Frequently Asked Questions

A Guide To Being A Better Parent In Recovery | Anchored Tides Recovery

This online article shares practical tips to be a better parent in recovery. Content includes:

• How Addiction Affects Families
• Forgive Yourself
• Set Boundaries
• Rebuild Trust
• Take Care of Yourself
• Be Mindful
• Ask For Help

Active Listening - Partnership to End Addiction

The Partnership to End Addiction is focused on preventing and addressing substance use disorders by providing families, communities, and professionals with practical knowledge they can trust to support young people at risk or struggling with addiction. The linked article provides information on how to use active listening. If talking to your child about their substance use and other difficult topics results in arguing, the silent treatment or blank stares, it may be time for a new approach. Active listening is a communication skill to help you shift the tone away from anger or lecturing and engage your child in a real conversation.

Brains: Journey to Resilience (Alberta Family Wellness Initiative)

The Alberta Family Wellness Initiative website shares clear, science-based information on how early experiences shape brain development and lifelong health. It’s a valuable resource for parents, professionals, and community leaders looking to apply this knowledge through tools, courses, and practical strategies.

Center for Resilient Children (Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health)

The Devereux Center for Resilient Children website offers resources to support emotional well-being and resilience in children and adults. It provides assessments, free webinars, professional development courses, and tools for parents and educators to foster social-emotional growth. This site is ideal for those seeking evidence-based strategies to promote resilience.

Center for Youth Wellness

The Center for Youth Wellness website provides resources to support the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of young people. It offers tools for parents, caregivers, and educators, focusing on youth resilience, stress management, and overall wellness. The site is a valuable resource for anyone looking to support healthy youth development.

Children & Youth with Special Health Care Needs | Snohomish County Health Department, WA

The Snohomish County Health Department’s Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs program offers federal and state-funded support to families for a range of health problems, including premature infants, children with autism and teens with diabetes.

Family Mental Health: Enabling vs. Empowering – Cafe TA Center

"Caregiving for a loved one living with mental health challenges and/or substance use issues is a delicate balance. As caregivers, it’s essential to recognize when our actions might be enabling unhealthy behaviors rather than empowering our loved ones to take control of their own lives and find a self-directed path to recovery. Enabling can often stem from a place of love and concern, but it can inadvertently keep our loved ones stuck in their challenges. On the other hand, empowering involves providing the right support and tools to help them build resilience and independence. View the recording of Family Mental Health: Enabling vs. Empowering, a 90-minute webinar, that delves into the critical distinction between enabling and empowering. This webinar explores how to identify enabling behaviors, such as consistently rescuing your loved one from their responsibilities, and how to shift towards empowering actions that encourage choice, growth, and self-sufficiency. Through practical strategies, lived experience insights, and real-life examples, you’ll learn how to support your loved one in a way that fosters their independence and well-being."

Fast and Easy Vroom Materials | Vroom.org

Vroom provides science-based tips and tools to inspire families to turn shared, everyday moments into Brain Building Moments®. Vroom helps parents boost their child's learning during the time they already spend together. Vroom meets parents where they are, through the people they already trust, and the places they already go.

Home - Lantern

Lantern is a national nonprofit specializing in delivering childhood development resources to parents through an innovative text messaging platform. Lantern provides essential information tailored for nurturing children from pregnancy through preteen.

Learning Through Play: Sesame Workshop

Did you know there is a relationship between play and learning? Children love to play and, as they do, they’re exploring the world around them, building self-confidence, and practicing important skills crucial to brain development. This webpage has resources on ways to build brain power through play—from memory games to word play, puzzles, and more!

Learning Through Routines: Sesame Workshop

Ordinary moments such as getting dressed, preparing meals, cleaning up, or bedtime offer opportunities to build math, language, and other skills that prepare kids for school. This webpage has resources, activities, and videos on how children learn through routines.

Parental Addiction: Sesame Workshop

This webpage provides resources and support for families struggling with a parent’s addiction.

Parenting: Sesame Workshop

This website provides Parenting Tips for taking care of children’s needs—through the ups, the downs, the big learning moments, and all the little discoveries.

Parenting During Recovery: A Guide For Parents In Recovery

This article is here to give you the tools and knowledge you need to parent well while recovering. It’s about making a safe, loving home for yourself and your kids.

Raising Happy, Healthy & Resilient Children (Snohomish County Health Department)

To access the "Raising Happy, Health & Resilient Children" course, visit https://traumaandresilience-snohd.talentlms.com/. You will need to create a free account to log in and enroll.

