Posts tagged with ‘recovery’
Recovery refers to the life-long process of staying clean and sober after being treated for alcohol and/or drug addiction. Many people benefit from attending regular 12-step meetings while in recovery, as well as individual and family therapy sessions.
Helping Family and Friends Understand Addiction and Recovery
Most people, unless they are addicts in recovery, have no real framework for understanding addiction and recovery. To them, eating and drinking are simply normal parts of life. There is no obsession or compulsion related to them. Thus it is often difficult for the family of an addict to understand what the addict is going through. The family may be well intentioned and may desire to be helpful, but their lack of experience with addiction means their attempts may not only be unhelpful, but even harmful. Full Story
Shame Is No Good for Recovery
Shame is a feeling that addicts know well. Sometimes the shame is connected to one particular event. Maybe you drank too much at a family wedding and made a fool of yourself. The next day, you feel overwhelmed by embarrassment and shame and vow never to do that again. Or maybe your shame runs deeper. Society takes a pretty low view of drug addicts and alcoholics. No matter how much new research tells us about addiction and the biological, neurological, and genetic connections, we shame addicts. Full Story
Your Sobriety is Your Number One Priority
Before you get too far ahead of yourself worrying about your family and their motives, you have one very important task before that must be accomplished. You must not use drugs, today. Asking questions whose answers will only serve to get you back inside your head is a dangerous endeavor. There is time enough for that when you are more stable in your recovery to ask the tough questions and even confront those issues.
Negative Thoughts Can Inhibit Addiction Recovery
At some point in time we have all doubted ourselves. Whether it’s that we think we’re impatient, not smart enough or not pretty enough, it’s all negative self beliefs and negative self talk. Full Story
Studies Show That Giving B-12 Supplements During Detox Helps Recovering Alcoholics
There are numerous side affects to alcoholism, according to an article on the Live Strong website. A deficiency of important nutrients the body needs is just one of them. B-12 is one of the most common deficiencies and giving this vitamin during the detox phase can help prevent relapse as well as other health problems including withdrawal symptoms. Full Story
New Study Shows Women Are at Risk for Problem Drinking
According to a new study brought up in Web MD, women are now catching up to men when it comes to drinking alcohol in terms of both consumption and frequency. Those born after WWII are more likely to binge drink or develop an alcohol-related disorder. Full Story
What Makes Alcoholics Anonymous Successful?
The fact that Alcoholics Anonymous offers strong potential for success in helping an individual recover from alcohol addiction is not news. Although most medical and addiction professionals recognize its effectiveness, no one had investigated which elements of the 12-Step approach make it so, until recently. A new study investigates this question: Which aspects of Alcoholics Anonymous account for its high rate of success? Full Story
Now Is the Best Time to Improve
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve themselves." – Anne Frank, one of the most renowned and discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, best known as the author of The Diary of Anne Frank (1929-1945)
How many times have we thought to ourselves that we’ll do this or that to get going with our recovery – tomorrow or sometime in the future? What’s wrong with working our recovery right now, today? The truth is that there’s no time like the present. Indeed, in recovery, the present is all we ever really have. That’s because we don’t live in the past or in the future. Right now is when we exist. The past is a memory and the future is not yet here. Action takes place in the present.
Thus, it stands to reason that we need to actively work our recovery in the present time. We may plan out our days in advance, and that’s an excellent strategy to keep us working our recovery, but it takes the present to be able to act.
By the same token, if we fail to act today, we are not likely to improve. Why? Very simply, we only make progress in recovery when we take the steps necessary to work on this or that aspect of our sobriety journey that we’ve identified as important – or that our counselor, therapist or sponsor has recommended we attend to.
Sometimes we fear that we don’t know what to do. Better look at that, however, because it’s just as likely that we’re kidding ourselves about something. We could very well be afraid to embark on a certain activity or action because we feel we lack the appropriate knowledge to do so. It’s also quite possible, even likely, that we’ve tried such an action before and did not succeed. That makes us doubly leering of engaging in the activity again.
But we should not allow such fear to dominate our thoughts or deter us from attempting to surmount a particular challenge or hurdle or overcome a certain obstacle. In fact, we will learn more from doing so than if we give up. Not only that, but we can’t move forward if we are unable to make sense of what didn’t work for us the last time we tried this or that approach.
It could also be that we’re uncertain what kind of improvements we should make. Maybe we’ve reached a certain plateau in our recovery and feel comfortable there. We’re not inclined to stretch ourselves at this point, preferring to remain at our comfort level. Why rock the boat, we may ask ourselves before answering that we’re just fine where we are. There’s a very good reason why we need to continue to challenge ourselves and move to the next step in our recovery journey. If we maintain a status quo, not moving forward and not moving backward, the very real danger is that we become complacent about our recovery. And when we take recovery for granted, guess what? The danger of relapse is right around the corner.
Fortunately for us, all we need to do is act today. Do something, even if it’s a small thing, to assist in our recovery efforts. It has to mean something to us. Whether it is a new meeting that we go to or the fact that we go out of our way to help a newcomer to the 12-step rooms feel welcome, it’s the action that we do – and continue to do – that will help us improve. Do this each and every day. Paraphrasing Anne Frank’s eloquent words, "Why wait when we can improve ourselves today?"
Jodie Sweetin Admits Lying About Sobriety in Past
In April 2007, former “Full House” child actress Jodie Sweetin spoke to students at Marquette University about how she overcame drug addiction, trying to inspire them to stay clean and sober themselves. But what the audience didn’t know what that Sweetin had used cocaine moments before going onstage and would use her speaking fee to fund her drug habit.
How Important Is Family In Drug and Alcohol Treatment?
By Suzanne Kane
Let’s face it. Going through treatment for drug and alcohol dependence or addiction is a tough process. Not only is it hard on the individual seeking to get clean and sober, but it is also a difficult experience for family members. Addiction in any form affects the entire family. There’s no way any individual can get through treatment and on to recovery without a lot of support. That support comes from counselors, group meetings, friends you meet in treatment and recovery—and family.
Need Help Finding an Intervention Specialist?
We can refer you to an experienced interventionist who can help you help your loved one.
The Addiction Primer: Everything You Need to Know to Get Help for a Loved One
A very inexpensive yet indispensable guide for anyone struggling with a loved one's addiction. Chapters on intervention, what to expect from rehab, and information on how addiction impacts the family.
