Addiction Recovery Archives - Page 5 of 9

What Challenges Can I Expect To Face On The Path to Sobriety?

Posted on March 13, 2018 by JohnAdmin

When a person struggles with an addiction, their brain rewires what it means to be motivated and happy. Drugs can change our reward system, make us think and feel different, and ultimately make the path to sobriety extremely difficult.

But it’s not impossible. Now more than ever, modern medicine and psychiatry have combined to create multiple different effective treatment methods for addiction. There is no one-size-fits-all – instead, there are dozens of therapy and treatment types, applicable for different circumstances, and for different goals.

Yet the treatment can’t do all the work for us. Addiction treatment at the end of the day is still just a curriculum, and it’s up to each individual student to put in the work to graduate. The first step is accepting your problem and recognizing the need to fight against it. The second step is choosing to fight, against all odds. From there, each path changes – but every path is filled with challenges, temptations, fears, and anxieties.

To overcome addiction and maintain sobriety, you must overcome each challenge. And knowing what you’re likely to face can help you prepare.

The Fear Of Relapse

Relapse itself is a challenge, but it’s the fear of relapse that might present an even bigger problem for most people in early recovery. No one said the path to sobriety was going to be easy, but the fear of making even a single, simple mistake builds up this incredible tension that finally explodes in painful regret and shame.

While relapsing is by no means a picnic and signifies that something has gone wrong in the recovery process, it should not be something so devastating that it sets you back several months’ worth of progress. A relapse is a mistake, but the damage it does is often due to the fear we have of relapsing, rather than the relapse itself.

By instead treating it as a teaching moment, to learn from and understand its trigger, and thus better prepare yourself in the future so that it won’t happen again, you can be more calm and secure about taking the path to sobriety rather than feeling anxious of its perceived frailty.

The Temptation Of Drug Use

Drug cravings are common while you’re still addicted – but even after treatment, cravings can develop all throughout the early recovery period, tempting you especially in moments of great stress or overwhelming emotion. Additionally, returning to everyday life after treatment can bring back many memories associated with drug use, making the temptations grow stronger.

For the first few months on the path to sobriety, dealing with these temptations and cravings can be torturous.

The Fear Of Being Different

There is more to addiction than simply using too much of a certain drug. Sometimes, drugs like alcohol are part of everyday life or work culture. Resisting the urge to drink on a social occasion and refusing drinks when they are explicitly offered to you can be difficult. But part of the urge to drink comes from the sheer pressure to conform and be like everyone else at the party.

Be different. And embrace that uniqueness. Dare to be yourself, and uphold the sober you by drinking coffee, or ordering a virgin drink. Keep yourself from being asked awkward questions or offered drinks by always making sure you have something to sip on and assert your sobriety and ignore those who might ridicule it – because in the back of your mind, you know it’s good for you and those around you. Remind yourself of embarrassing and painful memories, rather than thoughts of how easy it would be to get yourself a drink.

Declining Social Events

Similar to the peer pressure at work or at parties when being offered something you don’t want, learn how to say no to social occasions when you don’t have the energy for them and feel the urge to drink arise as a way to cope with the stress of being around people. Sometimes, we use alcohol or other drugs to bring out our extroverted side and suppress the introvert.

Embrace the introvert instead. Go out when you want to go out and be adamant about spending your free time alone or in the comforts of your own home when you feel like you don’t have the motivation to be with others while sober. Don’t let others dictate who you should be, or what you should be like, and don’t let them rob you of your comforts as you work to maintain everything you’ve gained on the path to sobriety.

Quitting Old Friendships On The Path To Sobriety

One of the biggest challenges in early on the path to sobriety is fighting against the common temptations faced by most fresh out of a treatment program. Many of these can be spontaneous, but they are often triggered by memories, caused by sights, smells and sounds.

Friends can be a powerful trigger for drug cravings, especially if they refuse to accept or respect your sobriety or continue using around you. If so, it’s critical to cut them off and end those relationships for your own good. And most of the time, that can be a very hard thing to do.

Making Sober Friends

Just as it is important to cut off old friends who hurt your efforts of staying sober, it’s important to make new friends you can support you and keep you sane throughout your sobriety. Yet overcoming your fears and potential trust issues enough to open to others and let them in on your recovery can be difficult. Nevertheless, it’s a critical step towards long-term sobriety, both for you and for them.

Everyone’s perception and struggles with addiction are different, and there is guarantee that you’ll encounter any or most of these challenges. And there may be challenges that cannot be accurately described or summarized in a single article. Sometimes, life hits you with a curveball you can’t be prepared for – and it’s then when everything you learned in addiction treatment becomes extremely valuable.

Living is hard, not because the day-to-day breaks us, but because it’s the little accumulative stresses and giant gut-punches that wear down our defenses. By staying together, finding people you can support and be supported by, and by sticking to your own inner lessons on recovery and sobriety, you can keep your defenses strong even against the greatest challenges and tragedies.

Think of it as a dance. If you trip, then you tripped. And all you must do is get back up. And next time, it gets a little easier to see that tricky spot as it comes towards you, and you can prepare for it. If you don’t give up and trust in yourself and those around you, your path to sobriety is a sure one, no matter how long it might be.

Tips To Avoid Relapsing

Posted on March 7, 2018March 7, 2018 by JohnAdmin

To most people in early recovery, there’s nothing more terrifying than failing. Falling back into your old ways and continuing to be consumed by the addiction. But that’s not necessarily failure. There’s a common misconception where many people feel like if they make one mistake – one misstep – they have failed themselves. Failure is giving up sobriety and using until you pass away. Failure is when you quit all hope of getting better because of a relapse and no long attempt to avoid relapsing.

Relapses, on the other hand, are not failures. They’re mistakes, but they’re mistakes we can learn from. For example – a relapse can teach you how to avoid another relapse, if you pay attention to the signs. But that doesn’t mean that we should embrace relapses as a regular occurrence, either. You should avoid relapses – but don’t let them consume you entirely and rob you of every hope for lasting recovery.

