Category: Australia

Addiction, Loneliness, and Isolation

Addiction, Loneliness, and Isolation

Articles, Australia, Education, International, LGBTQ, Malaysia, Treatment, Understanding Addiction, United Kingdom, United States

Addiction creates a lonely dichotomy for users. It is often that we are surrounded by fellow users, gamblers, and addicts, but the disease itself is excruciatingly lonely.  Addiction, in any form, is the loneliest disease. We are typically our own worse critics when it comes to addiction. In fact, we tend to create a vicious cycle in which we turn to drugs, alcohol, or other addiction to combat loneliness and then become more lonely due to the same addiction. When you are lonely, especially over time, you can lose hope and isolate yourself to wallow in self pity, but moving out of this isolation vortex is possible when in recovery.

Try a few of the following suggestions to move yourself out of the isolation of addiction into the freedom that can be found in recovery.

One suggestion is to take time to mourn the loss of drugs, alcohol, pills, or whatever your form of addiction may have been. This sounds odd, but it is something that can be beneficial to many. If you think about the main role your addiction played in your life then this activity makes sense. Addiction can become your best friend, the center of your life, and the first and last thought you have each day. While this is not healthy it means that addiction was a crucial part of your life. Even if it was unhealthy. As you enter recovery that large part of your life is removed and you must adapt. Take some time to mourn this change. Not obsess over it. But mourn all that must be altered in your life. Set a time limit on this mourning.

Take all the time you need to say goodbye to a life that was not doing you any favors.

It is likely that your addiction allowed or caused you to hurt others over time. If you can make amends to these people in some way do so. But only if it is not going to hurt them in other ways. If there are people that have been hurt that you cannot make amends with then allow yourself to make peace with your past and move on. Staying stuck in the guilt of the past will do you no good in moving forward in recovery. Everyone has a past, let yours remain there.

Disconnect with unhealthy relationships while connecting with healthier people online and in person. The great thing about technology is that there are literally millions of ways to connect to others over shared topics and concerns. Use technology to your advantage to further your recovery. Additionally, meet others in your area that are healthy or in long term recovery as a way to further your own. This means you need to cut off old, unhealthy relationships which can be difficult but is worth your new life.

Finally, build your own self confidence. Nothing will further your recovery more than growing as a person who is addiction free. Part of this will be through setting boundaries, building relationships, and changing routines. But for the most part learning to trust yourself will help you fight the loneliness and stay addiction free.

Addiction is a deadly disease that kills you slowly by choking out each part of your life that is not addiction related. You have made a bold choice to enter recovery and should do all you can to stick with your choice. You are worth the effort.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

Finding Joy through Healthy Habits

Finding Joy through Healthy Habits

Articles, Australia, Education, International, LGBTQ, Malaysia, Treatment, Understanding Addiction, United Kingdom, United States

Finding Joy through Healthy Habits – Recovery is full of changes, some will be simple, others will try your nerves for days on end. How you approach these good and bad days can help determine whether you manage to stay in recovery long term. This is why it is so important to create healthy habits that can bring you joy on the toughest of days. It may be that addiction once brought you joy, but healthier options are now much more important.

Recovery, especially the early stages can be stressful, but if you can find joy then you are more likely to make it into long term recovery. There are some ways to help find joy in recovery. If you use these tips and techniques than getting and staying clean and sober then they will become habit and bring joy throughout your life. Not all tips will work for everyone and as with any change you must adapt tips to fit your personal needs. The goal is to find healthy ways to relax and stay focused on recovery even when the day, week, or month, is going poorly. Read on and try some of the following techniques to make recovery a bit easy through joyful practices.

Start by focusing on your strengths, not weaknesses. It is easy to get bogged down in all you have done or cannot yet do when in early recovery. But you are making steps in the right direction. Focus on what you can do and are doing that is good so you can be the best you that you can be in life. You are so much more than your addiction. Whilst that may be the focus at the moment, hold tight to the other things in life you do well. As you are trying to stay positive, surround yourself with positive people. These people will both help you stay positive and focused on staying in recovery. It is hard to be unhappy around positive people.

Learn how to manage your stress. Each person handles stress differently and can handle different types and amounts of stress. Learn what you can handle and how to handle it in a healthy manner. If you need to make a daily checklist, schedule, or find help then do so. As part of this stress management, practice self-awareness. Know yourself and your reactions to different types of stress so you may be prepared ahead of time. This should include your whole self including thoughts, reactions, and physical states.

