Category: Recovery

MDMA PTSD: Recovering from Trauma

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.

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!

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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) 583-1632. 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.

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How to Heal the Brain After Drug Use

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.

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.

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Is Gender-Specific Treatment Actually Gender-Specific?

In a yearly national survey of treatment centers in the United States, in 2019, more than 7,800 of 15,960 centers reported offering treatment for women and individuals who identify as females. That, on its face, sounds great as far as the availability of gender-specific treatment, right?

Maybe not so much.

There may not be a genuine consideration for gender-specific differences and gender issues in the treatment for substance abuse. Even when it’s not mixed-gender treatment, a program might still not be entirely speaking to the needs of women and gearing treatment to women. We are finding as time goes on that the definitions of what truly gender and women-specific treatment can vary significantly between centers and programs.

When a center reports the availability of programs just for women, it might mean they have a weekly meeting just for women, for example. The broad terminology can mean there are some offerings for women, but they aren’t specific to the needs of women, particularly within the societal and individual context of their situation. There’s a scarce availability of truly gender-specific treatment programs.

Understanding how our language impacts treatment is essential to deliver that genuinely women-centric focus in treatment. We have to learn more about the roots of treatment and the philosophies it’s built on because those continue to drive how we speak about and treat women. We also have to learn to be more curious in our questioning of what’s brought you to the place you’re in now, rather than simply assigning you a label.

All of this is challenging work because it requires that we reframe what treatment is and the concepts it’s built on. This reframing of the philosophy and language of treatment is a top priority for delivering women-centric addiction treatment for drugs and alcohol. This approach is different from programs that simply offer a gender-specific tract or discuss some gender-specific issues.

The Male-Centric Treatment Framework

The concept of treating addiction goes back to the early 1900s.

Courtenay Baylor is one of the names that come to mind as a pioneer in addiction treatment.
Baylor essentially wrote the first textbook on how to be a substance abuse treatment counselor.
Baylor’s work is vital in how we do things even today. He based his treatment approaches primarily on men, which continues to influence substance abuse counseling in a larger sense.
In his book, Baylor only had one chapter on the treatment of women.
Samuel Ashwell was similarly a thought leader in this area, yet he spoke that men didn’t want to treat hysteria, linking it primarily to women.
The idea of women struggling with addiction as being hysterical is one that’s stuck around, even if we don’t realize it.
The Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book includes language primarily for alcohol-dependent men.

So, where does this leave women? What are the lingering negative consequences for females who have an addiction to drugs or alcohol, such as an opioid use disorder? Much of this reinforces some of the primary reasons women don’t get help in the first place—namely, shame is a big one, as are relationships and family commitments. Women-focused treatment and women-only programs need to realize what their shortcomings are to address differences in treatment outcomes.

Why Aren’t We Asking More Questions?

At our gender-specific treatment center, we are rethinking the traditional ideas of addiction and how we can best treat it.

Many women who have a history of substance abuse also have a borderline personality disorder (BPD) or similar co-occurring disorders.
A diagnosis of BPD is closely associated with a history of trauma, yet for men, we might diagnose them as having post-traumatic stress disorder instead of a personality disorder.
As a woman with this diagnosis and a substance use disorder, the message becomes “you are the problem,” rather than talking about what happened to you to get you to this point.

Using labels is the prescriptive language often found in outdated gender-specific models not considering sex differences.

When prescriptive language is part of your treatment program, you become your label, even in a gender-specific environment.
You may internalize that label as who you are, which again goes back to the idea that you’re the problem rather than the concept that you have a problem that needs treatment.
Often, the labels created as part of prescriptive language models in a rehab program prevent the actual problem from being treated.

Another issue with prescriptive language and labels?

There’s no sense of curiosity on the part of your mental health providers, which ultimately leads to unfair treatment.
A treatment provider may believe that because you have the label of BPD, to go back to the above example, they know all of your problems and how you should be treated.
That eliminates the questioning and curious element of treatment. Therefore you’re not receiving addiction treatment as the individual you are.

With this problem of prescriptive language in mental health status, providers aren’t asking relevant contextual questions.

Labels lead to the same treatment for everyone, yet we know that what’s most effective for addiction is to treat everyone with an individualized treatment plan.

