Overcoming Cravings One Day at a Time

overcoming cravings

overcoming cravings

 

Overcoming cravings are one of the most challenging parts of addiction recovery, especially in the early days. Cravings can be a mental and physical response to no longer using drugs or alcohol. Cravings are incredibly intense during the detox and withdrawal period, but they can persist long after.

  • The sensation of craving isn’t exclusive to drugs and alcohol. These urges to do something are part of everyday life for everyone.
  • For example, you might crave a particular food. Under normal circumstances, it might not be a big deal, but if you’re trying to lose weight, that craving can be problematic and keep you from achieving your goals.
  • With cravings, it’s important to recognize they’re going to happen and identify strategies for dealing with them when they do. 
  • Coping with these urges is one of the big things you learn during rehab.

Physical craving is where you have a physical response to wanting drugs or alcohol. 

  • Physical cravings are part of withdrawal, and those cravings will eventually lessen as you go deeper into your recovery. 
  • Mental cravings are emotional, and they can take longer to subside. 
  • Mental cravings might lead you to fixate on the thought of using drugs or alcohol, or you can get the idea in your head that you need the substance right away.

You can deal with both by learning positive coping mechanisms and remembering to take it one day at a time. Taking it one day at a time is good for overcoming cravings and dealing with other challenges you might encounter in your recovery.

 

One Day at a Time in Addiction Recovery

Not just cravings, but your full recovery may be built on the concept of taking it one day at a time, but what does that really mean? 

One-day-at-a-time is a phrase you’ll hear in 12-step programs and recovery circles, but the reality is that it’s sage advice no matter what your situation.

As far as the 12-step model, Alcoholics Anonymous Bill Wilson once said:

“On a day-at-a-time basis, I am confident I can stay away from a drink for one day. So I set out with confidence. At the end of the day, I have the reward of achievement. Achievement feels good and  makes me want more.”

  • Taking things one day at a time helps us let go of the past, and perhaps guilt or shame we might feel from that. 
  • We can also stop feeling anxiety for the future and plant ourselves firmly at the moment.
  • Mindfulness and being in the moment is something you’ll work on a lot in addiction treatment.
  • Being mindful and living in the present is something many people aspire to, even when they aren’t struggling with addiction.

Often, when you’re in recovery, and especially at the start, you may feel apprehensive. It can be a considerable undertaking to think about a lifetime of sobriety and what that will look like. Rather than thinking that way, which may be overwhelming, just think that you have to stay sober today. That’s all you have to manage at this moment.

There’s something in AA called the 24-hour plan. Rather than swearing off drugs or alcohol for your entire life, you concentrate on the 24 hours you’re presently in. If you have a craving or an urge, you’re not resisting or yielding. You’re just putting it off until tomorrow, at which point you’ll deal with those 24 hours.

You only worry about today, and there’s a power in that. You eventually learn over time that you can manage those cravings for much longer than 24 hours.

 

Why Is It Important to Stay Present?

Even outside of a coping mechanism for cravings, staying in the present is valuable in your life.

  • When you’re in the present, you can reduce your stress and improve your focus. 
  • You can build emotional resilience, and you can find what inspires you. 
  • Staying present helps you begin to rebuild strong emotional connections with the people around you and spend meaningful time with loved ones.

Many people find when they practice mindfulness, they’re able to stop being a bystander in their life and become connected with everything around them. In recovery, that’s so valuable. Being present is great for mental health and spiritual wellness.

 

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Strategies for Dealing with Cravings

While being present and taking it one day at a time is one way to deal with cravings, there are other strategies you can include in your life while overcoming cravings.

Something you’ll work on in your treatment program is learning your triggers. Your triggers can be anything—people, places, or things. These triggers make you want to drink or use drugs.

Triggers can often fall into one of four general categories.

  • Pattern—these are the things and places that make you want to use again, and they can also include significant events, the time of day, or the season.
  • Social—social triggers involve one person or a group of people you associate with drinking or drug use.
  • Emotional—whether it’s sadness, anger, anxiety, or happiness, there may be emotional triggers that contribute to cravings when you feel a certain way.
  • Withdrawal—this is something we talked about above, and withdrawal cravings are a physiological response as your body tries to regain a sense of normalcy without the presence of substances.

You can work on identifying and uncovering triggers so that you can avoid them if possible. If you can’t avoid them, you can proactively have strategies in mind about how you’ll deal with them when they occur.

Tips for dealing with triggers and cravings that are also in line with mindfulness and taking things one day at a time include:

  • Avoidance. As mentioned, for some people and some triggers, avoidance can work. For example, you may find a new social group after rehab to avoid people you associate with using drugs or alcohol.
  • Maintain healthy behaviors. Focusing on eating well, exercising, and getting rest can help you avoid cravings and deal with triggers. You’re filling your time and your mental space with other priorities.
  • Find things you enjoy. Maybe you learn an instrument, practice yoga, or start painting.
  • Regularly practice meditation and relaxation exercises. If you’re feeling the pull of a craving, sit down and do a meditation, even just for five minutes. This will bring you back to the present and help you regain a sense of control.
  • Attend support group meetings.
  • Change how you think about cravings. Sometimes people will panic when they experience a craving. You might feel out of control. Work to know that craving is something you can ride out like a wave. Retain or regain control of how you view it. Speak optimistic empowering statements out loud if that helps you. Remember that all cravings end.
  • Track how you’re feeling with a journal.
  • Rely on your relapse prevention plan. When you’re in treatment, you can work with your care providers on a concrete strategy.

Approaching your battles “Just for today” might be some of the best advice you can put into practice in your recovery to manage cravings. If you’d like to learn more techniques for a successful recovery from addiction, call 866-600-7709 to talk to the team at Anchored Tides Recovery; we’re here to talk and answer questions that you may have. 

Coping with Substance Abuse Disorder During the Holidays

substance abuse

substance abuse

 

Substance abuse disorders are situations that are triggering and remind you of obstacles you struggle with. Even though sober people can find it challenging to be around alcohol, especially in abundance at holiday events, absolute self-control is an annual test for people in recovery.

Drinking plays a role in many holiday festivities, from wine with dinner on Thanksgiving to champagne when toasting the new year; alcohol plays a huge part in the holiday season. Some individuals can drink moderately at festive functions; others engage in heavy drinking that strays into abuse more often than not.

 

Substance Abuse & Addiction

It is essential to know how substance abuse differs from addiction; Addiction is something you cannot easily let go of despite damaging your physical health, mental health, and social life. Whereas many people with substance abuse issues can quit relatively quickly or they can change their unhealthy behavior.

Substance abuse for mood-altering purposes may simply be described as a pattern of harmful use of any substance. ‘Substances’ can include alcohol and other drugs, as well as certain substances that are not drugs at all, and whether or not they are illegal does not matter.

