Category: Understanding Addiction

emotions in recovery

Emotion as a Life Force

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

Emotions in Recovery – Addiction and drug use are often difficult for those who do not use to understand. It seems odd to give up everything to use a substance that can ultimately end your life. For addicts the drug of choice is often just an answer that became a problem. Many times the addict is dealing with other issues and using is just a way to deal with those issues. While it may not be the best way to deal with problems addiction was at one time a solution that quickly became a problem. This means that addiction is wrought with emotion, even though addicts rarely feel those emotions until the addiction is truly addressed. Your emotions are a life force and without them life becomes unidentifiable.

Emotions in Recovery

Emotions are an invisible life force that drive people. Some people are driven by greed, others by love. Some people may not know what drives them. Addicts, when in active addiction are driven by the need to use. This is something that has to change as part of recovery. The change will take time and work as finding a new drive and purpose is difficult. When first entering recovery it may seem that the lack of resources is a hindrance, but this is actually the time when being resourceful will help you achieve your ultimate goal of long term recovery. The resourcefulness can begin by getting to the right emotion which can help you gain psychological strength. Once you are confident and strong in your own mind, you can move forward in other areas.

Psychological Strength

In order to gain this psychological strength you need to be able to answer the following questions for yourself: What am I going to focus on? What does it mean? And what am I going to do? Answering these questions forces the addict to look inside themselves and figure out what is truly important. Each answer will have an emotional connection for the person discovering the answer. These emotions will provide a catalyst to move further into recovery.

The key to using these emotions in recovery lies within the answers. Once someone decides what the focus of life will be without addiction then goals can be set. The goals offer purpose for the individual in recovery. This is not to say that the goals will not change over time or as they are met, but the first focused goal that is set will get things started. The way in which the goal setting and journey begin are the answer to what does it mean. As measurable and attainable steps are set the final question is answered as well.

Your Purpose

Emotions in Recovery – Now that you have the questions, the answers are up to you. Everyone needs a purpose and this purpose will bring about emotions that you must learn to harness, control, and use to meet the goals. Will you accept the challenge that comes with staying clean and sober? Only you can make this choice for yourself. Even if you have ended up in rehab against your will you have the choice of whether to make it work or not. The lesson to take away is that recovery is an emotional experience that will offer you the chance to grow as a person and change your life or stay stuck in a world of emotionless addiction. What will you choose?

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opioid abuse

Donald Trump Proclaims a National Emergency

Articles, Education, International, LGBTQ, Understanding Addiction, United States

Opioid Abuse. Donald Trump Vows to Proclaim a National Emergency as Opioid Abuse Claims the Lives of 142 People on a Daily Basis.

The harrowing scale of the opioid epidemic is out. It has revealed that near 150 people die each day due to opioid abuse. However, President Donald Trump is set to take swift action, declaring a national emergency to control this shocking scenario.

It is perhaps ‘the’ deadliest drug overdose and epidemic recorded in US history. Trump’s panel has urged the Commander-in-Chief to address the situation as quickly as possible.

The recommendation to declare a nationwide emergency stems from a preliminary draft that is a part of the opioid commission report. The report itself comes from the horrifying statistics that went back to the death toll due to opioid overdose in 2016. Shockingly, more Americans lost their lives to this drug than the total US causalities reported in the whole Vietnam War.

In 2015, deaths reported from drug abuse and opioid overdose easily toppled the annual death toll from motor vehicle accidents, gang wars, gun violence and terminal diseases such as HIV/AIDS. You would also be surprised to know that the death toll from an opioid overdose in 2015 was more than the number of people who lost their lives succumbing to the 1995 HIV/AIDS epidemic.

According to a new report on the opioid crisis, approximately 150 people die every day due to drug overdose and the US is enduring a massive death toll each year. To put things into perspective. More people die due to opioid abuse every three weeks than the total number of people who lost their lives in the September, 11 tragedy.

The commission to combat the current tragedy in the US includes the following key members of Congress:
  • Chris Christie (R), governor of New Jersey
  • Charlie Baker (R), governor of Massachusetts
  • Roy Cooper (D), governor of North Carolina
  • Patrick Kennedy (D) (former Republican)
  • Bertha Madras
The commission contains some big recommendations – and mentioned below are some of the more important ones:
  1. Grant Approval for the entire 50 States to Extinguish Federal Barriers Pertaining to the Medicaid Programs. This act approval excludes all Federal Mental Institutes – As per the Social Security Act, government funds for Medicaid cannot fund or reimburse services and facilities from inpatient care that are designed to treat people with mental disabilities and illnesses – this includes addiction, with 16 or more beds.

