Category: Addiction

Am I An Alcoholic: Can You Be An Alcoholic and Not Drink Every Day?

If you find yourself asking the question, “am I an alcoholic,” it could be that you have a problem with heavy drinking. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have a medically diagnosable addiction, which we’ll go into more below. However, not being a diagnosable alcoholic doesn’t mean that you aren’t a problem drinker. There’s also another concept to be aware of—being a functioning alcoholic. Below, we’ll go into more of the symptoms of alcoholism. We’ll also answer the question of can you be an alcoholic and not drink everyday?

Understanding Alcoholism

Alcoholism is now more commonly known as alcohol use disorder. When you have an AUD, you have a psychological and physical need to consume alcohol, despite adverse effects on your life. There are millions of deaths around the world each year because of harmful alcohol use.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says an AUD is problematic drinking that becomes increasingly severe. If you have an AUD, you can’t stop drinking even if you want to. Your use of alcohol becomes out of your control. Much of your time is spent thinking about can you be an alcoholic and not drink every day.

Symptoms of an AUD include:

Drinking secretly or when you’re alone
The inability to limit how much alcohol you have
Having routines that center around alcohol
Loss of interest in things you once enjoyed
Cravings or intense urges to drink
Feeling irritable when your normal drinking time comes if you can’t have any alcohol
Hiding alcohol
Developing a tolerance and needing more alcohol the feel the effects
Signs of physical dependence such as sweating, shaking, or nausea when you aren’t drinking

If you have an alcohol use disorder, drinking is your top priority. You may have signs of psychological addiction to alcohol without physical dependence. If you have a physical dependence, which can take years to develop, you have signs of withdrawal if you don’t drink or cut back. For a diagnosis of alcoholism, at least three of the following occur within the past 12 months:

Tolerance: You need more significant amounts of alcohol to feel intoxicated.
Withdrawal: As we talked about, if you have a physical dependence on alcohol and try to stop drinking, you may have withdrawal symptoms like nausea or anxiety.
Drinking more than intended: You might find that you drink more drinks at any given time than you intend, or you drink for a more extended period.
Unsuccessful attempts to quit: Have you tried to cut down or quit alcohol and found yourself unsuccessful in doing so? A potential symptom of alcoholism is the ongoing desire to cut down but the inability to do so.
Avoiding things you once enjoyed: You might find that your performance at school or work is diminishing, or you’re spending less time with loved ones because of your drinking.
Continual use despite consequences: Whether alcohol is affecting your job, your health, or your relationships, if you keep using it even when knowing it’s harmful, it could be a sign of addiction.

What is a Functional Alcoholic?

While the above tends to reflect a severe AUD, there are different types of alcoholics. For example, there is a category sometimes known as the young adult alcoholic. In this situation, you might not drink every day, but instead, you tend to binge drink. You’re not a severe alcoholic in this case, and you probably don’t have a physical dependence, but you might be on the road to developing a more significant problem.

Another type is a functional alcoholic. A functional alcoholic isn’t an official medical diagnosis. Instead, it’s a term used to describe someone with heavy or excessive drinking habits who’s still functional in their daily life. If you’re a functioning alcoholic, you might be able to keep up with your work and family obligations. You seem healthy and fine to most of the people around you. Even so, you might still have several of the symptoms of an AUD, such as uncontrollable cravings.

Risk factors for functional alcoholism or a developing alcohol problem can include:

Binge drinking, which is more than five drinks a day
Having a stressful life
Feeling peer pressure to drink
Having a close relative with a history of alcoholism.
A co-occurring mental health disorder such as depression
Having more than seven drinks a week as a female, or more than 14 a week for males. Any more than one drink a day for women and two for men could put you into the category of heavy drinkers and is no longer considered moderate alcohol consumption.

Signs of a functional alcoholic include:

You pour a drink as soon as you get home, or you often go somewhere like a bar after work
Irritation if you can’t have a drink
There are often times when you drink more than you intended
You make jokes about alcoholism
You talk about drinking a lot
Engaging in any high-risk behaviors under the influence, such as driving after you’ve been drinking
Experiencing blackouts related to alcohol
The use of alcohol causes problems in relationships
Hiding your alcohol use

Can You Be An Alcoholic and Not Drink Every Day?

Yes, you can be an alcoholic or have a mild substance use disorder and not drink daily. There are different patterns of alcohol abuse. For example, if you are a functional alcoholic, while you might not drink every day, it could be to excess when you do drink.

If you drink often or you experience adverse outcomes because of drinking, this puts you at a greater risk of eventually developing alcoholism. Alcohol dependence is a progressive, chronic illness that worsens over time with more exposure to heavy alcohol.

What Happens If You Drink Alcohol Every Day?

Along with the potential to develop a serious problem with alcohol, can you be an alcoholic and not drink every day? The effects on your mental and physical health can be far-reaching and can include:

When you drink excessively, it prevents your body from effectively completing other processes. For example, your liver has to detoxify alcohol to remove it from your blood, which becomes the priority. It’s more difficult for your body to process anything else when you have alcohol in your system.
Drinking alcohol can cause harmful bacteria to grow in your gut. That bacteria can move through your intestinal wall and to your liver, causing damage and possibly liver disease or liver failure.
Your heart can weaken over time if you drink too much or have an alcohol addiction, and it can put you at risk of high blood pressure. You’re more at risk for cardiovascular disease than moderate drinkers.
Pancreatitis develops from alcohol abuse, which is inflammation of the pancreas.
Daily drinking or having multiple drinks per day puts you at risk of different types of cancers, including the mouth, throat, liver, and breast cancer.

Final Thoughts

Finally, your immune system can weaken if you engage in chronic drinking. You may notice that you get sick more often than people who don’t drink.

If you’re questioning your use of alcohol, you might consider whether or not you have a problem or if you see warning signs in yourself that you’re becoming alcohol dependent. If so, help is available; call 866-600-7709 and let Anchored Tides Recovery help you overcome destructive patterns because they potentially develop into something more serious, which almost always happens with untreated alcohol abuse.

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Female Musicians Who Beat Addiction

The entertainment industry and especially music are associated with drugs, alcohol, and partying. While this might be the common association most of us have, several musicians beat addiction successfully in the industry.

Focusing on their challenges and ultimate success in beating addiction to drugs or alcohol can help others who might be currently struggling.

Sometimes, it’s hard to see that there could ever be an out when you’re in an active addiction. Success stories serve as a motivation and reminder that there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel, although it might be challenging to get there.

Once you find that motivation, you might begin a treatment program, participate in 12-Step programs like Alcoholics Anonymous or get mental health treatment from a counselor.

Below, we talk about musicians who beat addiction with the hope it can provide you with some motivation, perhaps when you need it most.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga is one of the most influential musicians, pop stars, and overall icons of our time. She has also spoken openly about her struggles with drugs.

For example, in one interview, she talked about the pain of a hip injury that left her in a wheelchair.

Saying she was self-medicating the physical pain and anxiety, Lady Gaga was emotionally numbing herself entirely.

In an interview, the singer said she was very depressed and in a lot of pain all the time, but she wasn’t sure why.

The singer says that she felt her addictions to different drugs have grown worse over time, as she dealt with the pressures of fame.

At the same time, Lady Gaga says she was working on getting herself into a space where she doesn’t have to use drugs to be creative.

She wants to know that she can be talented and successful without being under the influence of anything.

Lana Del Rey

The talented singer Lana Del Rey has struggled since her teens with substance use.

In 2011, Del Rey became widely known for the hit Video Games. Then she debuted her first full-length album in 2012.