“Abuse” can result because you use a drug in a manner that is not intended or recommended or because you use more than prescribed. To be precise, someone can use drugs and not be addicted or even have a drug use problem.

Generally, when individuals talk about substance abuse, they usually refer to illicit substances. Abusive drugs do more than changing the mood. They can confuse your judgment, distort your perceptions, and change your response times, all of which can put you at risk of accident and injury. Still, you continue to take the drugs because of the rush of dopamine and the worldliness you experience.

In the first place, these medications have been illegal because they are potentially addictive or may cause significant adverse health effects. Some claim that the use of illicit drugs is considered unsafe and, therefore, violent.

 

5 Causes of Substance Abuse:

Although there is no clear-cut specific answer as to what causes your addiction to substance abuse, it is possible that the origin of the addiction starts or speeds up because of the points given below:

 

1. Family history of addiction.

 Drug addiction is more common in some families and mainly involves troublesome genes.

 

2. Mental health disorder.

Having a mental health disorder can also play a role in leading an individual to substance abuse.

 

3. Peer pressure.

Peer pressure plays a significant role in substance abuse and can be very dangerous if not detected early.

 

4. Early use.

Early use can also lead to addiction from substance abuse.

 

5. Taking a highly addictive drug.  

Taking a highly addictive drug or prescription drug can often lead to addiction or substance abuse as well.

 

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How can you Stop Substance Abuse?

Overcoming substance abuse or drug addiction can be a time-consuming and challenging process, but never impossible.

For many people struggling with addiction, the most challenging step toward recovery is the very first one: recognizing that you have a problem and deciding to make a change. It is entirely normal to feel unsure about whether you’re ready to go down the road to recovery or if you have what it takes to quit your addiction. You may be worrying about how you can find an alternative way to handle a mental condition if you are addicted to prescription medication. It’s all right to feel distressed. Committing to sobriety means changing several aspects, like how you cope with tension, who you allow in your life, what you do in your spare time, how you think of yourself, and how you take over-the-counter medications.

And when you know it is causing issues in your life, it’s still natural to feel conflicted about giving up your drug of choice. Recovery takes time, encouragement, and support, but you can conquer your addiction and regain control of your life by committing to change.

 

Substance Abuse Treatment

Addiction treatment is a variable plan and not a one-size-fits-all treatment. Treatments always vary based on what you need and what will help you treat the fastest and best. You can also choose the treatment that works best for you based on the substance you’re abusing, the level of care you need, your personal needs for mental health, or what options for health care you can afford. 

Some of the most common addiction treatments that have set patients on a successful path to recovery include detoxification, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), rational emotive behavior therapy, contingency management, the all-famous 12-step facilitation, and treatment medication. For questions or assistance staying sober through the holidays, call Anchored Tides Recovery at 866-600-7709.

Childhood Trauma and Addiction: Codependent Issues

childhood trauma

childhood trauma

 

The vast majority of women with a substance use disorder have a history of childhood trauma, unfortunately, and exposure to traumatic experiences. Childhood trauma can take different forms. For example, both physical abuse and sexual abuse are examples, but so are things like neglect. Understanding the impacts of childhood trauma on current addiction in women is something we work hard to prioritize in our programs.

Without taking a trauma-informed approach, we don’t feel like you’re genuinely getting effective, evidence-based care.

We also find that the way we talk about addiction in women as society tends not to take trauma into account. Traditional addiction treatment doesn’t consider the differences in how men and women process and cope with trauma either, creating a void for women in their care.

One specific example is a borderline personality disorder. We often see women diagnosed with this mental health condition but with no understanding of the context of their past trauma exposure. Women are much more likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder than men, yet the symptoms could relate to processing different types of childhood traumas. 

 

What Is Trauma?

Traumatic exposures and events have the potential to shape who we will all become. You can experience trauma in childhood or adulthood. Regardless, this exposure can change how you see not just the world around you but also yourself. The effects of childhood trauma can be far-reaching. 

Examples of types of trauma include:

  • Physical abuse, assault, or violence
  • Sexual assault
  • Rape
  • Domestic violence
  • Community violence
  • Verbal or emotional abuse
  • Neglect by parents or caretakers
  • Bullying
  • Natural disasters
  • Accidents 
  • Terminal illnesses

This list certainly isn’t exhaustive because when you survive anything where you feel your life is in danger or experience extreme distress, it can lead to a trauma response and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Signs of having traumatic adverse childhood experiences and trauma symptoms include:

  • Dramatic shifts in mood
  • Erratic behaviors
  • Excessive emotional displays
  • Having an anxiety disorder 
  • High levels of nervousness 
  • Irritability and agitation that’s more or less constant
  • A lack of confidence
  • Developing eating disorders
  • Avoiding things that remind you of the trauma
  • Reliving the traumatic event
  • Problems relating to others
  • Issues with interpersonal relationships 
  • Suicidal ideation 

When you experience trauma, particularly in childhood, since who you are is being shaped during this time, it puts you at a very high risk of developing an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Trauma exposure in childhood can create long-term mental health issues such as posttraumatic stress disorder and anxiety. When dealing with untreated mental illnesses stemming from traumatic memories, you’re more likely to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.

 

The Relationship Between Childhood Trauma and Addiction 

Your brain is incredibly adaptive. There’s a term, plasticity, used to talk more about this. Essentially, your brain can respond to any situation that you experience in your daily life. The plasticity of your brain helps you learn new things and form memories.

  • Each thing that you’re doing, whether that’s something good or bad, leads to the growth of your brain neurons, as well as changes. 
  • However, those neural connections can break as well, if that’s what’s needed. 
  • Your brain rewires itself to make sure you continue functioning in whatever way is necessary.
  • This plasticity can be a great thing if you’re, for example, beginning to meditate. Neural plasticity can help your brain rewire itself through meditation so you can tackle depression and anxiety.
  • The problem can occur when you experience mistreatment or trauma. 
  • Your experiences, especially early on in your life when your brain is developing, change your brain’s structure. 
  • Abnormalities arise from your experiences when they’re negative, and those abnormalities affect behavior and cognition for trauma survivors. 

One specific example of these adverse effects is the impact of stress hormones on brain development. Stress hormones like cortisol interfere with normal brain development in children with chronically high levels. Children facing exposure to violence without a safe space are likely to have ongoing stress that rarely if ever dissipates. 

  • Around two-thirds of all people with addictions experience trauma exposure in their childhood, so it’s not a rare situation.
  • According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), more than a third of adolescents experiencing abuse or neglect will have a diagnosable substance use disorder before reaching their 18th birthday. 
  • Around 55 to 60% of people with PTSD end up developing a chemical dependency.

 

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Women and Trauma

Women are twice as likely as men to develop PTSD. When women have PTSD, they often have a longer duration of symptoms. Research shows women with PTSD are more sensitive to things reminding them of the trauma. They are at greater risk of adverse effects related to mental health outcomes. 

