recovery process is learning – or relearning – how to have fun and spend quality time with others without the use of intoxicants: that’s where outdoor activities fit in the recovery process. They’re fun, they’re healthy, you can do them alone or with others, and, most importantly, they support the recovery lifestyle.

Our Top 5 Outdoor Activities for Recovery

1. Hiking/Walking

The best thing about hiking and walking is the cost. Taking a walk around your neighborhood is always free: just walk out your front door, and you’re engaging in a recovery friendly activity that’s also good for your physical and mental health. The CDC says we should all get at least 150 minutes of moderate activity each week to experience the health benefits of exercise. If you walk just 20 minutes every day, you’re basically there. Here’s how that level of exercise can help your overall health:

• Improves heart health
• Reduces cancer risk
• Improves brain health
• Improves muscle and bone strength
• Increases energy levels
• Promotes weight loss
• Increase immune function
• Improves sleep

Hiking is simply next-level walking. It may take a little planning and a little money in the gas tank to get to a place where you can take a real hike, but it’s well worth it. You get all the health benefits listed above, plus a memorable experience in nature. And when you hike with friends, you have plenty of time to talk, connect, or simply enjoy the comfortable silence of true companionship.

2. Camping

Don’t let that word scare you! Yes, on one level, camping is next-level hiking: you get out in the woods, take a long walk, then stop and sleep there. It’s an amazing experience. Going to sleep under the stars is something everyone should do at least once in their lives. And almost nothing beats waking up to a sunrise next to a secluded lake deep in a national park of forest. However, hardcore, carry-your-tent-and-food-on-your-back camping is not for everyone.

Thankfully, there are options.

Consider car camping, where you drive to a campsite in a nice, natural location, get set up, and have fun in the great outdoors. There’s also the phenomenon known as glamping, which is camping for people who aren’t interested in the common discomforts associated with camping, but would prefer to keep it glamorous. Backpacking style camping, car camping, or glamping: all three are recovery friendly, all three are well worth the time and effort, and all three are recovery friendly.

3. Picnics

We love picnics as a recovery friendly outdoor activity because they involve three things that promote a healthy, recovery lifestyle: quality time with friends, healthy food, and the outdoors. Okay – the healthy food part is on you, but really, what can beat hanging out on a sunny day, with people you like, eating good food? Not a lot, in our book. Another great thing about picnics is the virtual infinite variation. You can buy your meals pre-made from Whole Foods and have a luxury picnic in a fancy city park. Or you can make a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, spread a blanket out on the grass – anywhere, like your front/back yard, or a small park – and invite your friends to join you for a simple snack. In between those two choices is a range of options.

Think about it for a minute, and we’re sure you can come up with fun, easy, recovery friendly picnic ideas. We suggest inviting recovery peers from community support meetings: it’s great to spend time and learn about them outside of the context of a recovery meeting.

4. Bike Rides

Riding bikes is another activity that we put in the same category of walking, because if you have a bike, all you have to do is go out your front door, and voila! You’re engaging in a recovery friendly outdoor activity. And like the differences between walking, hiking and camping, and all the variations of picnics you can devise, riding a bike can also take many forms. You can tool around at low speed on a beach cruiser, and it feels like an easy after dinner walk. You can ride on a bike path, away from worries about traffic, and go for as long as you desire.

Or you can get into cycling, like the people dressed in spandex riding skinny-tire road bikes, streaming around in groups, all packed together like they’re in the Tour de France. That kind of riding is its own special thing, as is mountain biking. In any case, there are as many ways to enjoy riding a bike as there are people who ride bikes. Find out how you like to ride, and go for it: bike rides are an excellent, recovery friendly activity you can enjoy well into old age.

5. Gardening

This is a recovery friendly activity on so many levels it’s hard to know where to start. On a basic, physical level, gardening is a good way to get outside, get your body moving, and get exercise without calling it or thinking about it as exercise. For some people in recovery, the idea of exercise is anathema, but the idea of getting outside and working with plants in the dirt sounds perfect. That’s level one: it’s outdoors, it’s active, it’s relaxing, and it feels great – all things that promote recovery.

On a deeper level, however, the lessons and benefits of gardening are an outstanding metaphor for the entire recovery process. Gardening takes time – like recovery. Gardening takes commitment – like recovery. And gardening takes hard work – like recovery. Best of all, the goal of gardening – like recovery – is growth. Growth in recovery only happens with your consistent effort – like recovery. And the result of both gardening and recovery? Something beautiful: a new life.

Your Recovery, Your Time

The takeaway here is that you get to decide how you recover. With regards to outdoor activities, you’re the boss. Outdoor activity can be as simple as taking a walk around the block after dinner or as complex as organizing a backpacking trip in the backcountry. For most of us, it’s somewhere in between: we go for a bike ride, go for a hike on Saturday, or simply spend outside doing yardwork or hanging around at a park with friends. Wherever you are in your recovery journey, remember how good it feels to spend time outdoors, and remember the benefits of outdoor activities, because sometimes the simplest things – like a picnic with friends on a nice sunny day

The post Best Outdoor Activities for Recovery appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

Self-Care During Recovery: Sleep Hygiene

In that article, we talk about the fact that sleep can create challenges for people in recovery, especially early in recovery. Some people can’t sleep at all, others sleep too much, and for still others it’s hit or miss: they have good nights and they have tough nights.

One thing that works no matter what your sleep issues are is developing good sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene involves a variety of things, but they’re all designed with one goal in mind, which is to improve overall quality of life by improving your quality and consistency of sleep.

And if you’re having a tough time getting your sleep hygiene in order, then one thing sleep experts recommend is keeping a sleep diary, which some people call a sleep journal. Whatever you call it, writing down notes about your sleep hygiene can help you identify the things that may impact your sleep either positively or negatively.

When you can do that, you can improve your sleep. Which, in turn, improves overall health and wellbeing, which itself promotes and supports recovery.

Self-Care, Recovery, and Sleep: How to Keep a Sleep Diary

Some of us have a great memory and can remember details about almost everything, from what they did yesterday to what they did on a random Tuesday when they were in 10^th grade. On the other hand, some of us can’t remember what shirt we put on this morning without looking down and checking.

The truth is, though, that most of us are somewhere in between.

We know we had a sleepless night one night last week, but can’t remember which night is was, and we definitely can’t remember if we drank a cup of coffee that afternoon, which may have caused the sleepless night.

The purpose of a sleep diary is to take the guesswork out of the equation and keep a record of all the things that can impact your sleep – positive and negative – so you can connect the dots between your habitual behaviors and your sleep patterns. You can go out and buy a specific sleep journal – like this one – or you can download one of several available for free online, like this one from the National Sleep Foundation.

You can go that route, or you can use a simple notebook from the school supply section at the grocery store. The packaging isn’t important – it’s the content that counts. If you buy a sleep journal, it will have a daily template with a list of questions. If you make your own, use it to answer the questions below every morning when you wake up.

Self-Care Sleep Diary Questions

1. What time did you go to bed?
2. How long did it take to fall asleep?
3. Did you wake up during the night?
   1. If so, how many times?
4. How many hours total did you sleep?
5. What time did you get up?
6. How did you feel when you got up?
   1. Great
   2. Just okay
   3. A little tired
   4. Very tired
7. If you didn’t sleep well, do you know why?
8. Did you have a stressful day?
9. Did you take a nap late in the day?
10. Did you drink caffeine after 3:00 pm?
11. Did you drink alcohol close to bedtime?
12. Did you eat a big meal close to bedtime?
13. Did you do a hard workout close to bedtime?
14. Think about the hour before bedtime. Were you:
    1. Watching TV?
    2. Surfing the internet?
    3. Texting?
    4. Playing a game on a tablet?
    5. Reading on an e-reader Kindle-type device?

The goal is to track your progress over a month, but when you keep a diary, you’ll learn about your habits quickly. After a week to ten days, the habits that have either a positive or negative impact on your sleep will reveal themselves.

Knowledge to Action: Self-Care and Sleep

After you track your habits, the next step is to apply what you learn. You probably notice – and confirm – many of the things we talk about in our sleep hygiene blog. Screen time before bed can keep you awake, caffeine late in the afternoon can keep you awake, and exercising too close to bedtime can keep you awake.

However, those are only rules for you if they apply to you. If doing an intense spinning class at 8:00 pm followed by a big dinner at 9:30 pm puts you down like a baby – and you sleep through the night and wake up refreshed, there’s your answer. Make that part of your routine. But if going for a walk before bed and then having a snack energizes you and prevents you from falling asleep, there’s your answer. Don’t make that part of your routine.

Your sleep diary will help you determine what’s right for you. Use it like a scientist uses a lab book. Experiment, keep good records, check your results, revise, experiment more, learn what works – and do more of it. That way, you can create the perfect sleep routine for you: one that improves overall health and wellbeing, but most importantly, promotes long-term, sustainable recovery.

The post Self-Care During Recovery: How to Keep a Sleep Diary appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

Still others go back and forth. Some nights are fine, some nights they toss and turn, and some days all they want to do it sleep.

We have good news for people in recovery: there’s a way to manage your sleep – well, everything around your sleep, really – that increases your chances of getting a solid, healthy amount of sleep more nights than not. That’s what you want, because sleep is essential for optimal health, and optimal health both supports and protects a successful recovery.

The way sleep experts recommend getting a good night’s sleep is with sleep hygiene. We realize that phrase sounds a little silly but give it a chance. Hygiene means practices conducive to maintaining health and preventing disease, especially through cleanliness. Therefore, sleep hygiene means cleaning up your sleep habits to promote better health.

That makes sense.

But why is sleep so important?

The Purpose of Sleep

Perhaps the best way to understand why we need sleep is to have a look at what happens when we don’t sleep. Things go wrong in two categories: the psychological and the physiological. Here’s a simple breakdown of the problems we face when we go without sleep:

Psychological Effects of Sleep Deprivation

• Problems concentrating
• Problems making decisions
• Difficulty coping with/managing emotions
• Slowed or sluggish thoughts
• Problems speaking clearly/coherently
• Impulsivity

Physiological Effects of Sleep Deprivation

• Slowed physical reaction time
• Poor balance
• Poor coordination
• Decreased immunity
• Increased risk of hypertension, heart disease, and stroke
• Stomach problems
• Increased risk of kidney disease
• Increased risk of mental health disorders

Without sleep, we basically start to fall apart. It happens psychologically, emotionally, and physically. That’s not news: sleep deprivation is a torture device because it destroys our minds and bodies at the same time. In fact, a study from Harvard University showed getting less than five hours of sleep a night has an increased risk of premature, all-cause mortality by 15 percent.

If you’re in recovery, that’s a compelling way to look at it: not getting the sleep you need is like literally torturing yourself. And that’s the opposite of what you need during recovery, which is self-care.

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

“The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more.”

-William Mizener

Scientists have studied sleep for the better part of two centuries, but the most substantial progress has occurred in the last fifteen years, with the advent of modern brain scanning technology. We’ve learned that our brain is not idle while we sleep.

When we sleep, we dream – but that’s not all.

Our brain stays busy directing our bodies to rebuild, restore, and regulate all our essential physiological processes. The brain sends messages that control our digestive system, our cardiovascular system, our immune system, and itself: the central nervous system.

Scientists now know a good night’s sleep consists of cycles, with each cycle containing five stages of roughly 90-120 minutes. Healthy adults need at least five of these stages per night to keep functioning at maximum efficiency – that’s about 7.5 hours of sleep per night.

However, data from research performed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) show indicate that a significant percentage of people don’t get the sleep they need for ideal health:

• Children 0-12: 34.1%
• High School/Middle School Students, 12-17: 6%
• Adults 18+: 5%

Let’s put figures to those percentages. Around 1.6 million children, 2.0 million high teens, and 83.8 million adults don’t get the sleep they need every night. We can extend this information to people in recovery, too. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SMAHSA) indicate that 21 million adults in the U.S. are in recovery, which means roughly 6.8 million adults in recovery probably don’t get the 7.5-8 hours of sleep they need every night.

How to Improve Your Sleep for Recovery

Sleep experts identify two categories of activities/habits related to sleep:

1. Things you can do during the day to improve your sleep
2. Things you can do before bed to improve your sleep

Here’s a list from the first category: things you can do during the day to improve your sleep.

Keep a Consistent Schedule

Go to bed and get up at the same time every day, and don’t deviate much on the weekends. There are exceptions, sure. Some mornings you need to sleep in. However, establishing consistency trains your body, normalizes your circadian rhythms, and improves hormone balance and overall health. Therefore, do your best to go to bed and get up at the same time every day.

Regulate Napping

Avoid napping after 3:00 pm, because it will make it harder to sleep at night. Also, don’t nap too long. There’s a difference between a nap and an actual session of real sleep. Naps are, by definition, short. Keep them to 30 minutes or less, with an ideal length of about 20 minutes. Napping longer than 30 minutes can cause grogginess and reduced cognitive capacity that’s hard to overcome, whereas napping closer to 20 minutes generally leads to feeling physically refreshed and mentally alert.

Get Daily Exercise

This is simple. A good amount of exercise or activity during the day tires both body and mind, which makes it easier to fall asleep at night. For some, exercising close to bedtime delays sleep, but not for everyone. With regards to impact on sleep, experts recommend exercising in the morning or mid-afternoon.