The same year, Del Rey spoke out in an interview with British GQ, saying she hadn’t had alcohol in nine years. Del Rey said even though she was very young, she found that she was drinking daily and typically while alone.

Most of the songs on her first album she says she wrote while she was alone with alcohol. She describes it as the first love of her life.

Del Rey says her parents sent her to a strict boarding school when she was 15 to try and help her end her drinking habit.

Now the celebrity singer is sober and embraces her life in recovery.

Demi Lovato

Demi Lovato allowed viewers to see inside their experience with addiction, overdose, and recovery in a documentary for YouTube.

Entitled Dancing with the Devil, Lovato’s friends, family members, and the doctors who helped them after their overdose spoke about every raw, ugly detail of what happened and their ongoing substance abuse issues.

Since 2010, Lovato struggled with substance abuse, frequently going in and out of rehab programs and relapsing along the way.

The pop star celebrated six years of sobriety in March 2018. Tragically in July 2018, she suffered an overdose that made headlines around the world.

Lovato spoke about their relapse in the documentary series, saying they picked up a red wine bottle and then called someone who had drugs just half an hour later.

At that point, Lovato used new drugs that they hadn’t tried before, including methamphetamine. Lovato explains in the documentary they also used marijuana, Molly, Cocaine, and OxyContin.

During the period of relapse, Lovato did crack cocaine and heroin, becoming physically dependent on heroin.

The night of the overdose, Lovato told friends they were going to bed but went to call their dealer. Lovato used what they thought to be heroin, which now they know was likely fentanyl.

The overdose led to three strokes and a heart attack, resulting in brain and vision damage.

Since the overdose, Lovato says they’re working on their mental and physical recovery. In the documentary series, Lovato talks about the time spent during quarantine, working through past traumas as part of their recovery.

Fergie

Fergie is a massive pop star, having headed up the Black-Eyed Peas. She now has a successful solo career, but it hasn’t been an easy road for her. Fergie dealt with severe addiction issues, including meth.

Fergie says there was a period in her life where she was hallucinating daily. She says it took a year after stopping meth for the chemicals in her brain to stabilize, so she was no longer hallucinating. Fergie spoke to Time magazine, saying meth was the hardest boyfriend she ever had to break up with.

Some of her addiction problems Fergie believed resulted from difficulties she faced growing up as a child actor.

Now a Grammy-winning recording artist, Fergie has a son and has been in recovery from crystal meth for many years.

Stevie Nicks

Stevie Nicks is known as one of the most enchanting singers and performers of our time, but drugs almost destroyed her. The lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, Nicks has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.

She began using recreational drugs at the height of her career, but it quickly spiraled into something a lot more troubling. Her addiction went from casual cocaine use to an extreme addiction and dependence.

Nicks said that she became so dependent on cocaine because she dealt with significant stage fright, and the drug would give her the boost she felt she needed to perform. Nicks was also facing a rigorous touring schedule and felt lonely on the road.

Ultimately, Nicks says she completely lost all control of her behavior for a while. Snorting cocaine burned a hole in the side of her nose.

The band took a break in 1982, but Nicks continued her drug use and hard living. Nicks toured on her own and also saw the breakdown of meaningful relationships during that time.

Fleetwood Mac went to the studio to create their album Tango in the Night, and Nicks continually blacked out. A doctor told her she was nearing a brain hemorrhage.

In 1986, Nicks checked herself into a Betty Ford Clinic, but unfortunately, she developed a Valium addiction.

Ultimately Nicks was able to get sober altogether, but she still speaks out about what her addiction did to her life and how it still affects her to this day.

Final Thoughts

Of course, not every story about celebrity drug addiction or alcohol addiction ends positively. These stories can also end in tragedy, as was the case of Amy Winehouse and many others.

If you are dealing with drug abuse or a problem with any addictive substance, getting help sooner rather than later is the best thing you can do for yourself and the people who love you.

If you’d like to learn how to overcome addiction in your own life or help someone you love in beating addiction, please contact Anchored Tides Recovery at 866-600-7709 today. We work with women from all walks of life who have one shared goal—recovery.

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Can You Get a DUI From Marijuana in California?

Some proponents of legalized marijuana praise states, like California, for making the drug available to people over a certain age for recreational use. While there may be benefits to the legalization of marijuana, much like alcohol, we can’t assume it’s completely harmless.

Alcohol might be legal for people over the age of 21 in the U.S., but it’s addictive. There are health risks of alcohol use, and it can lead to legal trouble. Marijuana has similar risks.

One issue that many states are dealing with is what happens when people drive under the influence of marijuana.

More specifically, can you get a DUI from marijuana in California even though it’s not an illegal drug? The short answer is that it’s similar to drunk driving, but it’s more complex than that.

People don’t realize that not only marijuana but also prescription medications can lead to a DUI. A DUI for marijuana impairment is a criminal offense with potential legal consequences, including a restricted license and several months in jail.

Below, we’ll detail what to know about the effects of marijuana in general and how it can affect you if you’re behind the wheel. We’ll also look at driving while high consequences you should be aware of, like a marijuana-related DUI.

Marijuana’s Legality in California

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in California. There was the legalization of medical marijuana in 1996. In 2016, voters approved Proposition 6, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. Legality doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all.

There are regulations even though marijuana isn’t an illicit drug in California. For example, you have to be 21 or older to buy or possess recreational marijuana. This law includes all types of cannabis products, such as edibles. It’s against the law to give or sell marijuana to minors, and it’s also illegal to drive under the influence.

Marijuana laws are similar to prescription drugs. Just because you have a prescription for a medication, you can still get a DUI if it alters your driving ability.

You can’t smoke, eat or vape cannabis products in public, and you can’t consume it anywhere smoking is illegal, such as in bars.

The Effects of Marijuana

Using marijuana creates immediate and longer-term effects. There’s an ingredient in marijuana, THC, that causes the feeling of being high from cannabis. THC is a psychoactive ingredient. When you use cannabis that contains THC, effects can include:

A release of dopamine, leading to feelings of euphoria and a heightened sensory experience
THC affects the hippocampus in the brain, leading to memory problems or an inability to form new memories
Impairment of judgment. Your information processing is different because of THC, affecting your judgment compared to a sober person
Slow reaction time, including problems with balance, motor skills, and coordination
These effects are why it’s dangerous to drive after using marijuana
Respiratory side effects can occur from smoking marijuana
The influence of marijuana may lead to a weaker immune system that leaves you vulnerable to infection

Drugged Driving

Driving under the influence of any mind-altering drug is one of the main reasons for car accidents. According to the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse, when you use marijuana, it significantly affects motor coordination and reaction time, as we mentioned above.

There is a direct relationship between the concentration of THC in your blood and impaired driving ability.

Marijuana is the drug most frequently found in the system of drivers in motor vehicle accidents.

In two studies out of Europe, drivers with THC in their system were around two times as likely to be at fault for a fatal crash than drivers not under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Analysis of other studies shows that the risk of being in a motor vehicle crash after you use marijuana can double or more than double.

Under California Vehicle Code, you can be arrested and charged for driving under the influence if you use marijuana. Marijuana impacts your mental abilities to the point that you wouldn’t drive with the same level of caution as someone who didn’t use marijuana.

How Much Marijuana Shows Impairment in California?

Here’s the tricky part about whether or not you can get a DUI from marijuana in California—THC can stay in your system for up to 30 days. You don’t feel the effects after a few hours, but if you were pulled over and drug tested, it could show THC metabolites, even from weeks before. Metabolites are left behind well after the influence of cannabis wears off mentally, leading to a false positive.

