Today marks the 12th annual International Overdose Awareness Day. The idea behind this day is to commemorate the lives of those lost to drug overdoses. This event originated in Melbourne, Australia in 2001. A woman named Sally Finn, the manager of a Salvation Army needle and syringe program, founded International Overdose Awareness Day in response to the lives she’d seen destroyed by overdoses. This is an event of remembrance. International Overdose Awareness Day presents an opportunity to honor those whose lives were lost to their addiction, to acknowledge and honor your grief as a result of that loss, and an …

The most recent study on marijuana has linked smoking marijuana in adolescence to a long-term drop in IQ. Marijuana, the innocent “natural” drug is often falsely viewed as being relatively harmless, and it’s sometimes even assumed to be a rite of passage in adolescence. Working in recovery, and being surrounded by recovery professionals, I can tell you the idea of harmlessness has been refuted time and time again. While the effects aren’t as overtly detrimental as amphetamine use or synthetic pot, there remains a definitive and negative effect on the developing brain in pot smokers, particularly when they start in …

Noelle Rodriguez. Psy.D, is one of our primary therapists at our Outpatient program. She is truly an incredible woman who carries the essence of recovery and compassion in her bones. I have often said that if I were a troubled teen, Noelle would be my mentor. She truly cares about those she works with and does it with a divine mix of tough love and compassion—maintaining those boundaries a struggling teen so desperately needs. Noelle is a wonderful example of someone who has dedicated her life to service. She persistently gives back that which has been given to her—tenfold—always leading …

Patrick Schettler is one of the most profoundly helpful people I know.  He has his finger on the pulse of Visions and is able to jump in and be of service whenever and wherever necessary.  Patrick’s adventures at Visions started out with him working as a program aide in 2006. He later moved on to hold various positions of leadership over the years: He’s been our Lead Program Aide, held the position of Educator, and he currently holds the position of Operations Coordinator. In truth, Patrick epitomizes service in the most genuine way. He doesn’t do it because he has …

As summer fades, we begin to feel the pull of school and all that it entails. Walking into any store right now will confirm this, hook, line and sinker. Target has their entire back section stocked to the brim with back to school supplies. Seriously. It’s happening right now and we can’t avoid it. It’s time to wipe the sand from beneath our feet and get ready to rock our backpacks once again. Often, the dilemma for those who got sober or stayed sober through the summer break is this:  How do we navigate going back to school without getting …

What is grief? Is it death? Is it abandonment? Is it the fading of Summer? Thinking of it in this broad way makes me realize it can be anything that makes us feel the pull of grief and loss: that deep sadness which tends to anchor us to darkness. Over the years, I have become more in touch with how much grief effects behavior. Grief might really be the underlying riptide we try to manage with drugs and alcohol. It might be the very thing that drives a mental illness into overdrive: our anxiety, depression, impulse control disorders, et al. …

submitted by Grayson I have learned a lot about myself in treatment so far. I have learned that I have a lot of insecurities about myself and that was a large factor in why I was using drugs. I was using so much because I didn’t want to feel anything at all. I didn’t want to think about if people liked me or didn’t want to be around me, so I would use drugs to drown out those thoughts. I know that a big reason why I feel like I can’t talk to people and have conversations is because I …