Over the next few weeks, culminating in the start of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, NARSAD will be hosting a free series of public forums about the latest mental health discoveries.

What are the benefits of a keeping a therapy journal?

BW: Sitting across from concerned parents, spouses, other loved ones and friends of addicts in our offices (who often express the common concern of ‘trading one drug for another’), I can confidently say after 2 ½ years, “We are trading a deadly ‘drug’ for an amazing ‘medication’ that, if included in the right kind of treatment program, will radically change his/her life from what it is now to what it actually can be.” I have saved more lives and families in 2 ½ years doing this than I did in my entire Emergency Medicine career. And, as it turns out, it is a lot more fun.

Life rolls on while you are in therapy and a myriad of events can occur. Suppose you got a DWI? Or suppose you were recovering from being a former member of a cult? Or maybe you had just faced a new challenge—you lost the use, heaven forbid, of your legs in a workplace accident? These and a myriad of other challenges should be noted in your mental health treatment plan since they are a significant current part of your life.

More and more the national dialogue on mental health and addiction recognizes that co-occurring disorders, that is, both mental illness and addiction, afflict a large percentage of sufferers. Some individuals take alcohol or drug to medicate their symptoms of anxiety, depression or other mental illnesses; sometimes the damage done by alcoholism or drug abuse causes mental illnesses; and sometimes the cause is difficult to pin down, but the correlation is apparent. Although accepted practice and treatment (by most), for mental illness includes prescription medications, a debate rages on about using prescription medications in the treatment of addiction. Methodone has been around for years, but there are many objections to it’s use. There are also other drugs whose side effects can be quite pronounced. Suboxone, a relative newcomer on the scene, has shown some promise.

People are complicated and no matter how thorough a psychosocial evaluation is it simply cannot describe fully a living, breathing person. It is rather a sketch—a good sketch, perhaps—but nonetheless a sketch.

Richard Zwolinski

Hear an information-packed (and funny!) discussion with professional mediators Philip Mulford, J.D., and his wife, journalist Lisa Mulford (hosts of Internet radio talk shows Divorce Mediation: Myths & Facts and Communication 360), and Richard as they explore a broad range of topics related to therapy including:

Whose fault is it when therapy fails–the therapist’s or the patient’s?

Why therapy patients must advocate for themselves?

Are some therapists in it for the money?

Why some people are magnets for people with problems?