Treatment language doesn’t tell us what we need to know, as it stands currently.
Instead, we say the person needs to “be fixed.”
When we don’t account for context and experience in the treatment process, we also don’t consider how society influences substance use disorders.

For example, women in treatment are often victims of trauma, violence, sexual abuse, and inequality, which play a pivotal role in mental health and substance abuse disorders. Trauma-informed care and specialized treatments should be an integral part of treatment for individuals, leading to differences in the addiction recovery process.

Moving From a Deficit to Strength-Based Perspective

Along with taking out prescriptive language and labels, our rehab center’s treatment of substance use moves from a deficit perspective to one of strength. So what does this mean?

Using the borderline personality disorder example, we build you up based on your inherent strengths. With BPD, you may have a focus on your alliance with others. In our approach, we might want to ask what continues to give you strength and a sense of resilience despite your past. We also consider the social context that you’ll return to in our treatment method. Other treatment options that aren’t genuinely gender-specific programs or women-specific might help with job placement and rebuilding family relationships. Still, they don’t consider broader societal elements that will affect your recovery.

What societal messages will you receive?
What power differentials will you experience, and how can we internally empower you to deal with those?
Are you returning to a supportive environment, or is it one where something like domestic violence could be an issue?
What is your marital status, and is there a history of abuse? How can we create a foundation despite the traumatic events you’ve dealt with for complete treatment effectiveness?

Individualized mental health care is about asking what your story is rather than creating stories we believe are relevant to you.

We work to exchange labels for curiosity in the addiction community and our mental health settings.
We want to ask questions instead of making assumptions or adding a label where we see a problem.
We also strive to externalize the situation outside of who you are to help you take accountability differently.

Our treatment team will move away from the perception of “I am the problem” to dealing with the problem for our female patients. We can look at core issues and gender-associated differences in patients and how particular situations such as physical abuse could have led you to where you are.

So with all of this in mind, if you’re seeking treatment or looking for something individualized to who you are, you want to ask whether a program is a gender-specific treatment or if it just has a gender-specific tract.

Anchored Tides Recovery’s ongoing commitment to ensure that gender-specific treatment in all ways means we avoid outdated language in treatment that doesn’t consider the unique elements of what it is to be a woman and how that plays into your individualized treatment needs. Anchored Tides Recovery believes there are tremendous benefits of gender-specific treatment when looked at in the ways above, improving clinical outcomes and retention in treatment. If you’re interested in learning more about how we offer a truly inclusive gender-specific approach to treatment, call our helpline today, 866-600-7709.

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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, yet it is often one of the most important. At Anchored Tides Recovery, we encourage everyone to explore spirituality in a way that works for them, both during treatment and throughout their life.

Your spiritual journey and practice are likely to become something you rely on throughout your life, well after addiction treatment. Active addiction affects your spirit in profound ways, many of which you might not recognize immediately. Addiction keeps you from being truly present or in the moment because the influence of drugs or alcohol is always there. You might feel worthless due to your addiction, believing your only purpose is to use drugs or alcohol.

Addiction can make you lose touch with your emotions, preventing you from experiencing life fully. Recovery often goes hand-in-hand with the spiritual awakening process. This journey can be challenging because it looks different for everyone, but it is incredibly rewarding.

A spiritual awakening in recovery involves an increased sense of awareness and presence in the moment, noticing things you might have previously overlooked. We’ll explore below what we mean when we talk about a spiritual awakening in recovery and how it can happen for different people, regardless of 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.

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 survive 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 866-329-6639 to learn more.

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How Long Does Nicotine Withdrawal Last

Many people will tell you that quitting nicotine is the hardest thing they ever do. Despite the immense challenges, it is possible to stop smoking and using nicotine products in general. We’ll discuss more addiction and nicotine withdrawal symptoms. We’ll also mention some of the things you can do to deal with physical symptoms and psychological symptoms of an addiction to nicotine. Options include nicotine patches and other nicotine replacement therapy, support groups, and working with a professional counselor.

There’s a lot to look forward to in a nicotine-free life; when you decide to quit using tobacco for good, the health benefits include:

Reduced risk of heart disease
Lower risk of a heart attack
Less exposure to secondhand smoke for the people around you
Improved your overall lung health

How Does Nicotine Work?

