Newsletter

May Newsletter: Step Two By John Steinberg, MD, FASAM Medical Director, The Bergand Group If the first step encapsulates the recognition and definition of the problem, Step Two offers the first glimmer of hope: Came to Believe that a Higher Power Could Restore Us to Sanity. It has been said that the fundamental insanity of

April Newsletter: Step One By John Steinberg, MD, FASAM Medical Director, The Bergand Group Every journey begins with the first step and the journey of recovery is no exception. Step One, from AA/NA is as follows: “We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol/our addiction, and that our lives had become unmanageable.” Recovery is a

March Newsletter: The Disease of Addiction By John Steinberg, MD, FASAM Medical Director, The Bergand Group The Bergand group remains committed to implementing the highest standards in the practice of addiction medicine. One of the most useful and well supported approaches to diagnosing and treating substance dependency disorders has been the use of the disease

December Newsletter: Substance Use Disorders – Chronic Illness? Jerry Hunt, Ph.D. The Bergand Group Chronic Illness While waiting to be seen in a doctor’s office, I watched a series of TV health messages about chronic illnesses. Attractive and substantive vignettes detailed: the signs and symptoms of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and hypertension; the screenings

October Newsletter: Paradoxes in Recovery: Steps Six and Seven John Steinberg, MD, FASAM Medical Director, The Bergand Group Continuing our ongoing thoughts and reflections on the steps of the twelve step programs, it is well worth another look at steps six and seven. In thirty years of work in this field and in thirty years

September Newsletter: Mindfulness for Recovery Month How Mindfulness Meditation Improves Relapse Prevention By Dr. Hunt, PhD – The Bergand Group Only a small portion (estimated at around 10%) of persons with substance use problems enter treatment and, of those, a large portion (est. 40%-60%) relapse within one year. Factors associated with relapse include: interpersonal conflicts,

August Newsletter: Core Principles in the 12 Steps By John Steinberg, MD – The Bergand Group Concluding our series of newsletters on the twelve steps of fellowship programs such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous, we come now to Step Twelve (AA version): “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we

July Newsletter: Core Principles in the 12 Steps – Step 11 By John Steinberg, MD – The Bergand Group Continuing our newsletter series, we turn now to Step 11: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and

June Newsletter: Core Principles in the 12 Steps By John Steinberg, MD – The Bergand Group Continuing the series of step-oriented topics in our Bergand Group newsletters, we come now to Step Ten: “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.” The essence of this step is an explicit reminder

Clinician’s Alert: Addiction and Pornography By Dr. Hunt – The Bergand Group Time Magazine’s cover story on “Porn,” (April 11, 2016), detailed both the negative effects of excessive use of internet pornography on many males and also reported on-line forums by young men who have suffered what they call “porn induced erectile dysfunction” (PIED) with