To get sober and stay sober, you have to want to be sober more than anything else – but it’s not enough to just want something. Addiction treatment can be long and arduous, and it involves many exercises, therapies, and steps. If you want to avoid another relapse, or avoid relapsing ever again, then here’s what you need to do:

Find Some Friends

Recovery is an individual task – but it’s best done together. Individual therapy is not enough to heal from addiction. It takes more than the knowledge of a therapist and the ability to tackle and improve your thoughts to overcome addiction – time and time again, the stressors of the real world will test your ability to cope with difficulty, and the cravings will grow stronger and stronger.

You need others for support, both as a way to rant and blow off steam, and as a way to hear from them, help them with their problems, and depend on one another. Group therapy and other sober group activities is a new way to meet new sober friends, and plan outings.

You don’t have to find dozens of new acquaintances – spreading yourself too thin isn’t a good idea either. Instead, hang out with different groups and find one or two people you really vibe with. If things work out, they’ll work out – if not, keep looking. Having a pal or two can make addiction recovery a lot easier – it gives you a person to talk to about issues most people would never understand, and the fresh perspective on a similar yet completely different struggle can give you new ideas on how to tackle your own addiction and help avoid relapsing.

Having someone close in your social circle also gives you the comfort of knowing that if things get turbulent, you have someone you can call and talk to. Relapses often happen because a single thing pushes you off the edge – hopelessness. Many are triggered by different factors, from cravings to old memories and more. But they give in when something inside of them convinces them that recovery won’t work.

A friend can help stave off that moment, and keep you sober. It won’t be easy, and some cases are harder than others, but it’s clear that reliable friends are important and can help you avoid relapsing.

Get A New Hobby

Hobbies are not just a way to spend time, but they’re a way to keep yourself stimulated, physically and creatively. From sports to art and academics, finding a hobby you can truly embrace and stick with is one of the most powerful tools for maintaining sobriety and avoid relapsing.

Hobbies are not just distractions for when you feel stressed, or when you need some time to yourself. They are meant to provide an additional focal point to your recovery and give you a progressive series of goals to strive towards, improving yourself and thus making gradual but significant steps away from addiction, and towards your new sober lifestyle.

A good hobby can also serve as an adaptive coping mechanism. That means it gives you a way to release stress and blow off steam without further worsening your situation, instead helping you adapt to it by improving your cognition or your health.

Drug use is a classic example of a maladaptive coping mechanism. While it does help you forget your problems, it creates an entirely new and incredibly destructive problem. The same goes for any form of addiction, including an addiction to food, or even to typically healthy activities like exercise. Too much of anything can be terrible – and if approached with the wrong mindset, something harmless can become a maladaptive coping mechanism.

To put it differently, your hobby should be something that makes you stronger, letting you face your problems head-on, rather than simply giving you a direction to run away from your problems.

Learn Your Triggers And Avoid Relapsing

Relapses do not happen out of nowhere. When addiction treatment begins, it is normal for someone straight out of withdrawal to experience powerful cravings. Sober living facilities and residential treatment facilities exist to help people cope with these cravings.

When treatment ends, and time passes, the cravings begin to go away. But certain triggers can bring them back. For example – the sight or sound of an old neighborhood, meeting an old friend, having a meal at a specific restaurant, hearing a specific song. These are cues for old memories to come flooding back, alongside powerful emotions, and the subsequent temptation of addiction.

Understanding these triggers, and learning which triggers you can easily ignore, and which you have to live with, is important to avoid relapsing.

With time, simply ignoring your triggers won’t do. But to overcome them, you need to get to a point where you can manage cravings and ride them out without giving into them. Before then, knowing what can and will possibly trigger your cravings can be very helpful.

When you feel a relapse coming on, it is important to think back on these tips. What triggered it? Who should you call? And what can you do? Begin by taking a deep breath, and thinking of a single, simple thought that motivates you. Prepare that thought now and use it as a mantra – a phrase that reminds you why you stay sober. For some, that phrase can be to remind them of their loved ones. For others, it’s to remind them of their dream. Whatever it is, hold onto it, call your friend, and do not give in.

Personalized Care Makes Transitioning Into Sober Life Easier

Posted on February 28, 2018February 28, 2018 by JohnAdmin

As a disease, addiction has a certain pathology. It develops as a result of repetitive substance use or certain behavior. It is triggered and builds in the reward center of the brain, creating a craving that overpowers a person’s motivation for many other things in life, taking center stage. Addiction can make a person do things they would otherwise never have done. In a way, it changes people, especially at its peak. But there are differences, many of which are not necessarily very subtle. Some people develop a host of co-dependent illnesses as a result of their addiction or had tendencies towards certain behavior that is extremely exacerbated. Others suffer from conditions due to their drug use, including infections, sleep disorders, lesions, paralysis and more. The exact cause and effect of an addiction changes from person to person, based on their personal history of drug use, their family history and medical records, environmental factors, and more; which makes personalized care in addiction recovery so important.

In a way, addiction can be simplified into a loss of self-control, the development of a brain disease that urges its victims to constantly obsess over the object of their addiction, and the pursuit of it. But there is so much more to it on an individual level.

Just as the disease itself can be intricate and complicated, so must the treatment match in its individualized and unique goals. Addiction cannot be treated with a blanket one-size-fits-all program – just as any other complicated disease or mental illness requires a very specific set of tools and a program tailored to each individual. That is where personalized care comes into the picture.

What Is Personalized Care?

Personalized care, or individually-fitted, or tailor-made care, is any form of medicine that tackles a patient’s needs individually, understanding that individual differences between patients matter greatly.

A disease as varied as addiction cannot be tackled on the presumption that one case is just like another, and cookie-cutter treatments do not work as effectively as personalized treatments, nor are they as inclusive, as certain methods are sure to fail with some individuals despite producing excellent results elsewhere.

Personalized care also encourages a deeper understanding of addiction and the many factors that affect its development in an individual.

Why Addiction Treatment Is Individual And Group-Based

Personalized care caters to the individual – and in a way, addiction itself is a battle between you and the disease. But there is more to defeating addiction than being on your own – and many would argue that it’s next to impossible alone.

Personalized care is important in the context that it eliminates cookie-cutter practices and makes it an industry standard to treat patients individually, as per their own circumstances and needs. But that does not mean addiction treatment should only factor the individual.

As such, any treatment has to focus on the individual, while also giving room for people to interact with one another within the treatment, in order to get a perspective of how others live their lives while dealing with addiction, and in order to understand just how addiction can touch the lives of anyone, regardless of gender, race, age or status.