Understanding why quitting nicotine is so challenging relies on understanding just how this potent drug works. If you use something with nicotine, your brain and body are being exposed to a stimulant. A stimulant speeds up processes in your body and central nervous system. A chemical containing nitrogen, nicotine is made by plants like the tobacco plant. There’s also synthetic production.

On its own, nicotine doesn’t increase the risk of lung cancer or have significant adverse health effects. The issue comes from the fact that since it is so addictive, you can become dependent on tobacco products that are cancer-causing and dangerous. Snorting or chewing tobacco will release more nicotine into your body than smoking, but smoking is America’s most common preventable cause of death.

Interestingly, nicotine is both a stimulant and also a sedative. When you first expose your body to nicotine, you’ll experience a kick. This kick occurs because nicotine stimulates your adrenal glands; adrenal stimulation causes an adrenaline release. Adrenaline stimulates the rest of your body, causing a glucose release.

Other short-term effects include an increase in blood pressure, breathing and heart rate. Your pancreas produces less insulin in response so that you might have an increase in your blood sugar.

Nicotine Addiction and Dependence

Nicotine addiction is physical and behavioral. Physical dependence means that you crave the chemical. Behavioral addiction refers to situations where you might be used to using tobacco in particular situations, and you want to keep doing that. For example, you might always find yourself smoking when you feel stress, which can be a sign of behavioral addiction.

As we talked about above, when you use nicotine, it creates pleasant feelings and sensations in your mind and body. Your brain releases neurotransmitters, including dopamine, creating feelings of pleasure and happiness. These pleasant effects are one way you can develop an addiction to nicotine. Signs of addiction include:

You’re not able to stop using tobacco
You experience withdrawal symptoms when you don’t use nicotine
You have a desire to continue using tobacco even though it’s causing adverse outcomes, such as health risks
Someone with an addiction to nicotine will keep using tobacco despite harmful effects on their life

Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and common side effects can include:

Anxiety
Depression
Changes in mood
Irritability
Problems concentrating
Nicotine cravings
Feelings of emptiness
Upset stomach
Aches and pains
Eating more
Weight gain
Restlessness

According to the American Heart Association, it’s one of the hardest things to quit when you use tobacco. Quitting nicotine can be as hard as stopping heroin, mainly heavy smokers in stopping or long-term tobacco users. In many cases, the more cigarettes you have per day, the more difficult it might be to go through the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine.

So, how long does withdrawal last?

For most current smokers, quitting nicotine and nicotine withdrawal symptoms will start anywhere from one to three hours after your last tobacco use. Symptoms in a nicotine addict can last a few days up to a few weeks. Some people experience tobacco cravings for months or even years.

Can Your Lungs Heal After Smoking?

As we mentioned above, it’s not necessarily nicotine itself that’s harmful to your health. Instead, the products containing nicotine are dangerous and can cause conditions like lung cancer and lung damage. Your lungs can clean and repair themselves over time, luckily, but maybe only to an extent.

After you stop smoking and end your toxic chemical exposure, your lungs can begin to not only heal but also regenerate. How quickly your lungs can heal depends on how long you used tobacco and the extent of the damage. Two types of permanent and potentially irreversible damage can occur, which are emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Even so, quitting nicotine and tobacco products can help you avoid worse damage, and you may see improvements in your lung health and your quality of life.

Tips for Quitting Nicotine

If you’re interested in quitting nicotine, some methods may be helpful for you. First, as is the case with other types of addiction, you’ll need to prepare yourself to change your routines and behaviors. Specific treatment options to reduce tobacco cravings include:

Cessation Medications and Nicotine Replacement Products

Medications can help you stop using tobacco and reduce cravings. One of the more popular options is nicotine replacement therapy. Nicotine replacement therapy includes:

Nicotine inhalers
Nasal sprays
Lozenges
Nicotine gum
Nicotine patches.

Some people might use electronic cigarettes to help them with intense cravings, but you have to be mindful that these can also put you at risk for lung disease and other harmful chemicals. When you take a nicotine replacement medication, it provides you with nicotine, but not the other chemicals in tobacco. Another option that a professional might prescribe to you is an antidepressant. Antidepressants can improve your mood by increasing your dopamine production. More dopamine production may help you stop using tobacco.

Therapy and Support Groups

You can work with a professional therapist or counselor as you go through the common withdrawal symptoms. You might also choose an in-person or virtual support group. Support groups help tackle all types of addiction, and you can learn better coping skills and be with people who are going through something similar to your situation.