This course reviews ten principles for Raising Happy, Healthy, and Resilient Children. Throughout this course there will be opportunities for reflection and specific examples for putting these principles into practice. 

Self-Care: Sesame Workshop

You are the most important factor in your child’s growth and development. When you’re at your best, you’ll be better able to help your little one to learn, grow, and thrive. This webpage has resources, activities, and videos on the importance of self-care. When you take time for self-care, you are better able to care for your child. Even a few minutes of “you time” can help you to recharge so that you can parent at your best.

Treatment & Recovery - Partnership to End Addiction

Realizing that your teen or young adult child needs help for their substance use can be frightening and overwhelming. This resource can help you navigate the steps along the way. It includes a section on parenting toward recovery. Discover tools to better understand your child’s reasons for using substances, ways to improve communication, and to reward non-using behaviors while discouraging substance use.

SAMHSA Families Conversation Guide

When a family member is drinking too much, using drugs, or struggling with a mental disorder, your support can be key to getting them the treatment they need. Starting the conversation is the first step to getting help. This guide outlines how you can start the conversation.

SAMHSA Families Family Support Guide

This guide outlines how as a family member, you can play a central role in getting your loved one who may be dealing with mental and/or substance use disorders the help they need.

Start with Hope: Conversation Paths to Support Loved Ones

This resource provides readers with methods of how to support loved ones through conversation: relationship at the center, active listening, affirming, asking questions, and taking care of yourself after the conversation.

Paths of Hope Fotonovela_English (PDF)

Introduction: The Gonzalez family, united by love and hope, faced a challenging chapter when the father, Juan, admitted to struggles with alcohol and drugs, primarily prescription opioids. Through an emotional journey, they educated themselves about substance use disorders (SUD), debunking myths, learning about stigma, guilt and shame, and embracing treatment with the help of healthcare professionals. Participating in support groups, peer support and therapy, they underwent a profound emotional transformation, bolstered by community support. Despite the potential of a return to use period, their unwavering support for Juan highlighted their resilience. This journey of understanding, strength, and hope not only transformed the Gonzalez family but also inspired, informed, educated, modeled, and changed their community’s perception and understanding of SUD not as a moral/character flaw but an illness/disease that can be treated and managed like any other chronic disease, showcasing the power of family unity in overcoming adversity.

Start With Hope

The Start With Hope website is a judgment-free, affirming resource for people at risk of developing a substance use disorder. Start With Hope focuses on the motivating power of hope and encourages people to take the steps that feel right to them. Start With Hope features real people sharing their stories about how they changed their relationship with substances and are on their continued journey towards recovery. The Ad Council, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Council for Mental Wellbeing, and Shatterproof partnered on this campaign to help people access the care and support they need on their wellbeing journeys.

About Adverse Childhood Experiences (CDC)

The CDC’s ACEs overview page explains how traumatic childhood experiences—like abuse or neglect—can affect lifelong health. It’s a helpful resource for anyone interested in understanding the long-term impact of ACEs and how they can be prevented to support healthier communities.

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) | Snohomish County Health Department, WA

This page from the Snohomish County Health Department explains how childhood trauma affects long-term health and shares local data showing its impact on youth. It’s a useful read for those interested in community health and prevention strategies.

How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime (YouTube)

Dr. Nadine Burke Harris’ TED Talk explains how childhood trauma, such as abuse or neglect, can affect lifelong health, increasing risks of chronic diseases and early death. Drawing on the ACE Study, she highlights the biological impact of trauma and advocates for trauma-informed care. This talk is a must-watch for anyone interested in the link between childhood experiences and adult health outcomes.

Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development (Harvard University)

The Harvard Center on the Developing Child’s video Toxic Stress Derails Healthy Development explains how prolonged, unbuffered stress—like abuse or neglect—can harm a child's brain development, leading to long-term effects on learning, behavior, and health. The video highlights the importance of supportive relationships in mitigating these impacts. It's a valuable resource for educators, parents, and professionals interested in early childhood development and the effects of stress.

Traumatic Experiences (Sesame Workshop)

Sesame Workshop’s “Traumatic Experiences” page offers bilingual videos, storybooks, and activities featuring Sesame Street characters to help children cope with tough situations like grief or parental addiction. It's a great resource for parents, educators, and caregivers looking for supportive, research-based tools to build resilience and emotional well-being in kids.

Building Resilience: 5 Recovery Tools for Addiction (The Wellness Society)

Online article from The Wellness Society that highlights five recovery tools that can enhance resilience, particularly in the context of addiction recovery.