This is a major barrier the government needs to break, and the Commission seeks to do just that. By eliminating this inhibition, all 50 states will be able to immediately start treating thousands upon thousands of US citizens held up in current facilities.

  1. Setting Up Immediate Funding for Federal Programs to Enhance Access to Patient Care in the Form of Medication-Assisted Programs – This is the highest standard when it comes to treating people with opioid addiction. Research indicates that immediate medical treatments and assistance can cut the death toll from drug addiction in half or maybe more.

However, the problem is inaccessibility. Only ten percent of modern and traditional treatment establishments and treatments offer this sort of drug abuse intervention and medication-assisted programs across the country. The commission seeks to greatly expand this method of treatments. It is even targeting prison systems and various other types of drug treatment institutions.

You or someone you know suffering from Opioid Addiction? CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

sex addiction

In What Ways Can Sex Addiction Affect a Person’s Life?

Articles, Celebrity Rehab, International, LGBTQ, Understanding Addiction

There is a huge difference between having extraordinary libido and being addicted to sex. It is important that you know the destructive effects that sex addiction can have in a person’s life so when you sense its symptoms, you can tell your loved ones about it to get help. The shame, embarrassment and humiliation that come with admitting to being a sex addict can keep many from disclosing it ever. Here is how sex addiction can affect a person’s life. Once you know the consequences, help yourself and your loved ones from its life ruining impact.

It Makes the Person Weak

What happens when a person loses control over their thoughts and actions? They become weak. Any type of addiction has physical effects, but the primary target of addiction is disrupting brain functionality. That’s what sex addiction does to a person—it disables their brain functions and starts controlling them. A sex addict cannot avoid having sex, the urge is too powerful and can be likened to that of a cocaine or meth user.  

It Brings Them Embarrassment and Shame

It does not matter whether the sex addict takes shame and embarrassment seriously or not. What you as an outsider know is that revealing your sexual affairs and immoral sexual acts deprive a person from their self-esteem and self-concept. Between any two surge-points that push a sex addict into extremities of sexual behavior there are moments of respite and withdrawal where they are in their senses for some time. That’s when this embarrassment and shame bothers them too.

It Keeps Them from Having Long-term Relationships

It’s the mental state of a sex addict that makes them from entering any long-term relationships. What starts out as a shameful act soon becomes a habit and a way to escape stress, emotional setbacks, burden of responsibilities, depression, etc. In this state of mind, they are not able to feel for their life partner, if they have any. They just want to move from one person to another as quickly as possible.

It Pushes Them into a Battle with Conscience

 A sex addict wants to cut back on their sexual activities and fantasies. However, they succumb soon to the urge. This process repeats and as a result, sex addicts find themselves brawling with their conscience over and over. This particular situation has to be taken seriously because the worst end to this fight could be in the form of suicide or suicidal tendencies.

It Makes Them Less Efficient

Sex addiction can affect a person’s career and work life in a negative way too. Withdrawal from sex can often fill a sex addict with restlessness, anxiety or depression. Anxiety and depression invoke thoughts of doom and devastation in the mind of a person. This results in drastic lack of focus and concentration when a sex addict tries to carry out his professional obligations or perform mundane tasks.

It Leads Them to Other Addictions

Sex addiction can force a person into prostitution or having sexual meetings with prostitutes to fulfill their unending desire. In communities where prostitution is common, substance abuse is common too, leading the sex addict to abusing others drugs. Not to mention, the loss of self-control and will-power already weakens a person’s resistance to these addictive substances.

Sex Addiction – Final Words

While any thought or excuse that prevents you from staying away becoming an addict is great, it shouldn’t just be the fear-factor that helps you stay sober. In fact, another motivation to avoid sex or any other type of addiction should be a person’s well-being. Start making the healthy changes in your life from today and become a role model so you can save many other lives in addition to yours.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.

Honesty in Recovery

Honesty in Recovery

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

Nearly all programs of addiction recovery will treat the idea of honesty as a central feature of recovery. Honesty in recovery and treatment is at least a two-fold issue. We need to learn to be honest with others and we need to learn how to be completely honest with ourselves. Since addiction necessarily involves a great deal of hiding, covering up, and lying even by omission, one of the first hurdles we must go over is addressing the issue of honesty.

