Brandon Novak Visits Awakenings Recovery Center

Brandon Novak—professional skateboarder, MTV celebrity, and recovery advocate—came to Awakenings Recovery Center on June 17th to give clients hope and inspiration. All current inpatient and outpatient clients attended this wonderful event. At a young age, Novak was discovered for his skateboarding by Tony Hawk and was the first skateboarder to be endorsed by Gatorade. He […]
TruHealing In-Network With Evernorth For Foundations Recovery Center
Effective June 20th, TruHealing is in-network with Evernorth for Foundations Recovery Center. Evernorth is a subsidiary of the Cigna Corporation with extensive behavioral health options “built on 45+ years of experience committed to quality and affordability, accessibility, and compassionate support.”[1] Foundations Recovery Center provides top-quality Partial Hospitalization, Intensive Outpatient and Outpatient programs in Baltimore, Maryland. […]
Coping With Lost Time, Relationships, or Opportunities From Active Addiction
In talking to other people in recovery, I know I’m not the only one who has felt disappointed or sad about things they lost in active addiction. I’ve regretted the time I wasted, the relationships that ended, and the things I could have done differently. I still get these thoughts sometimes, but as I’ve gotten […]
On Being Ready
There were people in my life who wanted me to get sober long before I did. Your friends, partners, or family can very much want you to change, but it won’t happen until you’re ready. There’s an idea that people only get sober after they hit rock bottom, but this is a myth. Sure, it […]
Having New Experiences in Recovery

There is no one cause of addiction—with a lot of factors contributing—and no one quality that all people with addiction have. That said, a trait many in recovery (myself included) share is the desire for novelty. According to an article in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, “On the behavioral level, both human and rodent studies […]
Perfectionistic Tendencies in Recovery

There are stereotypes that people with addiction are irresponsible, and that people with perfectionistic tendencies are reliable to a fault. But these two can be the same person. Perfection doesn’t exist, making the pursuit of it distressing. It’s not unusual to get burnt out when things inevitably don’t go as planned. Some perfectionists and people […]
Self-Advocacy in Recovery

Active addiction can make you feel out of control and unsure of who you are, which means many of us learn self-advocacy when we get sober. You can’t ask for what you need when you don’t know what that is. It’s important to learn what’s best for your recovery and advocate for it, because what […]
Moving Past Fears of Sobriety

When it comes to getting sober, many people have lots of starts and stops. Six years before I got sober for what I hope to be the last time, I quit drinking for a couple months—only to pick up right where I left off. There were many times throughout active addiction that I tried to […]
A Conversation With Carl Erik Fisher About His Book the Urge: Our History of Addiction

I spoke with Carl Erik Fisher over Zoom about his book The Urge: Our History of Addiction. Fisher is an addiction physician and bioethicist. He is an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University’s Division of Law, Ethics, and Psychiatry, and maintains a private psychiatry practice focused on addiction. Fisher’s writing has appeared in […]
Breaking Addiction Cycles

Addiction is a cycle. When you’ve been using drugs or alcohol chronically, your brain comes to expect them. It adjusts to the floods of dopamine by lowering dopamine receptors, making it harder for you to feel pleasure from other, healthier activities. Additional changes in the brain—like alterations to the prefrontal cortex, which helps with impulse […]