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I remember it all too well. I was in 4th grade and started to develop this fixation with the number 8. Little by little, it crept its way into my life and began to dictate how I functioned. It started by counting my steps in increments of 8. Then it evolved into having to take…
September is National Recovery Month. It’s a welcome focus on a topic that doesn’t get enough attention: that recovery IS possible, and it happens every day. But of course, so do overdoses. Far too many of them. The numbers are staggering. More than 70,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2017. That’s a lot of lost family…
I feel fortunate to live in an age where hard work has been done to prove that addiction to drugs and alcohol is, without question, a chronic disease. The medical community agrees on this. Now for the bad news. This research and science is often not well known or understood by people outside the addiction-recovery…
The term “mental health problem” is similar to the term “injury” in that there are multiple types, severities, and treatments for each. Just like doctors treat a sprained ankle differently than they treat a broken ankle, mental health professionals don’t treat mild depression the same way they treat severe depression. There’s an important difference between…
When a family is in the midst of a challenge that heightens tensions and emotions, it can be helpful for them to remember the saying, “There’s no such thing as a ‘normal’ family.” Every family has its own unique dynamics, and for that reason, a one-size-fits-all solution is rarely the most effective approach. Feinberg Consulting…
A concussion is a brain injury that can be caused by a blow to the head, or body, that disrupts the normal functioning of the brain. Often, people forget that concussions are actually traumatic brain injuries (TBI). Traumatic brain injuries in sports are one of the most common sources of TBIs. Traumatic brain injuries (or…
There are many reasons families don’t immediately take action when a loved one is exhibiting signs of addiction. A lack of education about what addiction is (and isn’t) is a contributing factor. And so are feelings of shame. In our society, there’s an undeniable stigma around addiction. We still cling to the false belief that…
Alcoholism is widely misunderstood because it functions differently than most diseases. People with Type-2 Diabetes, for example, are asked at a minimum to remove problematic foods from their diets. When they do this, they get better. The cure for alcoholism isn’t as simple as “stopping the drinking.” With real alcoholism, removing alcohol from a person’s…
It can be challenging to know how to act around someone who has dementia. We have sympathy for them, of course, but that’s not always helpful. We know it’s not their fault. What we don’t always know is how to respond when they’re repeating themselves or confusing the past with the present. What behaviors should…
Years ago, my sponsor gave me some incredibly valuable advice. At the time, I was waiting tables at an exclusive restaurant in South Florida. I was regularly interacting with people who were fabulously wealthy, and I used to joke that every shift I would meet at least one person whose watch was worth more than…
The Disability Rating Scale (DRS) was developed in the late 1970s by M. Rappaport as a more accurate alternative to the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), which was thought to be insensitive in assessing Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The Disability Rating Scale was established and tested with older juvenile and adult individuals with moderate and severe traumatic brain injury…
When our office receives a call about someone struggling with addiction or substance abuse, it is most often from a concerned family member. Their loved one’s addiction has gotten to the point where it is not only affecting his or her wellbeing, but also the wellbeing of the family system. It’s only recently that we’ve…