At a minimum, living with drug abuse and alcoholism involved hiding the drug use and drinking from others. Nearly all drug addicts and alcoholics know that what they are doing is not acceptable and they go to great lengths to hide their using from family, friends, and co-workers. This leads to duplicity and lying. A crucial feature of drug and alcohol treatment, then, is opening up to people after years of hiding from them. People in treatment and recovery are generally required to finally admit to others what they have been doing. The purpose of this is to clear the air of what can be many years of suspicion and mistrust between the addicted person and the people who are important in their life. This stage of treatment and recovery is cathartic for many. They are relieved of the burden of hiding so much of themselves form others. But it is also traumatic. Treatment programs offer counseling and psychological help during the phase of things because revealing the truth of addiction can bring some painful realities to  both the recovering addict and to their families and friends

Another dimension to honesty in recovery is helping the recovering addict to be honest with themselves. There is of course the primary admission of the full extent of the problem. Most people who struggle with addiction and/or alcoholism find it difficult or nearly impossible to admit to themselves that their drinking and drug use is out of their control It is a natural form of resistance. None of us want to believe that there is a huge part of ourselves that is out of our control. Yet, it is critical for those in treatment to finally admit that alcohol and drugs are no longer a voluntary art of their lives. They are, in fact, controlled by their substances. Being completely honest with themselves about these facts is the first step toward recovery. Giving in to the fact that they have the disease of addiction allows addicted people to be properly treated.

Honesty in recovery works in at least two directions in drug and alcohol treatment. One admits to others the realities of what they have been doing. The mistrust that has built up, mistrust that can go back many years for some, can be healed by these kinds of admissions. It is often the case that family, friends, and co-workers have no idea what a person has been doing. Worry, fear, and resentment builds along with the deceptions of the addict. By clearing the air and being honest, a person in recovery can begin to mend these rifts. Alcoholics and drug addicts lie to themselves first and foremost and this self-deception must be the first course of real honesty. By being completely honest with themselves, people who suffer from addiction can get the real help they need.

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Nutrition and Recovery

Nutrition and Recovery

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

Nutrition and Recovery – The traditional programs of recovery tend to emphasize healing of the mind and the spirit. While there is always some measure of care taken to ensure that people get enough to eat It is not always the case that treatment programs and even individuals in recovery take particular care with the kind of nutrition they need as they recover. Active addiction in itself does horrendous damage to physical bodies. Alcohol inhibits the break-down of nutrients and does damage to all the organ systems, not just the liver. Opiates tend to case gastro-intestinal problems. Withdrawal for these drugs can cause severe stomach problems which lead to a loss of nutrients. Amphetamines suppress appetite and people who have been using cocaine, methamphetamine, and other similar drugs often come into treatment severely malnourished. What people eat during treatment and recovery can have everything to do with a healthy and full recovery. 

While vitamin regimens can be helpful, most doctors and other health care professionals agree that real food is the best way to re-establish the proper balance of nutrients in the body as one recovers form addiction. One of the difficulties in this is that people who are newly sober from any drug often crave fatty, processed foods with high sugar contents. These foods mimic the deficiencies they are experiencing. They provide immediate satisfaction without long-term benefit. And it is widely known that eating these kinds of foods is horrible for the body in the long run. But as one works to slay the demon of a life-threatening substance, it can be hard to say no to fatty sweet foods.

Nutrition and Recovery

Doctors recommend foods with less processed sugar. Natural food sugar levels actually stabilize moods for people in recovery. As they adjust to sobriety and the resulting mood swings that come with the depression and anxiety common in early recovery. A diet of low sugar foods will actually stabilize blood sugar levels, and reduce the craving for sugars. They will stabilize moods which lead to depression and anxiety. While it is tempting to indulge in donuts, they will actually complicate recovery over time.
Since so much a substance abuse causes break-down and damage to organ tissue, complex amino acids and proteins are the best prescription for recovery. These are often combined with supplements such a vitamin B-12 which stimulates tissue re-growth. Here again, this is not an invitation to pig-out on cheeseburgers. Healthy amounts of proteins in normal portions seem to work best. Vitamin B-12 will increase appetite but this is often a necessary part of early sobriety and recovery.

Nutrition and Recovery – All people in recovery, regardless of the substances they may have been using, are urged to cut down or eliminate processed and fatty foods. Junk food will actually impede recovery by causing harm to the body which is not all that different from substance abuse. Doctors generally agree on a program of “never hungry, never full.” This means to eat in moderation but never allow yourself to get hungry. It is a common-place that hunger itself can be a trigger for relapse. But over-indulging in food can become a road block to actual recovery. By maintaining a healthy balance of nutritious foods and guarding against over-indulgence in junk food, recovering addicts can aid their own recovery and help their bodies bounce back from years of abuse and neglect.

CLICK HERE to get a Free Confidential Addiction Rehabilitation Assessment.