I hope everyone's 2023 has gotten off to a fantastic start! The new year is a great time to start fresh, set new goals, and make resolutions, whether that's running a marathon or working toward a more personal goal like continuing sobriety or working on your mental health.
New Year's resolutions are a continuous process that doesn't begin and end in January. In a famous quote from Carl Rogers, he states that, "the good life isn't something to be achieved but rather something we must constantly be working towards." Every day is a new chance to grow, learn, and experience new things that will help us on our journeys, whether it entails working towards a specific goal or simply being open to new experiences and learning opportunities.
What are you looking forward to in the year ahead?
News
We are proud of our recent involvement with REAL, a learning platform for parents with children facing substance use disorder.
We know that it can be difficult for parents to find guidance and comprehensive information on one easy-to-use website as they navigate their child's substance use disorder. REAL helps parents learn about and manage topics including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment by providing insight from experts and parents with first-hand experience of substance use disorders.
To learn more about this fantastic new platform, visit the link below:
The following is a round-up of our monthly blogs in case you missed any on our social media pages.
For many people, the holidays are a time of joy and celebration. The New Year is often a time for seeing friends and family, eating, drinking, and going to parties. There can also be the pressure to start fresh in the new year, taking on new habits and hobbies or quitting current ones. For many people, it is a time for reflection on all that has happened in their lives over the past year and to set goals for the next one. This can bring a mix of emotions, including gratitude, guilt, hope, and stress. Here are five tips for experiencing the joy of the holiday season with minimal stress.
We all experience many emotions throughout our lives that, at times, may be confusing and difficult to manage. Understanding the eight basic emotions we are born with can help identify and manage how we feel.
Various psychologists have attempted to identify the different types of emotions that humans experience. One prominent theory is psychologist Robert Plutchik’s “wheel of emotions.” The wheel of emotions looks a lot like the color wheel. It consists of eight basic emotions in the middle and a mixture of others spiraling outward.
Childhood experiences and relationships shape who we become and determine how we act as adults. The degree to which our basic needs were met as children can affect relationships, mental health, and feelings of security and safety and can also cause us to develop schemas.
Unmet needs in childhood can be caused by a wide variety of factors such as parental illness or incarceration, poverty and displacement, a lack of love and attention, and undiagnosed health conditions or disorders such as autism spectrum disorder.
The potency of marijuana has been rising for the past 50 years, with THC levels in some cannabis products now close to 100 percent. Consequently, there is a serious concern for the impact on health - particularly for young people, whose brains are still developing.
The main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which stimulates the area of the brain that responds to pleasure. This causes dopamine - the chemical responsible for feelings of joy, satisfaction, and relaxation - to be released.