As it stands currently, there isn’t a per se violation for a marijuana DUI in California. That means no level of THC is illegal or a standard presumption for your level of impairment. By contrast, with blood-alcohol levels, typically, anything over a BAC of 0.08% is an impairment.

If a police officer were to pull you over and they suspect you’ve been using marijuana, they would have to gather further evidence to prove stoned driving.

Evidence might include an odor of marijuana, how you’re behaving, and how you perform on a field sobriety test. Your driving conduct, statements you make, and the presence of marijuana in your vehicle might also be evidence.

Driving behaviors that show impairment to a law enforcement officer include:

Not stopping at a red light or stop sign
Swerving
Weaving in lanes
Driving slowly
Being asleep in your car

Drug Recognition Experts or DREs are specially trained law enforcement officers who identify physical symptoms and signs of intoxication. If an officer pulls you over and they have probable cause to think you’re driving while impaired, then they’ll require you to submit blood testing or a breath test.

Of course, for marijuana, a breath test isn’t effective. Primarily used for marijuana are blood tests or urine tests.

If you take a drug test, it can’t show when you last used marijuana. These tests for marijuana aren’t good indicators of how much marijuana you used or blood THC concentrations. We don’t have a consensus on how much marijuana in your system shows you’re impaired like we do if there’s the presence of alcohol in your system.

That’s when the evidence would become relevant. The process is different from if you were drinking and driving when your blood alcohol content or blood alcohol concentration would be the most relevant factor.

What Are the Penalties for a Marijuana DUI Conviction?

Suppose you go to court and receive a conviction for driving under the influence of marijuana. In that case, the penalties in California are the same as what would happen if you were guilty of drinking and driving.

In California, penalties for a first-time DUI conviction involving marijuana or another substance can include 96 hours in jail up to six months and a $390-$1,000 fine. You may have a six-month driver’s license suspension, and you could be required to participate in a drug education class.

In most cases, a DUI involving marijuana is a misdemeanor, but certain circumstances can elevate it to a felony. For example, if you’re using marijuana and you cause an accident with serious bodily damage or death or have multiple DUIs, your DUI could become a felony.

A felony DUI conviction can include up to 180 days in jail and a four-year license suspension. You may face probation for up to five years and have to participate in a drug or alcohol education class.

Final Thoughts

To sum it up, can you get a DUI from marijuana in California?

The answer is yes, you can, and people do. Driving under the influence of any substance, including marijuana, is illegal and has negative consequences. The consequences of driving high are similar to the penalties of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Not only are there legal penalties, but if you use marijuana and drive, there is an accident risk. Fatal accidents often involve the use of substances, including marijuana.

For chronic marijuana users, it can be a tricky situation. You could have marijuana in your system from weeks prior. If you get pulled over and take a drug test, this will still show up. You likely have to work with a defense attorney to prove your driving abilities weren’t affected if that happens.

You can recover and still have a very fulfilling life after getting a DUI; the more support you have-the higher your chances for success. If you’re struggling with marijuana or substance use, please know that help is available. Call the helpline at Anchored Tides Recovery today – 866-600-7709.

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Is Drug Addiction Genetic?

Is drug addiction genetic? Is there such a thing as an addictive personality? These are common questions you may have, and while there is a genetic component, which we talk about below, we also urge caution here. Genetic predisposition factors are just one risk factor for substance abuse, as other chronic common disorders are actual. Genetic studies are increasingly shedding light on the science of addictive disorders.

Just because a close relative struggle with addiction doesn’t mean you automatically will as well. Having a genetic factor doesn’t make addictive disorders any less treatable either. Understanding the role of heredity and vulnerability to addiction is essential from a scientific and research standpoint and uncover the root causes of addiction. However, genetic risk factors don’t have to be a deterrent to you getting effective help if you are active in addiction.

What is Addiction?

A substance use disorder or SUD means you uncontrollably use a substance despite harmful consequences. Illicit drugs, alcohol, or tobacco are substances that lead to addiction. Some of the most common types of addiction include cannabis use disorder, alcohol addiction, cocaine addiction, and opioid addiction.

Over time, as the addiction continues without treatment, it affects your daily functionality. The SUD creates problems in your relationships and most other areas of your life. You may experience changes in your behavior and thinking. The brain’s structure changes, and you may have intense cravings for the substance you have an addiction to. Your personality might change. Imaging indicates addiction can lead to changes in the parts of the brain that relate to decision-making, learning, behavioral control, memory, and judgment.

Symptoms of addiction or SUD can fall into one of four categories. These are:

Impaired control: Hallmarks of this set of symptoms include intense cravings to keep using drugs or alcohol. You may try to stop using or cut down on your drug intake but find that you’re unsuccessful.
Social issues: When you abuse substances, you may experience problems in your daily life. For example, you could find that you’re increasingly giving up things you once enjoyed to use drugs or alcohol. Substance use can affect school or work performance, and it tends to impact relationships.
Risk-taking: Drugs of abuse can lead you to do dangerous things. These risk-taking behaviors might happen to get more drugs or because of their effects on you. You’ll continue to use substances even though you realize they cause problems.
Drug effects: Physical effects stem from addiction. For example, you may notice you develop a tolerance. When you have a tolerance, you need more significant amounts of drugs or alcohol to get the same effects on your genetic predisposition you did initially. Another physical component of drug or alcohol abuse is withdrawal. If you stop using a substance suddenly and depend on it physically, you might have side effects.

Risk Factors for Addiction

The saying goes that addiction doesn’t discriminate. No matter your background, you can experience a substance use disorder, but some people are more likely than others to develop an addiction.

Environmental Risk Factors

Environmental factors can and do raise a person’s risk of developing a SUD. For example, if you grow up without parental involvement, you are more likely to experiment or take risks. If you experience neglect in your childhood, you might turn to drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism.

The risk of addiction could go up if you experienced trauma in your childhood, such as sexual abuse or physical abuse. Other ways your environment can raise your risk of developing a substance use disorder include:

If you face peer pressure from friends or your social circle, it can lead to experimentation with psychoactive substances.
When you’re in a group of people with access to substances, you might be more likely to try them.
The environmental aspects of addiction are essential to understand if you’re in recovery. You may find that you need to find new friends and avoid specific environments to reduce your risk of relapse.

Other Co-Occurring Disorders

A dual diagnosis means you have an addiction and another mental health condition. If you struggle with psychiatric disorders, like depression, borderline personality disorder, bipolar disorder, or anxiety disorder, it can be a factor for addiction or raise your addiction risk.

Addiction can also increase the severity of symptoms you experience from a co-occurring disorder. It becomes a progressive and challenging cycle when you have a mental health disorder and an addiction since both are complex diseases.

Early Use

The earlier you use drugs or alcohol, the more likely you will develop alcohol use disorders or dependence on addictive drugs. When you’re young and expose your brain to drugs or alcohol, it affects its development. You may also be more prone to developing mental health disorders because of how substances affect your reward centers, levels of serotonin, and other parts of your brain chemistry.

If you’re young and you begin experimenting with drugs or alcohol later in life, you could struggle to experience feelings of pleasure without substances. The early history of substance abuse shows a strong association with drug addiction later in life.

Type of Drug and Method of Use

Certain drugs tend to put you at higher risk of the development of addiction. For example, addictive substances like heroin and methamphetamines have a higher risk of physical addiction than marijuana or alcohol. How you use drugs is relevant. If you smoke or inject drugs, addiction is more likely to occur than taking a drug orally.

Is There a Genetic Predisposition To Drug Addiction or Alcohol Addiction?

Now, we come back to the question of is drug addiction genetic? What is it in our genetic predisposition that could create an addiction vulnerability? Why do some people develop addictions and others don’t?