Women who have untreated trauma tend to experience mental health disorders such as higher rates of depression and anxiety and more physical symptoms. These physical symptoms can include sexual dysfunction, migraines, gastrointestinal issues, and other chronic health conditions. 

Health care providers often struggle to diagnose PTSD due to varying factors like a lack of time and training.

 

Trauma-Informed Care

The startling reality of the prevalence of childhood trauma in people and especially women with substance use disorders brings us back to the concept of trauma-informed care. Substance abuse counselors should understand the high levels of co-dependence between substance use and trauma histories to provide practical, evidence-based care.

There are quite a few different approaches to trauma-informed care. There are also differences in treating the psychological symptoms of trauma and treating the trauma experience. Treating the trauma experience is more in-depth and complex, requiring specialized training on the part of the clinician. In traditional programs, the focus is on treating psychiatric symptoms rather than the underlying causes.

Research and observation show that women who learn about the impact of trauma on their mental and physical health, self-esteem, and emotions tend to see more beneficial outcomes.

The following are some of the critical elements of trauma-informed care and therapy for childhood trauma:

  • The underlying concept of trauma-informed care is understanding how the brain responds to childhood trauma exposure or adult trauma exposure. 
  • Clinicians pay attention to the central nervous system, biological effects, and specifically the automatic nervous system to delve more into the impact of trauma.
  • Trauma-informed care should help women understand their symptoms but from an approach of their strengths.
  • We have to be careful about re-traumatizing our patients.
  • Central to all trauma-informed care, especially in addiction treatment, is the importance of hope for recovery.

Our goal with our trauma-informed care approach is to be empowering and positive. We also want to make sure that our patients never feel rushed through their program because it takes time to work through underlying trauma. Many women don’t understand the links of their trauma to their substance abuse, and instead, they feel shame or as if they’ve personally failed, which isn’t the reality at all.

Often we see women who don’t even know what they’ve gone through is traumatic. They see their situations as normal because that’s all they know.

 

Final Thoughts

If you’re searching for a “childhood trauma therapist near me” or something similar, you may already have an understanding of the role trauma plays in your life and your substance use. You might also be at a different point in your journey, where you haven’t fully gained an understanding of those effects.

Regardless of where you are, we can help you get where you want to be with childhood trauma recovery. 

Our team is trained and experienced with trauma-informed care. We work with you to help you understand the impact of your childhood trauma, but from a place of hope and empowerment for your recovery. Please reach out to the team at Anchored Tides Recovery by calling 866-600-7709 to learn more.

A Guide to Being a Better Parent in Recovery

parent in recovery

parent in recovery

 

When you’re a woman going through addiction treatment and beginning your life in recovery, you already face immense challenges. 

Being a mother can compound those because you may want to repair the damage you feel occurred during active addiction. You may also want to make up for the lost time. Simultaneously, the recovery process is hard work, so prioritizing is critical as you navigate parenting in a new world for you.

The most important thing you can remember is that no one is a perfect parent. Despite your struggles with addiction or mental health, if you show your children love, that’s ultimately what will stand out to them throughout their lives.

You have to show love and compassion for yourself, too, particularly as you are navigating a new situation and new season in your life.

The following are some things to know about being a parent in recovery from a substance use disorder and how to become a positive role model. 

 

How Addiction Affects Families

While it’s emotionally challenging, a big part of true recovery recognizes how your addiction affects your loved ones. Loved ones can include your children, mainly if they are old enough to understand what’s happening. When you can confront these psychological effects head-on, you’re in a much better position to begin to work through them.

Once you leave treatment, you hope you can put the past behind you. While you may be able to put your substance abuse behind you, it’s essential to recognize the lingering effects of being an addicted parent and work to repair those as part of your recovery journey. 

It’s challenging to maintain a peaceful or loving home when you’re experiencing alcohol or drug addiction. There may be a lot of conflicts, erosion of trust, and communication can become frustrating. Along with these effects impacting your children, they could also affect your spouse or partner and other people who love you, such as your parents or siblings.

  • You might have behaved in a way that would otherwise be out of character for you when you were under the influence of drugs or alcohol or exhibiting addictive behavior. 
  • Psychology Today estimates 1 in 5 children grow up in a home with a parent who abuses alcohol or drugs.
  • Exposure to substance abuse is a form of trauma, and children who grow up experiencing substance abuse in the home are more likely to develop their substance use disorders when they’re adults.
  • Children’s personalities are developing during this time and are highly susceptible to what’s happening around them.

When you decide to get treatment, that’s an essential thing you can do to change these dynamics. 

  • As you choose a rehab program like residential treatment, look for one specifically for women and mothers.
  • These programs will allow you to participate in therapy that focuses on rebuilding your relationships with your children and family and reducing the trauma they might have experienced.
  • Look for a facility that emphasizes relationships and helps you connect with the resources you need to be a great parent in recovery.

Too often, mothers become discouraged. They feel the damage is done, and there’s nothing they can do; that’s untrue. While substance abuse by a parent can affect children, they’re also highly resilient. 

You ultimately want your kids to see you as someone who worked hard and overcame challenges. That’s what you have the opportunity to demonstrate after treatment.

Below are some practical tips to be a better mother in recovery.

 

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Forgive Yourself

Understanding the impact of addiction isn’t about continuing to hate yourself or feel shame, and parents in recovery have to know this. 

Instead, it’s about recognizing past challenges and then being able to move forward through that honestly. 

To be the best version of yourself for your children, forgive yourself. If you participate in a program with a 12-step foundation, there is a path to make amends for past behavior and start again as part of your addiction recovery. 

When you can forgive yourself, you aren’t just helping your children and family dynamic. You’re also reducing your risk of relapse. Shame and guilt are so interwoven with substance use and addiction. 

You have to work to rebuild your self-esteem and understand that you are more than your mistakes and addiction.

 

Set Boundaries

If you feel guilt for things in the past, you might try to be too permissive in your parenting. Permissive parenting is problematic for children, particularly as they get older. Not having firm, healthy boundaries can put your children at a greater risk of developing their own SUD.

Rather than making up for anything by eliminating boundaries, create a loving and healthy relationship with your children that centers on limits. Your children need that discipline and structure.

You want to be a role model rather than a friend. Along with setting boundaries, resist the urge to try and buy affection with gifts.

Your children are going to thrive when they have stability and consistency. You can create routines that focus on spending quality time together rather than buying affection.

 

Rebuild Trust

If your children are older, they may have lost trust in you during your active addiction. You may have been unable to keep your word, or you might not have been around or shown up for your children in the way they needed you to when dealing with a drug or alcohol use disorder. 

Now is when you can start to rebuild that trust. Again, consistency is key here. You should also show up when you say you will and prioritize family time. 

Consider going to counseling with your children, so you can relearn how to bond with one another.

 

Take Care of Yourself

Practicing self-care is vital in recovery. Parents in recovery may be dealing with so much physically and mentally during this time. Self-care isn’t selfish.

