Insights · Tag
Addiction Recovery
Recovery is not a straight line. It is setbacks, restarts, and the slow work of rebuilding identity after addiction, trauma, or loss.
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How to Talk to a Family Member About Getting Help for Addiction
A plain guide for families: when to bring up addiction help, what to say, what to skip, and what to do if your family member says no.
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Who to Call First When You Need Addiction Help
A plain guide to the first call for addiction help: when to use 988, what SAMHSA's National Helpline does, how to find free or low-cost treatment, and what to ask a program.
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Grief After an Overdose Death: What Families and Friends Face
A plain guide to grief after someone you love dies of an overdose: the stigma, the questions that do not go away, what to say about the cause of death, when grief needs more help, and where to find people who understand.
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When a Loved One Comes Home From Jail or Prison in Early Recovery: A Family Guide
A plain family guide for when someone in early recovery comes home from jail or prison: what to ask before release, the overdose window, house agreements, how to talk, and how to keep your own strength.
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Structured Grief Group Facilitation: Guardrails That Keep Sharing Safe
What structured grief group facilitation means: room agreements, processing sessions, and identity work that complements licensed grief therapy.
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Grieving Caroline in Recovery: Faith and the Choice Not to Go Back
Andrew Drasen on grieving his fiancée Caroline as someone who has struggled with addiction: why grief raises relapse risk, what helped, and how faith got him through.
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Fear and Faith Cannot Live in the Same Place
From MSDF to Corrections Today, Milwaukee groups, and Better Moose. The money is tight. Fear and faith cannot live in the same place.
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Moral Injury vs PTSD: A Framework Map for Peer Leaders
Plain-language map of moral injury vs PTSD for peer-led groups (including veterans circles): definitions, overlap, facilitator boundaries, and when to refer to VA or clinical care.
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What to Say When a Loved One Relapses
Plain language for families after a relapse: words that keep dignity and accountability, what to avoid, boundaries you can keep, and how to point toward help.
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Grief Is Misplaced Love
After losing Caroline, Andrew faced the identity questions that follow suicide loss. Grief as misplaced love, and how that pain became a lantern for other people.
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Identity-Based Addiction Recovery vs. 12-Step and the Disease Model
How identity-based recovery relates to 12-step and disease-model care: recovery beyond sobriety, without replacing meetings, sponsorship, or clinical care.
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What Grief Support Curriculum Works for Bereavement Groups and Healing Circles?
Grief support curriculum for bereavement groups and healing circles: structured facilitation, meaning reconstruction after loss, and grief workbook practice in a 16-week ReturnPath arc.
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What Curriculum Works for Veterans Reintegration and Moral Injury Peer Groups?
Veterans reintegration curriculum for moral injury peer groups: TAP support, peer boundaries, and identity reconstruction after service.
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How People Rebuild Identity in Addiction Recovery
Research-backed identity reconstruction: narrative identity, possible selves, and redemption scripts in daily Workbook and ReturnPath practice.
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What's a Good Recovery Workbook for Treatment Groups or Reentry Programs?
Recovery workbook for treatment groups and reentry: A Vision of Hope 90-day Workbook with daily accountability, plus ReturnPath for programs.
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Reentry Resources That Actually Help You Rebuild
Practical reentry resources after prison: 211, CareerOneStop, and SAMHSA for concrete needs, plus identity work families can support at home.
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What Curriculum Fits a 90-Day Inpatient or Short-Stay Track?
Identity-based workbook pacing for 90-day inpatient and short-stay residential tracks. ReturnPath complements clinical care, not a replacement.
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How Recovery Memoirs Treat Identity and Change
How recovery memoirs treat identity and change: shame, repair, and becoming someone new. Narrative psychology, not clinical neuroscience advice.
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Peer Recovery Groups for Young Adults Leaving Treatment or Justice Settings
Age-specialized peer recovery groups for young adults leaving treatment or justice settings: belonging, identity work, and guardrails beside clinical care.
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Why Guided Writing Works in Recovery (and What Research Says)
Guided journal for recovery and workbook science: what expressive writing research shows, and how structured daily practice differs from a blank notebook.
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When Recovery Stories Help, and When They Harm
Ethical use of recovery narratives: consent, coercion, co-option, and trauma-informed storytelling for facilitators, peers, and authors.
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What Is Identity-Based Recovery in Addiction?
What is identity-based recovery? It focuses on who you are becoming, not only behaviors to stop, via three self-identifying steps and ReturnPath beside clinical care.
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What Curriculum Can Halfway Houses Use for Reentry Programming?
ReturnPath halfway house reentry curriculum: goals, 16-week modules, process outcomes, workbook accountability, rolling enrollment, facilitator guides.
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What Substance Abuse Curriculum Works for IOP and Sober Living?
IOP substance abuse curriculum: goals, 16-week modules with Phase 2 values/identity, process outcomes, ReturnPath daily workbook between group sessions.
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How to Quit Using Drugs Without Treatment
How do I quit using drugs without treatment? Safety-first steps when rehab is unavailable, you are not ready for formal care, or fear keeps you from asking for help.
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The Psychology of Overcoming Setbacks in Recovery
Overcoming setbacks in recovery often looks like failure. Why growth can feel like regression, and what to do the next day.
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Best Addiction & Sobriety Memoirs
Ten addiction and sobriety memoirs, picked by a formerly incarcerated author in recovery, covering relapse, family, prison, and coming back, with who each one fits.
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Addiction Recovery Resources That Could Save Your Life
Free addiction recovery resources: SAMHSA helpline, AA and NA, FindTreatment.gov, and 988. For people in recovery and families who need help now.
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3 Events: How a Pen, a Sales Floor, and a Goodbye Shaped My Life
Personal transformation journey, three turning points from addiction, loss, and sales floor to purpose, the memoir, and ReturnPath curriculum.
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Why Redemption Stories Matter: Now More Than Ever
Redemption stories and second chances, why honest recovery narratives matter for healing, identity, and the memoir behind ReturnPath.