Lifestyle Changes

When you’re quitting nicotine, you’ll want to make sure that you’re identifying new ways to cope with stress and cravings.

There are a lot of lifestyle changes that might work for you.

You might focus on getting regular physical activity.
Keep your hands and mouth busy with healthy snacks or gum.
Remove temptations from your home, and try to avoid situations that could trigger you, such as hanging around with smokers.
When you’re quitting nicotine, you should also set manageable and achievable goals and treat yourself when you meet those goals.
Some people find that alternative remedies help with their addiction, like acupuncture, the use of certain herbs, essential oils, and hypnosis.

It’s never easy to beat any addiction, and many people say overcoming nicotine dependence is one of the hardest things they ever do.

If you’d like to learn more about professional support and create healthy coping skills for addictions to nicotine or any other substance, we encourage you to contact Anchored Tides Recovery at 866-600-7709. With professional help, you can improve your chances to kick the addiction.

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What Never Leaving Your Hometown Does To Your Brain

Have you ever felt stuck in any way? If so, does it at least partially stem from where you live? So many people who stay in their hometowns throughout their lives do feel that it negatively affects them. This can be especially true if you’re struggling with a substance use disorder. What never leaving your hometown does to your brain and life can be striking and negative.

Does that mean that leaving your hometown is going to automatically cure your substance use disorder or fix problems in your life? Of course not, but a change of scenery can have pretty significant benefits, even for a short time.

What Never Leaving Your Hometown Does to Your Brain In General

Before we go specifically into how staying in your hometown can affect you when dealing with addiction, what about in general.

Things never leaving your hometown does to your brain and life include:

You may be less independent. When you’re geographically close to your family, you may be less likely to do things like buying a home or starting a career. You have a safety net close by, and while that can be a good thing, it can also hold you back. When you handle something stressful like moving away and being on your own, it can help you learn how to manage other difficult situations in your life and build confidence.
It’s easy to feel like you’re stuck being the person you were known as in your hometown, even if that’s not who you indeed are. If you live in the same town where you grew up, it’s very easy to feel like you’re stuck in a particular identity. That can limit your future growth. Leaving your town gives you the chance to recreate your identity based on who you want to be, rather than who other people think you are. If you’re overwhelmed by your past mistakes, moving can help you get “unstuck.”
When you never leave your town, you may not expand your social circle. Having lifelong relationships can be valuable, but not always, especially if you don’t feel like the people you know are a good influence on you.
It’s tough to learn new skills when you’re in a stagnant environment, and not ever learning new things will have an impact on your brain. When you move away, you may learn new skills because you’re forced to or because you choose to.
Not leaving where you grew up is going to limit your perspective of the world and other people. If you come from a small town primarily, you might not interact with people from different backgrounds or people with unique opinions.
Your career options could be somewhat limited if you stay in your hometown, and that can limit overall opportunities in your life.
When you force yourself outside of your comfort zone, you can then be more welcoming of change in general.
If you never leave your comfort zone, then fear can become part of who you are. Your goal should always be to view fear as an emotion but not part of your identity.
When you’re not with them every day, it can be easier to strengthen your relationship with your loved ones. You’re likely to be more present when you’re talking with them or visiting them because it’s something you don’t get to do all the time.

What Never Leaving Your Hometown Does to Your Brain When You Have an Addiction

Above, we’re just talking generally about what never leaving your hometown does to your brain and your life, but what about when you have a substance use disorder? These effects can be even more significant.

When you have an addiction, triggers are people, places, and things. When you stay in your hometown, you’re probably spending time with people who are also trapped in the same cycles. It becomes more challenging to break out of the cycle of addiction or find the motivation to go to treatment because you’re always in your old patterns. That’s why a lot of people opt to travel for rehab.