Family studies and identical twins show that as much as half of your risk of developing a substance addiction depends on your genetics. As we learn more about the role of heredity in addiction, it helps us understand the best ways to target treatment. It’s also helpful to overcome the stigma of addiction. For example, addiction in humans is a complex intersection between genetics and other risk factors, but it’s not due to a lack of morals or willpower.

However, there’s not necessarily a single gene that we can pinpoint right now that determines addictive behavior. If you’re the child of an addict, you are eight times more likely to develop an addiction.

At the same time, we have to remember that if genetics make up 50% of your risk for drug abuse or addiction, the other 50% comes from things other than your genetic predisposition makeup, like your choices and how well you develop coping skills.

This complexity highlights the fact that genetics isn’t your destiny. You’re more than your genetics. You can increase your protective factors against addiction, like a healthy stress response and beneficial coping strategies. As there are growing advances in genetic testing, we may learn even more about heredity and addiction in future studies. We may also learn more about brain chemistry and how this leads to the chronic disease of addiction, impulsive behaviors, and drug-seeking behavior.

For example, researchers recently uncovered that D2, a type of dopamine receptor, may eventually be used as a way to predict if you’ll become addicted to drugs or alcohol. Current studies show if you have fewer D2 receptors, you’re more likely to develop an addiction. The more we understand biology, the more personalized addiction treatments can become. This understanding of the predisposition to addiction is a big goal of addiction research overall right now.

Never let yourself get caught up in the thought process because you come from a family with a history of addiction that you have to repeat or remain in those same patterns.

We also want you to know that while your genetic predisposition could have increased your likelihood of becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol, there are steps you can take in your life to achieve recovery. No matter your genetic vulnerabilities or background, addiction treatment can be effective. We encourage you to contact Anchored Tides Recovery at 866-600-7709 to learn more.

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Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, Diagnosis, Epidemiology, Prevention, and Treatment

Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is also known as a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASDs). FASDs include conditions occurring when you drink alcohol during your pregnancy leading to prenatal alcohol exposure. Effects of drinking alcohol during pregnancy can include physical problems and issues with learning and behavior. While it’s devastating for your child to receive a diagnosis of FAS, it is preventable.

With that in mind, below, we’ll talk about fetal alcohol syndrome, diagnosis, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment.

An Overview of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

When you drink alcohol during pregnancy, it can pass to your baby through the umbilical cord, potentially leading to alcohol-related birth defects and fetal alcohol brain damage. There’s not a known, safe amount of alcohol you can consume during pregnancy. If you’re trying to get pregnant, you should also stop drinking.

If you’re pregnant and drink, the fetus can’t process alcohol through the liver or other organs. The alcohol exposure is the same as the amount in your bloodstream, but exposure lasts longer for the baby. Prenatal alcohol exposure in human populations affects fetal development, especially in the brain and central nervous system.

Some of the ways prenatal alcohol exposure can lead to alcohol-related birth defects include:

If you drink alcohol, including hard liquor, beer, and wine, it can kill cells in the fetus that lead to problems with physical development and secondary effects.
Prenatal alcohol exposure impacts the development of nerve cells, including how they travel to different parts of the brain.
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy constricts blood vessels, slowing blood flow to the placenta. The result of restricted placental blood flow can be a shortage of oxygen and nutrients to the baby.
While your body processes alcohol, it produces toxic byproducts. These toxins can accumulate and cause structural brain abnormalities and other types of brain damage.

Even before you know you’re pregnant, your alcohol intake could affect your developing baby or lead to secondary disabilities like alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorder.

How Prevalent are FASD and Prenatal Alcohol Exposure?

Getting an overview of fetal alcohol syndrome diagnosis, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment relies on understanding the prevalence.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we don’t know how many people have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. We use varying approaches to estimate how many people in our population might be living with the condition.

Using medical records primarily, studies from the CDC show a rate of 0.2 to 1.5 infants with FAS for every 1,000 births in the United States.
Recently, an epidemiological study by the CDC found FAS in 0.3 out of 1,000 children between 7 and 9.
According to studies from the National Institutes of Health using physical exams, the actual range of FASDs in the United States and some countries in Western Europe could be as high as 1 to 5 per 100 children—around 1% to 5% of the population.
A study from 2020 published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found patterns of maternal alcohol exposure and binge drinking in pregnant women between 18 and 44 in the U.S. went up from 2011 to 2018.
Having at least one alcoholic beverage among pregnant women in the past 30 days went up from 9.2% in 2011 to 11.3% in 2018.
Binge drinking (four or more drinks in a sitting) increased from 2.5% to 4% in that same period.

Symptoms of FASDs

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders are a collection of diagnoses. These represent a range of things that can occur when a mother drinks during her pregnancy. The symptoms affect everyone differently. FASDs symptoms can also range from mild to severe.

Symptoms of fetal alcohol effects can include:

Poor coordination and motor skills
Hyperactivity
Short attention span
Poor memory
Low birth weight
Problems in school or with social skills
Increased likelihood of defiant disorder or other mental health problems
Learning disabilities
Poor impulse control
Low IQ
Intellectual disability
Sucking and sleep problem as a baby
Hearing or vision problems
Problems with the kidneys, bones, or heart
Being shorter than average in height
Small head
Facial abnormalities including a smooth ridge between the upper lip and nose, known as the philtrum

Diagnosing FAS

It can be difficult to accurately diagnose fetal alcohol exposure because there aren’t specific medical tests available or set guidelines for diagnosis. There’s also the issue of a differential diagnosis since many symptoms of FASDs overlap with other conditions such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

To make a diagnosis, a doctor might consider:

Prenatal alcohol exposure
Lower-than-average height, weight, or perhaps both
Abnormalities in facial features
Central nervous system problems like poor coordination and hyperactivity

Can FAS Be Treated?

The effects of fetal alcohol syndrome are lifelong, but early intervention can help a child’s development. Treatments include medications and medical care for symptoms, behavioral and educational therapy, and parental training. Researchers also identified protective factors. These reduce the adverse effects of FAS on children and include a diagnosis before the age of six, a loving environment during school years, and an absence of violence in a child’s life. Using special education and social services is also a protective factor.

If you believe your child has symptoms of FAS, but you aren’t sure, talk to your health care provider, who can then refer you to a specialist for intervention services. Specialists include developmental pediatricians and mental health professionals like child psychologists. There are clinics throughout the country with staff specially trained in FASDs and can create individualized treatment plans.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Treatment for Adults

Unfortunately, as we talk about above, there is no treatment for adults or children. FAS is lifelong. Many times, adults with FAS will have mental disorders and legal problems. Adults with FAS are more likely to be in jail or a mental health facility, facing unemployment. Depending on the severity, it can be difficult for an adult with FAS to live independently.

The earliest intervention possible in childhood is the best treatment for FAS that we have available now, although it’s not a cure.

Preventing FAS

Since there isn’t a cure for FAS, prevention of maternal drinking is the only available option. When you use alcohol during pregnancy, it’s the top cause of preventable congenital disabilities, learning disabilities, and developmental disabilities. The only way to prevent your child from being born with FAS is to avoid drinking alcohol during your pregnancy altogether.

If you’re sexually active and not using birth control, you should also avoid alcohol. If you’re pregnant, it can take four to six weeks for you to know that, and during that time, if you’re drinking, you could be exposing your baby to alcohol.

It’s not too late to stop drinking if you’ve already had alcohol during your pregnancy. Your baby’s brain growth and development continue throughout your pregnancy, so stopping as soon as possible is crucial. You should avoid alcohol during breastfeeding also because it can cause development, sleep, and learning problems, although there’s no direct link to FAS.