Reduce/Eliminate Nicotine

Tobacco products that contain nicotine – vapes, cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, dip – have a negative impact on sleep. Nicotine is a stimulant that causes increased respiratory rate, blood pressure, and heart rate, which are the opposite of what you want in order to fall asleep. Short of ceasing nicotine consumption entirely, experts recommend avoiding nicotine for at least four hours before bedtime.

Let the Sun Shine In

Natural light and dark have a direct impact on our circadian rhythm, which is a way of describing the automatic clock in our brains that control our cycles of alertness and sleepiness. Aligning yourself with the natural cycles of the earth – waking close to sunrise and going to sleep not too long after sunset – can help keep your natural cycles of sleep and wakefulness functioning smoothly.

Now let’s look at a list from the second category: things you can do before bed to improve your sleep.

No Caffeine After 3:00 pm

Caffeine is a powerful stimulant with an energizing effect that can last up to six hours. Having caffeine in the morning will probably not affect your sleep, nor will a small amount in the early afternoon. However, coffee/caffeine in the late afternoon or after dinner may make it hard to fall asleep later in the evening.

No Alcohol Before Sleep

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant, which means it’s logical to think that it may help sleep, but the opposite is true. Alcohol can make you drowsy and help you fall asleep more easily, but it also interferes with and interrupts your natural sleep cycle. The more alcohol you drink, the worse the effect.

No Big Meals Late at Night

If it’s late and you haven’t had dinner, have a full dinner. But if you had dinner at a normal time and get hungry later on, don’t eat another full meal: it can make falling asleep hard, and interrupt your sleep cycles. If you need a midnight snack, keep it small and keep it healthy.

Create a Wind-Down Routine

It’s a great idea to do something relaxing before bed. Yoga, meditation, reading, listening to music – if it’s relaxing to you, then do it. The idea is to help transition from the hustle and bustle of the day to an easy, no stress bedtime. Some people like to take a short walk, which is fine, but avoid vigorous activity. Keep it easy, keep it relaxing, and remember: the idea is to help yourself relax and fall asleep.

Turn off the Screens

The blue light from computers, tablets, televisions, and smartphones can keep you awake. Therefore, it’s best to turn off all electronic devices an hour or half an hour before bed. That means you can turn them off right before you start your wind-down routine, which we suggest above.

The Sleep Room

The best conditions for sleeping are a room that’s quiet, as dark as possible, and cool: around 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and not over 70. Also, think of the bedroom and bed as a place for sleep only. Do your TV watching, smartphone scrolling, and work catch-up on your laptop anywhere but in bed or in your bedroom.

Don’t Lay There Getting Frustrated

If you don’t fall asleep in a typical amount of time, which is different for everyone, but should be somewhere between 15-30 minutes, then avoid tossing and turning and hoping for sleep to arrive. Get up, do something relaxing like reading, yoga, or meditation, then try again when you start to feel sleepy.

One Night at a Time

It might be too much to change all your recovery sleep habits all at once – and that’s okay. Start with things you know you can do, like avoiding caffeine later in the day, creating a good wind-down routine, and limiting screen time before bed. If you start with those, you’re well on your way. Another thing: experts stress the importance of getting outside in the sunshine for a minimum of fifteen minutes a day. If the sun isn’t shining, we promise it’s still there. You get the benefits of being outdoors, even on cloudy days.

With sleep hygiene, build your habits slowly, over time. And remember, this is about self-care, so be kind to yourself, and rest easy.

Sweet dreams!

The post Self-Care During Recovery: Sleep Hygiene appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

We know you’ve heard this before:

A regular exercise routine keeps you healthy, strong, emotionally and psychologically balanced, and can help you live a long, happy life.

Experts in child development recommend at least an hour of outdoor activity a day for children as they’re growing up. The same experts recommend roughly the same amount for adults. Your age or life circumstance don’t change the fact that for optimal health, you need some form of exercise or activity every day.

To learn exactly how much exercise health scientists advise to stay healthy please navigate to the blog section of our website and read this article:

Exercise and Addiction Recovery: How Much Exercise Do You Need?

The type of activity matters, too. We need a healthy combination of low-intensity, moderate-intensity, and high-intensity exercise. Those intensities are related to you, of course. High intensity for a 50-year-old might be moderate for a 30-year-old, or low for an energetic 18-year-old. You determine your intensity levels, which depend on your personal relationship with exercise, the last time you had and exercise routine, and your personal health history.

Your self-care routine during recovery should be something specific to you, but also meet the requirements – or get close – suggested by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and outlined in the article we link to above.

The benefits of a consistent exercise/activity routine include:

• Improves heart health
• Improves the strength, endurance, and efficiency of your muscles
• Releases chemicals in the brain that improve mood
• Increases bone strength
• Decreases stress
• Improves sleep
• Increases energy
• Helps prevent weight gain/promotes weight loss
• Helps improve/prevent diabetes and hypertension
• Keeps joints mobile and healthy
• Enhances immunity/immune response

What Works for You? Self-Care During Recovery

Finding the kind of exercise that’s best for you depends on one thing: you.

We encourage you to be creative. Design your routine in a way that makes sense to you. When you design your routine, remember to incorporate about one hour a day of a combination of low, moderate, and high intensity activities – but don’t let those rules prevent you from getting started. You don’t need a personal trainer to understand these activity levels – and you don’t have to exercise in any way you don’t like.

For example, if you love working in the yard, that can be your exercise. If you enjoy walks in the morning or after dinner, that can be your exercise. And if you love working on projects around/in the house, then that can be your exercise.

It’s not nearly as hard as you think, and it’s definitely not rocket science. To make sure we’re on the same page, we’ll review what we mean by low, moderate, and high intensity activity.

Low Intensity

This means you’re active and in motion, but you’re not working too hard. Your heart rate increases slightly, and talking is easy.

Moderate Intensity

This means performing an activity at a level of effort that you can keep up for about ten to twenty minutes. Your heart rate increases, and you can talk, but it’s not easy.

High Intensity

This means performing an activity at your maximum level of effort, but not for long. This is known as high intensity interval training, or HIIT: short periods of effort at maximum intensity, separated by short recovery periods.

Here are some examples of low, moderate, and high-intensity activities you can do at home:

Gardening

• Low: thirty minutes of light weeding
• Moderate: half an hour of mowing
• High: digging a new flower bed/planting shrubs/carrying heavy items from the garden store

Walking

• Low: a 20-minute walk after dinner
• Moderate: a quick, energetic walk first thing in the morning
• High: on any walk, go fast up hills, and easy on flat ground – it’s an easy way to do interval training

Home Projects

• Low: cleaning/dusting
• Moderate: rearranging/moving (not heavy) furniture
• High: carrying boxes up and down stairs – another novel approach to interval training

Own It: Make it Yours

There’s no need to hire a personal trainer or buy a Peloton bike. There’s also no need to do what people consider exercise, either.

What do you need?

1. Something you enjoy
2. Something that fits your lifestyle
3. Something you feel better after doing

When you find an activity or routine that checks those three boxes, you’re on your way to making a healthy exercise routine part of your life. Maybe daily, maybe not: what matters is exercising more days than not exercising. A regular exercise/activity routine can help you manage stress and keep your body healthy as you age. And most importantly, it’s exactly the type of self-care that promotes long-term, sustainable recovery.

The post Self-Care During Recovery: Find the Right Kind of Exercise for You appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

And here’s our definition of harm reduction: “Harm reduction is a tactic that prioritizes minimizing adverse consequences from drug abuse as a first step before promoting abstinence. It includes measures like education and spreading awareness, supervised consumption sites, naloxone distribution, and needle exchange programs, aiming to reduce overdose deaths, transmission of infections, and associated health issues while encouraging a non-judgmental approach to support individuals on their path to recovery.”

You can see how the SDOH and harm reduction are related. Both approach substance use disorder (SUD) treatment – a.k.a. addiction treatment – from a holistic perspective. Both consider the importance of external factors that impact both the development of and treatment for SUD.

To explore the topic of harm reduction in depth, please navigate to the blog section of our website and read these two articles:

The Opioid Crisis: What is Harm Reduction?

National Harm Reduction Research Effort Could Reduce Overdose Deaths

Harm reduction practices can help us mitigate the damage caused to individuals, families, and communities by the ongoing opioid and overdose crisis in the U.S. Addressing the social determinants of health while pursuing harm reduction efforts is essential: the two ideas go hand in hand, and in tandem, can help expand our concept of holistic, integrated care further, into areas that have proven benefit for people in recovery, but are not yet part of mainstream SUD treatment.

Why the Social Determinants of Health Matter

This statement from the World Health Organization (WHO) summarizes the impact of the SDOH:

“Research shows that the social determinants can be more important than health care or lifestyle choices in influencing health. For example, numerous studies suggest that SDOH account for between 30-55% of health outcomes. In addition, estimates show that the contribution of sectors outside health to population health outcomes exceeds the contribution from the health sector.”

This statement also reaffirms the connection between harm reduction and SDOH. With regards to SUD treatment and recovery, it reminds us – or teaches some of us for the first time – factors aside from the substances themselves, abstinence, and the treatment process play a more significant role than most of us realize.

The Department of HHS indicate five primary domains related to the SDOH:

1. Economic Stability
2. Education Access and Quality
3. Health Care Access and Quality
4. Neighborhood and Built Environment
5. Social and Community Context

The SDOH can have either a positive or negative impact on overall health and wellness. Consider the following:

• Positive Impact on Health and Wellness:
  • Safe neighborhoods
  • Access to affordable housing and transportation
  • Access to education and employment opportunities
  • Opportunity to engage in safe, healthy outdoor activities
  • Access to social support programs
• Negative Impact on Health and Wellness:
  • Violence in community
  • Racism/discrimination in community
  • Air and water pollution
  • Reduced access to healthy food
  • Reduced access to health care

Here’s another connection between harm reduction and the SDOH: when we address them, we reduce the amount of harm external, environmental factors might cause people in recovery from SUD. Now let’s look at how we can address and improve the SDOH, with information from an excellent publication from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) called “Beyond Health Care: The Role of Social Determinants in Promoting Health and Health Equity.”

Reducing Harm by Addressing the Social Determinants of Health

KFF defines the SDOH as “the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age,” which is an excellent and concise way to think about them. In contrast to the HHS approach to the SDOH, the KFF report expands them to six domains, as opposed to the five identified by HHS. We’ll use the KFF categories to talk about how we, as a collective working toward a common goal – reducing the harm caused by the opioid and overdose crisis – can help improve the lives of people in treatment for substance use disorder (SUD).

Economic Stability

Improving economic stability means increasing opportunities to seek and gain employment. Having a job allows an individual to make a steady income to cover living expenses, medical bills, education, and recreation.

Neighborhood and Physical Environment

Improving neighborhoods and the physical environment means increasing access to safe housing, expanding public transportation, ensuring physical safety at all times, and expanding the amount of greenspace/recreational space present in each neighborhood, whether urban, suburban, exurban, or rural.

Education

Improving education means starting early with pre-K and kindergarten programs for young kids, ensuring safe elementary, middle, and high schools for school age students, and expanding funding and access to literacy programs, language learning, higher education, and vocational training for adults.

Food

Addressing issues around food and eating means reducing the amount of hunger and hungry people in our communities through expanding existing social support programs that provide resources for adults in the community and children at school, and reducing the phenomenon of food deserts by increasing access to healthy options in traditionally underserved neighborhoods.

Community and Social Context

Improving the community and social context in which people live their lives means increasing funding and access to social support systems and services, increasing community engagement and eliciting the involvement of community members and direct stakeholders, reducing discrimination in underserved neighborhoods, and addressing increasing levels of environmental, interpersonal, and social stress present in each neighborhood, area, or community – rural, urban, or other.

Health Care

Improving health and health care – an area with which we’re familiar – means increasing insurance coverage for people who lack coverage, increasing the amount of providers in underserved areas, expanding and improving access to care, increasing cultural competency among providers, i.e. providing helpful language and cultural liaison services in health care, and finally, improving the overall quality of health care in traditionally underserved communities.

The Role of Communities in the Opioid Crisis and Harm Reduction

The social determinants of health are about improving the default living conditions in underserved communities across the country. When we say underserved, what we mean is communities which, for most of their history, have not experienced equity in domains like basic safety, education, health care, transportation, and access to affordable and healthy food. Deficits in these areas degrade quality of life, and improvements in these areas increase the quality of life.

It’s really that simple. Addressing the social determinants of health, by definition, reduces the chance of health-related harms in a community, including those related to the substance use that drives the opioid and overdose crisis.

The post What are the Social Determinants of Health? appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

It started in 2013 with only 4,000 participants.

But when people heard about the benefits, it grew.

In 2023, over 175,000 people officially signed up for Dry January through the website Alcohol Change UK – the group that organizes Dry January – and millions of people who answered a public survey on Dry January said they’d “give it a try but not sign up officially or anything like that.”

Before we continue, we must offer this important disclaimer:

If you have alcohol use disorder (AUD) – meaning you meet the clinical criteria for alcohol dependence/addiction as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Behavioral Disorders Volume 5 (DSM-5), or engage in daily, chronic, or excess drinking, you should understand that if you stop drinking suddenly and completely, your body can react in extreme and dangerous ways – called alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) – and in some cases, AWS can lead to death.

Please take that disclaimer seriously.