Group meetings, group outings, and encouraging individuals to make new friends in different environments – not just in circles of sobriety, but in relation to their old or newfound hobbies, as well – is important. It helps patients create a circle of friends to rely on when things get tough.

Some treatment facilities even help close friends and family become better “therapists” for after the end of a program, helping them understand addiction, and the do’s and don’ts of helping someone fighting against it.

The Difference Between Treatment And Living

Residential treatments, sober living facilities and outpatient programs – these are possible treatment templates, existing to cater to people throughout various stages of addiction, in various stages of their life. When they end, you are going to be in the “real world”, facing everyday issues from a perspective of stone cold sobriety, with the task to survive, function, and learn to enjoy it all again.

It can take time, and you should never be alone. Whether you’re with family, friends or professionals, the transition from treatment to living life again may be the most crucial aspect of sobriety. While fighting against withdrawal and addiction in a sober living environment is hard, it is an altogether different experience from living your everyday life, knowing where to get what you need to be right back where you started.

Some people make it easier on themselves by moving and cutting off contact to old acquaintances – but the memories are still there, and the stress of living is accumulatively stronger than the stress of treatment.

It is important to be prepare. And there is no better preparation than personalized care. These personalized treatments are your best shot at developing the skills and abilities to stick to your sober routine – and they will help you transition from treatment into a sober life.

Dealing With Addiction In The Long-Term

The treatment is just the beginning. The goal of addiction treatment is not necessarily to beat the addiction within the given time limit of the program, regardless of whether it is three months, or half a year. The goal of addiction treatment is to help each patient build an assortment of tools and skills with which to troubleshoot life’s problems, particularly helping individuals tackle stress and loss and everyday life without succumbing to the urge to use again.

As the months and years go by, each day after day of sobriety well-spent, it may get easier to stay sober and not think about the old days. Sometimes, relapses still happen. But if you survive, it’s certainly not the end of the fight. You simply pick yourself up, go back for treatment, and figure out where things went wrong – where you felt the urge to use so strongly, and how you can go about it the next time.

Each mistake we make throughout our lives is but an opportunity to learn, improve, and prepare. And as long as you’re still living, the fight against your addiction has not failed.

Some days are worse than others. That is what friends and family are for. Stay close to the people who mean the most to you and accept their help when you know you need it. And before you know it, you’ll be out of early recovery, and in for a long life of cherished sober living.

How Addiction Changes Behavior

Posted on February 22, 2018February 21, 2018 by JohnAdmin

Addiction changes behavior because it is a disease of the brain, wherein chemical changes introduced by a reaction to a certain behavior or substance cause a lasting change on the way the brain works, sometimes developing into an unmanageable and unhealthy habit. The brain cannot get addicted to a drug on the first hit. But the first often leads to the second, and so on. If nothing stops the behavior, or if anything encourages it, then a few bad choices can cause can lead to what feels like the loss of choice itself.

Addiction treatment is a route to retrieving the ability to choose a better life and reinforce that choice above the ruinous alternative. It takes time, though, because of how addiction changes the brain. Understanding that can give you keen insight into the disease, and help you see just why it can be so difficult to fight against.

How Addiction Changes Behavior In People

Addiction changes behavior, not by forcing them to do something, but by heavily encouraging it. People who struggle with addiction are just that: people, from all walks of life, with a unique and varied list of problems and concerns, living with the symptoms of a disease that compels them to do anything and everything for the next high due to how addiction changes behavior.

This disease does not transform a loving and kind person into a stereotype. But going through an addiction and coming out the other side can change someone. It takes a lot of strength and a lot of time to beat an addiction, and for many, this journey causes them to reflect, consider, reprioritize and, in some cases, relearn what it means to live life.

It is difficult to pinpoint when exactly an addiction begins, but the telltale sign for when an addiction has taken hold of a person is when they try to stop doing something and find that they just cannot. The horror of that realization might be prefaced with justification and excuses for a while – we are all very good at lying to ourselves. But at some point, the truth becomes undeniable, and by then most people are in the thick of it.

The brain’s reward pathways are at the center of it all. Drugs and certain behavior cause the reward pathways to essentially get confused – addictiveness correlates strongly with how pleasurable something is, and the high of an illicit drug is essentially so powerful that the brain is desensitized to other pleasurable stimuli and begins to strongly crave that same high repeatedly. Addiction changes behavior because of the constant need to find the next high and that’s what makes it so easy to fall into the trap.

Other hobbies fall to the wayside, relationships falter, and focus becomes harder to come by. In addition to completely hijacking and manipulating the way the brain keeps you motivated, addictive drugs often damage the brain as well, reducing cognition and problem solving, increasing risky behavior, cutting down on inhibition and memory. These issues all contribute to how addiction changes behavior in a person, making them less reliable, less attentive, cutting into their focus and determination, and changing their motivations in life.

The likelihood of someone suffering an addiction depends on many possible factors, some of which are external (mental health, emotional state/stress, peer pressure, the addictiveness of the drug), and some of which are internal (genetics). But once it happens, getting out is tough.

Seek Out A Professional

Addiction treatment is not an exact science, but it is still best left to professionals. Treatment for addiction comes in dozens of shapes and sizes and determining what to suggest and what to leave out depends entirely on a patient’s circumstances, the logistics of the situation, the extent to which addiction changes behavior in them, and the skills and specializations of available professionals and treatment centers in the area.

Professional help is more than a prescription and some therapy – addiction treatment is a long road, unique for every individual, tailored to their needs. Professionals communicate across all levels of care, helping patients find a path that will get them the best results. While some people have had success in fighting addiction on their own, with the help of friends and family, it never hurts to seek a professional opinion – especially when nothing else seems to work.

Why Is Addiction Shunned?

The mind and the body affect each other, and trouble in one brews trouble in the other. In the same way, a mental illness can be as much a “physical illness” as a compound fracture or the flu. A mental illness can be caused by, or can cause physical change, just as how physical change can cause mental illness. Sometimes it is a matter of genetics, and at other times, external factors (i.e. environmental factors) play a major role instead.

