We reached out to Minnesota substance disorder providers, treatment centers and mental health professions—as well as people in recovery to hear how COVID-19 has affected them and how it will affect them after the virus has passed. Below are their response with minor edits from our team. We want to thank them for their responses.| The Phoenix Spirit
Grandiosity can be a huge hurdle for those in recovery from addictions. John Driggs shares ways to lessen grandiosity in our lives.| The Phoenix Spirit
So many of us are afraid that this national election will not turn out right and that we will be stuck electing a leader who both promotes hate and decries democracy. With good reason, we endlessly obsess about national polls and the latest news regarding the election. We lose a lot of sleep over this| The Phoenix Spirit
“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” —From Abraham Lincoln's first Inaugural address March 4, 1861| The Phoenix Spirit
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| The Phoenix Spirit
Living with an emotionally distant, rageful father left Deanna Broaddus hungry for attention and solace. Men – lots of men – were her first recourse, and then alcohol and drugs. Except for a suicide attempt at age 18, Broaddus did well, working and pursuing a master’s degree so that she could follow her passion to| The Phoenix Spirit
Bob Ross, the infinitely relaxed host of The Joy of Painting famously said, “We don’t make mistakes, we have happy little accidents.” And I believe Bob. If you are a musician or performing artist and you live with crushing panic, anxiety, depression, and are paralyzed with fear and self-doubt, I hope you believe Bob too.| The Phoenix Spirit
All my life I've felt there's something terribly wrong with me--something I can't put into words, something that makes me different from everybody else. People say, "Sheila, you are a good person" but I know they don't really like me. Sometimes I really hate myself. I know you'll think this is stupid. For the longest| The Phoenix Spirit
One of my favorite analogies that I have heard while in recovery is that working through a recovery program is like playing a game of whack-a-mole – the minute one addictive behavior is pushed down (or quelled for the time being), another one pops up to be dealt with. I heard this analogy while sitting| The Phoenix Spirit
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, recovery meetings may have been canceled to keep communities from spreading the virus. Because of this, people in recovery are looking for alternative ways to connect. We've gathered a list of obtaining support online or by phone. We hope they will help in your recovery and please pass along| The Phoenix Spirit
"Our life begins to end the day we stop being grateful." -Anonymous It's that time of year when many of us gather with loved ones intending to give thanks. We experience tender moments with family or at least what we hope will be tender moments. Too often we've become disappointed as the actual closeness with| The Phoenix Spirit
Most of us don’t think much about what type of person we are. We have a hard enough time attending to the practical details of daily living—staying virus-free, caring for children, paying the bills, having enough food in the house, and knowing what our next project is at home. Few of us would choose having| The Phoenix Spirit