When you travel for rehab, you take yourself outside of those triggers and old ways of doing things. You’re no longer trapped in a cycle of your environment. That change in scenery and perspective can go a long way in helping your treatment and addiction recovery. Specific benefits of leaving your hometown for treatment include:

It can deepen your commitment to your addiction recovery. You are packing up and leaving home, and that’s symbolic in a lot of ways. You’re not going to be in your comfort zone, which shows other people but also yourself that you are serious about treatment and recovery. Taking a big first step helps strengthen your resolve.
When you’re outside of your environment, you can focus only on yourself. It’s not selfish when you’re in those challenging early days of treatment and recovery. You don’t have to think about anything but your recovery, which is valuable.
Traveling away from your home for treatment or during addiction recovery allows you to reflect and take on a new perspective that you might not otherwise have.
If you leave your town for treatment, it’s not as easy for you to leave treatment early. You’re putting physical distance between treatment and your home, and that can help you stay dedicated when you want to go.
You have more privacy in an out-of-town treatment center. If you’re going to treatment in your small town, you may feel like everyone will know, and you might feel ashamed or embarrassed. That’s the last thing you should think about when you’re in treatment.

Overall, when you leave for rehab or to start over in your sobriety, you’re getting the benefit of leaving the place that you associate with your addiction. This includes your self-identity during that time, the people you spent time with, and the situations and locations where you might have used drugs or alcohol.

If you’re planning to relocate following treatment and early in your addiction recovery, you do want to be aware that it can be stressful. Before you move, line up resources that will help you manage your stress in healthy ways. For example, find a 12-step program or support group in the new city or town where you’ll be living. If you go to treatment somewhere else and then plan to return home, your treatment center should provide you with an aftercare plan and connect you with resources in your hometown.

Final Thoughts

We don’t always associate our location with addiction, but there are strong ties in many cases. What never leaving your hometown does to your brain can affect your efforts to get sober, which is why going to rehab in another city or even state might be beneficial.

We encourage you to call 866-600-7709 and contact Anchored Tides Recovery’s team of addiction treatment specialists if you’d like to learn more about the treatment options available to you. Our team can go over different program options and help you take the steps to begin a new life in recovery for yourself or your loved one.

addiction in women Addiction Recovery what never leaving your hometown does to your brain

Addiction Recovery: Where Do I Find a Job?

The most significant transition for adults who have recovered from addiction lies in one of those four words: “after” addiction. So many people relapse or never fully recover because they return to the same environment that caused their addiction in the first place.

People just out of a treatment program are often left to fend for themselves. Many former addicts get trapped in the cycle of poverty and compromise their sobriety when they do not have the support and resources they need to find employment. One of the best ways to regain stability after completing your drug addiction treatment program is finding and keeping a job.

Down the road, you might feel like you’re at a crossroads. You know who you are and what you want, but how will you handle the challenges along the way? It’s essential to always keep in mind that no matter where life takes you or what curveballs it throws your way, you’ll be stronger because of all your past experiences. That’s why starting with a simple job search is so important.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past or where you are now; what matters is that you never give up and continue to learn, grow, and develop new skills. If you’re willing to approach your job search strategically, you can take your career wherever you want to go. If you’re hoping to recover and find a new job after your addiction, there are things you can do to make it easier. Find out how to have a successful career after addiction recovery.

Decide What You Want to Do

After completing rehab, many people are confused about what career they want to pursue and how they will get there. Are you wondering what you should do? Do your research ahead of time and determine your options.

Once you have completed your recovery program, it is time to determine where you want to go. Do you want to stay in the same line of work? Do you want a new career path? There is never just one correct answer to these questions either way – only the answer that feels best for you, given your circumstances. You may be feeling anxious about your future or confused about what steps to take next, and we can help you move forward and feel good about moving on.

Update Your Resume

Your resume is the first form of contact for potential employers, so it is vital that it stands out and tells your story. Suppose you are applying for a position you previously held or closely resembles the one you have held. In that case, you can also save time and effort by updating your resume after recovery. Since the basics of your career are still the same, not much needs to be added or altered from how it was before your addiction.

Explore Job Options for Recovering Addicts

People in recovery can find job opportunities in a wide variety of fields, from retail to technology. Some career paths may require some extra work to take, but those willing to work hard will reap the rewards. You can also do an online job search on sites such as Indeed, Monster, Career Builder, or ZipRecruiter, as well as LinkedIn and Facebook job pages.

Additionally, most states offer assistance (and sometimes priority) for people who are recovering and looking for work. You can find resources online, like this service for people in California.

Where Can I Work While in Addiction Recovery?

After getting sober, recovery can be frustrating. Worrying about where to find a job and how to keep it after finishing treatment are a few of the most common concerns among people who have just completed or are about to begin addiction recovery. Many fear that the lack of employment on their résumé will prevent them from finding work, but working for several years while in active addiction is not uncommon.