Self-care gives you the chance to take care of yourself to give more to your children.

When you practice self-care, you’re also setting an example for your kids about healthy coping skills. Self-care is one of the critical life skills you can and should integrate into your daily life.

 

Be Mindful

Mindfulness is something that every parent can benefit from practicing—it’s not exclusively beneficial if you’re in recovery. When you’re a parent, no matter the specifics of the situation, it’s stressful. You may have so many worries about the past and the future. Practicing mindfulness brings you back to the moment.

You’re able to remember how important it is to focus on one day at a time.

Everyone practices mindfulness differently, but bringing yourself back into the moment if you’re struggling is one of the best coping mechanisms you can learn in recovery. Being mindful is suitable for managing things that come your way in everyday life and dealing with symptoms of mental health issues. 

 

Ask For Help

Finally, there’s certainly no shame in asking for help when you need it, particularly for single parents. Maybe you have parents or friends who are willing to give you the support you need, even if it’s just providing a listening ear. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to ask for help.

Over time, the more you put the steps above into practice, the more confident you’ll feel as a parent and the stronger your relationship with your children will be. In your parental role, you want to model healthy behavior and life experiences for your children, and knowing when to reach out for help is part of that. 

If you’re ready to start your recovery effort, please contact the team at Anchored Tides Recovery by calling 866-600-7709 to learn more about our specialized treatment center for women.

Future Scenarios: Pathways to Meet Your Goals

Pathways to Meet Goals

Pathways to Meet Goals

 

When you’re in an addiction recovery program, the future scenarios and pathways to meet goals is to prepare you adequately for what’s waiting for you when you leave the comfort of treatment.

Relapse prevention and an aftercare plan implementation should be in place as soon as you begin treatment. Evidence-based treatment requires that after-planning is an integral part of each step of your treatment.

Relapse is a gradual process that has specific stages. In treatment, you learn to recognize those early stages. When you can identify them proactively, you’ll have a higher chance of successfully navigating your life in recovery.

At our treatment center, we uniquely do things. We have a version of relapse prevention where we work to help you hold mental space for future scenarios. Then, when you face these situations in the real world, you’re prepared.

With that in mind, below, we’ll talk a little more about relapse prevention in general and how building pathways in your brain can help you meet your goals.

 

What is a Relapse?

When you’re in treatment, it’s a safe environment. You have the support of our staff and your peers. You have resources available, and there are few if any triggers. Having that controlled environment is essential in those early days of your recovery.

That type of environment can’t last forever, though.

  • You are ultimately preparing to re-enter the world but to do so without drugs or alcohol.
  • With the real world often comes triggers, including people, places, and things. 
  • Stress, problems in relationships, financial difficulties, and other adverse situations are all part of our daily lives. 
  • For someone in the early stages of recovery, coping with these stressors can be difficult.

While we can sometimes view relapse as inevitable because of the high rates, the reality is it’s not. Most people who often relapse either didn’t receive evidence-based treatment initially or stopped following their treatment plan. The work you do in treatment is what you can lean on when things get tough in your life, and maintaining your treatment plan can help you avoid relapse.

Relapse is a return to using drugs or alcohol following a period of sobriety. The particulars can vary depending on the person. For some people, drinking just once is a relapse. For others, someone falls deep into their substance use once again.

The three stages of relapse are emotional, mental, and physical.

  • During the emotional stage of relapse, you might find that you’re not participating in self-care practices, or you’re beginning to dread your recovery meetings. You might hide what you’re feeling or become withdrawn from friends and family.
  • When you reach the mental stage of relapse, you could be having cravings or glorifying when you were using drugs and alcohol.
  • Physical relapse is when you use drugs or alcohol, even just one time.

 

Relapse Prevention and Personal Action Plans

There are a few primary concepts that are important in relapse prevention and your pathways to meet goals. 

  • The first is what we talked about above—relapse is a gradual process occurring in stages. Again, in treatment, you should learn to recognize the earliest stages.
  • The second is that recovery is about personal growth, where you’ll achieve milestones.
  • The third is that the main tools you will rely on for relapse prevention are mind-body relaxation and cognitive therapy. You work beginning in treatment to change your negative thought patterns. You also learn specific, healthy coping skills.
  • The fourth element of relapse prevention is that a few core rules explain most of these scenarios. When you receive education in these rules, you learn to focus and prioritize what you need to be doing.

Recovery isn’t one event that ends when you’re sober. Recovery is a process that requires changes in how you think, react to situations, and cope with varying emotions. Mindfulness and consistency are critical, and you should work on approaching your recovery in a strategic, thoughtful way.

 

Creating a Relapse Prevention Plan

While the specifics may vary depending on your individual needs, some of the steps that go into creating a relapse prevention plan include:

  • Set goals for your recovery. Your goals can be anything meaningful and relevant to you, from improving relationships to growing spiritually.
  • Identify triggers. You’ll work in treatment to identify what your triggers are, and you’ll begin to think of them as your enemy, needing to be dealt with accordingly.
  • Be offensive in your thinking rather than defensive.
  • Know the warning signs and red flags for yourself.
  • Have pre-defined recovery tools. For example, conflict resolution, problem-solving, and relaxation techniques may be part of your recovery toolbox.
  • List the specific actions you’ll take when you see warning signs.

 

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Neural Plasticity and Recovery

When you’re participating in treatment with us, we work on a version of relapse prevention that focuses on you visualizing future scenarios. These are detailed situations that you’re likely to experience in recovery. Then, as part of that visualization of future problems or triggers, you’ll begin to outline how you’ll deal with them proactively.

There’s a reason this is going to help you immensely. 

  • You’re building the pathways to meet goals in your brain through this visualization, so you’ll be ready to deal with these situations when they happen. 
  • When you’re proactively visualizing what you’ll do, then when the actual situation occurs, you’re going to feel like you’ve already dealt with it. 
  • You’ll be less likely to be overwhelmed with stress or emotions that could increase the risk of relapse.

Elements of this relapse prevention approach build on the idea of neural plasticity. You can rewire your brain, which is a dynamic process. 

  • When you rewire your brain, you change the relationship and interaction between it and your body.
  • You can change millions or even billions of connections in your neural pathways.
  • When you focus on certain things, whether it’s happiness or remaining strong in the face of adversity, you’re strengthening the pathways that correspond with emotions and situations.
  • Once you know how to develop and strengthen your neural pathways, you gain so much control over your habits and who you are. Also, research shows us that as you create new pathways, you’re simultaneously weakening old ones that are no longer getting your attention. Each time you work on visualizing, for example, what your life will look like in recovery, you’re weakening those pathways that might glorify your days of substance abuse.

Otherwise, without taking action to change your neural pathways, you’re more likely to keep following the familiar, worn paths in your brain. When you’re in treatment for addiction, that’s the last thing you want to do.