Addiction is a condition caused and linked ostensibly to “feelings”. The inner workings of the brain and the way it struggles to work the same way after substance misuse is hard to see in everyday life, and it makes addiction harder to “see”. Someone struggling with addiction invariably feels certain things differently to others, which makes it an incredibly difficult thing to relate to, something quite difficult for many to feel naturally compassionate towards. When someone has a major gash in their leg, the visceral nature of the injury and its healing process evokes sympathy – an “unseen” condition is harder to empathize with, but it is every bit as real.

Awareness plays a big role. While many lives are touched by addiction indirectly, fortunately only a relatively small percentage of people have struggled through this issue. It is important for others to realize what it truly means, and why it deserves a little more sympathy rather than judgment and prejudice.

Only by approaching addiction both individually and on a larger scale from a place of care and love can we find a solution to it. Individually, support and care are critical for successful recovery. And in society, we could use a little sympathy for the people who struggle with the condition.

Quitting An Addiction

Addiction relies on support. Cravings are a big part of addiction, especially early on in recovery right after quitting, and the key to maintaining sobriety is having people around you who encourage you to stay sober, such as in a Houston sober living community.

The only prerequisite to getting better is wanting to, even after a relapse. From there, your path differs. Some people have incredible success stories, going through decades of addiction and then going sober for one goal or purpose, never looking back and never relapsing. Others have longer journeys, in and out of rehab, through several different treatment methods and centers. Some think that addiction is a life-long battle, while others see it as a chapter.

Regardless of what your recovery journey will look like, quitting addiction is always hard – and always worth it.

Changing the Perception of Addiction as Failure

Posted on February 21, 2018 by JohnAdmin

Addiction is not a failure, yet many have the perception of addiction being failure. To many people, someone who is addicted is morally challenged, emotionally immature, and weak-willed. Addiction is a sign of weakness and failure to them, rather than a disease.

This shows a fundamental lack of understanding in the general population of what addiction is, how it occurs, what it feels like, and what it means to fight it.

Thankfully, addiction is not incredibly common. Only about 6% of the US adult population struggle with substance use. That is enough to make it a nationwide issue that affects most families, but not enough to make it something most people can intimately relate to. So, to truly and effectively fight addiction, at home and in the streets, we must understand it and change the perception of addiction.

The first step to that is dispelling any false notions, such as how addiction is formed, or what being addicted says about a person’s character.

Addiction Can Happen To Anyone

Addiction does not discriminate based on willpower, mental health, intelligence, or personality. Some people are more susceptible to addiction than others, but this depends on their emotional state and the drug itself as much as it depends on their genetic predisposition (family history), and more.

People with addiction cannot be described with a single stereotype – it is a disease that affects people from all backgrounds, all statuses, throughout all ages and races, and across both genders despite the perception of addiction commonly held by the public. Highly influential lawmakers and politicians, celebrities and business people, managers, and academics. From the poorest and least successful to the richest and most gifted, addiction rears its head and wreaks havoc.

Risk factors exist. However, so do protective factors. While eliminating risk factors can go a long way in preventing addiction in families, it is not a guarantee. However, identifying risk factors and protective factors can give very important context to some families who wonder why someone they know, and love is struggling with addiction. Risk factors include:

Emotional vulnerability and excessive stress.
A disharmonic/dysfunctional home environment.
Peer pressure/addicted peers.
Age & sex (teens and men are more likely to use drugs, while women are quicker to become addicted to them).
Risk-seeking behavior.
Mental illness & self-medication.
Drug use in the family/addiction history.
Lack of opportunity/widespread oppression.

However, protective factors play a role as well. These factors alleviate the risk of addiction in children and adults:

Supportive family members/parental involvement.
A satisfying job & manageable stress levels.
An interconnected community.
Upwards social mobility.
Better education on addiction.
Readily-available counseling and mental healthcare.

However, while these factors tie into why someone may or may not become addicted, they do not imply that addiction is a necessary result of the above risks, or that a protective environment will completely discourage drug use. Life is complicated, and we cannot control all its aspects. What we can do is understand why things might have happened through the right perception of addiction and help those in need find the road they need to better themselves.

Addiction does not begin out of nowhere, either. It is important to address the meaning of choice in addiction.

The Difference Between Choice And Addiction

The key point towards explaining what makes addiction so heinous and why its victims deserve compassion rather than judgment, is the concept of choice and motivation, and what the brain has to do with it all.

Science has addressed that addiction stems from a reaction in the brain’s reward pathways tied to the use of certain drugs. They change the way you think, coupling the motivational processes of the brain with drug-seeking habits. This creates a loop where, instead of thinking about your passions, your future, or even your relationships to others, you relentlessly crave the next high. Nothing makes you as happy as getting the next high does, and resisting that craving is unbelievably difficult.

Yes, addiction always begins with a choice. Multiple choices, in fact. You cannot trigger an addiction with one high – but you can activate the mechanism that leads to addiction, making you much more likely to use again after the first usage of an addictive drug. It is this perception of addiction that is often misunderstood, yet still dangerous.

Generally-speaking, people choose to use drugs before they become addicted – but that can always be considered a mistake, and no human goes through life without making them. Only unlike many other mistakes, the consequences for this mistake are life-changing, and can be often avoidable with proper treatment, support, and compassion.

Just because bad choices lead to addiction does not mean that recovery is as simple as “choosing to stop.” The conscious choice of getting better is an important part of the recovery process, but it is only the first step. This perception of addiction that simply “choosing” to get better is all it takes is what makes relapses so much more damning and painful than they should be.

Relapses, which occur when a sober individual loses their sobriety and goes back to using, are part of the recovery process. They can be wakeup calls, providing those in recovery with a much-needed reminder or lesson that can help them along the way. But if approached from the point of view of failure, they can end sobriety entirely and spell someone’s doom.

Addiction itself is the punishment for making “bad choices”, even when they were simply misguided attempts at escaping from some other pain, or to fit in. But once addiction begins, choice alone is not enough to do the trick. Treatment, on the other hand, can work wonders. If people choose to get help.

The Perception Of Addiction Starts At Home

Addiction is a widespread issue, touching people in all walks of life across the country. But individually, it is best if we put our focus on our families and communities, doing what we can to make things better and change the perception of addiction. If you have a family member in rehab, or in recovery in general, then be sure to communicate with treatment centers to determine how best to help them.

If you have been sober for a while, you might find it helpful to help others and support them on their journey out of addiction. By encouraging people to get help, and proving the efficacy of modern addiction treatment methods, everybody can do a little bit to help fight the issue.