When you have the chance, try something new. You may find a new way to relax or learn something important. When these good times and opportunities come along, savor them. Sometimes finding something good once an hour, no matter how small, can make a huge difference. Finally, be grateful and count your blessings, big and small, as the good things will get you through the tough times. Finding joy can be as simple as watching a movie if you choose to find joy in the small things. What will you do to keep joy as part of your recovery journey?

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

addictive behaviour

Getting to Know What Trips You Up!

Articles, Australia, Education, International, LGBTQ, Malaysia, Treatment, United Kingdom, United States

As an addictions therapist, one of the many factors I see in Clients, which contributes to their addictive behaviour, is the lack of connection between mind, body and soul.

The first deep feeling which arises within, is the one which tells you the truth about who you are and what you need.

If you choose to ignore it – then as an addict, you have the potential of this, sometimes fleeting and many times, passing trigger, generate the urge to drink or use. Without you even being consciously aware of what has just gone on for you.

In the first instance you’ve overlooked yourself. Not listened or taken on board what your body has just expressed about it.

This is where positivity at times can trip us up. Who wants to feel something bad? When we can turn it into something good. An initial sense of ourselves can be quickly overlooked. We are a fantastic piece of machinery. Which can change a feeling or emotion on a whisp of a strand of hair or hold onto it for all eternity. Letting it erode who we are and eat into our lives completely.

Getting to know what trips you up, means you need to be mindful of what you are creating and why. You need to learn and understand your background – to empower yourself, create change and assess your needs. This will then be the blueprint, which will enable you to develop the skills, to support yourself and tell those supportive others about what you need, as you step into recovery and walk the path to continued and complete sobriety.

As a facility we work within a CBT framework.

This is an incredibly important tool, which enables a Client to learn to develop the art of self-regulation.

Self-regulation means: you can utilise the CBT framework, as taught within our program, to help you listen too, understand, take note of and work through, what this very first and incredibly important part of you – is letting you know.

It’s about getting to know yourself, then taking time to understand yourself and building the self-regulation which aids you to appropriately and resiliently deal with any situation. Which may be stressful or even happy. It helps you maintain equilibrium and thus ensure you don’t spiral downwards.

Getting to know that first feeling and then being able to express it, if not to a trusted other, then within yourself. Will enable you to gain insight into what trips you up.

So with a little bit of foresight and a whole bucketful of hindsight, you can develop the emotional and cognitive muscles, which will help you again and again be significantly stronger within.

At the start it won’t be easy.

I always use the analogy of learning to drive.

In the UK we drive stick shifts, so as a learner driver is getting used to the clutch, accelerator and brake. He also needs to be aware of what gear he is in. How he uses those gears, whilst steering the car, to ensure a competent and fuel saving drive.

 It is all these factors as they come together, which helps a learner driver begin to build confidence and develop the skills until they are test ready.

I know I spent many driving lessons bunny hopping as we began, mortified by my ineptitude and lack of ability – an emotional expression only really suitable, if I’d being doing it for years straight off.

That was what I paid my Instructor for. They sat beside me and talked me through both positives and negatives. Building a constructive pathway in my learning, which would enable me to eventually sit behind the wheel alone and drive myself where I needed to go. They picked me up when I felt low at the time it was taking and how I forgot things from week to week and kept me steady, when I became over excited about my developing ability.

Think of the Counselors here at DARA like those driving instructors.

We are working with you, to ensure you recognise and adapt the behaviours, thinking and feelings, which can trip you up at times. Sometimes the lessons are easy and at other times they’re much harder. Some skills are picked up first time, others need to be hammered home before they even begin to sink in.

Each one of us is different.

Each one of us needs to find their own way through the schedule but the one thing which is consistent across the whole of the program and within the facility, is this. “We believe in you.”

Writer
Janice Stringer
Dip. Couns. MBACP

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

I Don’t Need it, and Yet I Do

I Don’t Need it, and Yet I Do

Articles, Australia, Education, International, Malaysia, Treatment, Understanding Addiction, United Kingdom, United States

I put my hand in my pocket and come upon some items that I did not know were there. It’s inexpensive costume jewellery, something I never wear. Who would have put it into my pocket? Shamefully, I realized that I, a kleptomaniac of long standing had done it myself. The store had, obviously, not caught me; and if I get rid of my bounty in such a way that it won’t be connected to me, it will be like it never happened—until the next time!