Caring for your mind only makes you stronger. | Love, Your Mind

Explore guides with instruction and insight for dealing with difficult situations.

Developing Resilience and Mentally Strong Habits: Do’s and Don’ts

Online article from American Addiction Centers Recovery.org about resilience as a key asset for success in recovery, habits that increase mental strength and resilience, and habits that undermine mental strength and resilience.

Course 1: Rising to Resilience - Hope & Family Values (Snohomish County Health Department)

This course provides an overview on hope, the Adult Hope Scale, and family values.

Course 2: Rising to Resilience - ACEs, Trauma, and PCEs

This course provides an overview on trauma, adverse childhood experiences, positive childhood experiences, and an introduction to resilience.

Course 3: Rising to Resilience - Resilience through Self-Regulation

This course provides an overview on self-regulation, a grounding exercise, strategies for improving self-regulation, a meditation exercise, and a self-regulation scenario activity.

Course 4: Rising to Resilience - Resilience through Healthy Relationships

This course provides an overview of healthy relationships, listening, and showing care.

Course 5: Rising to Resilience - Resilience through Taking Action

This course provides an overview on taking action, motivation, a stress resilience action plan, saying no, asking for help, lifelong learning, working toward a goal, and solving problems.

Course 6: Rising to Resilience - Resilience through Internal Beliefs

This course provides an overview on internal beliefs, self-compassion, strengths, and affirmations.

Course 7: Rising to Resilience - Building Resilience in Children

This course provides an overview on building resilience in children and a review of the course series.

Trauma and Resilience | Raising Happy, Healthy & Resilient Children

To access the "Raising Happy, Health & Resilient Children" course, visit https://traumaandresilience-snohd.talentlms.com/. You will need to create a free account to log in and view or enroll.

This course reviews ten principles for Raising Happy, Healthy, and Resilient Children. Throughout this course there will be opportunities for reflection and specific examples for putting these principles into practice. 

Jessica's Daily Self-Affirmations (YouTube)

In the video Jessica's Daily Self-Affirmations, Jessica enthusiastically shares positive affirmations, such as "My whole house is great! I can do anything good!" Her joyful energy encourages viewers to embrace self-love, positivity, and resilience, highlighting the power of daily affirmations in building a confident mindset.

Attitude of Gratitude: Pilot Study of the ‘Three Good Things’ Exercise – Recovery Research Institute

Online article from the Recovery Research Institute highlights a pilot study of the ‘Three Good Things’ Exercise that showed that a simple, daily positive psychology exercise can decrease negative affect and increase perceived serenity (feeling calm, at ease, etc.) in the short term among individuals in recovery from alcohol use disorder.

Daily Gratitude Worksheet

Worksheet to document what you are grateful for.

Healthy Youth Survey Data | Snohomish County Health Department, WA

The Healthy Youth Survey provides detailed insights into local youth health behaviors, covering topics like mental health, substance use, and nutrition. It’s a valuable resource for educators, health professionals, and community organizations seeking data to support youth well-being initiatives. For the most recent fact sheets, visit Healthy Youth Survey Fact Sheets, select the most recent year, and the county you prefer. An archive of survey fact sheets from previous years is available at Healthy Youth Survey Fact Sheet Archive.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline website offers free, confidential 24/7 support for individuals affected by relationship abuse. Visitors can access live assistance via phone (1-800-799-SAFE), chat, or text "START" to 88788. The site provides resources for safety planning, identifying abuse, and connecting to local services, including shelters and legal aid. It's a vital resource for those seeking help, as well as for friends, family, and professionals supporting someone in need.

Services

Never Use Alone – US National, Toll Free, US National Overdose Detection and Response

800-484-3731 or 877-696-1996 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Never Use Alone is the US National Overdose Response line that people can call when they’re using by themselves, with no one to call for help. One of their volunteer operators will take your location information, and alert EMS to that location if you stop responding after using. All operators are people with lived experience. No one will ever judge you, shame you, or preach at you about quitting. If you ask for help, they will go to the end of the earth to get you whatever type you feel that you need. All calls are confidential. No one will ever know you called, and they never share your information with anyone other than EMS if they need to alert them.

Resources

Recovery and Recovery Support Resources | SAMHSA

This webpage offers Recovery and Recovery Support Resources including Training and Technical Assistance, Materials and Publications, Webinars, and Policy and Practice Improvement Series.

Substance Use | Life Challenges | Love, Your Mind

This guide will help you to consider the role of drinking, smoking or using drugs in your daily life and how to curb your use of them if they begin to disrupt your health, safety or relationships.