Data from the 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2022 NSDUH) shows the following facts on alcohol use disorder and alcohol use in the U.S.:

• 21 million people have alcohol use disorder (AUD), a.k.a. alcohol addiction
• 61.2 million people report engaging in past-month binge drinking, defined as:
  • Women: drinking more than 4 alcoholic beverages in 2 hours
  • Men: drinking more than 5 alcoholic beverages in 2 hours
• 16.1 million people report engaging in past-month heavy drinking, defined as:
  • Binge drinking on 5 or more days in the past month

That’s why Dry January is important: millions of people in the U.S. are at risk of developing serious health problems from drinking – and Dry January might be just what they need to get their drinking under control and their health on track – whether they have clinical AUD or not.

How Dry January Makes You Healthier

Dry January is a month-long initiative that encourages people to decrease – or totally abstain from – alcohol consumption during the month of January, improve their lives, and make them, in a word, healthier. A 2019 study on the medical benefits of Dry January called “Short-Term Abstinence From Alcohol and Changes in Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Liver Function Tests and Cancer-Related Growth Factors: A Prospective Observational Study” showed that one month of abstinence from alcohol – e.g., participating in Dry January – leads to the following outcomes:

• Reduced blood pressure
• Decreased risk of diabetes
• Lowered cholesterol levels
• Decreased levels of chemical precursors to cancer

Additional benefits of abstaining from alcohol for a month include improved sleep, improved skin/complexion, healthier looking hair, more energy, increased concentration, and improved immune function.

Dry January Health Benefits: What You Can Expect Week-by-Week

Here’s a breakdown of the benefits of Dry January published by the organization that started the movement, Alcohol Change UK.

If you decide to participate in Dry January, here are the things you may experience, and the ways you may get healthier, week-by-week, during the month of January:

• Week 1:
  • More energy
  • Improved concentration
  • Better quality sleep (but it may be hard to fall asleep this first week)
• Week 2:
  • Even more energy and even clearer thinking, known as the fog lifting
  • Decreased acid reflux, for people who have heartburn
  • Increased awareness of the need to drink plenty of water
• Week 3:
  • Weight loss, especially if you harnessed your increased energy and directed it toward exercise, activity, and/or working out
  • Improved memory, especially short-term memory. Note: short-term memory is really much shorter than most people think – it’s measured in seconds. Therefore, if you try Dry January and find you can suddenly remember why you walked into the kitchen, you can thank your abstinence for improving your short-term memory
  • Increased ability to concentrate
  • Improved attention
• Week 4:
  • Risk of breast cancer decreases
  • Risk of colorectal cancer decreases
  • Reduced risk of heart disease
  • Reduced risk of hypertension
  • Improved skin tone, health, and overall complexion
  • Reduced blood pressure
  • Reduced risk of diabetes via decreased insulin resistance
  • Lower cholesterol
  • Improved liver function
  • Enhanced/stronger immune function
  • Decreased gastrointestinal issues: less bloating, diarrhea, and/or constipation

Since everyone is different, and everyone goes into Dry January with a unique history with and relationship to alcohol, not everyone will experience all of these benefits on this exact timeline. However, a decade of research now shows that most people who abstain from alcohol for a month experience these benefits, and they happen roughly according to that timeline.

We think that’s amazing: improved memory, concentration, and sleep. Improved heart health. Improved immunity. More energy. Weight loss. Decreased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.

The real question, therefore, is this:

If you aren’t considering Dry January – why not?

If you’re all in on Dry January, please read on, and use the resources we offer below.

Dry January 2024 Resources

We recommend consulting these articles to help guide your Dry January:

• Steps for Success published by Harvard Health
• Why do Dry January published by Alcohol Change UK
• Dry January: The Benefits of a Month Without Alcohol published by VeryWellMind
• Rethinking Drinking published by the National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism

That last article is not Dry January specific, but includes exactly the kind of information anyone considering Dry January needs to know. Finally, you can navigate to the blog section of our website and read this article:

Dry January 2024: Everything You Need to Know

If you’re thinking of doing Dry January, we applaud you. The things you learn about yourself, your health, and your habits around alcohol may change your life for the better. At the very least, you’ll learn one of two things: quitting alcohol for a month is very easy, or quitting alcohol for a month is very hard. Maybe you’ll be somewhere in between. In any case, what you learn will teach you important things about your relationship with alcohol, which you can then use to make intelligent, informed decisions about your future alcohol consumption.

The post Does Dry January Really Make You Healthier? appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

For people who engage in chronic, problem drinking and/or people diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD), quitting alcohol suddenly and completely – what most of us call “cold turkey” – can lead to severe health consequences, including death.

If you’re a heavy, chronic drinker, you should not suddenly and completely quit drinking alcohol without consulting a physician. This warning is for you if you’ve tried to stop drinking in the past and experienced the following symptoms:

• Tremors
• Shaking hands
• Seizures
• Sweats/excess sweating
• Hallucinations
• Anxiety
• Depression

We’re not advising against Dry January. We’re saying this loud and clear:

If you know you have a drinking problem, don’t do Dry January alone, don’t do it without talking to a doctor first, and be ready for big changes.

No joke: knowledge and prevention, in this case, can save your life. If you think you meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder (AUD), talk to a doctor before you quit. They’ll review the significant risks of alcohol withdrawal syndrome and help access the resources you need to stop drinking safely.

You can also learn about AUD diagnosis and treatment by navigating to the AUD page on our website:

Alcohol Use Disorders

Now it’s time to discuss Dry January 2024.

Dry January 2024: What You Need to Know

The first thing to know about Dry January 2024 – after you read our serious warnings above – is that it’s a great idea. For some people, it’s life changing, and that includes people with or without alcohol use disorder (AUD). The benefits are far greater and impact more areas of life and health than most people can imagine.

We’ll review the basic benefits of Dry January in a moment.

First, a little history.

Dry January started in a curious way. In January 2011, a woman named Emily Robinson decided to run her first half marathon, scheduled to take place in February. To give herself a better chance at finishing and make her training easier, she decided to stop drinking for the month leading up to the 13.1-mile, 21-kilometer event.

During that month, Emily lost weight, got better sleep, and reported feeling like she had the energy to finish the half marathon. During and after that month though, Emily was amazed by one thing that had nothing to do with running: everyone wanted to know what quitting alcohol for 30 days was like.

The next year, 2012, Emily began working for Alcohol Change UK. Her experience the previous year intrigued her new colleagues, and they began conversations about how to spread the idea of Dry January to others. They thought that sponsoring an alcohol-free-month initiative could get people thinking about their drinking, and possibly result in helping people reduce and manage their alcohol intake.

Here’s how they describe their initial concept:

“The aim of our campaign was to start a new conversation about alcohol, to encourage people to consider and discuss their alcohol consumption and ultimately, to inspire behavior change following a positive and fun-filled month of sobriety.”

The idea caught on, and Alcohol Change UK launched the first Dry January in 2013 with around 4,000 participants. In 2023, its 10^th year, over 175,000 people officially participated in Dry January, with millions informally saying in a YouGov survey they planned to try quitting or cutting back on alcohol consumption during Dry January 2023.

No Alcohol for 31 Days: What Might Happen During Dry January 2024

First, let’s look at the general health and wellness benefits of Dry January. These may include:

• Better sleep
• More energy
• Weight loss
• Saving money
• Healthier looking hair
• Healthier looking skin

In addition, since alcohol can impair immune function, people who participate in Dry January 2024 might experience fewer cases of the common cold, and their immune systems may be better equipped to ward off and prevent infections with flu and other respiratory viruses. And one more thing: many people report seasonal depression – clinically called seasonal affective disorder (SAD) – and since alcohol is associated with low or depressive mood, trying Dry January 2024 may mitigate clinical SAD, and help others avoid the winter blues and blahs.

Next, let’s look at the body of evidence-based research on the health, wellness, and life-domain impacts of participating in Dry January.

A study published in 2019 showed changes in the following health metrics:

• Insulin resistance via a homeostatic model assessment (HOMA): scores decreased by an average of 25%
• Changes in weight: a significant number of participants lost over 2% of their starting body weight
• Blood pressure (BP): a significant number of participants showed a decrease in BP of over 5%
• Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a cancer marker: significant decrease
• Epidermal growth factor (EGF), another cancer marker: significant decrease

Another study, published in 2020, showed changes in the following wellness metrics:

• General self-efficacy (GSE): participants reported increases in self-efficacy at double the rate of non-participants
• Overall wellbeing: participants reported significant increases in wellbeing scores, while non-participants reported decreased overall wellbeing

Participants in this study also reported the following:

• 63% saved money
• 56% had improved sleep
• 52% had more energy
• 50% had better overall health
• 38% lost weight

Those studies offer compelling reasons to give dry January a try. There’s one more study we need to discuss, though: a study conducted by researchers at the University of Sussex.

Dry January 2018: An In-Depth Look

The Sussex study gathered extensive data on people who participated in and completed Dry January 2018. Here’s what they found:

• Most people who decreased alcohol intake in January reported they were still drinking less in August
• Days drinking: average number of drinking decreased by (1) day per week, from about (4) to about (3)
• Units of alcohol per drinking day decreased from 8.5 to 7 units:
  • One unit of alcohol is about 10 milliliters (ml)
  • A typical shot glass in the U.S. holds about 1 unit of pure alcohol
  • 12 ounces (a typical bottle or can in the U.S.) holds about 1.7 units of pure alcohol
  • 5 ounces of wine (a typical glass served in a restaurant) holds about 2.3 units of pure alcohol
  • A pint of beer (the typical serving in the U.K.) holds about 2.3 units of pure alcohol
• Days being drunk decreased almost 40%, from about (3) days to about (2) days being drunk per month

They also collected data on a variety of other metrics, which we share below:

Benefits of a Dry January: How One Month Helps

• 93% said they felt like they’d accomplished something important
• 88% saved money
• 82% seriously reassessed their drinking behavior
• 80% felt increased control over their drinking behavior
• 76% learned about when and why the drink
• 71% reported that for the first time, they realized they don’t need alcohol to have fun
• 70% said they had improved overall health
• 71% reported better sleep
• 67% said they had more energy
• 58% lost weight
• 57% said their ability to concentrate improved
• 54% reported improved skin quality

We’ll close with a word from the study authors on the value of Dry January, and why anyone considering Dry January 2024 should give it a try – after consulting a physician, of course:

“Many of us know about the health risks of alcohol – seven forms of cancer, liver disease, mental health problems – but we are often unaware that drinking less has more immediate benefits too. Sleeping better, feeling more energetic, saving money, better skin, losing weight…The list goes on. Dry January helps millions to experience those benefits and to make a longer-lasting change.”

Dry January: How to Get Started

If you want to participate in Dry January, please take advantage of the following resources provided by Alcohol Change U.K.:

• Try Dry, the official Dry January app
• Try Dry, the official guide to Dry January
• Dry January email coaching

If you register for Dry January through Alcohol Change U.K. and share your experience, they’ll include it in their data and resources for others. In that way, participating can not only benefit you, but others who may need to make a positive change.

Getting Help for AUD

If you or someone you love drinks excessively and you’re concerned, please contact us today. We know how to support you with safe, evidence-based methods to reduce or completely stop drinking alcohol.

The post Dry January 2024: Everything You Need to Know appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

As we head into the December holidays and start thinking about the New Year ahead, millions of people in the U.S. engage in the time-honored tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions. At Pinnacle Treatment Centers, our primary goal as an organization – and as individuals – is to offer the best possible professional support for people with substance use disorder, alcohol use disorder, and co-occurring disorders. We can consider that goal our yearly resolution: in 2024 we resolve to redouble our efforts to support people in need with lifesaving, life-changing addiction and mental health treatment.

We’ll prioritize efforts to expand access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) for people with opioid use disorder (OUD), and advocate for compassionate, comprehensive care for all, including new approaches supported by the federal government, such as harm reduction and initiatives that address the social determinants of health (SDOH).

Those are our plans for the year to come. If you make New Year’s resolutions, or something similar, you’re not alone: surveys show that around three out of every four adults in the U.S. make resolutions every year.

We’ll share the results of a new survey on the most popular resolutions for 2024 below. First, let’s review the top five resolutions for the past two years, according to surveys conducted by Forbes and Statista.

First up, 2023:

2023: Top Five Resolutions

1. 52% resolved to exercise more
2. 50% resolved to eat healthier
3. 40% resolved to lose weight
4. 39% resolved to save more money
5. 37% resolved to save spend more time with family and friends

Next, 2022:

2022: Top Five Resolutions

1. 48% resolved to exercise more
2. 44% resolved to eat healthier
3. 41% resolved to lose weight
4. 34% resolved to spend more time with friends and family
5. 24% resolved to save or be more careful with their money

Now we’ll take a look at how things went for people in 2023, how they feel about their plans for 2024, and how they plan to stick to their resolutions in 2024.

New Year’s Resolutions: Results From 2023

This year, Forbes partnered with polling professionals One Poll to learn about last year’s resolutions and collect details on resolutions for 2024. One funny thing about resolutions: many people have high hopes going in, but most people don’t keep their resolutions the entire year. Here’s the data on that particular aspect of New Year’s resolutions.

In 2023, 87 percent of people thought they had a good chance of keeping their resolutions the entire year. Here’s how that worked out.

New Year’s Resolutions 2023: Success Rates

• 23% kept their resolutions for three months
• 22% kept their resolutions for two months
• 13% kept them for four months
• 9% kept them for 5 months
• 8% kept them for one month

At this point in 2023, 6 percent of people report they’ve kept their resolutions all year long. That’s a long way from the 87 percent who thought they had a good shot at keeping them. The polls don’t cite reasons people gave for giving up on their resolutions, but we can help you make resolutions that have a good chance of lasting. To learn how to increase your chances of making a robust, durable resolution, please navigate to the blog section of our website and read this article:

If You’re in Recovery, Can You Make New Year’s Resolutions That Stick?

