What Is Co-occurring Substance Use?
If your life is tangled up in substances and a separate mental health issue at the same time, you’re not alone. You could be trying to suppress symptoms of bipolar disorder, clinical depression, anxiety, or another mental health issue with [...]
Do You Need Alcohol To Unwind?
You may worry that you or someone you love has started to rely on alcohol just to regulate their emotions. Perhaps you find yourself unable to sleep without it, or you've noticed that you can’t enjoy a night out without [...]
How Does Alcohol Affect Gut Health?
Finally connecting the dots between your drinking habits and poor gut health may feel disappointing, especially when you’re dealing with ongoing stomach discomfort, poor digestion, or unpredictable bathroom habits. In this article, you’ll learn what gut health means, how drinking [...]
Online Support Groups for People in Recovery
When you leave residential treatment, support groups will play an integral role in helping you build the foundation for lasting recovery. While in-person meetings are generally preferable, they're not always convenient. You may work erratic hours, have issues with transportation, [...]
Understanding Holistic Recovery Treatment
Holistic treatment in recovery means looking at yourself as a whole person, not just focusing on substance use or how to avoid it. At St. Joseph Institute, we combine physical, emotional, spiritual, and social care so that healing can touch [...]
Why Do People With Alcohol Use Disorder Shake?
Have you or a loved one ever experienced frightening shakes or tremors upon cutting alcohol out of your diet? Or maybe you’ve been discouraged from going substance-free because the shakes are too distracting or alarming. You may feel your body [...]
How To Cope With an Alcoholic Family Member
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is categorized as a sustained, noticeable behavior on the part of an individual that involves being unable to control how much they drink or being unable to stop drinking despite the consequences. Examples of AUD behavior [...]
Substance Use and Appetite: Understanding The Connection
While many people may not automatically realize it, nutrition can be the thread that ties mind, body, and spirit together. If you’ve struggled to nourish yourself with a healthy, diverse diet during or after substance use, you’re not the only [...]
Signs of Emotional Fatigue and Tips For Rest
If you’re already in residential treatment—or newly out of it—you might be wondering why you’re breaking down emotionally. When you live with substance use disorder (SUD), the brain’s reward and stress systems often change. For example, alcohol can seem helpful [...]
Next Steps After Relapse
Returning to a behavior you’ve worked to stop, like drinking, using, or gambling, is often called a relapse, and it can feel devastating in the worst of cases and defeating in the best. Still, relapsing may look different for everyone. [...]