If you’re a woman thinking of becoming pregnant, or you could already be, and you have an alcohol addiction, help is available. Again, we want to emphasize it’s never too late to stop drinking; Anchored Tides Recovery can help. Please reach out today at 866-600-7709.

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Signs of Love Addiction

The signs of love addiction can be hard to spot at first. If you’re someone with love addiction, you may initially just see yourself as someone who loves love. While that’s not always a problem pathological love can lead to negative consequences and destructive relationships for some people.

There are similarities between love addiction and other types of addiction, including substances like drugs and alcohol.

Disorders That Occur Along with Love Addiction

Love obsession tends to be a co-occurring condition. When you have a co-occurring disorder, you have symptoms of two or more mental health conditions. For example, you might feel that you show signs of being addicted to love in addition to depression or anxiety. Substance abuse is also a relatively common co-occurring disorder with pathological love.

We should point out that this condition is controversial. Some experts feel that everyone has an element of “addiction” when they love someone. Romantic relationships can and often do have periods where you might feel emotional distress. However, a true compulsion to love goes well beyond what we see as usual in a relationship.

For example, if you’re in a relationship where you’ll give up everything else for that person, it could be a problem. The most significant complication of experiencing this type of compulsive romantic behavior is that you may find yourself in an abusive or toxic relationship.

What is Pathological Love?

Love addiction or pathological love isn’t as medically well-defined as some other types of addiction. When someone is experiencing disruptive or harmful symptoms or consequences because of their romantic relationships, their mental health care provider has to distinguish these from other conditions. For example, in borderline and dependent personality disorders, the symptoms can overlap with pathological love.

Suppose you’re someone with an addiction to love. In that case, you can become fixated on the person you’re interested in at any given time and develop emotional dependencies or a lack of control. You might behave compulsively toward or about that person. You can then act on unhealthy behaviors because of your fixation.

What Type of Disorder Is Pathological Love?

There’s not a current agreement on what type of disorder love addiction really is. For example, pathological love can be considered an impulse-control disorder. With an impulse-control disorder, you are always seeking new experiences and behaving impulsively to get them.

Some researchers believe pathological love is more in line with a mood disorder. For example, you have feelings similar to mania when you’re in the early stages of love or beginning a new relationship. Then, as the relationship progresses, you might experience symptoms of depression.

A third possibility is that being addicted to love could be part of the obsessive-compulsive spectrum. You may experience intrusive, repetitive thoughts just as someone with OCD would, but they’re about your romantic partner or finding love. Of course, as the name implies, having a compulsion to find love can be most like a behavioral addiction too, such as gambling; you don’t have to take a substance, but the characteristics are similar.

Early on in a relationship, you might have intense pleasure and euphoria. Then, over time, those experiences might become dull. You might need more of these love experiences to feel anything similar to a dependence on drugs and alcohol.

What is Sex Addiction?

Sometimes, we talk about sex addiction along with love addiction, it’s not currently in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Despite not being included in that, it’s still diagnosable.

This offshoot occurs when someone seeks out multiple sexual partners to the extent that it interferes with their daily life, activities, and functionality. If you have a sex compulsion, you might not be able to control your behavior, despite severe consequences. Your sexual relationships are your primary focus, and your sexual behavior can become more extreme over time. Sexual addiction can occur along with love addiction, but it doesn’t have to.

Characteristics of Sex and Love Addiction

Always looking for your soulmate
Constantly searching for an intimate relationship
Thinking the intensity of sex or the newness of a relationship is the same as love or real intimacy
A chronic pattern of seduction, sex, or manipulation to get the interest of potential romantic partners
Having an intense fear of abandonment
Breaking promises to yourself about not returning to harmful relationships
Choosing partners that require a lot of attention or you to fill a caretaker role
Always needing to be in love
Being happiest during the so-called honeymoon phase of a relationship
Obsessing over the idea of romance or romantic interests
Putting romantic partners on a pedestal
The inability to be alone
Requiring emotional comfort from a partner and extreme dependency
Having cravings to be with your partner
Experiencing euphoria or emotional highs when you’re with a partner

When you begin a new romantic relationship, it’s normal to feel excited about being with the person, and you may miss them when they’re away. You may obsess over your partner to the point that it causes harm to your relationship or your well-being. You develop dysfunctional patterns. For example, you may seek out the affection of someone who isn’t responsive to you emotionally. You could also find yourself more likely to be in abusive relationships.

Why Do People Have Love Obsessions?

As is the case with other mental health disorders, including substance use disorder, the underlying factors of love addiction are probably complex. Again, we all need and desire to feel love, but what is it about some people that makes this problematic for them? Trauma, genetics, family history, and environment all probably factor in.

Someone with an obsession to finding love or keeping it may also stem from low self-esteem. For example, if you have low self-esteem, you may seek out your sense of self-worth from romantic partners. You could also deal with the signs of love addiction because you have abandonment fears from your childhood.

If you feel like you have an emotional void, you could use romantic partnerships to fill that. You may think that being in love brings value and excitement to your life. Unfortunately, that puts a lot of pressure on your partner. You may not have boundaries, and you’re more likely to find yourself in a codependent relationship.

Love and Substance Abuse

As we talked about above, love addiction can and often does occur with other mental health disorders. You may be searching for love in unhealthy places. You might also seek the highs that love can bring, making you more likely to find similar experiences through substance use.

Additionally, if you have a relationship that falls apart or consistently in unhealthy relationships, you could cope with the negative feelings with drugs or alcohol. Over time, you may experience a void and a sense of shame. There are many elements of being addicted to love that you can’t fix on your own, but treatments like cognitive-behavioral therapy can be beneficial.

If you or a loved one struggles with love or sex addiction along with a substance use disorder, we encourage you to reach out to the Anchored Tides Recovery team at 866-600-7709 to learn about our treatment options. We approach treatment holistically to help put you on the best path to recovery, a fulfilling life, and healthy relationships.

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Creating an Alternative Identity to Being an Addict

When you struggle with drug abuse, it can feel like you lose your identity, and the world just views you as “an addict;” you may even view yourself this way. However, you are more than the mistakes you have made; that’s why when you’re in recovery, building an alternative identity to being an addict is so essential.

You are more than your addiction, and when you’re in recovery, you can start to find who you are once again. You might have lost your sense of self along the way, but it’s exciting to get to know who you are without the stigma of addiction.

What is Your Identity?

We all have questions about who we are. For example, you may question what you are presently and who you’d like to see yourself as in the future. Our identity is incredibly complex.

Our identity includes our relationships, who we were as a child, as a parent, and who we are as a partner. It can also involve those characteristics we can’t control, such as our appearance. For many people, identity encompasses religious beliefs, moral attitudes, and political beliefs as well.

How Drugs Affects Your Identity

Our identity is already complicated; adding a drug habit to that makes it even more so. There are several key ways addiction can affect your identity.

First are the short-term effects drugs or alcohol have on your feelings, actions, memories, and behavior.
Over time with drug and alcohol use, you may also start to experience declines in your self-worth because you’re not moving forward or progressing in your life the way you’d like to or the way you expected to.
When you have a substance use disorder, you may start to internalize your symptoms. Those become who you are, in your mind. Rather than identifying yourself as a complex person, you might only see yourself as a drug abuser.
Self-identifying only or primarily as a drug user is going to make you fall deeper into your addiction. You may not believe you’re worth anything more because you believe that is just who you are, and that can serve as an excuse for you to keep using substances even with increasing negative consequences.