That article is specifically for people in recovery, and the tips are tailored to support the overall recovery process. In addition to the helpful pointers in that article, a study conducted in 2020 shows there are two primary types of resolutions – and one has more chance of success than the other.

1. Approach-oriented resolutions: I will…

• • 58.99% of people in the survey who made approach-oriented resolutions kept them for a year or more

2. Avoidance-oriented resolutions: I won’t…

• • 47.1% of people in the survey who made avoidance-related kept them for a year or more

That doesn’t surprise us: when we frame thing positively and affirmatively, it increases our likelihood of engagement. Why? Perhaps it’s because “I will” statements imply hope and optimism, while “I won’t” statements imply limits or restrictions.

How People Feel About Resolutions Going Into 2024

Now let’s take a look at some of the details about how people feel about and plan to keep their resolutions in 2024, based on the Forbes/One Poll survey we link to above.

New Year’s Resolutions 2024: Feelings and Plans

• 62% felt pressured to make resolutions
  • Women: 64%
  • Men: 60%
• 55% say physical and mental health are equally important for 2024
• Women and men prioritized mental health equally for 2024
• Women are more likely than men to prioritize fitness in 2024
• 20% plan to keep themselves accountable
  • That’s a huge drop: in 2023, 77% planned to keep themselves accountable.
• 80% think they can keep their resolutions all year
  • 82% of men
  • 79% of women
• 49% plan to use an app to stay accountable. Popular app types include:
  • Diet: 46%
  • Gym membership app: 43%
  • Habit trackers: 40%
  • Diet app: 33%
  • Meditation app: 33%
• 86% think their resolution will improve their lives past 2024
• 29% think they’ll improve life for 1-2 years
• 57% think they’ll improve life for 3 or more years

This data encourages us. Despite the low overall success rate of keeping resolutions, historically speaking, people are still confident about their ability to keep their resolutions, generally speaking. This confidence is admirable in the face of cynicism and skepticism about resolutions. There are actually two unofficial dates related to abandoned resolutions: one places “Ditch Your Resolution Day” on January 17^th, while another places “Quitter’s Day” on the second Friday of January.

If you’re an optimist, then congratulations: that’s what it takes to make and stick to plans for positive future change.

2024: What’s on Deck?

Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the top resolutions for 2024. Here’s what the Forbes/One Poll survey reports.

Drumroll please…

2024: Top Five Resolutions

1. 48% resolved to exercise more
2. 38% resolved to improve finances
3. 36% resolved to improve their mental health
4. 34% resolved to lose weight
5. 32% resolved to eat healthier

Compared to the past two years, this list is remarkably consistent. The resolution to improve finances made a comeback, jumping up two spots from #4 to #2. Losing weight dropped one spot, from #3 to #4. Spending more time with family and friends dropped out of the top five, supplanted by the upward movement of the financial resolution and the appearance of the improve mental health resolution in the top five.

When we look over this list, we’re encouraged. When people resolve to exercise more, they can expect more than physical benefits. More exercise means improved sleep, reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression, and improved overall wellbeing. The same goes for losing weight and eating healthier. When approach correctly, losing weight and eating healthier lead to overall improvements in wellness. In addition, making more money has an impact, too: while money can’t buy happiness, improving finances can certainly reduce anxiety.

Finally, what we see here is that all five of these resolutions are friendly for people in addiction treatment: improvements in any of these areas can bolster overall health and wellbeing, which support and increase the likelihood of sustainable, lifelong recovery.

If you’re still on the fence about resolutions, then we suggest choosing one of the above, and reading our article on how to make resolutions that stick.

Good luck – and Happy New Year!

The post The Most Popular New Year’s Resolutions for 2024 appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

New Year’s Eve is right around the corner, and if you’re in recovery, we know you want to ring in the new year with cheer and joy – and do it while staying sober.

We have news: you can do it!

Millions of people around the world are in recovery, and every year they make it through New Year’s Eve with their recovery and sobriety as strong as ever. If you’re new to recovery, you may wonder what NYE is like without alcohol or drugs.

We can tell you: it’s fun.

You don’t have to go to a huge, wild party that revolves around intoxicants to ring in the new year. You can do it any way you choose, with anyone you choose, in a manner that supports and promotes both your recovery and sobriety.

We’ll share our top five tips for managing New Year’s Eve with your sobriety intact below, but first, just to give you an idea of the types of activities or events that have nothing to do with alcohol or drugs, consider these:

• Get a Group and Do an Escape Room
• Throw a Theme Party with Recovery Peers
• Have a Game Night
• Throw a Craft Mocktail Party – click for our list of awesome mocktails
• Have a Recovery Movie Night – click for our list of recovery-themed movies

You get the idea. With the right group, you can turn anything you like into an excellent, sober-friendly, NYE activity. But if this is your first New Year’s Eve in recovery, we can offer you more than that. The list that follows can guide your NYE celebration plans – and help you keep it sober – no matter where you are or what you like to do.

Five Tips to Celebrate New Year’s Eve and Stay Sober

1. Plan Ahead

If you’re reading this article, you’re already there. Making plans, thinking about how you can celebrate New Year’s Ever with your sobriety intact. After articles like this one, we suggest talking to your counselor or therapist. They know you, they know your sobriety, and they’re likely to know what will work for you and what won’t. If you come up with a plan you think is solid, run it by them for feedback. They may notice things you miss, or they may praise you for including things they didn’t think of. Either way, they can help.

If you can’t check in with a counselor or therapist, we suggest consulting recovery peers from community support groups like Narcotics Anonymous (NA) or Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). If you have a sponsor, even better: run your plans by them and see what they think.

2. Family Friendly is Good

Some people in recovery aren’t connected to their families, for good reason: their family dynamic may threaten their sobriety. If that’s you, don’t worry – you can still take this family friendly tip to heart. If you have friends who have kids, then the New Year’s Eve parties they throw are probably less rambunctious, less centered around alcohol, and less centered around excess, party-animal type activities than people who don’t have kids.

That’s not set in stone, so you need to check in first, but in general, a family-oriented party will be a safer bet than your average NYE shindig. You’ll probably get to watch Ryan Seacrest host the big party on TV, listen to Mariah Carey belt out her classics, see some front-yard fireworks, and watch the ball drop in Times Square. Added bonus? They’ll have plenty of sparkling apple juice on hand, as opposed to – or in addition to – the traditional NYE champagne.

3. Avoid the Old Haunts.

This is important for people early in recovery. If you went to certain parties or places regularly before you entered recovery, we suggest not going back to those places this year. Old friends will be there – true. You know the parties are fun – true. You used to love them – true. However, it’s also true that those friends and those parties will be filled with triggers that threaten your sobriety. As tempting as it might be to test your new skills, we suggest avoiding those old parties at all costs, especially if you’re new in recovery. This is your chance to create new traditions with new people who are on the same page as you: in recovery and committed to making it through the evening without relapsing to alcohol or drug use. When you create new, recovery friendly traditions, you also prove to yourself that you can have fun and celebrate without alcohol and drugs. When you succeed – because you stay smart and have a plan – you create a template for future recovery-friendly celebrations, and renew your belief that taking the path you’re on is the right one, and will keep you healthy, happy – and sober – for years to come.

4. Sober/Recovery Peers

You’re the expert on your recovery, so your take on this whole enterprise is very important. And since you’re reading this article, we applaud your instinct to look for tips and advice. After your instinct, and after the advice of your therapist or counselor, your community of sober/recovery peers is an invaluable resource. The main reason? If they have years of recovery under their belt, that means that, in terms of a sober New Year’s Eve, they’ve been there and done that – and survived with their sobriety intact. That’s why they’re an excellent resource: experiential knowledge trumps theoretical knowledge all day.

Also, the thing about people in 12-step meetings is they’re not afraid of being blunt and telling you what they really think. Especially the old-timers: they don’t hold back. If you float a plan at a meeting, they’ll tell you straight up at the coffee table afterward “Terrible plan, you’re setting yourself up to fail,” or “Sounds good – that might just work.” It’s also likely someone in the community can tell you what it’s like to relapse on NYE, because it happens. That’s why people rely on organizations like AA and NA: community members have literally seen it all, and, in most cases, are willing to share their unvarnished take on any recovery-related topic, including how to have a sober New Year’s Eve.

5. It’s About the People, Not the Party

There’s an old saying: beginnings are important. Many people believe that the way you start something influences how that something plays out in the long run. That’s why getting treatment is a great way to begin your recovery journey. You spend time focusing on yourself and learning the skills that help you achieve your recovery and/or sobriety goals. You build up good momentum by making a good start. We can apply that to your year, too. If you decide to spend your New Year’s Eve in a recovery-friendly manner, surrounded by people who support your recovery and believe in you, then you lay the groundwork for a year of success. You can take that amazing feeling of success you have about making it through NYE fully sober, hold on to it, and use it as a beacon to get you through the year.

Sober New Year’s Eve: Resources and Activity Suggestions

Organizations like Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), and SMART Recovery all host or sponsor sober New Year’s Eve events.

Check these links to find an organized sober NYE event near you:

• Narcotics Anonymous Event (NA) Page
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)
  • Check your local chapter for local events
• SMART Recovery
  • Look for upcoming announcements for SMART Recovery New Year’s Eve Around the World

We know you can have a healthy, happy, fun – and sober – New Year’s Eve. You have the resources at your fingertips. Now it’s up to you!

Happy New Year!

The post How to Celebrate New Year’s Eve in Recovery and Stay Sober appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

We’re proud of you – recovery is not easy.

If you’re heading into your first holiday season and new year in recovery, we have another message for you:

You can do it – and it can help make your recovery even stronger.z

We’re thinking of this in terms of New Year’s Resolutions, really. That’s what this article is about: using resolutions as a way to reaffirm your commitment to the recovery process and affirm your confidence in your ability to achieve sustainable, lifelong recovery.

You can read about New Year’s resolution statistics in this informative article here.

While many people think New Year’s resolutions are a waste of time, we disagree. Well, they can be, sure, if you don’t make the right ones. But if you make the right resolutions, and have a plan to make them stick – like the one we’ll outline below – then they can work in your favor.

Why?

Because resolutions include an important recovery priniciple:

You can’t think your way to recovery, you have to act – or behave – your way to recovery.

Resolutions, by their very nature, are about changing actions and behavior. You desire a specific outcome, so you resolve to change the things you do to bring about the outcome you want. Sounds like a template for recovery, doesn’t it?

And like your recovery, you’re more likely to succeed at your resolutions if you have a realistic plan in place, ahead of time, to accomplish them. Before we share our three tips for making resolutions that stick, we want to remind you of something very important. When you make your resolutions, and work on keeping them in the new year, prioritize being kind to yourself. Sure, you may default to being your own worst critic, but this year, we want you to work in something else, in addition: being your own best support system.

Please keep that in mind as you make – and pursue – your resolutions for the new year.

The Resolutions You Make in Recovery Can Last

This is our best advice on how to make resolutions that support three criteria: they don’t threaten your recovery, they allow you to be kind to yourself, and they increase your overall recovery skills. We think those criteria are important to keep in mind, because, after all, the most important resolution is the one we assume you already made: stay in recovery and stay on your program, one day at a time, in 2024.

How to Make Your Resolutions Stick When You’re in Recovery

1. Make resolutions flexible.

Flexibility and recovery go hand in hand. Some days things don’t go the way you want, and you have to adjust. You might not be able to get to a morning meeting, so you change plans and go to an afternoon meeting. It may be a little bit of a hassle, but no problem, you can handle it. The same is true for resolutions. You need to be flexible, and they need to be flexible, or they’ll probably cause more stress than they’re worth.

For instance, if you resolve to exercise every morning before work, and one day you oversleep and can’t make that happen, you have options. Work out at lunch, work out in the afternoon, or work out after dinner. You still get your workout in, and you prove to yourself that if things don’t go exactly as planned every day, you can still meet your goals and keep your resolutions.

2. Make resolutions realistic.

This is crucial. If you put resolutions beyond your reach, then you set yourself up for frustration and potential failure. However, if you make them practical, realistic, and achievable, you increase your chance of success. Not too easy though: you want goals or resolutions to be just beyond where you are now, but within reach with some work. You want to set yourself up for success, but at the same time, a challenge with a managed or manageable risk of failure is a safe way to raise the stakes and motivate you to make change.

With that said, every day in recovery is a victory, and yes, this is one instance where if you show up and do the work, the participation trophy you get – your ongoing recovery – has real value.

3. Make resolutions simple.

If you can clarify your goals and distill what you want something simple, then that makes the entire goal setting and goal achieving process possible. Life can get complicated all by itself. A simple resolution requires focused action, which can help bring a sense of purpose to your days, or bring meaning to your daily activities.

For example, if your resolution revolves around saving more money next year, clarify and simplify that: set a realistic amount to set aside each week or each month. And if things don’t go exactly as planned – unexpected expenses, unpaid sick days, other unknowns – see tips #1 and #2 above: you stay flexible, and adjust your plans given the circumstances, and keep things realistic, which means missing one day or covering one unexpected expense might not have a significant impact on your goal in the first place.

