Connections In Recovery

Beautiful post from Don Grant 💛 Please read:
𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 & 𝐏𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐄𝐑𝐒 - 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐍𝐄𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖!!! If you have been 𝐀𝐍𝐘𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 near me for the past decade, you've likely had to listen to me rant about a question that has concerned me deeply: Can a caregiver’s device use impact a child’s attachment security? My INCREDIBLE research team and I have spent the past four years first developing a new validated assessment instrument - the Device Attachment Interference Scale (DAIS) - and then conducting two national studies to investigate that exact question.

Well… the results are in… 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐏𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐃 in 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒊𝒏 𝑷𝒔𝒚𝒄𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒚 - which even issued a dedicated press release highlighting the importance of our findings! The general public appears to agree because in just 𝟑 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 our paper has already gained significant global media attention including from "The Times” of London, “CNN," and even "Reddit" - an authentic reflection of how deeply this issue resonates with parents and caregivers EVERYWHERE. I am grateful beyond any statistical measure😉 to my brilliant team, our participants, the colleagues who have supported and encouraged this work, and of course Newport Healthcare and the NHC Center for Research and Innovation for sponsoring this entire project.

A gentle reminder to all parents and caregivers: Stay in “present presence” with your kids. It matters more than we may realize!

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1766665/full

Did the addiction stop... or just change forms?

🍺 Alcohol → 🏃 Excessive Exercise
🎰 Gambling → 🛍️ Compulsive Shopping
💊 Drugs → 💼 Workaholism
🚭 Recovery → 📱 Social Media Obsession

Addiction Transfer (Substitution): When One Addiction Replaces Another:

Recovery is often viewed as simply stopping a harmful behavior, but the process can be more complex. Addiction transfer, sometimes called substitution, occurs when a person replaces one compulsive behavior with another that serves a similar emotional or psychological purpose. For example, someone who stops drinking may become obsessed with exercise, a former drug user may throw themselves into work, or a person recovering from gambling may develop compulsive shopping habits.

Even excessive social media use can become a substitute behavior during recovery. The issue is not necessarily the new activity itself. Many of these behaviors can be healthy in moderation. The concern arises when they become a compulsive way to manage stress, avoid difficult emotions, seek validation, or create a sense of control. This is why lasting recovery involves more than removing a substance or behavior. It requires understanding the underlying needs that addiction was meeting and developing healthier ways to address them. Recovery is not just about what you stop doing. It is about learning why you needed it in the first place.

Signs of Addiction Transfer
✓ One obsession replaced another
✓ Difficulty slowing down
✓ Using it to escape emotions
✓ Feeling anxious without it
✓ Relationships begin to suffer

The behavior changed. The need underneath may not have.

Happy Juneteenth to all!

More and more people are turning to AI chatbots for emotional support and mental health advice, but the Americany Psychological Association says to be careful. Here’s why: AI is built to agree with you, not challenge you. It can sound confident even when it’s wrong. And it can’t actually diagnose anything; it just predicts likely responses based on patterns, not real understanding of you or your life.

The APA’s advice: use AI as a helpful tool, like organizing your thoughts or prepping questions for a therapist, but never as a replacement for real human support. And if you’re in crisis, don’t turn to a chatbot. Call or text 988 (Su***de & Crisis Lifeline) or call 911 for immediate help. 💙

📖 Find out more: https://www.apa.org/topics/artificial-intelligence-machine-learning/guide-navigating-ai?

We were handed a portal to everything and somewhere along the way it became a place we go to feel nothing. The average person spends over 4 hours a day on their phone, scrolling content they won't remember, chasing a dopamine hit that never quite lands. It isn't weakness. It's design. These platforms were built by the brightest minds in the world to keep you exactly where you are, thumb moving, eyes glazed, present to a screen and absent from your own life.

The first step isn't deleting the app. It's just looking up. What do you actually see? 👁️

Interesting article by the New York Times: Can Ozempic Cure Addiction?
GLP-1 drugs, which have helped some people curb drug and alcohol use, may unlock a pathway to moderation.

Excerpt: "Mary started drinking regularly in the early nineties, when she was thirteen. Her father had recently married a Danish woman and moved the family to Denmark, which has one of the highest teen-drinking rates in Europe. (Sixteen-year-olds are allowed to buy b**r.) As Mary got older, her alcohol consumption accelerated—she could drink eighteen b**rs in a sitting—and a cycle of inebriation and hangovers blurred her days. She tried rehab, Alcoholics Anonymous, and a medication called Antabuse, which provokes nausea in combination with alcohol. None of them worked for her. Mary (a pseudonym) got married, had a child, and became a social worker; her alcohol tolerance increased so much that, when she binged, her friends barely registered that she was buzzed. She remembered a close friend who also drank heavily telling her, “I don’t get it. Why do you say you have an alcohol addiction?”

“The difference between you and me,” Mary replied, “is that I think about alcohol all the time—when to drink, how to drink, where to drink, how much to drink.”

Last year, at a bar, Mary noticed that the same friend had hardly sipped her drink. She told Mary that she’d started taking Ozempic for weight loss. “If I have more than two b**rs now, I go outside and barf,” the friend said. Mary was perplexed. Ozempic, or semaglutide, originated as a diabetes medicine; more recently, as an obesity treatment, it has made its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, one of Europe’s most valuable companies. What did it have to do with drinking? The next day, Mary saw an advertisement on Facebook: a nearby clinical trial was studying semaglutide’s effects on alcohol addiction. She enrolled."

Can Ozempic Cure Addiction? GLP-1 drugs, which have helped some people curb drug and alcohol use, may unlock a pathway to moderation.

Connections In Recovery had an incredible time at WCSAD 2026! From a wonderful Intentions Dinner to reconnecting with so many friends and colleagues, it was truly a memorable week.

And, as always, Mr. Rick Hubbard, Constellations Behavioral Health’s Executive Vice President of Professional Relations, wrapped up the conference in style with his infamous after-dinner cigar party! 🚬

Thank you Rick for always being such a gracious host 💛 We loved seeing everyone!