Benefits Of A Luxury Rehab In Houston

Posted on February 9, 2018September 28, 2018 by JohnAdmin

Inpatient residential treatment, also known as rehab, is one of several options for early addiction treatment and can be seen as one of the best choices for people who really want to get better but need all the help they can get to work their way through the first few weeks of treatment. There is no doubt that addictions can ruin lives – and for many, especially people with a certain public image or an appearance to keep up, there is an onus placed on taking care of the problem discretely and effectively. Luxury rehab options might produce the illusion of taking a trip to paradise under the guise of treatment, but getting clean and staying clean is never easy, no matter how nice the view is. That said, it can still be extremely effective and a luxury rehab provides many benefits to those trying to get clean.

If you are considering a live-in residential treatment option and need the best, then luxury rehab is for you. Here is why.

Confidentiality & Privacy

Above all else, luxury rehab providers understand that the vast majority of their clientele want an environment in which they can feel comfortable being themselves, an environment for healing where they do not have to worry about publicity or responsibility. For just a little while, these places of treatment are meant to help clients focus entirely on getting better in every way possible.

Of course, like with every addiction treatment, progress is impossible if the client does not want to get better. But a standard for luxury rehab is that they facilitate your recovery without you having to worry about the outside world for just a little while, keeping your information and treatment details confidential so you can focus on recovery to the best of your abilities.

Excellent Facilities & Amenities

There is something to be said for a treatment center with good facilities – primarily that they help give you something to do when you feel like you need something to keep you busy. After a certain point, an addiction becomes more than self-medication or a social activity, and it turns into a personal habit, something to do with your hands when you are bored and need something to fill in the gaps between the moments.

Boredom can be a killer – and with how severely and quickly addiction pushes many other habits and activities out of your life, pretty quickly it will be normal for you to think of lighting up, snorting, or getting ready to shoot up just because you have some time to kill, and nowhere in particular to be.

Rehab is meant to act as a reboot for life itself after addiction, first helping you with your initial sobriety and withdrawal, and then helping you figure out what you should actually be doing with all the time you are spending sober.

Golf, swimming, lifting, writing, painting, crafting, singing, or building. There are a million hobbies out there, from writing limericks or journal entries, to deeply enjoying and taking pride in your passion for avian photography.

You could even sit at a desk once a day, listen to some of your favorite music, and produce a few lines of unrelated poetry, just letting your mind flow in places it has not flowed in for years, drinking in the love and passion for your personal art in ways that was not possible when you were getting high.

Luxury rehab is designed to make you fall in love with sobriety – providing the facilities to help make that happen. You are here to learn how to live with yourself again, be happy in your own shell, and find a reason for living and loving life outside of the context of addiction. It is not easy, and it will be easier for some than it might be for others. But it is an approach that always works, varying only in the time it takes to find and discover that one habit that captures you and sets you on a permanent path away from addiction.

Take your time to explore all your options. Do things you would have never done before. Pick up old habits and hobbies and see how they suit the new you. Rediscover yourself as a person and take some pleasure in the curious journey of figuring out just what it is that brings you joy and happiness after years of artificial joy and artificial happiness in drug form.

Programs Beyond Luxury Rehab

Luxury rehab is one of many first treatment options for those in addiction recovery. Some people opt for it, others do not – but at the end, there has a lot more to do after rehab is over, and hopefully many more years of sobriety ahead of you.

Figuring out how not to be scared of that, and not to be scared of relapse, can take a while. Addiction and the way it conditions people to the pain it causes others has a way of producing cynical and anxious thoughts. Getting away from that line of thinking and into another takes practice, and time – like any other habit, only more intense.

That is why a quality rehab program should also do its best to prepare you for the next step and provide the tools and abilities to seamlessly transition you from your current treatment into the next. There are other options of course, but they do not provide the same benefit as a luxury rehab when it comes to recovery.

Things to Consider

Luxury rehab centers put you in a world completely unlike the one you know. The biggest difference is a lack of drugs – but there is more than just that. It is an isolated environment, a little community built around health and wellness.

It is an environment you cannot rely on, and one that exists solely to be made obsolete in a client’s mind – you are meant to grow past rehab, rather than get used to it and the lifestyle it provides you.

That includes moving past the fear of addiction, to a point in your life where you feel confident enough to face the world and its temptations without reverting to the past.

If you or someone you know needs help managing the recovery process, contact us today to see how we can help: 877-394-8810

Things To Do While Sober In Houston

Posted on January 18, 2018January 18, 2018 by JohnAdmin

Houston is a beautiful city, with a rich heritage and grand historic significance for the country. That being said, you shouldn’t just take anyone’s word for it – instead, take the opportunity to judge the city for yourself as someone who has taken a pledge to themselves to go sober in Houston, and stick to it.

Sobriety doesn’t have to be dull, boring or predictable – it can be spontaneous, exciting, and the pathway to many new adventures and countless unforgettable memories while sober in Houston.

When drugs become a factor in someone’s life, they might often struggle to see how things could be more enjoyable while stone-cold sober. But the truth is that when you’re on drugs, life is completely fogged.

While that helps some people escape the more painful and tragic realities of their life, it also forces them to miss out on the truly beautiful and meaningful moments.

What To Do While Sober In Houston

Here are just a couple things you could do while sober in Houston:

Explore Buffalo Bayou

An absolutely beautiful stretch of land, the Buffalo Bayou has undergone redevelopment costing several million dollars in order to preserve and uphold its natural beauty. The Buffalo Bayou Park is an especially tranquil place to spend the day while sober in Houston, with natural landscaping, footpaths and more.

Take a Martial Arts Class

Martial arts are more than just a great way to learn about self-defense – they can help you feel more calm and confident in your everyday life, and provide you with a proactive mindset to tackle life’s challenges without timidity or hesitation. From striking arts like boxing and krav maga, to more visceral grappling arts like Judo and jiu-jitsu, and less violent arts dedicated more to personal health like tai chi and qi gong, there’s a little bit of everything and something for everyone to discover, both about other cultures and themselves.