If you’re recovering from an addiction, don’t panic about where you’ll be working. Some companies offer special assistance to employees undergoing treatment, and others may provide support if you’re looking for work.

If you are a recovering addict, your experience and first-hand knowledge of addiction can be an asset in helping others overcome their struggles with addiction. As an Addictions Specialist, you will provide coaching, consulting, and therapy to individuals with substance use disorders and their families. Your work could help them reach recovery and live full, meaningful lives.

Social Worker

Addiction social work is a growing profession that provides treatment and support to people with addiction problems. It also looks to recognize the need for family members of people with an addiction to receive support. These workers are employed by several different organizations, including residential facilities, outpatient clinics, community services programs, hospitals, and government agencies.

Substance Abuse Counselor

A substance abuse counselor is a professional who works to help those who are abusing substances or alcohol. This person counsels, educates and treats those within an organization or community struggling with addiction and substance abuse problems to reduce alcoholism or other substance abuse symptoms. Substance abuse counselors work in hospitals, treatment centers, neighborhoods, schools, and many different settings.

Addiction Rehabilitation Assistant

An addiction rehabilitation assistant is a job that provides client support to a substance abuse rehabilitation facility. This includes various responsibilities such as maintaining the facility, coordinating client activities and clinical needs, and working with the clinical staff members.

To become an addiction rehabilitation assistant, you must have a high school diploma or equivalent, be 18 years old, and complete an inpatient drug treatment program. If you are interested in becoming an addiction rehabilitation assistant, talk to the administration office of the rehabilitation facility regarding requirements for employment.

Find your Dream Job Online

It’s hard to stay sober when you’re losing your home, family, and friends. While in recovery, the internet can be a powerful tool to help you get back on track. Sites like Craigslist and eBay offer opportunities to find gainful employment and even employment related to your addiction, for example, webmaster. Hundreds of sites out there can help you regain control of your life via the internet while recovering. You can also opt for a part-time job while focusing on long-term sobriety at a treatment facility.

Find jobs online, fulfill your life while getting clean with a position in a real company, find your new purpose, and learn what recovery is all about while making money and building new meaningful relationships. Suppose the whole process of admitting your drug and alcohol addiction problem and finding a job seems overwhelming. In that case, you can contact Anchored Tides Recovery and have a care coordinator guide you through the process. Give us a call today at 866-600-7709.

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What is Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

What is Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), and how does it relate to addiction? These are common questions. ODD is a common co-occurring diagnosis along with substance use disorder. So what does all this mean? Below, we explain.

What is Oppositional Defiant Disorder?

ODD is something that’s most often initially seen in children and teens. Of course, no matter their age, there are times when children and teens are challenging, as they’re known for pushing the boundaries and seeing what they can get away with.

There are times when behavior can go beyond what’s considered normal, and that can be characterized as an oppositional defiant disorder or ODD. If you have a child or teen who’s frequently angry, irritable, or argumentative or seems to be inherently opposed to authority figures, it could be ODD.

For many children, ODD symptoms begin to appear as early as preschool ages but can develop later. It’s almost always something you’ll see in your child’s behavior before they reach their teen years. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), emotional and behavioral symptoms must be present for at least six months to diagnose ODD. These symptoms can include:

Frequently losing their temper
Being easily annoyed
Often being angry and resentful
Arguing with people in authority
Not complying with rules or requests from adults
Trying to annoy or upset people purposely
Blaming others for their mistakes
Spitefulness or vindictiveness

The symptoms can be mild, moderate, or severe. The symptoms might only occur in one setting with mild ODD, like at home but not at school. Moderate ODD means symptoms occur in at least two settings, and a severe diagnosis indicates there are symptoms in at least three settings. ODD can be treated with therapy, but if not, complications can include impulse control problems, performance issues at school and work, and antisocial behavior. Substance use disorders are also considered a complication of untreated ODD.

Oppositional Defiant Disorder Treatment

To begin treatment, first, there has to be an official diagnosis of ODD. A mental health professional can make a diagnosis by doing a psychological evaluation. The assessment might include assessing overall health, family member interactions, and the intensity and frequency of symptomatic behaviors.

