Tag Archives: Addiction

Alcohol recovery center benefits

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Alcohol is part of life in the United States, people often have a drink when they celebrate special occasions, others use this as a way of passing the week. The problem comes from consuming too much of this substance on a frequent basis. People may start to consume alcohol as a way of coping with emotional problems that they are suffering from, this will only cause these emotional problems to become worse. While you are drinking, you may feel as if your problems are gone, but they will come back once the substance has gone through your blood. These problems will often feel worse than ever when this happens and this could lead to depression. You should do everything possible to prevent this problem from getting worse, you will find that a cycle occurs once you become depressed. What you should do is contact a alcohol recovery center if you are using alcohol in order to cope with emotional problems.

This dependency can be treated right away, you need to seek treatment for this disease in order to prevent the cycle of depression and use. Additionally, getting into a alcohol recovery center right away will help you to begin to do the work that will change your life. The celebrate recovery center will help you to learn about your problem, you will be able to explore what is causing this need to consume this substance. Additionally, you will be able to use this information in order to prevent using in the future. The celebrate recovery center offers very affordable rates, the treatment is well worth the price and it will help you to save your life. Getting treatment right away is important, this substance will destroy your life if you let it control you. However, there are treatment options available to help you recover quickly.

Getting Fit While In Addiction Recovery

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Getting fit while in addiction recovery is no easy task.  However, there are measures one can take to fully reclaim their bodies, their minds, and overall well-being.

An addict’s body has developed a reliance on a specific substance.  This substance, over a period of time, through repetitive use has built up within the body a dependence.  With this dependence comes a chemical change in the addict’s system.  The circulatory, digestive, endocrine, immune, lymphatic, and especially muscular systems will all be severely impacted by the continuous use of an addictive substance.  Therefore, when entering the stage where the addict has fully committed to recovery, and has accepted the terms of this, then it is time to consider the healthiest way to rejuvenate the body.

One, if not the best, way to fully recover from an addiction is to get in shape and get rid of that double chin.  Joining a gym is ideal.  A gym will provide for it’s members a multitude of ways to get in shape, which for the recovering addict, will bring their systems back to a healthy level of living.

The human body should undergo at least a half-hour of physical exercise every day.  Here are ten reasons why joining a gym will help fulfill the best recovery from an addict.

1.  Fitness in itself can become an addiction, however, unlike substance addiction this one is healthy.

2.  A gym will provide the accompaniments for a half-hour work out everyday of the week, and most are now open for 24 hours a day, an ideal way to work around any schedule.

3.  A gym provides an atmosphere of camaraderie.  Everyone in a gym is there for the same reason.  Unlike trying to work out on your own, which can be boring, everyone at the gym is there precisely to get fitter.

4.  There are personal coaches available at most gyms that can make a specific work-out schedule to fit your needs.  While starting addiction recovery, this is a very important consideration, because the body can be severely depleted of necessary muscle tissue and susceptible to injury.  A personal trainer would be able to help avoid this, while also providing quality exercise.

5.  There is a wide array of machines to work out on at a gym, making it more comfortable for whatever level of exercise you may want.

6.  Gyms, and their staff, will always be willing to help with other aspects involved in living healthily.  Since diet is a necessary condition of the effect of exercise, gyms will always have suggestions for the patrons best needs.

7.  Every season Gyms update their methods, equipment, and staff for whatever activity corresponds with that season.

8.  Once you find the work-out routine that best suits your needs, you will know exactly what exercises are right for you, and a Gym will always be able to provide for your work-out.

9.  A Gym is a great place to meet people.  An important part of addiction recovery is forming new relationships with healthy people.  At the Gym, there is a wide range of healthy individuals to form lasting bonds.

10.  Going to the Gym will make you feel great again.  Joining a Gym is the perfect way to achieve the goal of getting fit, while also recovering from an addiction, and will also lift your spirits simultaneously.

You Don’t Recover By Sitting Around Listening To Sad Love Songs

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I see so many people in early recovery who want to sit on the pity pot and believe that they can somehow still recover from addiction or alcoholism.  This is not the case and no one who is feeling sorry for themselves is going to make it in recovery.  The problem with self pity is that it gives you a gigantic excuse to go get drunk or high.

The best way to combat self pity is to create a zero tolerance policy with yourself.  This is a mental game that you have to engage in and if you do it right then it will set you free.  The idea is to simply make a strong pact with yourself that you are not going to allow yourself to sit around and sing sad love songs no matter what.  The second you realize that you have slipped into “self pity mode” you instantly shut it down.

Quite simply, you do not allow yourself to go there.  Period.