Check Out the Houston Waterworks

The Houston underground cistern was built in 1927, and provided decades of fresh drinking water, acting as the city’s first water reservoir for years until a leak rendered it unusable. Since then, the cistern has been developed into an 87,500-sq.-ft. historic space for Houstonites and tourists alike to visit and marvel at. It is currently only accessible within certain limits, but will become a temporary art installation.

Learn How to Cook

Cooking is more than just an essential life skill, or a way to avoid going hungry – it can be an artform, and a great way to pass the time while sober in Houston and delve into new cultures through fresh ingredients and foreign tastes. Explore the world on your dinner plate, or simply experiment with certain recipes and ideas to create your own spin and flair – the world of cooking gives you plenty of room to get creative, and is its own reward.

Spend the Day at the Project Row Houses

A community-based arts project based in Houston’s Third Ward, the Project Row Houses are the physical embodiment of local African-American art. Composed of a group of shotgun houses, restored in 1993, these houses serve as an art gallery. Perusing through them can be a great way to experience a piece of local culture while sober in Houston.

Take a Ferry to Crystal Beach

Stretching across a full 7 miles of the Bolivar peninsula, taking a ferry from Houston and spending the day at Crystal Beach isn’t just a fun outing in the summers, but presents a great opportunity to watch some wild dolphins if you keep your eyes open during the ferry rides. While not technically in Houston, the ferry ride out of town is your best bet to watch these friendly sea mammals.

Admire Kingspoint Mullet

More than just a mall slowly breaking apart off the side of the freeway, The Mullet is a massive collection of amazing graffiti art spray painted all over the old Almeda Mall. This place is a space for various famous local artists and muralists. While not officially sanctioned, The Mullet is doubtlessly proof of Houston’s artistic genius, something the city has in abundance.

Play Catch on an Open Field

Aside from going around town exploring its many places of tranquility, art and reflection, you can take the time for some much-needed emotional and physical therapy by engaging in the extremely satisfying game of catch while sober in Houston.

Explore Your Spirituality at Rothko Chapel

Based on the works of influential painter Mark Rothko, the Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel meant to help anyone of any belief or tradition come to a place where they can pray or meditate, contemplate, and reflect. These are all incredibly important for addiction treatment – in order to truly overcome addiction, you have to be able to face what you might have done in the past, and forgive yourself.

Hit Up the Public Library

Public libraries are more than just a place for reading – that’s what you have a couch at home for. Instead, you could pop by the library and see what kind of community events they have going on, or get involved in one of the many possible community engagements the library organizes to help the city, and provide resources for educating kids.

Visit the Art Car Museum

A must-see for anyone with even a modicum of interest in all things car and vintage, the Houston Art Car Museum is the perfect installation to take a trip through the history books of the American automobile. From old builds to car-based art installations, the Art Car Museum is an amazing place to head to in search of new ideas, or just for fun.

Ultimately, the idea behind finding new things to do while sober in Houston and undergoing addiction treatment isn’t to distract yourself from the temptation of addiction, but to rediscover a new way to live life and enjoy it, as well as building new hobbies and finding new personal triumphs along the way. Hobbies – especially the constructive kind – can bring a lot of good by acting as coping mechanisms for many of life’s hardships.

This list is comparatively tiny to the sheer volume of activities and bustling opportunities in Houston. One long tour through the city is never the same as the last, and you’ll always find something new – a new place to discover, a new thing to do, a new sight to see, a new sound to hear.

AS long as you keep your eyes, ears, and mind open, you’ll find that live can be exciting, fun and fulfilling without a single drop of alcohol, or any other substance.

Why Community Is Important For Recovery

Posted on January 11, 2018January 11, 2018 by JohnAdmin

It’s important for every single person in recovery to feel empowered and inspired. We need to believe in ourselves if we want to accomplish anything in our lifetime – but it’s harder for people who struggle with addiction to believe in themselves than it might be for others. Sometimes, an addiction can feel stifling – it steals a person’s agency, and saps at their will. That’s why community is important for recovery.

Alone, addiction will consume you. Alone, addiction can destroy you.

But you’re not alone. And if you’re not alone, but with people who believe in you, then they can help you realize the importance of believing in yourself.

Ultimately, addiction is the journey of an individual fighting their way out of a persistent and oppressive cycle of addiction. You must accept your problem, make a commitment to fight the addiction, find a way to quit for good, and come to terms with all mistakes and actions so you can find peace for the future. It’s not just about being passionate and strong-willed – it’s about compromise, forgiving yourself, and seeing just how far your capacity for hope stretches.

Because of this, having others is important. It’s a long and difficult road ahead, and the support and motivation that others bring to the table is necessary if you want to make it through. To fight addiction, you’ll need your friends, you’ll need your family, and ultimately, you’ll need to understand community is important for recovery, and you want people you can trust and open up to.

Addiction And Isolation

Isolation feeds addiction. Think of the human soul as a mirror, and a shape within the mirror. The only way to clearly see ourselves is through the mirrors others help hold up to us. Some mirrors are twisted and warped, giving us a false image of ourselves.

Others are clear and truthful, sometimes painfully so. We have the power to shape ourselves, and change what we see in those reflections when we interact with others – but it’s not easy, and it takes time spent with other people to truly help us see the changes we make, and adjust.

When we’re alone, we can’t tell what the shape in our mirror looks like with nothing to reflect off of. It’s impossible for us to objectively look inside, without some sort of inner bias, either derogatory or complimentary. So, when addiction takes a hold of you and grips tight on your shape, its changes are hard to see alone.

Over time, the changes become more drastic – and with addiction comes regret, shame through stigma, and self-doubt. Even when masked with aggressive self-importance, these negative emotions feed negative behaviors, reinforcing a twisted self-image.

Without others to hold a mirror up to what we’re turning into, it’s difficult to realize that you’re hurting yourself – and that it’s time to turn around. And even when you know where the problem lies, for many it often feels too late to do something about it. That negativity grows without anything to counter it, without anyone to tell you differently.

In isolation, addiction feeds itself, and that’s why community is important for recovery. But if we can find others to help us see who we are, and what we must change, and others yet who can show us a version of who we might be, and what we can still do, then there’s hope, and that’s all anyone ever needs.

Why We Need Each Other

Some people help us see our flaws clearly, without judgment or bias. Some people help us see our strengths, and realize their potential. We all need people like that in our lives, to help us overcome some of life’s greatest challenges without cannibalizing our own spirit with negativity and self-doubt. Community is important for recovery not only to have a group of supporting people, but to see within ourselves what we might not be able to.