What Matter Most in 2024: Your Recovery

We all know how it feels when we keep a promise we make to ourselves: it increases our self-esteem, increases belief we can do it again, and proves to us that we can do the things we set out to do. One thing that can happen is that your good days can become reinforcing, meaning that the more good days you have, the better you feel, and the more motivated you become to do the things that make the days good. In terms of resolutions during recovery – meaning the promises you make to yourself – that means the longer you stick with the resolutions you make during recovery, the more likely it becomes that you’ll keep them throughout the year.

That’s why you make them simple, achievable, and flexible. That’s why you break them down into concrete actions you can complete every day, or every week. You create a scenario wherein the promises you make are promises you can keep, and can gain momentum until the associated actions feel like a regular part of your daily life.

And if you get off track, you lead with kindness – to yourself – then recalibrate and restart. Do that one day at a time, one concrete action at a time, one goal at a time, and one resolution at a time, and by this time next year, you’ll be amazed at what you’ve achieved.

The post If You’re in Recovery, Can You Make New Year’s Resolutions That Stick? appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

You may be worried, overwhelmed, and a little bit intimidated – and that’s okay.

We get it: the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s ever can be filled with triggers that increase your risk of relapse. Your triggers might be people or places. They could be holiday music, or simply the sight of holiday decorations in stores, in front yards, or on the houses in your neighborhood.

In a word, the holidays are challenging. If you feel that way, you’re not alone. We can think of at least reasons the holidays create a special set of obstacles to overcome. The good thing? You can prepare ahead for success. And if you are successful, it will build your confidence for the seasons to come.

Staying on Your Program During the Holidays

Here are the three main reasons we want you to be prepared to face the challenges ahead.

Holiday Season: Three Big Obstacles

1. Family

There’s an old saying in recovery: your family knows how to push your buttons because they’re the ones who installed them. For most people, the most powerful, persistent, and emotional memories are directly related to our families or our childhood. In addition, many of these emotional memories form during the holidays. We remember the good and the not-so-good. Dinners filled with cheer, and dinners filled with awkward silences. We remember the sacred and secular rituals we participated in – some with negative emotions, some with positive emotions. It’s typically a mixed bag, and almost never simple. For most people in recovery, family dynamics are complex. That’s why they can challenge recovery and increase risk of relapse, and that’s why family is at the top of this list: be prepared to manage your emotions and deploy your most robust emotional regulation skills.

2. Goals, Aspirations, and Expectations

As you enter the holiday season and approach the New Year, you may be filled with anticipation and excitement about all the good things the season and the next year may bring. Perhaps you’ve been in recovery for 6-8 months or longer, and you’re feeling yourself: you have your recovery plan, you go to meetings, you take care of your body, you eat right, everything is working and on track. There are two possible problems you may face, though: just because you’re learning, growing, and changing, the people around you may not be. Meaning while you move forward, others are stuck: they may be friends, coworkers or family members.

Remember this: you do you, let them do them.

The second challenge: you may have bad days, brought on by the outright emotionality of the season. You may get overwhelmed and feel like all your work is about to slip through your fingers. That’s okay, too. When that happens, slow down, take a breath, check your recovery plan, call your sponsor, and go to a meeting. You have the tools, and you can do it: we believe in your strength, resiliency, and ability to get through the holidays with your recovery intact. Just because things don’t go exactly the way you want them to, it isn’t the end of the world. You adapt, overcome, and move forward with grace and gratitude.

3. The Parties and the Alcohol

Our holiday celebrations often revolve around getting together with family and friends and eating big, delicious meals. We have appetizers, we have multiple courses, we linger over dessert, and we sit and talk over coffee afterwards. The thing for people in recovery is this: at almost every step of the way, someone may offer you a drink, and it’s virtually guaranteed that the people around you will consume alcohol. That’s tough, and it increases your risk of relapse. The best way to do this – assuming you can’t skip every party or family get together you’re invited to – is to have a plan before going in. If you feel triggers, deploy the relapse prevention strategies you developed during treatment. Again: you can do it, and we believe you can make it through family get togethers – and the ubiquitous office parties – with your recovery fully intact.

Holidays and Recovery: Keeping Perspective

Here’s a good reality check: if this is your first December in recovery, it’s unrealistic to think every moment of every day will be perfect. That’s an unrealistic life expectation anyway, and even more important to remember as you enter this month of potential challenges. Expect some challenges, and they won’t surprise you.

We’re too optimistic to say prepare for the worst so you won’t be disappointed.

We prefer to say this instead:

Expect the challenges so you’re ready to meet them.

Here’s another dose of perspective, or our reality check number two: if you’re in recovery, that’s an amazing accomplishment to be proud of. You made a proactive choice to improve your life, and you take steps every day to make your vision of a better future a reality, rather than a dream. The holidays – as challenging as they can be – can get you one step closer to that vision.

How?

Every day you face and manage a trigger without relapse is a success. Each time a family member says something that elicits a powerful emotion – and you process that emotion without the help of alcohol or drugs – is a victory. Every time you go to a holiday party and navigate the minefield of egg nogg, fancy holiday beverages, and intoxicated coworkers and make it to the end feeling strong, solid, and confident in your recovery, it’s a sign you’re making progress in the right direction.

It means you’re doing your work, your recovery plan is a good one, and you can be confident that in 2024, you’ll keep going it up. And when you get to New Year’s Eve, one option re. resolutions? Just make one: stay on your program.

The post Why Are the Holidays Challenging for People in Recovery? appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

But We have good reason!

We know that around this time of year, many people start thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. One resolution that’s been popular over the past few years is something called Dry January.

Dry January is what it sounds like: a break from alcohol during the month of January. Some people quit altogether, while some simply dial back their consumption to see if it makes a difference to their health, happiness, or overall wellbeing.

Disclaimer: If you’ve been drinking every day for a long time, please consult a physician before discontinuing alcohol use. We don’t want to scare anyone, but I’s important to understand that long-term, chronic alcohol use can lead to serious health problems if you quit cold turkey or without medical supervision. The problems? Some issues related to alcohol withdrawal can lead to death: that’s why we advise long-term, chronic drinkers to consult a physician before considering a Dry January.

With that important information out of the way, we have to say: if you’re thinking about a Dry January, we think it’s a great idea. You’ll learn a lot about yourself, why you use alcohol in the first place, and how you can have fun and be social without drinking.

A Month Without Alcohol: What Happens?

If you stop drinking alcohol for a month, here’s what you can expect:

• Better sleep
• More energy
• Weight loss
• Healthier heart
• Healthier liver
• Better looking hair
• Better looking skin

Those are the direct health benefits of eliminating or cutting back on alcohol. Here are a few of the indirect benefits:

• Alcohol impairs immune function. Therefore, if you quit drinking, your body may be better able to fight off colds and the flu during winter.
• If you do get a cold or flu, alcohol may interact negatively with over-the-counter medication, which can impair healing.
• Alcohol consumption in men is associated with high blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems
• Alcohol is a depressant. Therefore, eliminating consumption may improve overall mood.

About That Disclaimer

Overall, for most people, cutting back from alcohol for a month is a great idea. However – and we repeat – chronic, long-term, daily drinkers put their health at risk when they quit without medical supervision. If you try Dry January and begin experiencing any of these symptoms soon after your last drink, seek professional medical help immediately:

• Nausea
• Shaking
• Vomiting
• Sweating
• Convulsions
• Delirium tremens
• Hallucinations

Really, we’re not trying to scare you, we just want you to be safe. That means understanding the benefits and the risks of Dry January, and making a good choice based on the best information available.

Dry January 2024 Resources

If you’re all in, we recommend consulting these articles to help guide your Dry January:

• Harvard Health: Steps for Success
• Alcohol Change UK: The group that started the movement host this Dry January Page
• VeryWellMind: Dry January

If you’re thinking about Dry January but undecided, we recommend consulting the Alcohol Change UK Page. It’s loaded with helpful, accurate information on drinking, and safe, heathy ways to cut back, if that’s what you want to do.

If you think you need professional support for alcohol use disorder (AUD) or another type of addiction, please reach out to us at Pinnacle Treatment Centers today.

The post Examining The Health Benefits of a Dry January appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

“A stimulus that elicits a reaction. For example, an event could be a trigger for a memory of a past experience and an accompanying state of emotional arousal.”

For people in recovery, the accompanying state may refer to an emotional state or a pattern of behavior that leads to relapse to alcohol or drug use. However, we read an article recently called “What is the Trigger of Addiction?” that suggests we revisit our concept of what a trigger is, which can inform how we respond to them.

The current thinking on triggers is that they’re external stimuli, or external problems/situations/events, which, when experienced, increase risk of relapse. Therefore, the approach in addiction treatment is threefold:

1. Avoid them.
2. Create coping skills to mitigate their effect.
3. Learn to apply coping skills in real time to prevent relapse.

What the new article we mention above points out is that our current view of trigger may place too much emphasis on the external, and not enough emphasis on the internal. In other words, the way we talk about triggers now gives us wiggle room to blame something outside of ourselves for something that only we can control, which is whether we relapse to alcohol or drug use.

Instead, the authors of the article suggest a two-step approach to managing triggers. The first is traditional: avoid and learn to manage them. The second is to work on the unresolved internal emotional state or states uncovered by the trigger. When we address those issues and develop internal emotional resiliency, the external triggers will have less power. Therefore, they’ll have less of a chance of leading to relapse, because we’ve done the internal work necessary to resolve them.

Family Time During the Holidays While in Recovery: Managing Triggers

We can use this idea to think of triggers in a new way. Rather than external forces to blame for leading us to unresolved internal spaces, we can think of them as reminders of the work we still need to do, and that, indeed recovery is a lifelong journey and process. They’re gifts that reiterate that one important point: the work of recovery is never finished.

And believe us: when you spend time with your family over the holidays, the gifts abound, and the opportunities to work on your coping skills – both internal and external – are likely to appear early and often during the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day.

That’s why we created this gift for you. It’s our list of tried-and-true, time-tested tactics for thriving – not just surviving – during the holidays this year.

Top Five Tips for Managing Holiday Triggers

1. Reality Check.

If you didn’t realize it before, we’re certain you do now: during the holidays, triggers can come from everywhere. Your reality check means understanding all that beforehand and being honest about the fact that during the holidays, your chance of relapse increases. When you have your most robust relapse prevention and coping skills ready and waiting – on standby, as it were – you can decrease that risk of relapse.

Another thing to consider if you’re heading home for the holidays: people and places from your past have a way of showing up at just the right time to test your resolve. They may be people you used to drink or use drugs with in the past, or they may be places you’ve totally forgotten about that bring back a flood of memories – and may trigger old urges. Believe us: not five minutes after one of your family members pushes one of those buttons they installed, you’ll get a text from an old friend asking you to come join a holiday party you know you shouldn’t attend.

Instead of letting that stress you out, this year, look at that as an opportunity to stick to your plan, stick to your recovery, and reply to that text with an alternate plan to meet and reconnect – on that doesn’t threaten your hard-earned sobriety.

2. Be Prepared.

This is part of your reality check. We recommend you view the holidays with an appropriate combination of optimism, caution, and pragmatism. When you plan for the two big weeks – Thanksgiving and Christmas – map out the times when you think triggers are most likely to appear. For example, if you know your outspoken uncle is going to be at dinner one night – the one who thinks recovery is for wimps and disagrees with you vehemently on every possible social and political issue – then you should prepare yourself for that dinner ahead of time.

Make sure you work out in the morning, if working out is your thing, make sure you get a good you’re well rested, you don’t show up hungry – hunger turns to hanger quick when you’re waiting on those appetizers – and keep your phone at your side, ready to call or message a recovery peer if things get overwhelming.

Be prepared – like a boy scout – and plan ahead. And when you plan ahead, really think it through: who are you going to be with, when are you going to be with them, and do they a) support your recovery or b) threaten your recovery. Answer those questions, come up with a plan to handle the emotions your family members elicit, and you’ll dramatically increase your likelihood of surviving the holidays with your sobriety safe, and your recovery stronger than ever.

3. Community Support Meetings.

Whether you’re traveling to a different city for Thanksgiving or Christmas or staying home, meetings might be a lifesaver during the November-December holidays. That’s no exaggeration: we all know the potential long-term consequences of a real, extended relapse – and none of us want that for ourselves or our recovery peers. Therefore, plan your meetings ahead of time. Most big and medium sized cities have more than enough meetings to meet your needs: early morning, mid-morning, lunch, afternoon, evening – you name the time, and there’s a meeting.

You can plan meetings on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and any time leading up to and after those days. And here’s the amazing thing: literally everyone there is in the same boat, trying to make it through the holidays in as safe and sane a manner as possible. Click here for the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting finder, click here for the Narcotics Anonymous meeting finder, and click here for the SMART Recovery meeting finder. Finally, if you’re in immediate crisis, dial the 988 National Crisis Line or click here to learn about the ways you can find help immediately.

4. Make Your Own Holiday Rituals.

There’s something we haven’t mentioned yet that’s very important: for some people in recovery, family is neither helpful nor what they need. In fact, for some people, family members can impair or impede the recovery process, and create so much emotional turmoil that it’s best to avoid them altogether. Usually it’s a mixed bag: some family members support you completely, others seem determined to upset your peace and create as many challenges to your recovery as possible. Ultimately, the decision is yours: do you risk a toxic environment – with some good parts – or avoid it altogether? We suggest talking this over with your counselor, therapist, sponsor, or recovery peers.

