The holiday season can be tough for many, especially those experiencing homelessness, trauma, and mental health and substance use challenges. Marc Dones shares his tips for supporting family and friends living with substance use disorders during the holidays and throughout the year.
Many people who have been homeless have lived through neglect, isolation, and multiple traumas. Because of these experiences, many are distrustful when they begin to engage in services. Are we as service providers prepared to bridge the chasm between our position of security and their position of multiple losses and wounds?
"It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself." ~Joyce Maynard
As I enter my seventeenth year in recovery, the “buzzards” I set loose during the time I was in the grip of addiction, trauma, mental health challenges, poverty, and homelessness continue to come home to roost. One of my greatest accomplishments in spite of myself during this period was fathering four children. Just about any man can produce a child with a willing partner, but being a father requires far more, and it may take years to learn how to be the best parent possible.
More than two thirds of U.S. adults are considered to be overweight or obese (NIH). Nearly one in four suffer form mental illness each year, with one in 17 living with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia, major depression, or bipolar disorder (NAMI). The relationship between obesity and mental health is complex. Research shows higher rates of depression and anxiety in obese people (Katz, et al. 2000; Scott et al., 2008). Obesity may also trigger eating disorders, distorted body image, and low self-esteem. Similarly, obesity and being overweight are more prevalent among people with serious mental illness (Parks & Radke, 2008).