With visualization, you turn hope into something that guides you. Your brain can’t always determine what’s a memory and what’s a vision of the future. That means envisioning what your goals are is going to help you create them in your life.

The more you consciously focus on building new pathways, the more you will make healthy new habits through repetition; aftercare at Anchored Tides Recovery can help aid this process. If you’re looking to learn more and develop a support group of people who successfully understand the process, call us at 866-600-7709.

Liminal Space: Learning to Transition

Liminal space

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Liminal space is a term coming from the Latin word “limen.” We find that liminal space is a powerful phrase in addiction treatment and recovery.

So, why is that?

Limen means threshold. A threshold is any place of entering or beginning. The idea is that liminal space exists in the time between what was in your life and what’s next. There’s a sense of uncertainty in this season of waiting and transition. While that uncertainty can create anxiety, there can be power in this time.

Without liminal space, we’re unable to transform.

You’re moving out of the familiar and into the unknown. You’re leaving your old world behind but perhaps unsure of what your future existence looks like. It’s only within liminal space that you can genuinely emerge with a sense of newness.

When you don’t accept liminal space or encounter it, you’re going to be stagnant. Your old life or world becomes what you see as normal, so you can’t move forward in recovery.

The Thresholds of Recovery

Liminal space or liminality can feel like a free fall in some cases. You could be looking around thinking, “what now,” or “what’s next.” You might be shifting in terms of not just active addiction to recovery. Other shifts can include your relationships, your career, or perhaps the logistics of your life, such as where you’ll live.

  • It’s incredibly unsettling to enter these transitional spaces.
  • You have to walk through the doorways available to you to reach the moments that will ultimately define your life.
  • Along with addiction and recovery, other examples of liminal spaces in our lives include job changes, a sudden loss like a death or divorce. Those events are inherently not positive and are devastating, but you do have the opportunity to move forward and make a positive shift.
  • Often, with addiction, we tend to tie our drug or alcohol use to who we are. That’s our identity. The use of substances shapes everything we know and believe about ourselves. 
  • In a rehab program, you work to give up that old identity, leading to grieving, which is normal. 
  • You’re not only giving up the person you believed yourself to be and grieving that loss, but you also grieve the loss of drugs and alcohol.
  • Through that grieving, liminality becomes the space to decide who we will be and what our lives will look like going forward.
  • After completing treatment or when you begin recovery, you may only know that life won’t be the same and that you’ve gone through a shift as a person, but you may specifically know what that’s all going to look like.
  • You stop being on autopilot in your life, however. You can change your perspective of yourself and the world and truly break those old thought patterns.

Navigating the Unexpected

Recovery is a challenge. We won’t sugarcoat that for you. There are going to be significant ups in your sober life, but also downs. Some days are going to feel harder than others, and you’re also going to have to accept the reality of the unexpected.

Going to treatment should help you learn healthy ways to work toward unexpected scenarios.

To deal with the time, you spend in that liminal space and to approach the unexpected healthily, remember the following:

  • Acknowledge how you’re feeling. It’s okay not to have all the answers right away, nor should you. You should have a sense of preparation that you’re going to navigate what life throws your way. That preparation comes from the coping skills you learn in treatment, which is why it’s crucial to choose a rehab program that’s going to give you what you need for the future.
  • Ask for help. We can work with you to create a support plan if you find yourself in a potential danger zone during rehab. Too often, people leave treatment with the misconception that they no longer need help or support from others and can be strong and do it independently. This is a mistake, and when you know when to ask for help and who to turn to, you’re going to be able to deal with unexpected or unpredictable situations more effectively with various lifestyle support options.
  • Develop a routine. As you leave rehab and re-enter daily life, having a routine helps you avoid potentially harmful situations and make healthy choices. Having a pattern gives you a sense of control, even when things around you might not be within your control.
  • Know what your triggers are. Our treatment team works a lot on this with everyone who comes through our doors. You have to learn what your triggers are to put in place ways to respond to them.
  • Develop a new mindset. Your mentality needs to center around health and wellness. Prioritize those things that are part of this wellness-driven lifestyle. For example, prioritize eating well, exercise, sleep, and attending therapy and meetings.
  • Set realistic expectations for yourself, especially in those earliest days of recovery. Don’t be too hard on yourself, and make sure that you’re creating small, achievable goals along the way.

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Continuing Care As Part Of Your Treatment Plan

Again, we can’t emphasize enough how important it is that your treatment plan includes aftercare. If you don’t go to an evidence-based treatment center and you’re thrown back into daily life without a solid aftercare plan, your chances of relapse are high.

  • Your treatment team should have already developed a customized plan for aftercare.

  • You should have an idea of your triggers and how you’ll confront them with specific methods that work for you.

  • Your team may help you assess your living environment before treatment and see how it contributed to your substance abuse. You might move into a sober living house, or your treatment team could help you determine another supportive option for a new living environment.

  • Continuing care beyond your living environment can include participation in ongoing therapy. You might do outpatient rehab, for example, or perhaps an intensive outpatient program. You could also do family therapy. 

  • Continuing care may include assistance with employment and housing, as well as education or parenting classes.

If you started a 12-step program during treatment, you could continue that or another type of addiction support group.

Overall, expect a period of adjustment after rehab and in recovery. Continue to focus on recovery as your top priority, and know that you’re well on your way to achieving your long-term goals despite being in that transitional, liminal space.

If you haven’t received treatment, we encourage you to call 866-600-7709 and explore the programs at Anchored Tides Recovery, which help you achieve both short and long-term goals. 

MDMA PTSD: Recovering from Trauma

MDMA PTSD

MDMA PTSD

 

So many women have dealt with trauma. Trauma is often the underlying contributor to substance abuse problems. In an interesting turn of events, there’s research currently looking at the possibility of MDMA PTSD treatments. Researchers believe MDMA could be a potential treatment for past trauma, yet it’s also a mind-altering drug, raising some questions. With that in mind, below, we talk about what MDMA is and how it could help with trauma and severe PTSD in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy or MDMA-assisted therapy. 

 

What is MDMA?

MDMA is a synthetic recreational drug with hallucinogenic and stimulant effects. Also known as Molly or ecstasy, MDMA comes as a capsule or tablet. Along with being energizing, this substance can create distortions in perception and time. Some people who use it recreationally find it enhances their sensory experiences, which they find enjoyable. The synthetic drug is also an entactogen. Entactogens are drugs that increase empathy and self-awareness.

When someone uses street drugs like recreational Molly or ecstasy, along with being illegal, it’s also dangerous. Molly contains contaminants in many cases when it’s purchased on the streets. When the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seizes Molly from the streets, they often find it has other drugs and no MDMA at all.

As one example, researchers in Washington State and Florida analyzed substances being sold as Molly a few years ago. Those substances were primarily methylone. Methylone is a synthetic stimulant in bath salts. People who buy illegal Molly often have no idea what they’re using.

