A thank you to The Virtue Center Games Sponsors.

Urge surfing is a technique used to cope with cravings. Just like a surfer on a wave, you will ride out the craving or urge.

Sit back or lie down in a comfortable position. Close your eyes, or let your gaze soften.

brief pause

Where would you go to find safety and serenity? Is your safe place outside? Maybe you find yourself surrounded by tall mountains or near a beautiful ocean shore.

“I remember feeling exhausted on a bus stop bench by Wash Park in Denver on a late October evening in 2014. I had been up for days after a bender with heroin and meth. I found myself in deep thought after realizing my son would soon be five years old in just a week or so. I was asking myself, "What am I doing?". I had not been physically or mentally present to that point for most of my son's life. This moment began a desire to change after 12 years of drug abuse.”

“When I was a teenager I felt like I really needed to talk to someone about things I was struggling with, but my parents didn’t ever put me in counseling due to the cost of treatment…”

The substance that kills the most people each year may surprise you.

Summertime can be a challenging time of the year for folks in recovery from a substance use disorder. Everywhere we go we see ads conditioning us to believe that alcohol will make our lives more fun.

People with mental illness die younger than the general population, as do people with addiction to substances. The causes of early death are many, and it’s complicated. Until we give mental health and substance use disorders the attention that it deserves as a public health issue, many more people will die early unnecessarily.