If you decide against going home or being with family for the holidays, we have an excellent alternative suggestion: invite a chosen family of recovery peers and others show support your recovery and start your own holiday traditions. Host a sober Thanksgiving dinner, plan a week full of recovery-friendly Christmas outings, or simply have a small get-together with trusted friends or loved ones and eat too much delicious food. Believe us on this one. There are people near you, or people you already know, who are wondering how they’re going to make the most of the holidays while staying on their program. If you invite them to recovery-friendly holiday outings, we guarantee they’ll be on board, be thankful, and help you make the most out of the holidays this season. And if everything goes well, they can help you plan for the years to come.

5. Gratitude is the Attitude.

You’re here, you’re alive, you’re in recovery: for some of us, those three things themselves are amazing accomplishments – and worth celebrating. They may be more than we expected of ourselves just months ago. If you have a loving and supportive family, we suggest you be grateful for them. Every last cousin, nephew, inappropriate uncle, and aunt-who-knows-best: hug them, tell them you love them, and soak in what the holidays are all about.

In case you forgot, the holidays are all about gratitude.

Giving thanks for your family, for the food at the table, for the time you spend together. And if the family you spend time with this holiday season is your chosen family, rather than your biological family, nothing changes: you can recognize and express your gratitude for their presence in your lives. Our families – biological or chosen – reflect back the best of us, remind us of who we are, why we keep doing the hard work every day, and why we’re grateful: we’re here, we’re alive, and we’re in recovery. That’s cause for celebration, in the true spirit of the holidays.

Your Life, Your Recovery, Your Holidays

One thing you learn in addiction recovery is how relationships affect the experience of your alcohol or substance use disorder (AUD/SUD). You may learn that dysfunctional family relationships or early trauma contributed to your AUD or SUD. Or, you may have learned that you developed an AUD/SUD for entirely different reasons, but your addiction, in turn, had a negative effect on your relationships. In either case, addiction and interpersonal relationships – family or otherwise – are connected.

That’s an important lesson to learn during recovery.

Another important relationship lesson you learn during recovery is about how to set and maintain healthy relationship boundaries. The holidays are perfect for practicing your boundary setting and maintenance skills. For instance, if you really want to travel to see your family for the holidays but only for a little while, you can make that happen. Tell them you’ll come for 2-3 days, then you need to get back to your life.

Alternatively, if you live in the same city or town as your family, you can decide which family events to attend and which to skip. That uncle who thinks recovery is dumb, treatment is a waste of money, and judges you for your chronic medical condition?

Here’s something you really need to know:

You do not have to sit down to dinner with that guy. And if you end up at dinner with that guy, you can get up at any time, go outside, take a walk, call your sponsor, or leave entirely and go to the nearest AA or NA meeting: you’re in control, and you have the power.

And you don’t have to explain yourself, either. You can if you like. Some of your family members may deserve an explanation, and others might not. The point here is that you get to decide. That’s one thing setting boundaries means. You create the lines in your life you will and will not cross. You also create the lines you will and will not allow other people to cross.

With regards to treatment, the lines – or boundaries – you need to create are simple. If something threatens your recovery, don’t let it cross the line, and don’t cross the line towards it. And if something supports your recovery, then by all means, let that something cross that line, and cross the line towards it and embrace it.

The same goes for people: if they support your recovery, then there’s no need to set up a firm boundary. If they threaten your recovery, however, then you absolutely should create a firm, clear boundary, and stick to it.

That’s the best way to ensure that you survive, thrive, and enjoy the holidays this year. Take that advice, combine in with our five-point list above, and we promise: you got this.

The post How to Handle Holiday Triggers During Recovery appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

“Treatment is short, but recovery is long.”

It’s one of the first things people hear when they’re in treatment, and it’s one thing virtually everyone can agree on. Recovery is a lifestyle, and recovery is for life. Once you enter recovery, you’re in recovery for life. That’s true even if you slip or relapse, as long as you get back on your program as soon as possible. With few exceptions, slipping up or having a short relapse doesn’t mean you have so start over completely, because you can use everything you learned before your slip or relapse to support your renewed recovery.

Sure, some 12-step programs will make you restart counting sober or recovery days back at zero, but that’s how they do it. You know your recovery better than anyone, and you get to decide how long you’ve been in recovery: no one else gets to decide that for you.,

Now, back to this idea of recovery being long. We say that because it’s true: recovery is a lifelong journey. We know one thing that contributes to successful, long-term, sustainable recovery is having a sense of purpose and hope for the future. And we know one way to find a sense of purpose and hope for the future is to find gainful employment doing something meaningful.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), work is a reliable predictor of a successful recovery for people diagnosed with an alcohol or substance use disorder (AUD/SUD). Research shows the following benefits of employment for people in recovery.

The Benefits of Employment During Recovery

Compared to people in recovery without steady employment, people in recovery with steady employment show:

• Reduced alcohol and substance use
• Reduced rates of relapse
• Higher rates of abstinence
• Reduced criminal behavior
• Fewer parole violations
• Reduced involvement with the criminal justice system
• Significant improvement in family and social functioning
• Success in transition from treatment to daily community life

That’s what having work can do for a person in recovery. Work not only improves their chances of staying in recovery, but also improves their well-being and practical functioning across almost all areas of life.

Work is Good for Recovery, Working in Recovery May Be Even Better for Recovery

A job can give a person in recovery a purpose and hope for the future. A job in recovery for a person in recovery can give a person a purpose, hope for the future, and add meaning to life. Many people in recovery derive both satisfaction and meaning from helping and supporting other people on their recovery journey.

If you’re interested in working in recovery, then the first question on your mind is probably this:

What kind of jobs can I get?

We’ll answer that question now, with a list of jobs in recovery, from entry level, which require the least amount of education and training, to the highest levels, which require the most education, training, and experience. First, we’ll list the jobs and their basic duties. Next, we’ll review your current options, based on your current level of education and experience.

First, the jobs.

Working in Recovery: What Are the Jobs?

Jobs available in the field of recovery include, but are not limited to the following:

Peer Support Specialist/Peer Recovery Guide (PRSS/PRG)

Peer recovery support specialists or guides are a good way for people with no formal training in counseling to help people in recovery. In most cases, the only educational requirement is a high school degree or general equivalency diploma (GED). PRSSs or PRGs are people in recovery from substance use or co-occurring mental health disorders, themselves, which is their primary job requirement and credential. Their direct experience with recovery allows them to help others who face challenges similar to those they faced, and continue to face, on their recovery journey.

Behavioral Health Technicians

These technicians support doctors and nurses with the hands-on care patients require. They may assist doctors and nurses with basic duties, and help patients with common daily tasks. Other names for this job include paraprofessionals, psychiatric technician, or mental health technician.

Dieticians

Dieticians support patients in recovery in several ways. They may create a special diet for people with health problems associated with substance use, design daily and weekly menus for people in residential treatment, or oversee any cooking and/or food preparation for patients at any level of care.

Administrators

In recovery facilities, administrative positions may include admissions experts, insurance experts, operations specialists, marketing professionals, human resource employees, administrative assistants, financial expert/bookkeepers, and compliance experts.

Maintenance Workers

These essential workers ensure treatment facilities are kept in safe, clean, working order.

Day/Evening Monitors

In residential treatment facilities, counselors and therapists have their hands full. Facility monitors oversee the non-treatment components of residential treatment. They perform bed checks, check attendance in mandatory group sessions, and are on-call to identify and respond to any medical or behavioral health emergency that may arise during regular working hours, or emergencies that occur over night, during off-hours.

Recovery Housing Monitor

When people step down from residential treatment to a less immersive level of care, they often move from a treatment center to a sober living home before returning to their original home or living situation. Sober living homes are what they sound like: homes where people in recovery live with other people in recovery, and support one another through the daily challenges associated with stepping down and making the transition to independent living.

Counselors

Counselors work one-on-one with people in recovery and help them build skills that promote recovery and reduce risk of relapse.

Case Managers

Many treatment centers assign patients a case manager upon intake. A case manager helps a patient navigate the details of the recovery process that are hard to manage while doing the work of recovery. They may help a patient with insurance issues, vocational training, or support them as the seek access to various forms of social support.

Clinical Therapists

Therapists in clinical practice generally have more training than counselors, and work with people in recovery to learn how their emotions and past personal experiences influence and impact their use of alcohol or substances. Clinical therapists are trained in techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and other psychotherapeutic techniques that help people in recovery manage stress, increase self-efficacy, and develop the emotional and psychological skills to successfully manage the challenges of recovery.

Nurses

In health care, nurses fill a variety of roles that are impossible to list in one place. They’re considered the NCOs of medicine (non-commissioned officers, think sergeants in the Army) and do the behind the scenes work that holds everything together. Nurses do everything from taking vital signs to assisting with medical procedures to managing paperwork to making patients feel comfortable, taken care of, and at ease. There are several levels of nursing credentials, from those who perform  basic tasks to those with the authority to write prescriptions.

Physicians Assistants (PA)

Physician’s assistants, practically speaking, occupy a position between nurses and doctors. They perform essential tasks that require extensive training and can prescribe medication, perform medical examinations, and formulate a treatment plan. By law, PAs must perform their duties under the general supervision of a medical doctor, but they’re independent clinicians, and do not require direct supervision for their daily clinical tasks.

Psychiatrists

Psychiatrists are medical doctors who complete a residency, a fellowship, or advanced training in behavioral health or mental health. They have the highest level of training in behavioral health care. They can assess and diagnose mental health disorders and prescribe medication. Psychiatrists can create treatment plans, and deliver treatment of various forms, including standard psychotherapy. As medical doctors, they’re trained in the underlying biology and physiology of mental health disorders, which is essential for the safe and effective treatment of patients at risk of medical complications associated with chronic or severe addiction.

Leadership Roles

People with extensive experience in mental/behavioral health and/or addiction may move into executive leadership roles. They may become a medical director, a clinical supervisor, or operate in some other oversight capacity. In some cases, a person in recovery might become the CEO of a treatment center or group of treatment centers, like our CEO, Joe Pritchard, or the Chief Medical Officer of a treatment center or group of treatment centers, like our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Chris Johnston.

That’s a basic list of the types of jobs available in the field of addiction recovery. We’ll now review take a different angle, and list the jobs available by the level of education and training required.

Working In Recovery: Jobs by Level of Education and Training

We’ll begin at the beginning – jobs that require a high school diploma or general equivalency degree (GED) – and move through to jobs that require medical school and years of additional specialty training. If you’re in recovery and interested in working in the recovery field, you can use this information to learn which jobs are available to you today, based on your level of education and experience.

High School Diploma:

• Requirement: four years of standard education, or a general equivalency diploma (GED)
• Potential jobs in recovery:
  • Counselor: with additional training, a person with a high school diploma or GED can become a National Certified Addiction Counselor, Level 1 (NCAC I)
  • National Certified Peer Recovery Support Specialist (NCPRSS). To learn more about becoming a NCPRSS, click here.
  • Support roles: dieticians, maintenance, administration, security, technicians
  • Day or evening monitor in residential facilities
  • Recovery housing monitor in sober living facilities

Associate’s Degree:

• Requirement: two years as full-time student
• Potential jobs in recovery:
  • All positions available to a person with a high school diploma or GED
  • Registered Nurse
  • Counselor: with additional training, a person with an associate’s degree can become a National Certified Addiction Counselor, Level 1 (NCAC I)

There are various levels of counseling certification available to people with an associate’s degree. Licensure and job titles vary by state. To learn more about counseling positions available to people with an associate’s degree, click here.

Bachelor’s Degree:

• Requirement: four years as a full-time student after high school
• Potential jobs in recovery:
  • All positions available to a person with a high school diploma or GED and/or associate’s degree
  • Addiction/Substance Use Counselor: with additional training, a person with a bachelor’s degree can become a National Certified Addiction Counselor, Level 2 (NCAC II)
  • Social Worker
  • Registered Nurse. There are a number of nursing specialties related to recovery. To learn more about nursing jobs in recovery, visit the website maintained by the American Society of Addiction Nursing (ASAN)
  • Licensed Nurse Practitioner (NP). To learn more about nurse practitioners, please visit the website maintained by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
  • Clinical Supervisor
• Attaining a bachelor’s degree of any sort fulfills requirements to apply for a master’s degree. For people interested in a job in recovery, a psychology or science related degree is preferred, but not strictly necessary.

Master’s Degree:

• Requirement: in most cases, at least two years of coursework after receiving a bachelor’s degree
• Potential jobs in recovery:
  • All positions available to a person with a high school diploma or GED, associate’s degree, and/or a bachelor’s degree
  • Addiction/Substance Use Counselor: with additional training, a person with a bachelor’s degree can become a National Certified Addiction Counselor, Level 2 (NCAC II)
  • Registered Nurse. There are a number of nursing specialties related to recovery. To learn more about nursing jobs in recovery, visit the website maintained by the American Society of Addiction Nursing (ASAN)
  • Licensed Nurse Practitioner (NP). To learn more about nurse practitioners, please visit the website maintained by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP)
  • Physician’s Assistant (PA).
  • Social Worker. At the master’s in social work degree level (MSW), there are various degrees and certifications that enable employment in recovery. These begin with the MSW degree itself, and include positions such as licensed clinical social workers (LCSW) and others.
  • In most cases, gaining licensure at the MS level requires several hundred hours of clinical experience under the supervision of senior clinicians. For specific information on the requirements for each type of certification, please visit the website maintained by the licensing body, the National Association for Addiction Professionals (NAADAC)
• Attaining a master’s degree of any sort fulfills requirements to apply for a doctoral degree. For people interested in advanced clinical degrees related to recovery, a psychology or science related master’s degree is necessary.

