Addiction and Recovery Articles

Though we have one mind, there are usually considered to be two sections of it: the conscious and the subconscious. The subconscious was termed by Freud the unconscious. He only saw it as a negative, a swamp of primitive drives and aggressive impulses. Perhaps his was. Hypnotists, au contraire, regard it as the source of creativity, inventiveness and strength, a valuable resource that can be utilized, not only as this negative primitive area.

Could you recognize the stages of alcoholism in yourself, your friends, or your family members? If you are conce ed that someone you know has an alcohol problem, then just knowing the four alcoholism stages could enable you to help that person quit drinking, and may even help you save their life. Before we list the specific stages of alcoholism, it is important to discuss the difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence. n§ Alcohol abuse: there are many signs and

In the article Relax and Recover Part 1, I whole heartedly endorsed the 12 step programs of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. And I think that deserves repeating. Both the Big book of AA and the basic text of NA outline a clear path to recovery that has helped millions of people worldwide achieve sobriety. As the coordinator of a treatment program it has been my experience that those who follow the suggestions outlined in the book, obtain and utilize a sponsor, work all 12 steps, and attend meetings regularly, greatly increase their chances of a successful recovery.

This article is not intended to convey legal advice, which can only be provided by an atto ey licensed in your state. What follows is an addiction psychologist’s summary of a legal issue he has been following for over a decade. The “establishment” and “free exercise” clauses of the US Constitution’s 1st Amendment state that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In everyday speech we say that there is “separation of church and state” in the US.

For decades, many people have gotten the wrong idea about addiction. Even as scientific research piled up supporting the theory that addiction is a brain disease, misunderstandings about addiction have persisted. In August 2011, the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) took an important step toward refuting some of these long-held misconceptions, redefining addiction as a chronic brain disease. After four years of research and 80 expert opinions, ASAM’s definition responds to some of the most widespread misunderstandings about addiction.

Unfortunately, many times, a loved one actually is enabling addiction through their well intentioned desire to help the addict or alcoholic. How does this occur? Consider the role of the addict; their intention is to continue the using behavior at all costs. What better way to continue that ...

How does gratitude work? What's the point of it? Will this new craze of daily gratitude be something that changes my life? If it did, what would it change, how would I be different? Isn't gratitude some kind of religious thing? Like meditation, gratitude has been sidelined with religious beliefs to be practiced once a week, if you attend some religious facility. However, is it really? I recovered a note from a friend from 1998: Thoughts for this week: Abundance:

Not a perfect ten? Don’t beat yourself up. Being perfect is an impossible goal. Humans can never be perfect but there's nothing wrong with self improvement. We all have things that we would like to change about ourselves. However, in the quest for perfection we can get blindsided by our faults. We can get so wrapped up in them that we can become obsessed. When we have anxiety about our failures, we are unable to learn from our experiences.

1. Trying to control your alcohol or drug intake - If you're really an addict and not someone who has made a lifestyle choice, then controlling your use of alcohol or drugs is completely impossible. Some addicts try, and fail, at this for many years until they finally realise it can't be done. The very nature of addiction means that it is impossible to control your use of a particular substance once the first drink or drug is down the hatch.

If your spouse is entering recovery, you still have a tough road ahead you. The recovery process can be just as difficult for the spouse as for the addict. Your responsibilities may seem overwhelming, and your partner may even demand more than you can give. In any case, the most important thing is to remain supportive of your partner. You want to be there for everything he or she needs, but it’s also important to remember yourself and to keep a level-headed perspective. End

Waking From The Dream The Process And Practice Of Reclaiming Our Spiritual Identity “A Course In Miracles” Perspective “Yet the Bible says that a deep sleep fell upo Adam, And nowhere is there reference to his waking up.” rn(ACIM T.C2.I.3.6) Older Souls

First off, let me be clear I am not talking about living outside society’s rules and expectations. If you shoplift, run a grow-op, drink and drive, smoke in the presence of others or abuse your family, there will always be people telling you how to live; there is no age limit… Growing up

Comedian David Brenner believes that if a person can laugh, he can live and so went on a national tour right after September 11. Humor is our best defense against bad hair days, aggressive pets, obnoxious bosses, traffic jams, even war and a bad economy. If you want humor read to you, then get ...

No one will argue that there is an unfortunate increase in prescription pill abuse and especially prescription pain killers, otherwise known as opioids. Some say that doctors are too quick to write the prescriptions and others will say that more people need to become educated on the proper disposal of these medications when they are either expired or no longer being used. Regardless of what has caused this near epidemic number of addicts there is another group that is suffering from the wrath of this problem.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts wants to do their part in reducing prescription drug abuse so they are planning to limit physicians’ power to write new prescriptions for more than a 30 day supply. This plan will begin on July 1, 2012 and doctors will no longer be able to write prescriptions for 60 or 90 days for pain pills. The exception to this law is for the terminally ill or cancer patients.