Your addiction may be part of your self-identification for years because everything in your life eventually revolves around the substance or substances in which you’re addicted. As you work to get treatment and overcome your disorder, what can actually happen is that you feel like you’ve lost part of yourself because of how many substances were your identity.

Some of the beliefs that could come along with your disorder include:

The idea that sober people are boring
The priority is getting high or drunk
You’re more creative when you use substances
Some types of music may be associated with the use of substances
You don’t trust health care or mental health professionals
You celebrate with substance use
People often hold an “us against them” mentality with substance use disorders
Not comforting to society or even criminal behavior are something to be admired in this mindset

Why You Need an Alternative Identity to Being an Addict

When you stop using drugs or alcohol, you may go through what’s sometimes described as a grieving process. That’s because you feel as if you’ve lost part of yourself, which was the drugs.

A big part of your recovery depends on rebuilding a new identity and letting go of that identity. You may have a hard time finding who you are again. It can make you feel vulnerable, especially when the people around you seem to have a clear sense of identity. It’s okay to acknowledge that you feel confusion or even embarrassment or shame. That’s a good starting point that you can use to start rebuilding who you are. When you’re honest with yourself about what you’re feeling, it gives you the chance to start making decisions about what you want to become. It’s also okay to feel like there’s a void in your life when you’re in recovery, at least initially.

How to Create an Alternative Identity to Being an Addict

While everyone’s journey is going to be unique, some of the things that you might keep in mind as you leave behind your “addict” identity and explore who you truly are, including:

Consider who you surround yourself with. You might meet new people who are also sober when you’re in treatment or through a support group. The people that we surround ourselves with make a significant impact on our lives and who we are. Our self-identity, in some ways, comes from the people we’re around. This is why when you’re in recovery, you may have to find a completely new social circle. You want to spend time with people who will be a healthy influence on you and begin defining your identity.
Along with social relationships, particularly with sober people, maybe you want to think about how you can rebuild relationships with your partner, your children, or your family. For example, you might begin to focus your identity on being a caretaker to your children.
What is your career field? Is it time to think about making a change? When you come out of a treatment program, you might work with career counselors who can help you get on a path toward a career that’s more fulfilling for you and that can very much become part of your identity.
It’s likely that after you go to treatment and you begin your life of recovery, you find you have a lot of time on your hands. That’s that that was probably before focused on using substances and recovering from their effects. Now, you can start to redefine how you use that time. You can begin to explore hobbies, interests, and passions. The things we’re interested in are part of what makes us unique individuals.
Volunteering is a great way to define your identity and move toward a more positive path in your life. When you volunteer, you’re not just helping other people. You’re helping yourself, and you’re giving yourself a sense of purpose.
Try to practice self-love and self-care every day. Substance abuse creates such a sense of shame, and you have to re-learn how to love yourself and care for yourself.

What’s the biggest takeaway we hope you get from this? No matter where you are in your journey, you are more than your addiction. You’ll have to learn more about yourself and who you are without the influence of substances, but that’s such an enriching part of the addiction recovery process. While at first, you may mourn what you feel like you’ve lost, you’ll eventually start to celebrate what you gain as you become the person you envision, rather than someone trapped in a specific identity by an addiction.

Shedding the Stigma of “Being an Addict”

Getting back to living a normal life when you are in recovery is a process. There are aspects like feeling judged or not being able to live down your past that can make sobriety even harder. Anchored Tides Recovery believes you are not your mistakes; you are who you are, and for any woman looking for help shedding the identity of “being an addict,” we encourage you to reach out to us for help at 866-600-7709.

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Does Having an Addictive Personality Lead to Addiction?

When a person displays dependence on things like nothing else matters, begins to seem more anxious, distressed, and irritable, will do whatever they can to get drugs or alcohol at any cost? These are some of the signs of an addictive personality type. People with other mental health disorders also have addictive behavior.

Addictions are defined as behaviors highly likely to result in negative consequences for the individual. Addictive personality traits manifest as compulsions that interfere with one’s relationships, work, and health. A person with an addictive personality has a compulsion to use alcohol, drugs, or other substances or pursue a particular activity to exclude all else. The traits of an addictive personality include:

Impulsiveness
A need for instant gratification
A disregard for consequences when seeking one’s desires
The tendency to find more joy in serving self than in helping others

What is an Addictive Personality?

Addiction is a progressive disease that often requires intervention to break its hold on an individual. Behavior (process) addictions include a wide range of activities and substances to which people compulsively engage, despite the negative consequences; some examples are:

Gambling
Drugs
Shopping
Sex
Food
Gaming
Porn

The concept of an “addictive personality” stems from the difference between these sorts of process addictions and substance abuse. There is an external addictive property for some substances; for instance, cigarettes have addictive ingredients, and some drugs cause physical dependence. Process addiction is more about getting addicted to a feeling or concept. This compulsion is where “addictive personalities” stem from.

Do I Have an Addictive Personality?

Do you constantly crave something, have a history of failed relationships, or are secretive about your behavior? If you answer yes to any of these questions, you could be hiding an addictive personality.

With drug and alcohol addiction, common environmental factors are stress and the availability of addictive substances. When a person has three or more of the following symptoms and problems for at least a year, they may have an addictive behavior – powerlessness to control and continuing desire/unsuccessful attempts to cut down, despite harmful consequences:

Compulsion

Compulsion means someone has an irresistible urge or an uncontrollable desire to perform a specific action. This type of behavior is described as compulsive drug-seeking. Addiction is a compulsion and dependency on a behavior or substance that can harm the addict or others. This condition involves the body, brain, and behavior and can lead to physical dependence and tolerance.

Cravings

The development of addictions can change the brain, affecting your ability to evaluate risk. It robs you of your decision-making mechanisms and has an enormous impact on your ability to resist drug abuse and stay clean from the seemingly enjoyable activity. Why? Because cravings cause intense physical and psychological urges, and even when you understand the consequences of taking that first drug, having cravings makes it challenging to resist.

Consequences

Drug abuse can lead to severe consequences for the addict and those around them. It can also cause serious side effects such as lung cancer, obesity, and depression. One who is addicted to illicit drugs will continue their habit despite the adverse effects and painful feelings. A person may lose interest in other parts of life because they are focused on getting or using their drug of choice, and that is where problems begin.

Control

People with addictions realize that their substance use is spiraling out of control initially, and they try to stop. But, for many people, stopping isn’t that easy. The physical cravings for drugs or alcohol are overwhelming. They may even force themselves to stop using the substance, but eventually, they start using it again.

Some things to look out for include:

Difficulty with impulse control
Lack of personal goals
Susceptibility to risky, impulsive, or thrill-seeking behaviors
Failure to take responsibility for actions
Low self-esteem
Intense mood swings or irritability
Isolation or a lack of solid friendships
A close relative who struggles with addiction
Mental health conditions

What are the Most Common Addictions?

When we talk about addiction, tobacco, alcohol, and drug addiction tend to come to mind. It’s not unusual for coffee-lovers to describe themselves as caffeine addicts. Chemical dependence is when people with addictions become physiologically dependent and psychologically addicted to a substance.

Addiction has many faces. Being addicted to certain things can prevent you from having the life you always wanted. According to addiction experts and psychologists, the following are six of the most common habits that affect people today.

Drug Addiction

Drug addiction is a pattern of substance use that becomes compulsive and interferes with daily life. Some of the more commonly abused drugs are:

Alcohol
Marijuana
Prescription Medications
Cocaine
Other Stimulants

The three main drugs that can cause the risk of addiction are:

Stimulants
Opioids
Sedatives

The drugs in Opioids are usually used as legal treatments for chronic pains, but more often than not end up being addictive substances and cause significant bodily harm. These drugs use so many effects on the brain that they interfere instead of help.

