Addiction, Self-Harm & Suicidality
Many clients have learned to navigate life by relying on coping strategies that end up negatively affecting their relationships and overall well-being, such as substance abuse, behavioral addictions, self-harm, and suicidality. Exploring these issues can be especially challenging for therapists. In these articles, we track our field's evolving approach to this challenge, from nonstigmatizing harm-reduction interventions to medication-assisted treatment. Learn from Gabor Maté, Dick Schwartz, Stacy Freedenthal, Andrew Tatarsky, and others.
Baseline Suicidality in Neurodivergent Kids
Misunderstanding Sensory and Emotional ChaosBehavioral Addictions
These articles explore evidence-based approaches to treating behavioral addictions around gaming, shopping, and sex or pornography. They highlight how clinicians can best assess function, frequency, and consequences of these behaviors while attuning to shame, trauma history, and unmet needs. Learn how experts in the field approach holistic treatment of these behaviors and their underlying emotional drivers while helping clients build healthier sources of reward and a renewed sense of agency.
Substance Abuse
These articles examine compassionate, nonstigmatizing treatment approaches for clients struggling with substances, from alcohol and prescription medications to illicit drugs. They offer insights into harm-reduction strategies, common co-occurring concerns, and systemic forces that shape substance use. Clinicians share their experiences in building strong therapeutic alliances, navigating ambivalence, and supporting both those who struggle with addiction and their loved ones.
Suicidal Ideation & Self-Harm
Explore articles on suicidal ideation and self-harm behaviors that offer insights in understanding, assessing, and treating these complex yet common challenges as effectively as possible. And read stories from therapists who have gone through the trauma of losing a client to suicide. You'll find practical guidance on risk assessment, safety planning, and evidence-based interventions for clients experiencing suicidal thoughts or self-harming impulses. Articles explore the underlying emotional pain that drive these behaviors, as well as strategies for working with adolescents, adults, and families. Learn more about compassionate approaches to reducing risk and supporting healing.
Two takes on handling suicidality skillfully from the first intervention. Read more
A family confronts the reality that parents alone are ill-equipped to protect their children from online dangers. Read more
The U.S. cannabis industry has created a market worth up to 35 billion dollars, in part by convincing the public that THC is medicinal and safe. Are the people... Read more
The rise in teen suicidality is frightening, but hospitalization isn’t the only—or even the best—option for treatment. Read more
In this Networker Live event, senior editor Chris Lyford speaks with suicidologist Dr. David Jobes about the impact of ideation. Read more
Suicidal ideation among teens is overlooked, understudied, and sometimes even willfully ignored. Read more
A new memoir from celebrated writer Donald Antrim reflects on the nature of suicide. Read more
Many therapists wrestle with the same problems we help our clients tame. But the myth that therapists are masters of their own mental health makes it... Read more
When it comes to coping with suicide deaths, we therapists need to let go of our superhero expectations. Read more
Self-harm is not a culturally specific phenomenon, but it’s often misunderstood and overlooked in Black children by a society that forces them to grow up... Read more
Dan Siegel, author and cofounder of the Mindsight Institute, was a close friend of Networker editor Rich Simon for over two decades. Rich's family has asked... Read more
The pandemic continues to strain small addiction clinics and their struggling clients. Read more
When working with a young client who's struggling with self-harm, how should clinicians navigate the practical, emotional, and ethical difficulties surrounding... Read more
Canadian physician Gabor Maté believes that addictive behaviors are woven into the very fabric of our materialistic society. Read more
A suicidologist opens up about her personal struggles and what actually helps when working with suicidal clients. Read more
A new clinician is working with a client who’s expressed some suicidality at times. She's worried about him and thinks it might be a good idea to have him... Read more
Until they’ve done the challenging and sometimes painful work in therapy, many people can’t even begin to imagine curtailing their drug use. For them... Read more
Years into the opioid epidemic, a journalist travels to the hardest-hit state to get an up-close look at addiction treatment and the “radically... Read more
An interview with Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, on solution-oriented journalism and creative ways of confronting the opioid crisis. Read more
In his many bestselling books, author Malcolm Gladwell has achieved renown for upending conventional thinking about the forces that shape people’s lives. His... Read more
A new book takes a close-up look at the opioid epidemic in America. Read more
Author and therapist Kay Redfield Jamison explores what we can do to address the suicide epidemic. Read more
The labels we use to describe clients’ behaviors have important therapeutic implications. Sometimes using the word addiction and explaining its neurological... Read more
Is teen suicide contagious? Clinicians weigh in on the controversy around 13 Reasons Why. Read more
A grassroots effort to serve the mental health needs of veterans enables therapists to extend to their impact. Read more
I'm at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in northern Manhattan. My guide, Victoria, has been studying the brains of people who committed suicide, and... Read more
The mental health professions are now being forced to address the debate over marijuana legalization. Read more
Before David Burns wraps up therapy with recovered clients, he makes sure they’re well prepared for relapse. In this brief video clip, he breaks down the... Read more
The authors of a provocative new book argue that, despite its sterling reputation, alcoholics anonymous has one of the worst success rates in all of medicine. Read more
Some people can drink to excess for years without experiencing the negative consequences that can destroy their lives. So when does someone cross the tenuous... Read more
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