Remembering Project Elan Thirty years ago Project Elan closed its doors near the University of Minnesota campus. A long term residential treatment program for young women felon offenders, it had an astonishing success rate according to its final Executive Director, Sue Hastings, and the numerous “Elanies” who kept in touch across the years. How successful? [...]
Why You Want to Banish the Words “Alcoholic,” “Alcoholism,” and “Relapse” From Your Vocabulary. It’s no surprise that we become what we expect. For example,if I spend enough time saying, “Hi, I’m Ed and I’m an alcoholic,” and that’s exactly what I’ll become. Why would I want to do that? Mostly because it would let [...]
What Ex-Smokers Can Teach Us Those of us who are both ex-smokers and former alcohol abusers generally agree – giving up alcohol is a hell of a lot easier than giving up cigarettes. Then why is it that smokers are about five times more successful than drinkers at kicking the habit? Mostly it’s that smokers [...]
What is Real Support? One of common questions we hear is about how family and friends can be supportive when you’re giving up alcohol. It’s not always obvious. Why’s that? Too often family members – especially spouses – and friends have a vested interest in you continuing to drink. So you need to be on [...]
Yesterday was Independence Day here in the U.S. and we think it’s appropriate to take a moment and celebrate not only political independence, but also independence from alcohol abuse and from programs that spread their own brand of dependence. You don’t have to be “in recovery”. You can be recovered, an ex-drinker, and a full [...]
The Downside of Being Smart, Creative, Sensitive & Articulate You, like our clients, are smart, successful, creative, sensitive, and a lot of other generally desirable things. Trouble is, as with many good things, too much can be a problem. A very real dilemma is that you find yourself stuck with either being productive or self-destructive. [...]
About 6 months ago a client sat across the table from Mary Ellen and me and said, suspiciously, “You don’t do 12 Steps, you do 3 Steps! Get a grip. Get a life. Get outta here.” She was pretty much right. What do we mean by “get a grip?” Mostly you need to grasp the [...]
Lap Band Surgery As I was driving to the office this morning I noticed that in one ten mile stretch of freeway there were 6 billboards advertising Lap Band Surgery for weight loss. Really. We find this more than a little troubling. First, because the hospitals advertising this “easy” weight loss solution neglect to mention [...]
Stages of Change: If you want to change or break a habit you also have to change the context which encourages and supports the habit. It’s never enough to stop drinking, or stop smoking, or lose weight, or do any of the other things we never seem to get around to. We all know how [...]
Every week, we get calls from prospective clients looking for more information about our programs. The callers tend to fall into one of two categories. The first group are the ones who ask for information and then proceed to rebut everything we tell them – the “Yes, buts”: “Oh, that wouldn’t work for me.” ” [...]