Wish Recovery’s Blog Monthly Archives

You may have seen the headline somewhere between your morning coffee and your evening scroll. Overdose deaths are falling. Fentanyl deaths are dropping. For a moment, something in your chest unclenches. And then, just as quickly, it tightens again—because the person you love is still using, still struggling, still not home, and a national statistic has never once answered your phone at 2 a.m.

This is for you.

Key takeaways

• U.S. overdose deaths saw their largest recorded single-year decline from 2023 to 2024—but the number is still staggering.
• A falling national death toll doesn't make the person in front of you any safer or any closer to ready.
• Co-occurring mental health conditions remain common and significantly complicate recovery without integrated treatment.
• The right time to get help has always been personal—not determined by a public health headline.

If you're ready to talk, we're here. Reach out to our team confidentially at any time.

Nobody warns you that summer is harder. You make it through the dark, closed-in months. You do the work. And then July arrives—loud, unstructured, full of invitations—and something tightens in your chest that nobody at the facility prepared you for. You're not imagining it. The season really is more demanding, and you deserve support built around that reality.

Key takeaways

• Summer is genuinely harder for people in early recovery—the heat, the social pressure, the holidays all create real relapse risk that has nothing to do with willpower.
• Finishing residential treatment is the beginning of a critical transition in the recovery process, not a finish line.
• Intensive outpatient care, designed well, delivers clinical depth that matches life's demands and supports long-term recovery.
• Privacy, a calm setting, and a personalized plan built around your actual summer can help you maintain your recovery and sustain your sobriety.

Reach out to our team confidentially today—no pressure, just a real conversation about what you need.

Behind every highlight reel, pro athletes carry pressure most fans never see. Watch to understand how that pressure turns into addiction—and how whole-person luxury care can protect a career, a reputation, and a life.

Every dunk, every hit, every save hides what happens after the cameras stop rolling. The same intensity that builds a career—physical pain, performance pressure, public scrutiny—can quietly become the path into substance use and co-occurring anxiety. This video looks at that reality across professional basketball, football, and hockey, and the kind of care built to actually address it.
 

The FIFA World Cup 2026 is here—the biggest soccer tournament in a generation, playing across North American stadiums for the first time since 1994. Billions of fans are watching every match. But somewhere in the noise of the game, something quieter is happening for a lot of people—something that never makes the highlight reel. This article is for anyone who felt it.

Key takeaways

• Retired professional footballers experience alcohol misuse at rates far exceeding the general population.
• When a soccer career ends, the loss of identity can feel as disorienting as losing a sense of self entirely.
• Chronic pain from years of play often fuels substance use long after the final match ends.
• Dual diagnosis treatment—addressing mental health and addiction together—produces significantly better recovery outcomes.

If something in this article lands for you, we're here.
Reach out to our team at Wish Recovery confidentially— contact us here.

You heard about it somewhere—a podcast, a friend who came back from treatment, a late-night search that started with one tab and ended with twelve. Maybe you've tried other things that worked for a while and then didn't. Maybe the pull toward alcohol or opioids stays even when you want it gone. Ketamine-assisted therapy for addiction is showing up in serious clinical research, and you deserve a clear-eyed look at what the evidence actually says—and what it doesn't.

Key takeaways

• Ketamine-assisted therapy shows real clinical results for alcohol, opioid, and cocaine use disorders in peer-reviewed research.
• Ketamine works on the brain's glutamate system—pathways that standard medications can't reach.
• The hours after a session create a window for change; what fills that window determines what sticks.
• A luxury residential setting provides 24/7 clinical support that makes the most of that therapeutic window.
• Adding talk therapy—CBT, DBT, EMDR—around each session consistently produces better results than ketamine alone.

If you're still putting the pieces together, that's exactly where this starts — with information, not pressure. Reach out and we'll answer any questions you have, no commitment required.

You typed something into a search bar tonight that you've been thinking about for weeks. Maybe months. Something about GLP-1, alcohol, and whether the stories about Ozempic and drinking are pointing toward something real. We've been watching this research too, and we want to share what we've learned.

Clinical Review

Semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) is showing promising results for reducing alcohol cravings and heavy drinking by acting on the brain's reward system. Recent studies found fewer heavy drinking days and a lower risk of alcohol-related hospitalizations among people taking GLP-1 medications.

However, semaglutide is not FDA-approved for alcohol use disorder and is typically used off-label under medical supervision. Experts emphasize that it works best alongside therapy and comprehensive addiction treatment rather than as a standalone solution.

While the early research is encouraging, larger and longer-term studies are still needed to determine its long-term effectiveness and the patients most likely to benefit.

ROZ RAZZAGHMANESH
Clinical Director, LMFT 102602
WISH RECOVERY

Key Takeaways

• New 2026 research shows semaglutide can reduce alcohol cravings and heavy drinking days.
• GLP-1 medications work on the brain's reward system, where the pull toward drinking lives.
• Semaglutide isn't FDA-approved for alcohol use disorder—it's used off-label with medical supervision.
• Medication alone doesn't replace therapy, dual-diagnosis care, or the structure of residential treatment.

You don't have to figure out whether this applies to you alone. Reach out to our team at Wish and start a private, no-pressure conversation. Talk to Someone at Wish