The average adult sleeps 7.5 to 8 hours every night. Although the function of sleep is unknown, abundant evidence demonstrates that lack of sleep can have serious consequences, including increased risk of depressive disorders, impaired breathing, and heart disease. In addition, excessive ...

Levels of anger and stress has increased hugely in recent times, especially in large urban areas and cities, resulting in increased tension and instability in many people's lives. The effects of anger can be seen very clearly in many domestic or work situation you care to imagine. Anger as an emotion has always been with people. What perhaps is new is a perception that it needs to be dealt with, and that often dealing with a level of anger is acutely necessary for people to have any type of internal stability or peace of mind.

In modern day usage, self-help really refers to a process conce ing people's own personal development or self growth. The good side of this is that it leads to people trying to become aware of who and what they are, and pursuing avenues that can help them become more rounded and happy people.

Parenting is one of the most challenging and important enterprises human beings can undertake. I have the deepest respect for people who undertake this challenge consciously and who want to do it well. Such parents are preparing the future generation to live purposeful and good lives, and ...

It seems like prescription medications are getting stronger and more addictive all the time. One of the few things I have not been addicted to I nevertheless understand the mind of an addict and the body and mind can be tempted easily into addiction. But are there people out there who cannot exist on a current cocktail of the most high-powered pain killers on the planet? Drug companies are working to develop a pure, more powerful version of the nation’s second most-abused medicine, which worries me that it could spur a new wave of abuse.

Can you read your partner’s mind? Of course not! Neither can your partner read your mind. But this is what you may have come to expect of each other if you grew up in a movie-script, hearing phrases like: “Love is never having to say you are sorry.” Or perhaps you learned as a child that: “You should not have to tell someone what you are feeling or what you need if they love you”

Alcohol is a word that appears so much in our daily lives and culture that it is difficult for a non-alcoholic to imagine a life of alcohol addiction. Yet, no matter how much one may despise the term and the addiction, psychiatrists describe an alcoholic as one who exhibits any or all of these qualities: an irresistible thirst for alcohol, total loss of control once he or she starts drinking, and a certain tendency of relapse into the addiction after a session of rehabilitati

Upsetting the status quo, your family of origin's reactionto your new boundaries.Or no good deed goes unpunished nna Article by David Bruce Jr Now that you have your new found functional boundaries,what is some bad news you now have to deal with? You will have to decide, with determination, that you'vedone this for YOUR benefit. You have to make this effort with the underlying goal ofvaluing yourself! Virtually no one in your current circle of friends,acquaintances, or es

Back in the 1960’s, the Woodstock era, psychedelic drug use was pretty common for the younger generation, who are today’s baby boomers. New studies now reveal that today’s young people might be just as likely to use psychedelic drugs. These drugs are known to stimulate the brain receptors causing extreme emotion, hallucinations, and sensory distortions.

Can Addiction Be Cured? In today’s world, most addiction treatment professionals view addiction as an incurable disease, which can only be managed and controlled using ongoing aftercare programs. In other words, every addict will always be a recovering addict, and cannot hope to become a former, or cured, addict. Bill Wilson, founding father of Alcoholics Anonymous, told a different story. In regards to a conversation with his friend, Ebbie, Bill wrote the following -r

In this context dual diagnosis refers to those who have nonnicotine substance abuse or dependence in addition to another axis I or axis II disorder. While statistics vary widely, dual diagnosis occurs commonly in the severe mentally ill, occurring with a prevalence of about one-third in psychiatric inpatients. In the outpatient population, the prevalence of substance abuse is also much higher than in the general population. Etiology:

Do you have an addiction you simply can’t seem to get rid of? Try these techniques to help you boost success: Improve your mental and physical healthrnIt takes mental stamina and physical health to prevent relapsing. Trying to fight off an addiction is very draining mentally and physically. Often your brain and body is not prepared for the change. Many addicts have depleted neurotransmitters (chemicals) in the brain, that cause intense cravings. Increasing physical health t

The seven deadly sins were the seven cardinal sins enumerated by Saint Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century – pride or vanity, envy, gluttony, greed or avarice, lust, sloth, and wrath or anger. These seven certainly are the cause of much human misery and may even be among those faults that condemn us and those around us most certainly to a life of pain, a future of failure and the loss of our most significant emotional attachments with those closest to us. Unfortunately, as a

This is the sort of question that people will instinctively answer yes to, without really taking a moment to consider the real implication of what the question is asking, and why it is particularly important to any notion of personal development or self growth. At some level people think of other people as being different or separate from themselves.

FORGIVENESS “A Course In Miracles” says that learning forgiveness is our only function here. One of its most beautiful passages on this topic reads. “The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love.”(T.26-IX-6) It is very ...