I have been caught a couple of time before though. Once I was let off the hook, but another time I had to work at a homeless shelter for three days. They thought that I had stolen these things on purpose; and by interacting with the homeless; I was meant to see what my destiny might be like if I continued down my chosen path. Only, they didn’t know—nobody knew—that I had episodes where, before I realized it, I grabbed some things and scooted out of the stores undetected. I seemed to have not enough control to resist these urges. However, after I have carried out this deed, I felt shame and guilt, but, ironically, also pleasure.

Consequently, I found myself doing these things more often in order to keep up the pleasure level. I think that my sister behaved like that before she stole an 18k ring, and was jailed for it. I really don’t want to end up like that.

Not wanting to feel even more humiliated, I never told anyone what was really happening. Consequently, nobody knows that I am a kleptomaniac, but my teachers and parents believe that I have a personality disorder, as well as an anxiety one. Although they think these are serious disorders, nobody is doing anything about getting professional help for me, which I believe I very much need. In fact, they also told me that if I didn’t change course, I might advance to more serious impulsive control disorders such as gambling and shopping, which are really addictive and for which I certainly did not have the money. I was told that I looked depressed; and after such news, I certainly was, and even entertained suicidal thoughts.

I keep seeking information about kleptomania addiction; and I find that the professionals don’t know how to prevent it, since they don’t know what causes it. They have decided that the best course of treatment consists of psychotherapy and medications; however, no FDA approved medication exists. Some doctors have tried an addiction medicine called Naltrexone, as well as an antidepressant medicine. Since it is known that the best thing that can be done is to begin treatment as soon as possible. Consequently, doctors are trialing cognitive behavioral therapy, which assists patients to recognize unhealthy negative beliefs and behaviors and replace them with healthy positive ones. The success rate of this therapy is proving to be very goo but relapses are always possible.

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Transition from Rehab

Transition from Rehab

Articles, Australia, Education, International, LGBTQ, Malaysia, Treatment, Understanding Addiction, United Kingdom, United States

Nearly everything about life changes after drug and alcohol rehab. The process of recovery is just the most obvious thing for life after rehab. As we make the transition from drug and alcohol treatment to sober person in the world, we are faced with a number of decisions, many of which are critical to continued recovery. Transitional housing is an important consideration.

Transitional housing is really nothing more than a home shared with other people who have the common experience of addiction and treatment. These places are often subsidized by treatment centers and can generally be found through a reputable rehab facility. They are designed to have a drug and alcohol free environment and this is strictly enforced. There are no drugs or alcohol allowed on the premises and no one is allowed on the premises who has been using.

I chose the transitional housing after treatment. There are a number of distinct advantages to this type of step. First, transitional housing made certain that I was nowhere near my old haunts and temptations. This is an obvious precaution, but it is one that too many people do not take seriously. It is extremely easy to fall back into old habits after treatment and these habits will inevitably lead us back to using. Staying away from the old places and patterns can be a life-saver.

Another advantage is less obvious until you get sober. Life is quite different as a sober and recovering person than it is as an intoxicated person. The world comes at you in new ways. Most of this is positive, but not all of it. It can be difficult to figure out how manage the simple struggles of daily life in the absence of old crutches and means of escape. Transitional housing offers you a safe space to simple get your bearings and learn to negotiate the world as a sober person.

Transitional housing can often provide recovery support right under your own roof. Since I shared this space with others who were in recovery, nearly any issue is one I shared with others in my house. It is not as if I found ways of solving problems or difficulties. It was more a matter of finding support in other people who faced similar, if not the same, struggles. This too is an invaluable resource.

The fact that these places are an enforced drug and alcohol free environment is a relief. To know that my home was a space where I had no danger of temptation provided a peace of mind that I do not think I could have gotten anywhere else. Not only are there no alcohol or drugs in transitional housing, there is no danger of them being there. We are removed from the world of substances while in transitional housing.

Most people will return to their homes and their families after completing drug and alcohol treatment. The reunification of family is often the primary goal of treatment. But for some of us, a period of transition between treatment and home is a good idea. We find a place of continues peace and healing in transitional housing.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.