Livin’ Upstate: Alcohol and the holidays: avoiding a slippery slope

More people are drinking alone or joining online drinking parties. Recently a friend told me that she was finding it increasingly difficult to manage stress. She said, “I find I am drinking more often in the evenings, and I go to Zoom parties where we are drinking on Zoom together just to feel some connection.”

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Livin’ Upstate: Make a plan to reduce holiday stress

Even if we love the holidays, the stress and anxiety created during November and December can unhinge even the most resilient. Many people who are typically content, experience loneliness, disappointment, exhaustion, and self-doubt during this time.

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Livin’ Upstate: Recovery and Community During COVID-19

Throughout history, individuals coming together as a community have created the opportunity for survival. In this article, community is defined as “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.”

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Livin’ Upstate: Upstate author’s new book offers message of hope and healing

Steve M. Grant of Greenville lost both of his children to drug overdoses, his oldest at the age of 21 and his youngest, five years later, at 24.

Ten years after the death of his youngest son, Grant has written a new book entitled Don’t Forget Me as a survival manual and a lifeline to remind parents and others that they are not alone.

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Livin’ Upstate: Dealing with unpredictable grief during the holidays

I am intimately familiar with grief. Both of my sons died before the age of 25. They were my only children, and I miss them every day. Grief can be especially difficult during the holidays, and it is often difficult to predict when grief will overcome us.

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Thrive Global: If Your Kids Are Addicted…

There is an epidemic afoot, a plague on households across the land. It is an equal opportunity offender, impacting rich and poor, black and white. The opioid crisis is getting worse. The number of deaths from opioids in 2017 was six times higher than in 1999. According to the CDC, drug overdoses killed more than 700,000 people from 1999-2017 in just the United States.

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