Alcohol

Daily alcohol consumption is socially acceptable, even expected, but it can be the beginning of a dangerous addiction. Alcohol addiction can be difficult to determine because of the way that our society accepts social drinking. Even though alcohol is legal, the potential abuse and addiction can expose users to numerous health risks

Alcohol addiction is one of the most common addictions, and it is a compulsive need to drink alcohol constantly. The body becomes dependent on alcohol, requiring more significant amounts to feel “normal.” Alcohol addiction can be due to genetic factors, and it can be common among people with mental issues such as psychiatric diagnosis, depression, or anxiety.

Gambling

Gambling Addiction is a behavior that takes place inside the casinos, and casinos are, in general, closed places. It is hard for people around the individual suffering from gambling addiction to notice or even suspect that they are having some problems with gambling addiction.

Gambling Addiction can cause serious trouble to the person suffering from it. The people around them – their friends, family, or colleagues – might have no clue about this “hidden” addiction.

Sex

Sex addiction is a compulsive need to engage in sexual activity, despite negative consequences. Sex addiction may present in various ways, including sexual thoughts or fantasies, excessive masturbation, frequent (and often risky) sexual encounters, multiple affairs, exhibitionism/voyeurism, and more.

Many men and women grapple with out-of-control sexual behaviors and find themselves unable to stop despite the severe toll it takes on every area of their lives. Typically those affected by sex-related problems are people we know—friends, spouses, family members, or co-workers.

Social Media

Social Media Addiction is a term used to describe a person’s uncontrollable need to engage in social media sites. Often, people who suffer from addiction to social media have no interest in leaving their virtual life for the real one. Studies have found that people who use Facebook or Twitter regularly are three times more likely than average to develop a screen addiction and addiction to social media.

They’ll continue to use social media or messages at work (and get sacked), they’ll neglect partners or children to spend more time online. Withdrawal symptoms can include complete lethargy, depression, anxiety, and fear of being alone.

Relationships / Love

The term love addiction usually refers to a person’s excessive emotional need to be in a relationship. In any relationship, love addicts depend on their partners for happiness, fulfillment, and security. While healthy relationships can be nurturing, a person with an addictive personality requires more from a relationship than most people can provide.

Love addicts will use manipulation, games, and tantrums when their partner is unavailable or does not meet expectations. Both partners become addicted because the unhealthy relationship becomes the center of each partner’s life.

What Next?

Does this sound like you? Addiction comes in many forms, and many times people who suffer from these compulsions have a high chance of getting involved in substance abuse. If you or someone you love has an addictive personality or drug addiction, call Anchored Tides Recovery. We provide rehabilitative services and life coaching to women of all ages and backgrounds who have developed an addiction.

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Relapse Triggers and What You Should Look Out For

Recovering from Addiction is hard work. Most people have no idea what relapse triggers are and how those stressors can make it easier to fall off the wagon if you are in recovery. Over time, people learn what it takes to remain in recovery and avoid relapse. But no matter how cautious a recovering addict is, they are never entirely immune to relapse triggers.

A relapse trigger is any thought, feeling, or situation that triggers the urge to use and then use again. A trigger can be anything from a promotional item to a physical cue, like seeing dirty syringes in an alleyway. While some stressors are obvious, others may not be so apparent. Understanding what causes you to use again can help you stop relapsing before it gets out of control again.

Relapse triggers are situational, emotional, or thoughts that may cause an individual to return to addictive behavior. These are not negative aspects of treatment programs but rather parts of life that may lead an individual to want to engage in Addiction because he finds comfortable feelings there. Most addicts find their unique relapse triggers, but some universal situations include depression and boredom. You may never even experience one of the relapse triggers listed below. Still, some common ones include stress, family and relationship problems, depression and anxiety, health problems, loss of employment, death of a loved one, traumatic experience, arrest or incarceration (for instance, for a drug-related incident), and sudden life changes with no coping mechanisms.

What are Triggers in Addiction?

Understanding triggers is an integral part of substance use disorders. The term trigger refers to stimuli, events, or situations that activate a craving for a particular substance or activity. Triggers may be internal or external, environmental cues, activities, people, emotions, places, things, or even feelings. Below is a list of common relapse triggers and some suggestions on how to avoid them or if you just can’t seem to avoid these possible triggering situations, then at least try to be prepared for it.

HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired

Addiction is a progressive disease. By staying sober, you have proven that your mind and body can live without alcohol or drugs. However, if you find yourself in any of the circumstances represented by the letters HALT, it may put you at an increased risk for relapse.

Keep the acronym HALT in mind as you strive to remain in long-term recovery from alcohol abuse, drug addiction, or other compulsive behaviors. HALT stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, and Tired. Take action before these emotions can lead you down a road to relapse. When your energy is low, get to know your support systems. Get rest or exercise to manage stress and fatigue well. Understand your internal triggers, and avoid high-risk situations that may lead to an emotional outburst.

Emotions

The external trigger due to emotions is something that can, and will, occur for many recovering addicts. It is important to remain prepared and ready to remind your loved one of key points about their recovery program before this event happening.

Addressing emotional triggers is crucial to recovery. While it is challenging to keep your emotions under control when you are trying to stay clean and sober, knowing your relapse triggers can help. If you understand that the feelings most likely to trigger your relapse are loneliness, anger, or frustration, then you can avoid those situations.

Stress

Stress is often the culprit for many of today’s addiction relapses. The relapse trigger due to stress is a highly relatable feeling that is worth examining. It could have roots in issues with moving on from relationships, or it could stem from an uncontrollable and severe case of anxiety and stress that leads to substance abuse as a means to cope.

Chronic stress may also contribute to other mental disorders, including anxiety disorders, substance abuse, eating disorders, and mood disorders like bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder.

Over-Confidence

Recovery is a delicate process, and overcoming Addiction is a daily challenge. It is overly naive to jump into recovery without putting the proper forethought and safety nets in place. Overconfidence is a relapse trigger.

Relapse triggers can make you fall back into old patterns of doing if you are not careful. If you find yourself becoming overconfident in your recovery, it might be time to go back to the drawing board and layout an action plan to help keep you on track. It is important to remain vigilant and be careful not to become over-confident in your ability. You may be at risk of relapse if you are over-confident.

Mental or Physical Illness

If you are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction, you need to avoid relapse triggers at all costs. Whether it is a physical or mental illness, certain situations can throw your recovery off-track. Some of the most common relapse triggers involve traumatic life events, stress, social pressure, and personal issues.

Relapse can become a significant risk when you’re suffering from depression, anxiety, or another mental health illness. Even when you want to stay clean, emotions from a mental illness can lead you back to drugs or alcohol. A few other triggers for relapse include physical illness and injuries and painful disorders like arthritis.

Boredom and Social Isolation

Social isolation can raise the risk of drug or alcohol abuse. This may be because a person may think they would be less likely to get caught if they relapse.

Social isolation is a severe stumbling block for long-term recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. When people isolate themselves, they tend to subconsciously justify drug or alcohol use as a way to numb the pain of loneliness and boredom. As you begin to reconnect with friends and family in recovery, you can reach out to people who will provide you with the support and connection you need to maintain your sobriety for good.

People or Places Connected to the Addictive Behavior

It is expected that an addict can have feelings of relief upon returning to where they engaged in addictive behavior. However, relapse does not only happen because this person returns to the exact location; relapse can also occur when they are around the same people.

