The Aviary Recovery Center Blog
A Question for Your Inner Voice: Whose Side Are You On?
When you buy a favorite movie or television program on DVD or Blu-ray, there is often a commentary track (even multiple commentary tracks) that you can listen to while the movie or show is playing. It might be the director talking about the process of shooting the...
Sugar Is Sweet – But Consuming Too Much Can Sour Your Recovery
Most of us have a sweet tooth. We enjoy cookies or cake or candy. We like sodas and mochas and milkshakes. And we enjoy plenty of processed foods that are full of sugar we probably don’t even think about most of the time. At the same time, most of us are well aware...
You—Yes, You—Can Be an Artist. And Artistic Practice Can Support Your Sobriety.
Quick! Name your favorite artist. Did you think of a rock, country, or pop music star—or even an opera star? Maybe a jazz or classical musician? A writer, a painter, or a sculptor? Maybe a dancer or an actor or a comedian or a spoken word artist? Perhaps your favorite...
The Whole Enchilada of Info About a Whole-Health Approach to Treatment
Have you ever noticed that the word “whole” pops up quite a lot? You might even say it is used a whole lot, right? We use “whole” to describe milk. Whole milk has all of the fat that is naturally part of milk. We use “whole” to describe food. Whole foods are those...
Not the Kind of Record You Want to Set: Opioid Use and Deaths Reach All-Time Highs
Recently, the NPR podcast “Up First” reported some sobering statistics about opioid use in the United States. Those stats, according to the report, were driven by street fentanyl, which NPR described as “flooding communities.” NPR’s addiction correspondent Brian Mann...
You Might Fool Others, But Don’t Fool Yourself About a Substance Use Disorder
Maybe you have heard the saying, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” It is often attributed to Abraham Lincoln, though what he actually said might have been a bit...
Sobriety Is Not A Competition
Have you ever noticed how much we seem to like to turn just about everything in life into a competition? There are obvious examples like sports and games and political races, of course. But that is just scratching the surface of our competitive nature. We turn the...
Five Stages of Change Along the Road to Recovery
“All the world’s a stage,” says one of William Shakespeare’s characters in As You Like It. It’s something of a meta moment. Here’s an actor on a stage saying that the whole world is a stage. When you are in the audience and you hear those words spoken from the stage,...
Do Not Waste Time Worrying About Wasting Time
You may have seen the quote we are about to share a couple of different ways and attributed to a couple of different people. “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time,” said the mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell (or drop the first “The” and maybe...
Dogs, Cats, and Other Assorted Animals Can Support Your Mental Health and Sobriety
Let's put mental health aside for a second. Have you ever noticed that a lot of people have a weird tendency to divide people into two categories? Do you like Coca-Cola or Pepsi? Do you use Apple or Android devices? Are you a dog or a cat person? That last one,...