 

The Effects of MDMA

If you take MDMA, you might begin to feel effects within 45 minutes of the initial dose. Then, there’s a peak on the effects anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes after you initially feel the drug. These effects, on average last for three hours.

In the short-term, effects include:

  • An increased sense of well-being
  • More extroversion
  • Empathy and emotional warmth toward others
  • Willingness to talk about emotionally charged memories
  • Enhanced sensory perception

These effects can sound positive and compelling, but adverse events can occur as well. Fatal overdoses are rare with this drug but possible. Acute adverse effects of using ecstasy or Molly include high blood pressure, panic attacks, and feeling faint.

One of the most significant but rare adverse effects of this substance is hyperthermia, which is a rise in body temperature. Even moderate amounts of the substance can impact your body’s ability to regulate temperature, which can lead to harmful side effects, especially in warm or hot places.

 

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The Effects of Trauma

So many women are affected by trauma in their lives. Trauma can occur from any number of events, including rape or sexual assault, physical or verbal abuse, or exposure to something extremely frightening.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), trauma is an emotional response to a highly negative event. Experiencing short-term trauma is a normal reaction to something terrible. Longer-term trauma can impact your daily life and functionality, at which point it might mean a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Signs of trauma include anxiety and panic disorders, depression, and even suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Following the event, trauma can manifest days, months, or years later.

 

Treating PTSD

There are various options available to treat PTSD conventionally. Examples include:

  • Therapy: Like cognitive behavioral therapy, talk therapy is beneficial for people with a history of a traumatic event. When you participate in a psychotherapy session, you can learn how to cope with feelings in your life, boost your self-esteem and improve your symptoms. Psychotherapy for people diagnosed with PTSD often helps improve daily functionality. 
  • Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing: EMDR allows you to focus on something your therapist is doing, like flashing a light. Then, you are encouraged to replace your trauma memories with positive thoughts.
  • Medications: When you have PTSD or traumatic memories, your brain often perceives and processes threats differently. Your brain chemicals may be imbalanced, so you might constantly feel on-edge or jumpy. Medications can help you with these symptoms and regain a normalized perspective.

The nature of MDMA being a “Club Drug” means that many women, and people, associate its use with traumatic experiences. Panic attacks, sexual assault, overdose, being drugged, or triggering pre-existing conditions are just some of the MDMA-related scenarios that have caused PTSD, but there is help available.

If you, or someone you love, is experiencing club drug-related trauma, or MDMA PTSD, let the team of brilliant women at Anchored Tides Recovery help. Calling 866-600-7709 will put you in touch with a care coordinator who can go over some options and provide you with some helpful information. Help is just a phone call away!

Living with Chronic Pain

living with chronic pain

living with chronic pain

 

Researchers estimate that around 50 million adults in the United States are living with chronic pain currently. This burden is tremendous on people as individuals, families, and even the economy. For example, pain contributes to $80 billion in lost wages annually. There are vast effects of pain and related medical conditions on quality of life and the ability to do daily activities. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and current medical evidence, around 20% of Americans may be living with long-term pain at any given time. This type of long-lasting pain is often associated with other chronic conditions, further affecting someone’s life. 

Due to the devastating effects of opioid medications, doctors are always looking for natural treatments for chronic pain in addition to medical treatment. There are some promising alternative pain treatments for chronic pain patients, some of which we talk about below.

 

What is Chronic Pain?

Chronic pain lasts for 12 weeks or more, whereas acute pain is shorter-term. If you’re in an accident or experience an injury, you’ll typically recover. For someone who doesn’t heal properly, you may have a diagnosis of chronic pain. Long-term severe pain can also stem from other health issues you have.

Chronic pain conditions can include diabetes, arthritis, fibromyalgia, inflammatory bowel disease, and irritable bowel syndrome. Rheumatoid arthritis and cancer may cause long-lasting adverse effects. Ongoing physical pain such as back pain may occur because of years of bad posture or incorrectly carrying heavy items. Being overweight can lead to pain because it leads to excess strain on the knees and back. Wearing heels for years and aging of the spine are all contributors to pain, especially back pain and neck pain.

According to University of North Carolina research, around 84% of adults in the U.S. will experience different types of pain during their lifetime.

  • Chronic headaches are another issue, with around 50% of adults likely to report headaches during a year. Chronic headaches occur for at least 15 days per month, for no fewer than three consecutive months.
  • Chronic joint pain and arthritis pain can be due to aging, infection, or injury. Osteoarthritis is common in older people and usually involves larger joints. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder affecting the joint spaces, causing swelling. Degenerative disc disease can lead to ongoing low-back pain similarly. 
  • Chronic nerve pain, also known as neuropathic pain, affects one out of ten people in America. Your nerves could be damaged or compressed. Diabetic neuropathy, sciatica, and carpal tunnel syndrome are health conditions related to nerve pain. 

Unfortunately, long-lasting pain interferes with daily functionality and contributes to addiction, anxiety, and depression for many people. Other complications include fatigue, insomnia and sleep disturbance, and mood changes, which can end up making your pain worse. 

 

Is Chronic Pain a Disability?

Suppose you suffer from a chronic pain syndrome that makes it hard for you to work. In that case, you might be able to apply for Social Security Disability benefits from the Social Security Administration. It’s challenging to prove pain in this capacity, however.

You have to prove to the SSA that your pain’s cause is a mental or physical impairment they recognize on their official listing of impairments. You’ll also need a variety of evidence.

 

Treatment Options

Traditionally, if you’re a chronic pain sufferer, your health care provider will try to identify the underlying cause to treat that. The source may not be identifiable, so at that point, the focus is on pain management rather than treatment.

Some of the medications used in treatment plans for pain relief include:

  • Anticonvulsants for nerve pain
  • Antidepressants
  • Corticosteroids
  • Muscle relaxants
  • Over-the-counter medicines like acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications
  • Topical pain relievers
  • Sedatives to help with complications like insomnia or anxiety
  • Medical marijuana

Opioids are also a possible treatment to manage pain levels, but there’s been intense scrutiny and limitations on prescribing these drugs in recent years. 

  • Opioids change the way pain signals transmit between your brain and body, but they also have a strong potential for addiction and dependence.
  • When you take an opioid, even with a prescription, it can create euphoria and trigger your brain’s reward response. These effects on the reward cycle in the brain lead to addiction.
  • Physical dependence also occurs, so that if you stop taking an opioid, you might experience withdrawal symptoms.
  • The most considerable risk of opioid pain medications even outside of addiction and dependence is overdose. 
  • Opioids slow the central nervous system down. When you take them, your essential functions, including breathing and heart rate slow down significantly.
  • When you take a higher dose than what your body can handle, you may experience respiratory depression that becomes dangerous or deadly.

Due to the side effects of many traditional medication-based treatments for pain and the high risks of opioids, you may be looking for natural treatments for chronic pain management. People in a recovery program may also need to explore living with chronic pain without the use of addictive substances.