From there, treatment can include:

Parent training: Many of the treatments for ODD are family-based interventions. That can include parent training. A mental health professional can work with you to develop parenting skills that are positive and consistent and will be helpful for your child.
Parent-child interaction therapy: Also called PCIT, therapists will coach parents in their interactions with their child during this treatment. This helps parents learn how to improve their parenting techniques, enhancing their relationship with their children.
Individual and family therapy: Your child might learn how to express feelings healthily and manage anger; family therapy may be a way for everyone to improve their communication and relationships.
Social skills training: Some children with ODD will participate in social skills training, a type of therapy that teaches positive interaction strategies to engage with peers.
Cognitive problem-solving training: This type of therapy helps children identify and change the thought patterns that contribute to behavior problems.

It’s not common to use medication as treatment unless there’s another condition that’s also happening, like ADHD, depression, or anxiety. There’s not any medication right now that’s exclusively for the treatment of ODD.

What is a Co-Occurring Disorder?

Suppose you recognize signs of ODD in your child. In that case, it’s essential to start working with a professional therapist on a treatment plan as soon as possible, because again, this can reduce the risk of complications. Complications can include the development of a co-occurring disorder, such as substance abuse. The term co-occurring refers to a situation where someone has both substance use and another mental health disorder. We see that the most commonly diagnosed co-occurring are mood and anxiety issues.

What’s the Link Between ODD and Substance Abuse?

Another question we commonly hear is why it is linked to substance abuse, particularly in teens? There is often a relationship between what are broadly categorized as disruptive behaviors and substance abuse. ODD is just one type of disruptive behavior disorder.

Younger people who report using drugs are four times more likely than those who don’t have a disruptive behavior issue. A child or teen with a DBD is six times more likely to have an addiction. Additionally, adolescents and teens with addiction and ODD are more resistant to treatment. With that in mind, we have to wonder why there are such significant links. It’s complex, but some of the likely reasons include:

There could be genetic and biological links between ODD and substance use. For example, a young person with both could be more prone to impulsive behavior. When you’re impulsive, you’re more likely to do things that could cause harm to you, including using substances.
For a young person who’s dealt with ODD in their life, they may turn to substances as a way of self-medicating. For example, they may feel like drinking or using drugs helps them experience fewer ODD symptoms.
There is also the possibility that life experiences factored into both the development of ODD and a substance use disorder. For example, a child from a chaotic home could be at a higher risk of developing both.

Takeaways

Oppositional Defiance Disorder is, relatively speaking, fairly common in children and adolescents; it’s also highly associated with addiction. Early intervention, including therapy and parental training, are significant ways to reduce the symptoms of ODD and lower the risk of later co-occurring issues like addiction.

With that being said, if someone has both ODD and a substance use disorder, they may be more resistant to treatment. That can make it challenging for you if you’re a parent or a loved one.

If you’re looking for treatment programs, you want one that’s going to offer in-depth treatment for co-occurring disorders. It’s almost impossible to treat substance abuse without also treating the symptoms of any other underlying conditions, including ODD, and vice versa.

If you have questions or want to learn more about treatment for co-occurring disorders, Anchored Tides Recovery is here and can talk to you any time, so reach out to our team at 866-600-7709.

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Self Awareness & Mastery of Emotional Intelligence

The buzzword “emotional intelligence” was created by Yale researchers Salavoy and Mayer, who first published their theory in 1990. Their research was prompted by studies that demonstrated that people with average IQ’s outperformed their higher IQ counterparts in life success terms over 70% of the time. They theorized the missing link to overall lifetime success as emotional intelligence or EQ.

When you struggle with an addiction you, and the people who are close to you, will be on an emotional rollercoaster as you find your way to recovery. Even after you’ve stopped doing drugs, there is a wide array of emotions you will face that could potentially end in relapse. We all have strengths and weaknesses, but your level of self-awareness and how you react to your emotions directly relates to good mental health and the potential for long-term sobriety.

This article will explore the idea of Emotional Intelligence and give you a better idea of how to gain mastery over self-awareness.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Emotion means energy in motion. Emotional intelligence is the ability to demonstrate self-awareness on an emotional level and manage those emotions effectively. Everyone has emotions and that is normal. No internal feeling is considered unacceptable. However, there are inappropriate ways of expressing and managing those emotions.