This is tough at first because you will initially feel like you are depriving yourself of something.  This is not true however and if you persist with it then you will realize that you are not missing out on anything when you put a stop to self pity in your life.

Shut it down.  No more sad love songs.  Period.

Help for Addiction

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Addiction help comes in 2 forms: elimination and creation.

Most people think that beating an addiction is an act of elimination. It’s not. Overcoming a drug or alcohol addiction is about creating something.

When we strip away the drugs and the alcohol from the life of the addict, there is a huge void left over. This void is more than just spiritual. In traditional recovery, 12 step programs attempt to diagnose addiction as a spiritual malady and then fix the problem with a spiritual solution.

This helps, but it is not ideal. The reason is because addiction is not just a spiritual problem. Instead, addiction affects the whole entire person – physically, mentally, emotionally, and so on.

It therefore follows that any solution needs to be holistic in nature. Addiction affects us physically – so why would we ignore the physical component? Of course we should address the physical side of addiction, looking into things such as medications to help with cravings and also exercise as a means to sobriety.

Likewise, addiction affects us emotionally, so why should we not address our emotional health and balance in our lives? This only makes sense to treat the whole person in recovery, not just the spiritual side of things.

Many people like to simplify things in order to wrap their minds around the solution but overcoming addiction is more complicated than that. The solution is more than just spiritual; it is holistic, and therefore you must grow in many different areas of your life in order to succeed in recovery.

This is the whole point of the matter and if you really want some help for addiction then you need to take a creative approach to recovery.

Recovery is not spiritual. It is holistic. This includes spiritual growth and transcends it with a comprehensive holistic approach. Get more addiction tips here.

Helping Alcoholics

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Helping alcoholics isn’t easy.

The main reason for this is that most alcoholics are slowly self-destructing.  They know this is happening but they are powerless to stop it.  They are trapped in a cycle.

If you’re the friend or a loved one of an alcoholic, then you’ve probably tried all sorts of different things to get them to quit drinking.  Here’s a quick summary of what doesn’t work:

1) Pleading with them to stop

2) Threatening them in any way

3) Trying to manipulate them into quitting

4) Shaming them

5) Screaming at them or getting angry with them

And so on.  None of these things work at all to help the alcoholic or get them closer to quitting drinking.

So how can we help them?

It boils down to a few strategies on your part.  Most of it is indirect stuff, but it is still important in the long run.  Here are some of the key components:

1) Stop enabling them.

2) Set healthy limits and boundaries.

3) Ignore their drinking episodes in order to force them to look at themselves.

4) Allow them to decide to quit for themselves instead of trying to force the decision.

Want to know more?  Here is the full scoop on how you can help an alcoholic.

Life Coaching and How it Can Help You in Recovery

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Life coaching is a controversial topic when it comes to recovery.  Some people argue that a life coach is not a true professional, and is essentially acting like a “paid sponsor.”

These criticisms are unfounded based on what a life coach actually does for you.

The purpose of the life coach is not to give professional advice or even necessarily therapeutic counseling.  Instead, the life coach is there to unlock your creative potential from within and challenge you to rise to your full potential.

A life coach is not someone who walks you through detox.  In fact, the life coach isn’t really all that helpful for stage one recovery at all (when you are first getting clean and sober).  Instead, the life coach can really be beneficial to you when you are entering stage 2 recovery (when you are living holistic principles in long term recovery).

In essence, the life coach is most useful in helping you to make the transition into long term sobriety.  Their role is to push you to pursue personal growth on a number of different levels and to make genuine growth and progress in your recovery.

Life coaching is different from sponsorship in that sponsorship is basically restricted to spiritual growth, whereas life coaching takes a much broader approach in pushing for growth in a variety of areas.  In this way life coaching can be a very powerful tool for recovery.

A sponsor gets you sober, but a life coach keeps you sober.

Go here if you are interested in a free session with a reputable recovery life coach.  Keith is an excellent life coach and he specializes in addiction and recovery.

New Book – Recovering Me, Discovering Joy

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I just found a unique author with a good recovery book that seems to mirror a lot of my ideas about recovery.  Vivian talks about recovery from a real-world, practical standpoint and also incorporates overcoming depression and anxiety into her recovery efforts, something that I think a lot of addicts and alcoholics struggle with.

Vivian also focuses on practicing gratitude as part of a positive attitude in recovery.  This is very much in line with my personal philosophy of recovery as well.  I think eventually the question becomes for anyone in recovery: “OK, now how am I going to live a sober life?”

Eventually we move beyond that first stage of recovery where we are shocked just to be off the drugs and the booze.  We have to branch out and start growing in new directions and find a new life in recovery.  I think this is where my philosophy probably overlaps with Vivian’s.  We both push for a holistic and spiritual approach to long term recovery.

