Alcohol is a powerful and addictive drug. Unfortunately, most people think of alcohol as a social tool, but like anything else, if abused it can turn into a serious issue. According to the NIAAA, women are more likely to encounter problems due to their substance abuse, but are less likely to seek professional help. At  Anchored Tides Recovery, we’re dedicated to helping any and all women overcome their addiction, whether it’s with alcohol or a different substance. 

When considering sobriety, it’s helpful to think of the journey as a marathon, not a sprint. For most people, the recovery process includes multiple steps. Some women start their journey at inpatient treatment, and others start an intensive outpatient treatment center.  It’s important during your recovery journey to have a safe, stable environment to live in, such as a sober living home. 

What Are Sober Living Homes for Women?

Sober living homes for women are a safe living environment where everyone who lives there is sober. A sober living home is a great transitional tool for anyone looking to maintain long term sobriety. While sober living homes do not provide addiction treatment therapy, most people living in one attend outpatient addiction treatment programs. 

Aside from a safe environment, sober living homes also provide structure, a crucial component to sobriety. Most sober living homes have a set of rules and guidelines people have to follow. For example, certain sober living homes make attending some type of 12-step support group mandatory. Other homes require its residents to complete a certain set of chores. While it can be extremely beneficial for someone’s sobriety to live in a sober living home, it’s benefits are most effective when coupled with outpatient addiction treatment. At Anchored Tides Recovery, we offer three types of outpatient options for women: partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient. 

Benefits of Sober Living for Women 

• Overcoming Communication Barriers

According to NIH, the National Institute of Health, verbal communication is vital to making progress in any substance abuse recovery program. When you reside in a sober living home, you’re surrounded by other sober people. You’ll have a chance to speak freely about your addiction to like minded individuals. Engaging in dialogue about sobriety is crucial during recovery. 

• Focus on Gender-Specific Issues

Addiction impacts women differently than their male counterparts. Women also have different life experiences than men, such as pregnancy and motherhood in recovery. By living in a sober living home for women, you’ll be surrounded by people who at one time have, or will, experience similar life events as you. 

• Stability and Accountability

Stability and accountability are often two things that are lacking in an addicts life. It can be difficult to establish a routine while in the throws of an addiction. Because of rules and guidelines, sober living homes for women help all of their residents establish routine. Early sobriety can be a particularly vulnerable time for women, especially when they feel like they’re starting their life over. Having a group of people hold you accountable for your actions (i.e. make sure all the dishes are cleaned after dinner) will not only give you a sense of purpose, but help you create a new sober routine. 

Get Help With Addiction at Anchored Tides Recovery!

At Anchored Tides Recovery, we’re focused on helping all of our clients find sobriety, but more importantly, maintaining sobriety. Our comprehensive addiction treatment programs and aftercare services can set you up for long-term recovery. We currently offer partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient treatment programs, as well as aftercare services such as sober living. Contact us today to see how we can help you or someone you love with addiction! 

Addiction and relationships are often intertwined in one way or another. If you are battling addiction, your personal and romantic relationships will most likely feel the effects. It’s not uncommon for various relationships to crumble underneath the strain of addiction, especially if dishonesty is involved. 

Being in a romantic relationship with an addict is hard, and people who have been there in the past and are reading this now would probably agree. One of the reasons it’s particularly difficult is because it can be hard to see how your actions affect someone else while you’re under the influence. 

If you’re currently in a romantic relationship and are struggling with addiction, it doesn’t have to ruin your relationship. Confiding in your partner and expressing the desire to get help with your addiction will show your commitment to the relationship by wanting to help yourself, and can ultimately strengthen your bond! 

Does Addiction Affect Relationships?

When drugs and other addictive substances take center stage in your life, it’s common for you to experience a domino affect. Below are a few ways an addiction can negatively impact a romantic (or platonic) relationship: 

• Physical and Verbal Abuse 

One of the major side effects of substance abuse is heightened, aggression, rage, and mood swings. When coupled with the resentment and anger from your partner, all it takes is a tiny spark for things to get out of control. 

Addiction and relationships make for an unstable environment, especially when kids are involved. In milder cases, the abuse is limited to verbal slurs designed to degrade the other partner. 

However, it is possible for verbal slurs to escalate quickly to domestic violence, which can even be fatal at times. Not to mention extremely traumatic. 

• Lack of Trust 

Trust is the essence of every relationship. Even friendships. And when addiction and substance abuse comes in between, lies and deception could creep in. Addicts often hide their addiction from family, friends, and loved ones due to fear of judgment, amongst other things. 

Lying, pulling away, and deception are some of the ways an addict hides their addiction. These actions will directly affect your partner. 

• Heartbreak 

Doing things you normally wouldn’t is another side effect of addiction. While under the influence, there is potential for an addict to do hurtful things, such as steal, cheat, ignore their partner, and put themselves / their partner at risk of injury. Ultimately these actions can lead to serious heartbreak for both people. 