Emotions tell you something about how you perceive the world, so listen to them and learn from them. When you deny yourself the opportunity to feel them, you also deny yourself the opportunity to learn something about yourself, the accuracy of your perceptions, and the chance to improve self-awareness.

27 Different Kinds of Emotions

The psychology community once assumed that most human emotions fell into the universal umbrella categories of happy, sad, angry, surprise, fear, and disgust. Current studies by the Greater Good Science Center report at least twenty-seven distinct emotions all intertwined and connected.

People feel frustration, disappointment, rage, embarrassment, guilt as much as they do joy, happiness, delight, expectation, and enthusiasm. They are all OK to feel; it’s how you manage and express them that counts.

“Managing your thoughts and feelings” does not mean suppressing them, or pretending you do not have them. It’s about becoming accepting and comfortable with the idea that you are experiencing an emotion and it means something to you. The theory is when you bury or stuff down the ability to avoid pain, you also bury or suppress the ability to fully experience joy. It’s about opening the door of possibility that you can fully feel an emotion and not decimate or destroy you or your relationships.

Effective management of emotions means developing the ability to fully feel the emotion that you are experiencing, effectively express what you are feeling, and work smoothly with others towards a common goal. It means feeling the feeling, understanding that it will pass, withstanding the impulse to bury it or move too quickly to react to it, and learning what it means to you and then doing something proactive about it.

Goleman identified five (5 primary) areas of emotional intelligence.

Self-Awareness
Managing Emotions
Motivating Oneself
Empathy
Social Skills

How does Mastering Emotional Intelligence Help Me With Addiction?

Learning emotional intelligence is a critical tool in the toolbox of life skills necessary to negotiate life’s challenges. Addiction comes with a complex set of emotions that people may have a hard time empathizing with. How you handle these emotions while you’re active on the road to recovery will affect who’s in your life when the smoke clears and relates directly to how difficult of a time you will have managing your recovery.

The goal is to align your vision of your life values with your behaviors and act accordingly. Self-leadership and mastery start with identifying your core values and designing a life built on them. Mastering emotional intelligence has a ripple effect that benefits you and the people who surround you. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. External self-awareness is the ability to weather the storm of life and negotiate rough waters without sinking your life’s ship; not avoiding rough waters, but sailing through them to sunnier and smoother shores.

It’s Not All About You

Disappointed? It’s ok! In some ways, life is a solo journey, but it’s a lot more pleasurable when you have the support and camaraderie of others along the way. Human interaction means bumping up against the rough edges of others sometimes, and emotional intelligence is one of the best GPS systems for a worthwhile trip through life.

Many people consider addiction to be a selfish disease because while you’re active in addiction nobody will ever come before your drug use. A lot of lying and manipulation is involved to try to manage this lifestyle along with having relationships with people who care about you, but this causes many relationships to go up in flames. Human beings are social beings, and we benefit and thrive best when we exist cooperatively and meaningfully within our chosen social circles. Becoming emotionally intelligent and self-mastered requires mastery of two kinds.

There are two components to emotional intelligence. The first is developing mastery of intrapersonal or personal competence, which is clear and aligned with the emotional self. The second component is developing mastery of interpersonal or social competence, and that is how you interact with the world. When you authentically align your emotions with how you interact with the world, your world changes accordingly.

Empathetic Leadership

Empathetic Leadership is recognizing what you are feeling when you are feeling it, deciding what to do about it and when, and forging the best course that serves both you and others. It’s about stopping to feel the twinge of emotion and exploring it a bit before it becomes a snowball of momentum that damages many things in its path. Buried emotions don’t stay buried. The emotions surface in other ways and are constantly seeking escape routes, whether it’s an untimely hissy fit or chronic low back pain. Buried and unprocessed emotions are not benign.

It sounds effortless, but it takes dedication and practice and a bit of a thick skin to start. It’s never too late.

Seeking Treatment

Anyone can learn emotional intelligence through dedication to practice to improving communication between your emotional and rational parts of the brain; it’s like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. However, emotional mastery doesn’t come naturally, and while you’re in recovery there are many difficult and complex emotions to juggle and react to.

Anchored Tides Recovery will provide you with a support system that will help you keep your emotions and addictions in check while you focus on your life and relationships. Call us today to talk to a coordinator and get on your path to emotional mastery.

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