“We used to think that our fate was in the stars. Now we know, in large measure, that our fate is in our genes.” ~James Watson (Nobel Laurate) It is 6:30 AM in San Antonio; on a clear sunny day, the alarm goes off, and Mike wakes up still tired but with new hope. Mike D, at 35 years, is...

Anxiety Can Be Our Friend We, as humans, need anxiety. Why? Anxiety is information. It tells us when we must freeze, flee, or fight and mobilizes our body to respond quickly, without thinking. Without anxiety, we would not be able to avoid real threats to our well-being. However, we also feel anxiety about imagined threats that may or may not be...

The Pandemic of 2020 has forced many of us to maintain social distancing as we determine what it means to be alone and embrace our solitude. Many agree that being alone is an unnatural state. People have an innate tendency to seek out other people because human connection is one of the joys of being human. We connect for safety,...

We hear a lot about Serenity in recovery programs. For me personally, developing Serenity meant no longer being codependent to four dynamics when they show up around me: Jealousy, spitefulness, moodiness and rudeness. It was no small thing to recover from the tendency to take those vibes personally. In fact, it was hard work. Even still, if I don’t monitor myself, I can get pulled in. Not that I haven’t at times veered...

In our global community, the concept of poverty has varied dependent upon our ideological perspectives. Our perspectives about the causation of poverty are frequently skewed by our relationship to poverty itself. There are many variables that might be the causation of poverty: if we have never fallen unto hard times, if we have never had to live paycheck-to-paycheck, then...

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an especially difficult time for everyone as the contagious nature of the virus has forced people to socially distance and isolate themselves from friends, family and their support groups. The difficulties of isolation are even more pronounced for people recovering from opioid addiction. Recovery is a difficult process and a strong support system is...

Hey, I have a question for you. Yes you! You know who you are. You're the one who hates. The one who goes around bashing people and spreading the stigma about a disease you know nothing about. You belong to a group that posts on social media terrible opinions about people you have never met. You are the person...

Grandparents often play two roles when their children have a substance use illness. One is the role of the “Giving Tree” and the other one I would like to share is a more positive role that they play. Grandparents are often the ones that step in and come to the rescue to save their grandchildren before they become “heroin...

It has been a year of chaos, confusion, and complete madness. The pandemic is not the only thing to blame for the pandemonium plaguing our global community. For many within the medical community, from the first responders, nurses, physicians, paramedics, psychologists, therapists, social workers, and other essential workers, there has been an increased demand upon their overall performance. The...

Emotional Trauma and Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs) are robust risk factors for adolescent and adult neuropsychiatric disorders. Childhood adversity includes neglect, attachment disorder, physical and emotional trauma, and sexual abuse. Recently, investigators at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin demonstrated that childhood adversity and maltreatment are, “by far the most reliable predictive factors for adolescent...