It’s not a selfish way to live – rather, it’s a reciprocal philosophy. Not only are you at the center of your own network of loved ones, but you’re part of someone else’s network. By aspiring to be the kind of person who can help others shape themselves into someone better, kinder, and more loving, you’re taking massive steps away from addiction and towards a life with more meaning and fulfilment.

We all need each other, in some shape or form. We need social bonds, both close and far, abstract and concrete. We need our partners and families, our friends, and closest loved ones – and we need greater concepts, like society and community. Understanding how these concepts affect an individual’s problem with addiction has to do with understanding why we all need to be social, and what we miss by struggling with loneliness.

Beyond those we care about the most, we need groups and communities into which we can belong. While having a family, or a family of friends is important, it’s equally important to feel that our lives are well-lived by having a greater impact on those around us – inspiring others in a recovery community to stay strong and stick to their treatment, for example. This sense of community is important for recovery and for long term success.

Why Your Recovery Needs A Support Group

A support group is more than a circle of people meeting regularly to discuss their problems. It’s an opportunity for people to accept their problem, and trust others enough to talk about it openly and honestly.

And with enough time, a support group is a place where people in long-term recovery can help change someone else’s life for the better, by giving them hope and showing them what can be done, and how what might seem impossible is, in fact, completely doable.

Support groups come in all forms. You could find a local independent support group, or one connected to an organization or treatment center. You can even turn your tightest circle of friends into a support group, and inspire them to tackle their own problems like you tackled addiction.

Community Is Important For Recovery And Continued Sobriety

Sobriety means to be clean, and sober – but fighting addiction is about much more than just seeking to stay sober. Addiction is a life-changing event, and there’s no coming back from it. The only way out, is forward and through. And when you’re done, you’ll be someone else. You have to be someone else in order to defeat addiction – and that can be both scary, and incredibly taxing.

This is because when addiction takes hold of a person, it becomes not only a source of grief and problems, but a coping mechanism for all those problems. It blinds people to what’s around them, and stunts a person’s ability to deal with life.

In recovery – and even in sobriety – coping without drugs whenever something happens is difficult, especially if it’s traumatic. But with the right people, and the right treatment, you can be ready to face any challenge in recovery. The key lies in finding that a community is important for recovery, and trusting that the community believes in you, and therein trusting yourself.

Why 2018 Is The Year For Addiction Recovery

Posted on January 9, 2018 by JohnAdmin

A new year has arrived, and with it, a hope for better times to come. With the cutoff of an old year and the celebration of a new one, it’s only natural to hope for terrible things to end and for good things to come. But one has to do more than hope if they want to decide what their future will look like. This year can be your year, if you want it to be. It’s a common tradition around the world to pick the new year as a time to make new commitments, and sign up for major changes. However, for many, these resolutions to be a new, better person lead to disappointment and procrastination. Too often, we set the bar too high and fail, causing more hurt than personal progress. That said, make 2018 the year for addiction recovery.

There is a right way and a wrong way to go about using the new year as the mark of something new and good. And if you go about it the right way, then 2018 can be your year for addiction recovery – and the start of a new chapter in your life.

Celebrating A New Year

Cultures as far back as early civilization have celebrated the end of an annual cycle, and saw it as the birth of something new and exciting. Not only was life for many civilizations rooted in seasonal changes and their effects on agriculture and commerce, but the astrological (and thus religious) importance of a full year ending made the new year special in nearly every culture.

Today, we celebrate the new year every 1^st of January across the world, and we look back on the previous year, either to salute or mourn its passing. Sometimes, despite time only moving forward a single day, the shift from one year to the next can be emotionally invigorating, and signifies a time for letting go of the past and focusing on the new opportunities of the future.

For someone fighting addiction, you can make 2018 the year for addiction recovery and reclaim your life. But it won’t be quite as easy as jotting down a quick and short resolution, and then spending the next few months struggling to stay clean without a plan for relapse or other issues. 2018 can be your year for addiction recovery, because the year has just started and now is the perfect time to make full use of that fact.

But you have to approach your new resolution just right.

Make It Your Year For Addiction Recovery

The key to making 2018 a successful year for addiction recovery is by taking the right approach. The basic tenets for tackling recovery are:

Create a list you have easy access to and see every day.
Don’t tell everyone about your plans and aspirations.
Find a hobby or passion you are/could be deeply invested in.
Set short-term attainable goals to improve in your hobby.
Create a time-frame for the first quarter of the year.
Improve yourself – pick something to work on, and focus on it.
Make new friends and surround yourself with trusted old ones – use the support in times of hardship and loneliness to drive out the cravings.

A few things you absolutely want to avoid include being vague, focusing on your sobriety without having a concrete focal point in your life, and biting off more than you can chew when planning your resolutions for the year.

If you want to focus on recovery, then find healthy ways to cope with trauma and strong emotions, and improve your lifestyle to help reduce the impact of drug use and further learn what it means to be happy without drugs. Here are a few things you could do:

Getting Things Done In Recovery This Year

Addiction is more than just the presence of a set of destructive, maladaptive coping mechanisms. Addiction is also loneliness and negativity – so surrounding yourself by positive, strong people is the best way to ward off issues like a potential relapse.

Start by enrolling in a treatment program and a support group. Sober living homes are an excellent example for an environment that is conducive for both personal growth and long-term sobriety, as well as the tools needed to survive the world outside treatment.

After finding new people who likewise want to make it a year for addiction recovery and stay sober, it’s time to find healthy ways of coping. Some people prefer art, others prefer to exercise, and some have other unique ways of letting go of excess stress or anger. The ability to cope healthily with issues without the use of drugs is vital for snuffing out addiction.

From there, it’s time to focus on improving your skills, and working on all the things you wanted to work on. From starting a DIY project like room renovation to learning a new language, there are countless things you can learn and do throughout 2018 to mold yourself into someone you’re happy about and make it the year for addiction recovery for yourself.

Look Past The Present

2018 is one year – and in time, 2019 will come and 2018 will end. However, that doesn’t mean that your commitments should end. Drug addiction recovery isn’t a temporary thing tied to one year for addiction recovery. It’s a goal to spend the rest of your days not tied to your old addiction, and not driven towards bad decision-making by substance abuse.