 

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Natural Treatments

If you’re living with pain symptoms and looking for natural treatments, there are many available options. Some of these are below.

 

Lifestyle Changes

Living a healthy lifestyle can help you manage your pain without the use of possibly harmful drugs.

  • Reducing and managing your stress is important because stress and anxiety likely play a significant role in pain. 
  • You can experiment with healthy stress reduction strategies until you find something that works for you. For example, deep breathing and meditation are two options.
  • You should try to get physical activity every day for at least 30 minutes. Low-intensity exercise like swimming or walking may be good if you have pain. 
  • Exercise also helps relieve stress and boost your mood.
  • Eat foods that will combat inflammation and help your brain stay healthy. Avoid foods that are known to trigger inflammation, like processed carbohydrates.
  • Make sleep a priority in your daily life too. 

 

Therapy

It may sound odd, but therapy helps many people who are living with chronic pain. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is one helpful type. When you participate in CBT, you can learn how to recognize harmful thought patterns, and you can think differently about your pain. You can also explore effective coping mechanisms.

Along with talk therapy, occupational and physical therapy helps many people. A physical therapist can help you regain mobility and teach you things you can do on your own at home to help your symptoms. Massage therapy has beneficial effects too. 

 

Alternative Therapies 

There are a wide variety of alternative treatments and complementary health approaches for persistent pain. You should speak to your health care providers about which of these could be an option for you.

  • Acupuncture is excellent for pain. An acupuncturist will use tiny needles on pressure points throughout your body to help alter nerve signals and reduce pain. Acupuncture is also suitable for stress and anxiety.
  • Biofeedback is a process to learn how to change how your body works. With biofeedback, you can start to control things like breathing and muscle tension.
  • Reiki therapists use touch to shift the energy in your body.
  • Many people find relief in pet, art, or music therapy.
  • Join a support group of other people who are dealing with something similar to you.
  • Limit drugs and alcohol, which can not only worsen pain but can also affect you mentally.
  • Various herbal remedies and alternative medicines could help reduce your experience of pain, such as anti-inflammatory herbs. 

If you’re living with a pain condition that contributed to a substance use disorder, please reach out to Anchored Tides Recovery by calling 866-600-7709. You aren’t alone, and we can work with you on a treatment plan that takes into account not only your addiction but also your underlying pain.

How to Heal the Brain After Drug Use

how to heal the brain after drug use

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Learning how to heal the brain after drug use and improving brain function after drug abuse takes time and patience. There are things you can do during addiction treatment when you’re working with your therapist and treatment team, and on your own, that can help heal your brain. Below, we’ll explore how the use of psychoactive substances affects your brain initially and what you can do to help the process of improving brain function after drug abuse.

 

How Drug Use Affects Your Brain

Our brains are our most complex organs, containing gray and white matter; the human brain allows us to do everything in our lives. 

  • Our brain regions regulate essential functions and determine your behavior and your feelings. 
  • According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, your brain is who you are, what you think, and how you feel. 
  • Your brain includes various neural circuits and brain cells, all connected and working together on your cognitive functions. Neurons are responsible for transmitting signals to one another and other parts of the brain. These neurons also relay messages to the spinal cord and nerves through your body.
  • When a neuron sends a message, it releases a neurotransmitter into the gap between the following brain cells in the chain. The neurotransmitter attaches to receptor sites on the other neuron.

So what does all this mean as far as a substance use disorder? 

  • Drugs interfere with how your neurons send and receive signals using neurotransmitters, creating addictive behaviors. 
  • With some drugs, like heroin or marijuana, neurons activate because the drug’s chemical structure is similar to a natural neurotransmitter. As a result, the drug attaches and then starts the neurons. 
  • Opioids are an example. Opioid drugs, including heroin, mentioned above, and prescription pain medicines, activate opioid receptors. Over time, opioid addiction can occur because of this activation. 
  • The drugs might be replicating natural neurotransmitters in the human brain, but they aren’t activating neurons the same way as natural rewards. 
  • Abnormal chemical messengers are sent throughout your brain and body, increasing the potential for addictive behaviors to take hold. 

Drugs, including cocaine and other stimulants, lead neurons to release large amounts of neurotransmitters or prevent the chemicals’ recycling. These effects also disrupt communication and brain circuits. 

 

Dopamine and Addiction

The high you get from drugs is likely because of a surge of chemicals these substances can induce. 

  • Neurotransmitters in the basal ganglia, also known as your brain’s reward circuit, are a big part of this. 
  • The surges of neurotransmitters when using drugs occur at much higher levels than what happens with natural rewarding activities like eating or social engagement.
  • One neurotransmitter drugs release is dopamine.
  • Our brains want us to continue repeating pleasurable activities, so when you use drugs, and there’s a dopamine release, it can trigger addiction to the substance.
  • Dopamine causes changes in the brain reward cycle and neural connections, making it easier to repeat habits in an ongoing way through reinforcement. 

Over time, with addictive drugs, you get stuck in a cycle of extreme highs and lows. If you’re not using the substance you’re addicted to, you may feel severe depression because your dopamine levels require the drug at that point. The same is true with alcohol addiction. Addiction is technically a brain disease. 

If you stop using the drug, you go through emotional, physical, and mental side effects in the short term. These effects are withdrawal symptoms. You might have intense drug cravings, anxiety, and physical symptoms similar to the flu, depending on the drug you’re addicted to.

 

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Longer-Term Effects of Drugs on the Brain

Long-term effects on your brain structure and function, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, can include:

  • Impulse control issues and behavioral effects, making you more likely to engage in risky behaviors. 
  • Emotional control, so you might feel numb, or you could have too strong emotions, leading you to lash out or experience problems in relationships.
  • The effects of drugs impact the brain’s hippocampus, which helps you learn information and make memories. You may struggle with memory issues if you have substance use disorder.
  • Overtime for drug-addicted subjects and people with a substance use disorder, it can be more challenging for the brain to process new information or maintain executive functions. You may be less flexible in your thinking or behavior.
  • There are numerous possible mental health disorders and effects of drug addiction, whether it’s an illicit drug or a prescription. For example, you might have sleep problems, experience anxiety, or be more likely to develop depression.

So, what can you do?

 

How to Start Healing

The first step of improving brain function after drug abuse relies on quitting the substance you’re addicted to. 

  • You’re likely going to need a managed detox program as you go through symptoms of withdrawal. 
  • During managed or supervised detox, you have medical care as you go through withdrawal symptoms. 
  • The medical care providers can keep you safe and help improve your comfort level, making it less likely you’ll relapse during this time.
  • When you detox, this is an integral part of how to heal the brain after drug use. Detox is a time when although you might have uncomfortable symptoms, your brain is restoring itself to a sense of balance.
  • Your brain chemicals can start to get back to the way they’re meant to be, and you can begin to adjust to what it might look like to function without drugs in your daily life.