Doctoral Degree:

• Requirements: a minimum of two years of study after master’s degree
• Includes degrees up to and including medical doctor (MD) and doctor of osteopathy (D.O.), which both require at least 4 years of additional study after a bachelor’s degree as well as a residency or fellowship. An MD with a specialty in addiction requires additional training and licensure, similar to training in any medical specialty, such as internal medicine or surgery.
• Potential jobs in recovery:
  • All positions available to a person with a high school diploma or GED, associate’s degree, bachelor’s degree, and/or master’s degree
  • Addiction/Substance Use Specialist (Addictionologist): with additional training, a person with an MD or DO can specialize in addiction medicine
  • Psychiatrist
  • Clinical Supervisor
  • Medical Director
  • Chief Medical Officer
• A doctoral degree – PhD, MD, DO – is the highest level of education possible in the field of recovery. It’s called the terminal degree, which means it’s the end of official school, but not learning or growing. A person who commits the time and effort required to attain a doctoral degree in an addiction-related field has a variety of options available to them. These include administrative roles, clinical roles, executive roles, and perhaps most importantly, a degree at this level can prepare an individual to become a policymaker in public service, or a respected advocate in the mental health/addiction space.

That’s the list: some of those jobs take ten years of training to earn the right to even apply, while others are available to people with a high school diploma and personal experience with recovery.

What Next? How Do You Find a Job Working in Recovery?

The best place to start is the treatment center where you received formal treatment, if you did receive formal treatment. They know you, they know your strengths, and can help you decide if this type of work is right work for you. If it is, then they’ll do their best to find an appropriate position with their treatment center or offer a referral to a position at another center. Next, speak to recovery peers at a 12-step meeting or at recovery-friendly social events. Once you use your personal contacts, we recommend checking the SAMHSA website for career opportunities here, or seek an internship or career opportunity working for the 988 Lifeline, the new national mental health/addiction crisis emergency line.

Finally, if you’ve read this entire article and think working in recovery is for you, we encourage you to make sure this work is a good match – because while it is incredibly rewarding, it’s also incredibly challenging, and you want to make sure you’re making the right choice.

Questions to Ask Yourself When Thinking About Working in Addiction/Recovery

• Are you committed to helping others?
• Are you ready? Is your recovery solid? Have you been in recovery for at least one year?
• Have you researched the roles available to you, and understand what it takes to fulfill these roles?
• Will a job in recovery meet your financial needs?
• Are you willing to engage in ongoing professional development, in addition to staying on your own program?
• Will working with people new to recovery have a negative impact on your recovery?
• Do you have the psychological and emotional resilience to maintain your recovery while helping others with theirs?
• Will you be able to separate your vision of recovery from other individuals’ visions of recovery, and accept theirs as equally valid? For instance, if you’re hardcore abstinence only, can you support a person in a medication-assisted treatment (MAT) program?
• Have you checked in with your family, spouse, partner, or friends about you working in recovery? What do they think?

If you can answer these questions with certainty, then we encourage you to pursue a job in recovery. One last thing: if the prospect of going back to school as an adult is intimidating, please understand you are not alone. A study published in 2015 shows this interesting fact:

Close to 75 percent of undergraduate students in the U.S. meet at least one of the three criteria for a non-traditional student: over age 25, employed full-time, and with children.

One final thought: if you’re at the beginning of your educational journey, you can find an entry-level job in recovery, and pursue education and training in the evenings and on weekends. In addition, you may be able to fulfill some clinical requirements while in school, which would help you achieve your long-term employment goals more quickly.

The time is going to pass anyway: why not make the most of it?

We believe in you – and know you can do it.

Why?

You’re in recovery, which means you’re strong, resilient, and capable of doing whatever you set your mind to.

The post How to Find a Job Working in Recovery appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

New National Hotline Launches in July: 988 For Mental Health Emergencies

One year later, we know the creation of this emergency line filled a real need in our society. Many of us have seen what can happen when a person having a mental health emergency calls 911, or a family member calls 911 for support. It’s often a mismatch. Mistakes, misunderstandings, misapplied training, and poorly defined needs combine to create tragic results.

And while the National Suicide Hotline has been operational since 2005, the ten-digit number made it difficult for some people in crisis to make the call. If you’ve never had a serious mental health issue, it may be difficult to understand how dialing seven extra numbers can make a difference, but it does. In a story aired recently on National Public Radio (NPR) a patient in crisis who called 988 reported that it was everything she could do to dial three numbers – and when she reached a person, all she could do was sob.

Thankfully, the trained, compassionate operator stayed on the line with her and, over the course of an hour, talked her through a serious of simple action steps to get her grounded, centered, and help her manage the emergency without harming herself or making a trip to the emergency room.

That’s exactly what 988 is for: helping people manage mental health emergencies by offering the right kind of support from the people with the right kind of training.

988: Basic Facts

• The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free and confidential support to people in suicidal crisis or emotional distress
• 988 is live 24/7/365
• The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline operates with funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is managed by Vibrant Emotional Health
• 988 is an organized network of 200 independent local support centers
• The network is designed to connect people in crisis with local crisis centers, based on the location of the caller

That’s what 988 is, and the anecdote above is an example of the purpose it serves. Now let’s take a look at why we created the 988 support line when we did.

Why Did We Need 988?

A confluence of factors led to the creation of this new national helpline.

First, an increase in mental health problems across almost all age and demographic groups over the past twenty years revealed the need for a fast-access line like 911, dedicated to mental health or suicide emergencies, that didn’t unnecessarily involve law enforcement.

We’ll now look at the data that caused experts to raise their voices and say:

“We’re in the midst of a suicide, mental health, and substance use crisis.”

First, we’ll offer the most recent suicide statistics. We’ll preface these by reporting that the rate of suicide in the U.S. has increased close to 30 percent since 1999 and is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 15-24.

Suicide in 2021

• 47,646 people in the U.S. died by suicide
  • That’s 130 deaths by suicide every day, or almost one suicide every ten minutes
• 12.3 million adults had serious thoughts of suicide
• 3.5 million adults made a suicide plan
• 1.7 million adults attempted suicide

Next, the most recent mental health statistics. Compared to 2018, these figures show significant five-year increases.

Mental Health in 2021: Adults 18+

• Any Mental Illness (AMI):
  • 57.8 million – a 21% increase since 2018
  • 16.5 million received treatment – a 25% increase since 2018
• Serious Mental Illness:
  • 14.1 million – a 25% increase since 2018
  • 9.1 million received treatment – a 26% increase since 2018
• Major Depressive Episode (MDE)
  • 21.0 million – an 18% increase since 2018
  • 12.6 million received treatment – a 10% increase since 2018
• Major Depressive Episode (MDE) with Severe Impairment:
  • 14 million – a 24% increase since 2018
  • 9.1 million received treatment – a 17% increase since 2018

Like the increases in rates of mental illness and depression, rates of co-occurring mental health disorders and substance use disorders have also increased significantly since 2018.

Co-Occurring Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) in 2021: Adults 18+

• AMI and SUD:
  • 5 million total – a 114% increase since 2018
  • 1 million received treatment for either AMI or SUD – a 114% increase since 2018
  • 1 million received treatment for both – a 380% increase since 2018
• SMI and SUD:
  • 4 million total – a 106% increase since 2018
  • 2 million received treatment for either SMI or SUD – a 100% increase since 2018
  • 1 million received treatment for both – a 223% increase since 2018

Finally, here’s the overdose data. Since our primary focus is addiction treatment, these numbers keep us awake at night, and keep us getting out of bed in the morning to support as many people as we can with the latest, evidence-based treatment techniques and innovative approaches.

Opioid Overdose Fatalities (2020, 2021, 2022)

• 2020: 69,061
• 2021: 80,997
• 2022: 82,136

Overdose Fatalities for All Drugs (2020, 2021, 2022)

• 2020: 92,478
• 2021: 107,573
• 2022: 108,500

We began this section with the question, “Why Did We Need 988?”

The data above make it clear. We need 988 because millions of people in the country need help every day – and sometimes they can’t wait.

988 One Year Later: Is it Working?

In a word, yes.

There are still challenges with staffing and infrastructure implementation in some locations, but overall, the new hotline has achieved its primary goal: give first-line emergency support to people in mental health crisis.

Here are some notable facts from the first year of operation:

• The line received over 5 million combined texts, calls, and chats
  • That’s a 35% increase over 2021
• Average wait time on the crisis line decreased from 2 minutes and 39 seconds to 41 seconds
• 988 answered 665,000 texts in from July 2022 to July 2023
  • That’s a 1,135% increase from July 2021 to July 2022
• Younger people prefer texting, while older people prefer calling or chatting online
• In September 2022, 988 created an option for LGBTQIA+ people to talk with a counselor from the Trevor Project. Since then:
  • 6% of callers requested the LGBTQIA+ option
  • 15% of texters requested the LGBTQIA+ option

That’s progress. That’s a way we can support a nation in the midst of a mental health and addiction crisis. What needs to happen next, with 988, is for each state to meet federal guidelines for fully funding their emergency lines. When 988 is fully funded, it will accomplish the following goals for anyone, anywhere in the U.S.

Long-Term Goals: The 988 Mission

• Connect a person in crisis with a counselor who will address their immediate needs and connect them to either ongoing care or local resources
• Decrease overall cost of healthcare with timely intervention
• Minimize the use of law enforcement in mental health crises
• Match the escalating mental health needs of the U.S. population by brining 988 to scale quickly
• Reduce stigma around mental illness and mental health treatment

Once 988 is fully funded in all 50 states, the next step is increasing awareness about 988: a recent poll conducted by Pew Charitable Trusts showed that only 13 percent of adults “have heard of 988 and know its purpose.”

That can change – and we can help.

Spread the Word: 988 for Suicide and Mental Health Crisis Support

Awareness about 988 starts with all of us. When we saw the results of the poll from Pew Charitable Trusts and learned that only 13 percent of adults know about 988 and know what it’s for, we were genuinely surprised. Then we remembered we spend all our working days supporting people in mental health crises, and realized that while we know about virtually everything that happens in the world of mental health and addiction treatment, most people don’t.

Here’s how we can all spread awareness about 988:

1. If you know someone who might need crisis intervention, tell them about 988
2. When the topic of mental health comes up in conversation, tell the people you’re talking to about 988
3. When the topic of addiction or overdose comes up in conversation, tell the people you’re talking to about 988
4. If people are worried about involving the police, or that their family or work peers might find out about their mental health needs, reassure them the 988 line is 100% private and confidential
5. Remind people that 988 is not only for mental health emergencies, but also for emergencies or crises related to substance use

We’ll end by answering a question that may have occurred to you while reading this article:

If Pinnacle Treatment Centers focuses on substance use and addiction, why write an article about mental health emergencies?

Here’s our answer:

A substance use emergency is a mental health emergency.

When we all understand that, we’ll be one step close to reducing stigma, normalizing treatment for mental health and substance use disorders, and helping more people start their path toward long-term, sustainable recovery.

The post Dial 988 For Mental Health Emergencies: New National Crisis Line Helps Millions in First Year appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

Minority Mental Health Awareness Month (MMHAM): 15 Years Strong

Mental Health America (MHA), a non-profit mental health advocacy group, held the first ever Mental Health Month (MHAM)in 1949. To learn more about MHAM, please navigate to the blog section of our website and read these articles:

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Mental Health Awareness Month: The Loneliness Epidemic in the United States

Mental Health Awareness Month: Mental Health Among Older Adults and Seniors

In 2008, to honor the life and work of minority mental health advocate Bebe Moore Campbell, the U.S. Congress passed a law establishing the month of July as Bebe Moore Campbell National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month (MMHAM).

Here’s how she described the need for an increase in awareness about mental health in minority communities, and the importance of events like MMHAM:

“We need a national campaign to destigmatize mental illness, especially one targeted toward African Americans…It’s not shameful to have a mental illness. Get treatment. Recovery is possible.”

Bebe Moore Campbell wrote a book on generational trauma among called “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine” and a children’s book called “Sometimes Mommy Gets Angry” about how a young girl manages growing up with a mother with mental illness.

Her work on trauma and mental health among minority populations in the U.S. earned praise and accolades from politicians and cultural leaders from all walks of life. “Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine” made the New York Times Magazine Most Influential Books of 1992 list, and “Sometimes Mommy Gets Angry” won the Outstanding Literature Award for 1993 from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

However, her enduring legacy is MMHAM. This year, Mental Health America chose the following theme for MMHAM:

Culture, Community, and Connection

Here’s their reasoning behind this choice:

• Minority populations face disproportionate historical trauma and displacement
• These inequities challenge the foundation of minority communities
• Despite decades of systemic attempts to take away power, invalidate/erase history, and prevent success, minority communities find ways to thrive
• Culture, community, and connection are the core components of the minority experience in the U.S.
• When oppression and systemic racism threaten minority communities, culture and connection keep them together

The survival of minority communities in the face of inequity is a testament to their strength and resiliency. In this article, we’ll discuss how MHA and other advocates plan to honor these communities during MMHAM 2023.

First, though, we’ll talk about the big picture – mental health-wise – in the United States right now, with the latest reliable data from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2021 NSDUH).