Vivian also has a free report that you can download instantly that has some good information about recovery and how to help struggling alcoholics as well.  You can check that out along with her recovery book right here.

Strategies for Recovering Drug Addicts

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Here is a good post here about recovering drug addicts and how they can use a small number of core strategies in order to guide them in their recovery.

These are long term strategies that make as much sense to use in early recovery as they do in long term sobriety.

The first idea is to focus on personal growth.  This includes a wide range of categories, such as our fitness, our emotional health, and our spirituality.

But the focus on personal growth differs from most recovery programs because it is a holistic approach, taking the whole person into account, including the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects.

Obviously, just this area alone (personal growth) can have a tremendous amount of detail for finding new ways to grow and develop.

The second area is in building a network of support.  Presumably, this would be comprised mostly of recovering addicts and alcoholics.  I’m convinced that there are some people out there who stay sober through this technique alone.  But combining a support network with the other two strategies is much more empowering.

The third strategy listed is to simply care for yourself.  The suggestion is to ask yourself, with each decision, “Is this really the healthiest choice for me?”  This is a simple but empowering strategy for recovering addicts who often times have a history of self-sabotage and destructive behaviors, many of which continue in a variety of ways even in recovery.

Take a look at these 3 strategies for recovering drug addicts and see if you can’t apply them to your life.

Helping Drug Addicts Overcome Addiction

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Drug addicts overcome addiction through a process.

It starts back when they are still using drugs heavily, and their life is out of control.  The first hint of breaking through their denial starts tickling their brain.  Sometimes this takes decades of heavy abuse before someone reaches this point.

Eventually a moment of surrender is reached.  The addict throws in the towel and decides to give life another chance.  Now it is my belief that if this moment of surrender is real, that will basically be the end of their drinking and drugging.  In other words, the reason that people relapse with this disease is because they were not ready to quit drinking and drugging in the first place.

That’s why they call it “hitting bottom.”  It is a moment of finality; a complete and total surrender.  The addict is completely beaten.

Until they get to this point, you could never possibly list enough reasons to quit drinking, nor could you convince them that there is a wonderful life outside of drug addiction.  They simply won’t hear you, nor will they believe you.  That’s because they are trapped in denial….stuck on the hamster wheel, so to speak.  They can’t picture their life without drugs and alcohol.  Nor do they want to.  It’s just too scary.

How we can help people break through denial

Since I got clean and sober, I have been constantly seeking better information about how to help a drug addict.  I happen to work in a treatment center with a detox unit, and so I have definitely had a lot of practice at trying to help them, as I have helped to treat literally thousands of drug addicts over the past 4 years.  And let me tell you: it’s not easy.

One of the best ways to help an addict, believe it or not, is to <em>not</em> help them.  Or to be more specific, not enable them.  This means not helping them to get more drugs or alcohol or helping them avoid the natural consequences of their using.  In other words, you might have to let them fall on their face a bit in order to really “help” them.

Remember what the key is to overcoming addiction: that magical moment of surrender.  Without it, the addict is merely playing games…they might stay clean for a short while, but unless they have experienced utter devastation and truly surrendered with their whole being, they are not going to stay clean and sober.  So get out of their way and let them find their bottom, hard as that might be.  You might just be saving their life.

Also, be sure to check out this new recovering blogger on the scene, the recovery princess.  She is detailing her journey through sobriety; looks like good stuff. 

Overcoming Addiction with Your Spiritual Self

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How does spirituality affect our recovery?

Spirituality is the overall principle that can tie all of our recovery efforts together.  It is our attitude-shaper.

If we can connect with a higher power each day in a meaningful way, then our recovery will benefit because of it.  We can do this in a couple of general ways.  Keep in mind that you don’t have to stick to “old ideas” that you might have about what constitutes “spirituality.”  Instead, find your own path by trying the following:

1) Pray. If you don’t believe in prayer, you can always just focus on thoughts of gratitude for a while.

2) Meditate. Find your sanctuary and enjoy some peace and quiet time.  Sit in the stillness with your eyes closed and watch your mind.  Observe.  Don’t judge your thoughts and let them come as they will.

3) Connect with others by trying to help them and empower them.  In other words, don’t enable people, but genuinely help them to help themselves.  Bonus points if the person happens to be in recovery and you are helping them overcome addiction.

4) Be mindful throughout your day.  Watch your mind and your own reactions.  Be observant about how you are reacting to things.  Strive for peace and serenity.

5) Let go of dogma that rules your concept of spirituality and find your own spiritual self.  Notice what works and what brings peace into your life. Recovery is about finding a practical spirituality that works for you.