We all well know that just seeing someone we love who has been a close friend for years but who also used drugs with us and persuaded us into the trap can result in a relapse. The same goes for reconnecting with someone we used drugs with; just the presence of this person may lead to a relapse.

Overcoming Addiction Through Rehabilitation

Overcoming addiction is not a simple task, but the good news is that you can do it. Here are some tips that will help you step by step. The first thing to do is realize that you have a problem and be willing to face it head-on. If you think you are ready to quit, make sure you have the proper determination.

You may have support from family members and friends, but remember that no one else can do this for you. The next step to overcoming Addiction is finding out if your drug use has caused any physical damage.

At Anchored Tides Recovery, we treat the whole person – body, mind, and spirit – with a holistic approach encompassing all aspects of care. Our staff recognizes that every client’s circumstances and journey are unique. Call us and one of our care coordinators will work with you to discover the treatment options and support groups that are right for you.

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Moderation in Drugs: A Dangerous Road or Logical Harm Reduction?

Is moderation in drugs or alcohol even feasible if you have an addiction? It’s controversial, and the topic leaves people sharply divided. Most drug addiction treatment programs subscribe to the modality of total abstinence, meaning they abstain from all use of drugs and alcohol. The belief is that if you have addiction in your genes you are powerless against it, and unless you remain completely sober, you will eventually succumb to your addictive behavior.

Total abstinence may be the best chance to prevent relapses for a person with a history of drug abuse, or alcohol abuse, but some people don’t like to subscribe to the idea that they are powerless. You may feel like a slave to your addiction, or like you will always be “an addict” if you can’t control yourself to have a drink occasionally in appropriate circumstances; some of these people may try to exercise restraint and practice moderation.

Moderation in drugs is a skill that involves great discipline, knowing when it’s okay to use, and knowing when to stop. Most people who struggle with addiction lack these skills, and for this reason, substance abuse treatment centers generally avoid this thinking and tell you to focus on long-term sobriety.

Understanding Addiction Recovery

Before you can delve into moderation in drugs when someone is technically in addiction recovery, it’s important to understand how addiction works.

Addiction is a disease affecting the brain, body, and behavior. When someone first uses a substance, that’s ultimately a choice. Then, their brain develops a tolerance to the drug, affecting their brain’s reward centers.
When your brain feels like something is creating positive or pleasurable effects, it may compel you to keep seeking it out. That compulsion can develop into an addiction. Compulsive substance use of addiction is characterized by continued use, even when there are harmful consequences.
There are changes in the brain structure that cause intense cravings, changes in personality, alterations in movement, and other effects. Researchers have done brain imaging studies and found that the parts of the brain related to decision-making, learning, judgment, memory, and behavioral control are all affected by substance use.
The complexity of addiction as a psychological and medical condition highlights some of the reasons why it can be dangerous to consider moderation in drugs or alcohol if you’re in addiction recovery.
The majority of people who use drugs or alcohol don’t become addicted. However, some people are predisposed to addiction for one or more reasons, or their brain responds to the stimuli of drugs and alcohol differently. Someone with an actual addiction can have a triggered brain response, even when they think they’re using moderation or when that’s the plan.

Some of the same symptoms medical professionals use to diagnose addiction address this topic. For example, one of the symptoms of addiction is using more of a substance than intended or being unable to stop using drugs or alcohol even when you try or want to. That lack of control and compulsive substance use makes moderation difficult if not impossible for many people with a substance use disorder.

Comparing Moderation in Drugs and Abstinence

Abstinence is a concept in addiction recovery where you avoid all substances. There is no gray area.
Moderation requires self-discipline and control, and you theoretically could practice moderation in drugs or drinking, meaning that you limit yourself.

There’s a term called Moderation Management or MM that may be interesting to some people. Moderation management is an approach that offers an alternative to the abstinence of 12-Step programs. Moderation management teaches problem drinkers more responsible habits so that their drinking doesn’t become compulsive. Moderation can work, possibly, but not for everyone. It typically won’t work for someone with a full-blown addiction. Instead, it might be a good option for someone whose use of drugs or alcohol is problematic and who wants to make a change without being abstinent.

Demi Lovato recently coined a phrase that garnered a lot of attention— “California sober.” After a nearly fatal overdose, many were surprised to hear her refer to herself with this term because there’s a pretty common opinion that sobriety has to be all or nothing. California sober can mean different things to different people, but the general idea is that someone in recovery might still drink occasionally or only use “soft drugs” like marijuana.

In some cases, controlled drinking or moderation in drugs is utilized to get to complete abstinence. This controlled drinking or drug use can be beneficial for someone resistant to the idea of treatment initially.

What About Using a Substance to Treat An Addiction To Another?

Sometimes, in addiction recovery, one substance is used to treat another substance addiction.

For example, opioid addiction often uses prescription medications, that are explicitly approved to treat opioid use disorder (such as methadone, naloxone, and buprenorphine) to ease the dependence off of the opioid addiction
With alcohol, someone might use naltrexone or disulfiram to treat withdrawal symptoms
Nicotine addiction uses drugs like bupropion that can help with cravings

These medications can help reduce cravings and restore normal brain function. Some medication-assisted treatments also block the effects of substances on the brain and body.

This area of addiction treatment is controversial; the idea is somewhat in line with harm reduction principles. The ultimate goal of using medication-assisted treatment (MAT) is typically to help the person get off all substances, although it might be gradual.

Are There Benefits to Moderation?

For some people, there are genuine benefits to a moderation approach. It can be intimidating and overwhelming to stop drinking or using drugs suddenly; moderation may make quitting seem more manageable. Also, going back to the idea of harm reduction, any steps that a person can take to lower the risks and harms associated with substance use is a positive thing.

We’re learning more about the fact that not everyone who uses drugs or alcohol has an addiction, and there are many types of problems that exist on a spectrum. For some, that can mean that full-fledged abstinence isn’t needed.

Moderation vs. “True Addiction”

Recognizing the differences in problem substance use and addiction is very important when discussing the concept of moderation. Someone with a less severe problem may shy away from taking steps to help themselves because they fear abstinence. On the other hand, moderation is probably not a viable option for someone with an addiction to drugs or alcohol, and it may be dangerous.

There is something that tends to happen when someone completes treatment. They may begin to think they can exercise moderation in drugs or alcohol, leading to relapse. There’s a false sense of security or comfort, and that slippery slope quickly appears. With that in mind, someone who is most likely to benefit from moderation or be successful at a moderation approach could include:

A person with a shorter history of substance use
Someone without physical dependence on substances
An individual not experiencing severe life problems as a result of substances
A person without co-occurring medical or psychiatric problems

On the other hand, abstinence is likely a better choice if:

You’ve been diagnosed with a substance use disorder
You lose control when you use substances
You become violent or aggressive
There have been legal issues resulting from substance use
You have a mental health disorder made worse by drinking

The benefits of abstinence over moderation include:

Abstinence is the safest option. There’s no safe level of drug or alcohol use that eliminates all harm.
You can take on a new perspective with abstinence and see the actual effects of substances on your life and what it’s like to live without them.
You can learn how to control your emotions and process them without relying on substances.
You may discover voids in your life that you were filling with drugs or alcohol.

So, with all that being said, is moderation in drugs or alcohol an option in addiction recovery? For people who have a genuine, diagnosable addiction, moderation is probably not an option. For someone like Demi Lovato, who experienced a near-death overdose, the concept of “California sober” may be a hazardous one.

Whether you’re completely sober or plan on practicing moderation Anchored Tides Recovery can help equip you with the aftercare resources you need to be successful in your recovery goals, contact us today for more information.

moderation in drugs Substance Abuse

Category: Addiction

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