Mental Health: A Growing Challenge Nationwide

We need to address the overall, big-picture numbers, because they’ll help us understand the broader context of mental health disorder prevalence and mental health treatment in the U.S. Here are some general statistics everyone should know and understand:

• 22.8% of adults in the U.S. had a diagnosable mental illness in 2021
• 5.5% adults in the U.S. had a serious mental illness in 2021
• Ove 50% of mental health conditions appear before age 14, while 75% appear by age 24
• 46% of people who die by suicide have a diagnosed mental illness
• Suicide was the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021
• On average, there’s an 11-year gap between onset of symptoms and seeking treatment for a mental health disorder
• Barriers to mental health include the cost, prejudice, discrimination, and overall structural inequity (see below)
• Only 47.2% of people diagnosed with any mental illness receive the treatment they need

Let’s look at the first and last bullet points side-by side.

Each year, 22.8% in the U.S. have a mental health disorder that meets clinical criteria, but only 47.2% receive treatment for that mental health disorder. Those figures tell us that in 2021, with a total of 57.8 million people diagnosed with a mental health disorder, over 27 million people did not receive the professional support and care they needed.

That’s why we need mental health awareness month overall. Now let’s look at why we need something like Minority Mental Health Awareness Month – starting with the significant barriers to care members of minority populations face every day.

Minority Mental Health: What Are Barriers to Care?

Barriers to care refers to factors that restrict access to mental health treatment by members of minority groups. Evidence published in MMHAM Toolkit shows that minority groups experience the following barriers to care with disproportionate frequency, compared to members of majority demographic groups.

Barriers to Care: Minority Groups in the U.S

• Structural inequity in health care system
• Cost
• Lack of insurance
• Inadequate insurance
• Stigma around mental illness
• Stigma around mental illness treatment
• Inadequate diversity/representation in mental health care and mental health care providers
• Inadequate cultural competence in mental health care and among mental health care providers
• Language barriers
• Generational trauma resulting in distrust in the health care system
• Inadequate funding in public social safety net programs, i.e. Medicare, Medicaid

In addition, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) published a report in 2017 called the “2017 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report,” which reached the following conclusions. In the U.S., members of minority demographic groups:

• Have less access to mental health services than members of majority groups
• Use community mental health services less frequently than members of majority groups
• Use emergency departments as basic health care more frequently than members of majority groups
• Receive lower-quality care, overall, than members of majority groups

That’s why we need MMHAM. Members of minority groups in the U.S. simply don’t experience equity in health care or mental health care. The long-term goal is what the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) called mental health equity. The CDC defines this as follows:

“Mental health equity is the state in which everyone has a fair and just opportunity to reach their highest level of mental health and emotional well-being.”

With the concept of mental health equity front of mind, let’s take a look at the latest data on mental health among minorities in the U.S.

Minority Mental Health: Facts and Figures

The following information is available in two easy-to-find locations online. The first is the 2021 NSDUH, which we mention above. The second is the resource page for MMHAM maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (OMH).

First, we’ll share the overall prevalence of mental illness for the main demographic groups in the U.S.

Any Mental Illness/Serious Mental Illness: 2021

Two or More Races:

• AMI: 34.9%
• SMI: 8.2%

American Native:

• AMI: 26.6%
• SMI: 9.3%

Asian:

• AMI: 16.4%
• SMI: 2.8%

Black:

• AMI: 21.4%
• SMI: 4.3%

Hispanic/Latino:

• AMI: 20.7%
• SMI: 5.1%

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander:

• AMI: 18.1%
• SMI: 6.3%

White:

• AMI: 23.9%
• SMI: 6.1%

Please notice two things about these statistics: the rates of AMI an SMI among people of two or more races and American Natives. For AMI, multiracial people experience rates that are close to 50 percent higher than most single-race demographic groups. For SMI, multiracial people experience rates that are 25-75 percent higher than most single-race demographic groups. Also, for AMI, American Natives experience rates that are 30-35 percent higher than most demographic groups. For SMI, American Natives show the highest rate of all demographic groups, with rates are between 50 and 350 percent greater than other demographic groups.

Next, let’s look at rates of depression and depression treatment. In the NSDUH, major depressive disorder is a proxy metric for a clinical diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD).

Depression and Depression Treatment Among Minority Groups: Facts and Figures

These statistics are also available online from the 2021 NSDUH and the U.S. Office of Minority Health (OMH). Here’s the data:

Major Depressive Episode (MDE), MDE with Severe Impairment, Treatment

Two or More Races:

• MDE: 13.9%
  • Received treatment: 60.7%
• MDE with Severe Impairment: 9.9%
  • Received treatment: (data not available)

American Indian or Alaska Native:

• MDE: 11.2%
  • Received treatment: (data n/a)
• MDE with Severe Impairment: 7.7%
  • Received treatment: (data n/a)

Asian:

• MDE: 13.8%
  • Received treatment: (data n/a)
• MDE with Severe Impairment: 10.0%
  • Received treatment: (data n/a)

Black or African American:

• MDE: 6.7%
  • Received treatment: 51%
• MDE with Severe Impairment: 4.6%
  • Received treatment: 52.5%

Hispanic/Latino:

• MDE: 7.9%
  • Received treatment: 58.5%
• MDE with Severe Impairment: 5.4%
  • Received treatment: 59.7%

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander:

• MDE: 5.1%
  • Received treatment: (data n/a)
• MDE with Severe Impairment: 4.7%
  • Received treatment: (data n/a)

White

• MDE: 8.9%
  • Received treatment: 64%
• MDE with Severe Impairment: 6.1%
  • Received treatment: 68.6%

From this set of data, please also note the information on multiracial people. For people of two or more races, these figures show rates of major depressive (MDE) 55 percent higher than White people, 108 percent higher than Black people, and 75 percent higher than Hispanic people. These figures also show rates of MDE with Severe Impairment among multiracial people that are 65% higher than White people, 118 percent higher than Black people, and 85 percent higher than Hispanic people.

We’ll also make another point about this data set. When we look at the treatment rates, we may be tempted to think that rates near or over 60 percent – as we see above – are good news we should be satisfied with.  We may think, “those rates are actually pretty good.”

This is where our unconscious stigma against and misunderstanding of mental health shows itself clearly. Those treatment rates are not good enough. The fact most of us likely think they’re acceptable reveals that we have a long, long way to go, with regards to understanding the needs of people who need mental health treatment. Think of it like this: if only 70 percent – the highest number we see above – of people with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, or cancer received treatment, it would likely be an enormous public scandal and we’d probably declare a public health emergency.

Celebrating Culture, Connection, and Community: How We Can All Support Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

If we’re bring honest, we need to recalibrate our goals and expectations and consider the need for better health for members of minority demographic groups year-round, not just during the month of July. Therefore, when we offer the two lists below, please consider raising awareness not only this month for MMHAM, but year ‘round.

The first thing we all need to do is understand and address inequities in the social determinants of health (SDOH), which include:

• Economic stability
• Education access and quality
• Healthcare access and quality
• Neighborhood and built environment
• Social and community context

Those are nationwide, structural forces that we need to remediate in order to bring full equity to mental health care for minority demographic groups. With regards to specific actions we can all take to raise awareness about minority mental health, the organizers at MHA compiled a brief list, which we share below. For a full examination of what public, private, and other organizations can do to raise awareness for MMHAM, please download their full toolkit here.

Mental Health America: How to Be an Advocate for Minority Mental Health Awareness Month

Members of any community can advocate for:

1. Increased access to essential resources. These include:

• Physical and mental health programs
• Functional, accessible community infrastructure
• WiFi
• Healthy food sources

2. Culturally competent social services.
3. Culturally competent mental healthcare providers
4. Educational opportunities at all levels
5. Decreased us vs. them policing and surveillance. The community policing model is associated with:

• Decreased police and community violence
• Stronger feelings of safety
• Enhanced trust between communities and public officials

We’ll close with a quote from the MMHAM toolkit, which is a reminder that you don’t have to be a member of a minority community to care about, support, or advocate for better minority mental health:

“There is power in numbers, and there is always a need for solidarity from allies who are willing to uplift and give space to those within the communities they support. When allies show support and solidarity in public and action-oriented ways, they can…promote wellness, increase social power, and improve cross-cultural unity.”

The post Minority Mental Health Month 2023: Culture, Connection, Community appeared first on Pinnacle Treatment Centers.

The most important people we connect to, though, are the people in our communities who need treatment for alcohol or drug addiction.

Meeting Patients Where They Are: Any Door is the Right Door

We find them and open a dialogue – and the first thing we do is listen. We listen to anyone who wants to talk about their experience with addiction – if that’s what they want to talk about. If they don’t want to talk about the challenges they face with drug or alcohol addiction, we listen anyway. If they want to them talk about their family, their job, their hopes for the future or the hardships in their past, we listen. We listen for any sign they’re ready for treatment. If we hear it, then we talk about what we can do to remove any barriers to treatment and give them access to care they think may have been out of reach, for whatever reason.

Then, if and when they decide to take that step, we help them get treatment they need – whether it’s at a Pinnacle Treatment Center or somewhere else.

You may wonder who has the time to do all that community outreach. Who has the time to talk to walk through forgotten urban neighborhoods or drive to under-resourced rural towns where we know the opioid crisis has hit the hardest? Who makes it their business to go where people are at increased risk of addiction, overdose, and death? Whose job is it to find ways to help, even when it looks like help is out of reach?

We have a special group of people on the leading edge of these community connection initiatives:

Pinnacle Patient Care Navigators

About Our Patient Care Navigators

To understand our PCNs, you need to understand who they help.

We can make it simple: they help everyone.

At Pinnacle we believe that everyone means everyone. Not just a person with good insurance, a reliable car, consistent childcare, a job, and a place to live. Don’t get us wrong: we help them, too – but the thing is, a person with good insurance, a car, and a job might not need too much help navigating the healthcare system and finding the treatment and support they need. They might need someone to tell them how much treatment can help. They may need someone to educate them and counter the stigma around addiction and addiction treatment. We do all that for them. They might need a number to call – and we give them the right number that will connect them to the appropriate support.

However, there are countless people out there right now who don’t have those basic resources.

Supporting Our Most Vulnerable Citizens

Here’s what we mean.

Let’s say one of our PCNs gives a talk at a local high school in rural Appalachia. The counselors tell us that too many of their high school seniors are dropping out of school before they graduate. Some end up on the street, homeless, addicted to methamphetamine, or opioids, or alcohol, or all three at the same time. The counselor might tell us exactly where to find some of these kids: on the curb at the filling station on the edge of town, between the old train depot and the abandoned auto parts manufacturer.

A Pinnacle PCN will go find that filling station.

They’ll find the people the counselor told them about – and they’ll listen. They might talk to two or three kids that are just hanging out and don’t need help – but our PCN will give out business cards and ask them to call if they ever do need help. Then, after hours of sitting on the curb and listening, they’ll find someone who does need help: a 20-year-old single mom who needs treatment but has no idea how to get insurance, find childcare for her toddler, or get a ride to treatment even if she can get insurance and somehow afford a babysitter.

For that mom, things look hopeless.

For that mom, our PCNs lead with hope – but hope without action is just a dream.

So our PCN helps her find insurance. They help her find childcare. They find her a ride to treatment. If she’s in trouble with the law, they help her find her way out of that maze. They help her with whatever she needs. The identify whatever keeps her from getting the treatment that will can save her life and improve the chances she and her child can thrive.

It might not all happen at once, but when our PCN leaves that first conversation with that young single mom, they leave her with hope. Hope that she can get the treatment she needs. Hope that she can escape the painful, destructive cycles of addiction and create a productive and fulfilling life for herself and her child.

What Kind of Person Makes a Patient Care Navigator?

A person who’s not scared of that situation we just described – or the endless permutations of that situation playing out in communities all over our country.

A person who has a personal connection to addiction makes an authentic PCN. That connection may be that they, themselves, are in recovery. It may mean they had a parent, sister, or cousin who’s been in and out of rehab for 20 years. It may mean they had a friend from high school die from overdose when they were far too young. Or they had an uncle who attempted suicide when he got addicted to opioids after a work accident, then lost his job during the pandemic, and lost his will to live.

A person who leads with their heart, knows they can help, and is compelled to find a job, a career, or a lifestyle where they can help people every day.

A person who’s resilient and can handle the successes as well as the failures. Because that mom on the curb?

She might not ever call.

Resiliency, Commitment, and Patience

If she doesn’t call, we admit we failed.

In fact, we evaluate our PCNs on the number of calls they receive – not the number of “prospects” they convert to “customers.”

If that mom doesn’t call, it hurts. But our PCNs process those emotions, get right with themselves, and get back out there the very next day and do it all over again, with hope in their hearts, the willingness to listen in their minds, and knowledge about support and treatment at the tip of their tongue.

They get back out there and look for someone to help. For someone to give hope.

To be a Pinnacle PCN, you need to have a big heart. The biggest heart. You need to know that people with the biggest hearts experience the greatest heartbreak – and you need to be able to handle that. Because as a Pinnacle PCN, you talk people off the ledge every day. The literal and figurative ledge. As a PCN, you need to be able to reach out your hand to the hand that needs holding. You need to be committed to wrapping your arms around that person and surrounding them with both the emotional support and medical services they need.

You need to be driven by love and service. And despite the hardship and the heartbreak – and the fact your feet are tired and your phone is ringing – you need to know that in the end, we all have a stake in healing the addiction crisis in our country.

You need to believe love will win and hope will win. That’s what gets you out of bed in the morning.

That’s what our PCNs do. They lead with hope. No matter how significant the barriers to treatment or obstacles to care appear to the person who needs that treatment and that care, we leave them with the hope they can overcome those barriers. We help them realize they can change their life for the better.

Are you our next PCN?

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