From there, other things you can do to help with improving brain recovery after drug abuse include:

  • Participate in behavioral therapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT is an effective treatment as you recover from an addiction. When you participate in CBT, it can help you identify and change your harmful thought patterns. CBT can also encourage the growth of your brain’s neural network. Neural networks affect your thinking, feelings, and worldviews. Brain scans show CBT increases activity in the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. You can learn to control impulses and emotions, reversing some of the damage from drugs and restoring standard brain functionality. Most treatments for drug addiction include extensive talk therapy and behavioral treatment. 
  • Meditate or learn to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness and meditation aren’t just soothing at the moment. Research shows us that they help strengthen brain connections. You want to learn how to refocus your thinking, and then you can work on having more control over how you take in outside information. Meditation and mindfulness can reduce your risk of relapse and increase the grey matter in your brain. You may be able to improve the function of your hippocampus, helping you with memory and learning. Meditation can decrease the cell volume in your amygdala, helping with anxiety, stress, and fear.
  • Consider your diet and exercise routines. Your brain may be lacking vital vitamins and nutrients from when you were in active addiction. Work on repairing it with a healthy, nutritious diet containing things like healthy fats. Engaging in physical exercise can help your brain rebuild connections, and it’s an excellent natural dopamine booster. Physical activity can help you manage stress and reduce anxiety levels. 

 

Treatment for Drug Addiction 

Anchored Tides Recovery encourages you to contact our team by calling 866-600-7709 to learn more about how to heal the human brain after the effects of drugs and how to get treatment initially. It’s never too late to receive substance use disorder treatment and start making positive changes in your life and your health and wellness. Long-term recovery can help reverse some of the chronic effects of drug use. 

What is a Spiritual Awakening in Recovery?

what is a spiritual awakening in recovery

what is a spiritual awakening in recovery

 

What is a spiritual awakening in recovery? Spirituality is one of the more misunderstood elements of addiction treatment and recovery, but often one of the most important. We encourage everyone to explore spirituality in a way that works for them, both during treatment and throughout their life. 

Your spiritual journey and spiritual practice are likely to become something you rely on throughout your life, well after you go to addiction treatment. Active addiction affects your spirit in so many ways, and you might not even see those effects right away. You’re never truly present or in the moment because you always feel the influence of drugs or alcohol. You might feel like you have no worth because of your addiction and like your only purpose is using drugs or alcohol.

You get lost in your addiction without the chance to experience your emotions. The process of recovery often goes hand-in-hand with the spiritual awakening process. Learning how to start your spiritual awakening can be so challenging because it looks different for everyone.

We’ll explore below what we mean when we talk about a spiritual awakening in recovery and how that can happen for different people regardless of differences in their belief systems. 

 

What is a Spiritual Awakening?

A spiritual awakening isn’t something you experience exclusive to addiction recovery. Awakening can happen at any time in your life, regardless of your circumstances.

You often experience something profound or on a deeper level that leads to a breakdown of your ego. You may feel a tug or call toward deeper mental awareness. The result tends to be a personal transformation along with a shift in how you see yourself and the world around you. For many of us, a spiritual awakening comes after a catalyst in our life.

If you’re going to addiction treatment or struggling with a substance use disorder, the realization that you’ve hit rock bottom or are not in control of your drug use can be that triggering event. It’s usually that initial realization about the true depths of your substance abuse that many people say is the hardest part of recovery. You have to see for yourself the impacts of your addiction on every area of your life before you reach any kind of deeper spiritual awareness. Awakening doesn’t always stem from addiction.

For some people, it’s a traumatic experience such as surviving an assault or abuse, or maybe the loss of a loved one. When you go through something traumatic, it affects you physically, mentally, and emotionally. You may go through an extended period of healing but emerge on the other side of that in a more vital place spiritually. If you have depression or a mental health disorder, it can lead you to what we call an existential crisis. You start to look more at the purpose of your life, and you may want a shift due to that assessment.

You can engage in practices through your daily life that might also activate an awareness or awakening. For example, mindfulness and meditation can be a way to transform yourself on a spiritual level, even without a major life event happening. According to Deepak Chopra, when you experience an awakening, you’re not in a dream world anymore. 

Instead, based on Chopra’s framework, you are aware of yourself but only in a way that puts you within the context and connection of everything else. This period is also sometimes called enlightenment or nirvana.

 

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How to Start Your Spiritual Awakening

The process of how to start your spiritual awakening is deeply personal, so below are only suggestions, but you may find a path that’s entirely your own.

  • Start to observe and notice. Many of us go through our lives on autopilot. We don’t think about what we truly want, who we are at our core, or why we’re at a particular point in our lives. When you become aware and observant, you’re better able to make changes then. For example, this might be when you question your drinking or drug use and start to delve more into why you’re doing it.
  • Develop a sense of connection. Specifically, as it relates to addiction and recovery, that sense of connection can come from participation in a support group, like a 12-step program.
  • Let go of attachments. We all have extensions that aren’t relevant to our true selves. You can begin to eliminate whatever those are through your awakening.
  • Find inner peace. When you cultivate inner peace, things still go wrong in your life, but it doesn’t lead you down dark paths. Instead, you learn how to cope with things as they go wrong effectively. When you’re experiencing things that aren’t pleasant, you recognize them as a fleeting moment in time.
  • Feel more compassion and empathy. When you’re participating in an addiction treatment program, you’ll start to learn more about how your substance abuse affected the people around you. This is an excellent starting point as you begin to become more empathetic and compassionate in all areas of your life.
  • More authenticity. You’ll start to grow into someone who feels your self-worth on a deep level. That will allow you to be more authentic in who you are.

The final step in an awakening of your spirit is that you’ll be happier and healthier. You’ll be able to thrive in your life rather than just surviving in your recovery process. 

 

Spirituality in Recovery 

In many ways, having a successful long-term recovery from addiction relies on spiritual growth taking place. You have to change your perspective to be in recovery. As part of treatment for substance abuse, you can begin to identify and reconnect with the aspects of your life that are most important to you.

Spiritual power can become your most incredible tool for healing, personal growth, and having a thriving life. You can develop a sense of purpose, and at the same time, learn that you’re not alone.

 

Spirituality Is Not Religion

We often hear from people who worry spirituality is about God or religion. However, it’s important to note that you do not need religion or a belief in God to have a spiritual experience, although you certainly can get your spiritual power from God. A true awakening in the spiritual sense is about having your own beliefs and developing your sense of self that connects you to everything else in the world in your everyday life. You can give credit to whatever force or power you choose.

Are you ready to begin learning how to start your spiritual journey? We encourage you to reach out and learn more about our addiction treatment programs. We prioritize spirituality in whatever terms work for you. Your spiritual life is very personal, which is how Anchored Tides Recovery develops our addiction treatment programs as well, call 866-600-7709 to learn more. 

Support starts here.