Why You Should Tell Your Partner About Your Addiction

Telling your partner about your addiction is important, especially if you want to stop using drugs or alcohol. It takes a lot of courage to seek help, and talking about your struggles with addiction is a good place to start. It will also provide some insight to your recent behavior. 

Tips on How to Confide in Your Partner

If you make the brave decision to let your partner know you are battling an addiction, below are a few tips on how to get the conversation started: 

• Be honest

You probably don’t want to downplay or exaggerate how bad your addiction is, this is the time to be honest. You can also mention what some of your triggers are (if you know what they are already). 

• Educate them 

Being in a relationship with an addict doesn’t mean your partner knows a lot about addiction. During this time, you can educate your partner when telling them about your addiction and experiences using drugs or alcohol. A lot of people have preconceived notions on what addiction looks like, and it isn’t always accurate. 

Remember that you can’t control their reaction after confiding in them. They might feel sad at first, or not know how to react, but always know that it will get better.  In time, they’ll show you their love and support. 

Getting Help With Your Addiction

After confiding in your partner about your addiction, a next great step to take is to seek help. There is a lot to consider when choosing a treatment center. Some things to keep in mind when doing this are:

• The treatment facility itself
• The programs they offer 
• Location 
• Cost 
• Gender preference, if any 

Get Help at Anchored Tides Recovery

Anchored Tides Recovery is a premium women-only addiction treatment facility located in Huntington Beach, California. We offer holistic and individualist treatment programs to all our patients to ensure guaranteed success. Contact us today and let us help you with your addiction. 

Signs of Alcohol Addiction: Does My Loved One Need Help?

“But I didn’t see any signs of alcohol addiction.” Many friends and family members have said these words countless times with that recognizable look of shock and guilt.

Most times, this happens as they stand by their loved one’s hospital beds after an overdose. Other times, you’ll hear it in family counseling as they try to find solace for not recognizing that they could have helped their loved ones if they had noticed.

But they can’t blame themselves. Detecting alcohol addiction symptoms can be difficult for someone who doesn’t know what to look out for. At Anchored Tides Recovery, we feel it’s important for loved ones of addicts to know the signs of alcohol addiction. 

Identifying the Signs of an Alcohol Addiction

How do you differentiate a weekend of having too much fun from the signs of alcohol addiction? It can be difficult to do this, especially when the individual in question is a functioning addict. 

Functioning addicts can still perform well at their jobs and show up to other aspects of their lives. However, there are a few tell tale signs to watch out for the following signs of alcohol addiction. Please note this isn’t a comprehensive list and addiction looks different for everyone. 

• Inability to control how much alcohol is consumed
• Making bad decisions especially when intoxicated
• Having long bouts of depression 
• Running into financial problems due to excessive drinking 
• Increased aggressiveness 
• Bloodshot eyes and flushed look 
• Lack of interest in normal activities 
• General and day to day responsibilities being neglected
• Bruises from falling and hurting themselves when drunk 
• Drinking large amounts in one sitting
• Using alcohol to cope with uncomfortable feelings
• Chronic fatigue 
• Difficulty concentrating on important tasks
• Frequent lying
• Smelling like alcohol frequently 
• Significant weight loss or weight gain 

When you begin to notice some of these alcohol addiction symptoms consistently, it might be time to help your loved one seek help. If you are unsure whether or not they’re struggling, it might not be a bad idea to check in with them to see how they’re feeling.  They may feel comfortable enough to open up to you, or they may try to hide what’s going on (but you can tell something is wrong). 

How to Get a Loved One Help

Getting help for a loved one who is an alcoholic may be difficult, depending on if they’re in denial of their addiction. Approaching your loved one will be a delicate process, if they feel attacked they can become resentful, distrusting of you, and/or withdrawn. 

One helpful tool to use when confronting a loved one about their alcohol addiction is staging an intervention. It could be just you at the intervention, or with a couple of people they care about. How you also broach the matter is important. 

Every intervention is a little different, but during this time you can talk to them and let them know the signs of alcohol addiction that you’ve noticed. You’ll want to make sure you don’t want to sound accusatory, it’s important to come from a place of love. Because at the end of the day – this is why you’re confronting them, you love them and want to see them do well! 

During this time you can also let them know how their addiction has hurt you and other people who love them. Again, be clear that you are coming from a place of love and concern. 

The end goal of an intervention is to have your loved one accept help for their addiction. The help can be a few different things, such as inpatient rehab or attending alcohol anonymous meetings. It’s important to go to the intervention with different options to present to your loved one if they are willing to accept the help. Knowing that they have people who love them and are ready to support them helps a lot. 

How to Get Yourself Help

As you read this, if you’ve realized that you have many alcohol addiction symptoms and need help, how can you help yourself? The same way you’d help a loved one is how you can help yourself! While you won’t stage an intervention for yourself, you can research different treatment options for addiction and see what makes the most sense for you. 

 

Get Help at Anchored Tides Recovery!

Anchored Tides Recovery is an addiction treatment center for women by women. We are a dual diagnosis center dedicated to helping women overcome their addiction and avoid relapsing. Contact us today. Let us help you overcome your addiction.