Thus, see this 2018 as the year you begin your journey, and fight your way through the hardest parts of addiction recovery. From withdrawals to relapses and the emotional struggles of relearning what it means to feel good about yourself, and feel good in general without substance use, the first few months of 2018 will likely be rough. But if you continue to set new goals, and always leave room for growth and improvement, it’s only a matter of time before you make your addiction take the backseat.

Some people argue that when you go through something as substantial and potentially traumatic as an addiction, it’ll always be with you. And while that’s true, that doesn’t mean it gets to decide how you live. You should never forget your past – but you should be able to live with it, and move on past it, to a future where you make choices and decisions that positively reflect on what you learned while fighting your addiction. This 2018, take your first steps towards a life you can be proud of.

Preventing Relapse In The New Year

Posted on December 28, 2017 by JohnAdmin

Relapsing during addiction recovery is when the urge to use overwhelms you to the point where you fail to resist it, and you find yourself using again. This is more than just a simple error or mistake – to most people, it’s an act of self-betrayal that can take a lot of emotional strength to overcome. Not only do you have to come to terms with the fact that you’ve gone against something very important to yourself, but you must find a way to forgive yourself to move forward and do your best in preventing relapse before it happens.

Addiction recovery is very much about learning to come to terms with your past, and promise to yourself that you will do better – not just for others, or out of some misguided sense of punishment, but because that is the best thing for yourself and you want the best for yourself.

Many people ignore this crucial fact, covering up the self-love and gratitude aspects of addiction with distractions, pity or self-doubt. It doesn’t matter if you consider it spiritual or psychological – if you cannot come to terms with the things you have done and agree to give yourself another chance, then you won’t have the confidence in yourself to stick to recovery, and sobriety. This faith in your own abilities is tested even further after a relapse, and it is after these relapses that it is hardest to find hope for yourself.

That’s why we need the support and affirmation of others to help build us up to the point where we feel we are strong enough to turn our backs on addiction once and for all and help in preventing relapse. But you can prevent yourself from having to go through such a journey of relapse, through one straightforward way: Improving yourself.

By improving yourself and molding yourself in recovery to be someone you can be proud of, you can help in preventing relapse by by fighting both the psychology of addiction, and how it feeds on our negativity, and the neurological effects that addiction has on the brain, by relearning how to use your reward system effectively and working on the parts of your brain that may have been damaged from drug use. Here are a few example ways in which to improve your chances of preventing a relapse in the new year, and over years to come:

Preventing Relapse: Take Up Painting Or Music

The effects of art therapy on addiction have been noted, but you don’t need to seek approval from a therapist or enter a controlled environment to begin learning an art form, and then experimenting with it. Art, however, takes time and patience, and a lot of focus. This can be especially frustrating to someone in early recovery, who may be struggling with the neurological consequences of addiction, and their effects on both a person’s behavior and cognitive ability.

Thus, art can be an effective way to train these faculties, and learn the reward behind spending countless hours being bad at something, only to get better, and receive the recognition you deserve for it, while discovering a creative outlet that allows you to convey emotion in times when words just will not do – an issue that many have over the course of their recovery journey.

Get Into Hiking

Nature has a profound effect on people who struggle with addiction – in fact, being one with nature has a profound effect on people in general. It is good for your health, both physical and mental, and in turn can be an effective way to help rehabilitate someone, and help in preventing relapse, after an addiction by taking them outside of the repetitive stimuli of the city environment or indoor world, and out into a world of fresh smells, incredible sights, and real living things.

The exact reason for why we feel good when we’re out in forests and parks isn’t entirely understood, but it is well understood that it is important for us to be outside occasionally. Hiking not only provides you with an opportunity to take in a breath of fresh air and take in all of nature’s sights, but it also provides you with the opportunity to get some exercise, without having to necessarily to do in the sterile environment of a commercial gym, or at home, where the motivation to exercise can be difficult to come by.

Exercise is something every human being needs to live a healthy life and keep a healthy body, both of which can make a difference when going through early recovery. But that does not mean you have to suffer to stay fit. If other forms of exercise don’t sit well with you, then hiking may be an enjoyable way to burn calories, stay strong, and help in preventing relapse all at once.

Try Out A Sport

For some, the one thing lacking when it comes to exercise is proper incentive. While good health and physical fitness are rewards in and of themselves, they don’t necessarily inspire a direct sense of accomplishment. Rather, they take years to materialize and maintain, and the effects of exercise are rarely seen in the mirror at a drastic pace. Change is constant, and it’s difficult to track your own.

A sport, on the other hand, is numerical and tangible. There is a sense of competition, either with yourself or with others. The incentives are clear, and depend entirely on your own effort and skill. The rules are set, fair, and reliable. All a sport needs is your input.

It’s a fantastic way to improve yourself – and a wonderful way to help in preventing relapse, by focusing your attention on something entirely different and entirely motivating. You don’t have to go pro – even something as simple as timing and tracking your jogging to improve distance and speed can become competitive, and give you a more engaging way to train, rather than following a program you find boring.

Learn To Cook

While it is a basic life skill and many people can cook, most people cannot cook well. Many people simply throw ingredients together to create a passable meal and satiate their hunger, not out of love for food or appreciation for the harmony between different combinations. If you’ve ever felt like cooking is something you could get into but never had the push to really try to, now may be the perfect opportunity for you to get started.

It has never been as easy to learn how to be a great cook than today. However, it still isn’t glamourous. Get ready for spending many hours doing tedious kitchen tasks, prepping ingredients, practicing your chopping, and learning to use all the utensils and tools of the kitchen.

It may take time, there will be failures and frustrations, but there are few things people respect as much as good cooking. Everyone needs to eat, and if you happen to be extremely good at making delicious things, you’ll have no trouble making plenty of new friends. Speaking of which:

Make New Friends

Drug addiction recovery can be quite lonely at times. You may have had to leave some friends behind when making the change over to sobriety, and even if you did reconnect with others, relating to addiction together – or to similar hardships – can be hard. Tackling these issues on your own is even harder.

With some friends, that can all become much easier. Among the many other ways of preventing relapse in the new year, take it upon yourself to meet new people, and connect with them on things that truly matter to you.