The Phoenix · Betting Without Boundaries Has a High Cost Bray Ash had a good family, a good life, and a good future. When online gambling took over his mind, he could have lost it all. Fortunately, he got help, but not before a small fortune ― even his student loan money ― was lost …
The Phoenix · From Addict to Mentor: A Story of Hope Despite his gregarious, nice-guy persona, Randy Anderson was a hard case. He didn’t want to live anymore after his wife left him, so he took to using more drugs and selling them, hoping that would do him in. Good at sales and determined to …
The Phoenix · Tiny Solutions Give Homes to the Homeless What does it take for people living on the streets to find a place to call home? The prevailing model in government and social service agencies for addressing homelessness is a “housing first” approach. Get the person out of the elements and into a safe …
The Phoenix · Don’t Love Them to Death. Get Help. Intervention is a highly effective way to get someone into addiction treatment. When it’s led by a professional interventionist, that is. Plenty of people try on their own to convince the addicted person to stop using and go to treatment. They might even stage their …
The Phoenix · Get Up and Sing: The Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge Choir Sunday morning is not the time for sleeping off a bad night of boozing or shooting up. Nor is it time for making more broken promises to yourself that you know you’re going to break. At least that’s true for choir …
The Phoenix · Head to the Barn to Horse Around Anne K. was having a bad day. An unpleasant experience while shopping set off massive feelings of anxiety. Her husband knew what would calm her. He pulled up on his phone a photo of one of Anne’s horses with a rainbow in view behind it. …
The Phoenix · Where the Truth Lies (Why We Lie and How to Stop) We all lie more than we’d like to think we do – to look good, to avoid trouble, to keep safe. But addicts lie as if their life depends on it. They say and do whatever is necessary to hide their …
The Phoenix · Where Is Your Hope? Is your hope these days in a vaccine? A new political or economic vision? More public attention to ending racism or climate warming? Whatever we look to outside of ourselves is always transient. A more reliable basis for hope comes from within our own hearts and minds. What …
Time for your treatment group meeting? Plop down in your favorite spot at home, get on Zoom, and you’re there. Virtual counseling for people in non-residential addiction treatment is the current norm and will likely be commonplace even when COVID-19 is tamed. This at-home treatment option has plenty of benefits, according to both patients and …
Two active artists in recent protests tell of mixing painting with addiction recovery. For years, Cybin was deep into heroin and coke. He felt all their effects. On a wintry day, he was on the verge of suicide. He imagined his body slamming onto the ice below the Lake Street bridge. Eventually Cybin got clean, …