I chose to grow into heaven on earth by healing my ghastly past. My road in life was not smooth; many events were rocky and traumatic. Chaos and violence impacted my life severely from an early age. Retracing the events of my life, I found that I had perpetuated fear, shame, and turmoil from my dysfunctional childhood. Also, living with hereditary conditions, I became the walking dead. nnMy mother’s paranoid schizophrenia dominated my very existence. Father’s alcoholism a

What is bipolar disorder? We all have occasional highs and lows in our moods. But people with bipolar disorder, these peaks and valleys are more severe. They can go from feeling very sad, despairing, helpless, worthless, and hopeless (depression) to feeling as if they are on top of the world, hyperactive, creative, and grandiose. The extreme mood swings can hurt their job and school performance, damage their relationships, and disrupt their daily life. Fortunately, bipolar disorder is treatable, but without treatment it tends to worsen. Symptoms

“An analyst trained in contemporary psychoanalysis focuses not just on past experiences, but also on the here-and-now of an individual's experiences and relationships. Attachments, separations, and losses beginning in infancy influence one's personality, as do current contexts of living, working, and loving. A contemporary psychoanalyst is interested in mutually exploring your past and present experiences and relationships.

Part InnFrom the moment of our birth until the moment of our demise, we are constantly writing our life’s experiences onto the slates of our minds; and when we have finished writing on a slate, it is stored in an imaginary trunk where they remain until such time as they are needed as a reference point by which to judge certain situations which we have documented or other life occurrences for which we have no immediate reference. nnThese slates, with their vast amounts of re

Fear as a friend not an enemy nnnWhat we are really saying when we have fears or doubts is not that we are scared of getting hurt. Not that we are unable to do it but the real reason is we feel nn‘we cannot handle it’nnSome fear is pure instinct and keeps us out of danger but the majority, the part that hold us back from achieving what we want is due mainly to our conditioning. Have you ever heard a mother or father shout out to their child as they go off to school "Take

Addictions are a worldwide phenomenon adversely affecting the lives of millions across all geographical boundaries and cultures. At a personal level, people’s lives are destroyed by their addictions and their loved ones also suffer the trauma from the negative ripple effect.nn Causes of addictive behaviors according to modern science nThere is no consensus as to the etiology, prevention and treatment of addictive disorders. Many people consider addictions as ‘diseases,’

Healing Challenges In Relationships

As a counselor both in class and online alcohol awareness classes I always discuss how many alcoholic beverages and what blood alcohol concentration (BAC) each of my students had when they were arrested. It is important for people to realize how alcohol affects their mind and their body and to understand what is happening as they drink and continue to drink. Maintaining a conscious reminder of the how alcohol affects your body could mean the difference between life and death!

First of all lets understand what is positive thinking. Positive thinking only means approaching life with a positive outlook. That being said it does not mean you have to ignore potentially harmful situation that can impact your life adversely. The individuals with positive thinking do not allow negative events in their life to hold them back or prevent them from enjoying life. They take life as it comes. They don’t grumble or resort to saying poor me, poor me. They deal with life challenges with courage and maturity. They understand the futility in being negative or pessimistic.

My passion in looking at men and trauma comes primarily from my personal experience as a young boy, first growing up in a violent alcoholic home and then having to deal with the impact of that trauma long into my thirties — and long into my sobriety. I still have vivid memories sitting on the top stair outside of my parents’ bedroom, hearing my mother screaming and crying as I was trying to get up the nerve to open the door or bang on it, once they/he had finally gotten smart enough to lock it.

In order to cease an addiction such as smoking, drinking or using drugs, a person needs to go through foreseeable stages of change. Following on from Prochaska and DiClemente’s founding research in 1982, these stages of change have been extensively scientifically validated. It is unusual for a person to able to cease their addiction successfully after only passing through these stages once. In most cases there are a number of attempts at change before ceasing for good. Like

Do you have a loved one that is addicted to alcohol? If your answer was ‘yes’, you have now made a positive step in helping them overcome their alcohol addiction. In this article, we’ll tell you how to help an alcoholic and also provide you with some guidelines on what treatment is best for your loved one. But first, let’s define alcohol addiction. What is Alcohol Addiction?

John was addicted to Norco (a pain pill that contains hydrocodone the same opiate pain killer found in Vicodin), taking up to 30 daily. He started drinking heavily to cope with the feelings he would get when he could not get enough Norco. Things finally collapsed when the police stopped him while driving intoxicated. He was sent to a hospital for three days to "detox" off his pills and alcohol and then referred to "rehab" for a 2 week stay. While there he participated in grou

If you have an addiction to a substance, drugs or alcohol, you may often wonder what the benefits of a rehab are and why you should go to rehab for treatment. It takes a lot of courage to decide to get treatment. It means that you have accepted that you have a substance addiction, which you cannot handle on your own, and you need to get treatment for it. Rehab centers understand that you may be scared of what will happen when you decide to call them for treatment. They unders

Are you asking yourself ‘when is alcohol treatment needed?’ The fact that you are asking this question indicates that there could be a problem at hand. In this article, we’ll tell you how you to determine when alcohol treatment is needed. Knowing the Signs and Symptoms of Alcohol Addiction It’s quite common for an alcoholic to see the damage that their drinking is causing to their health and well being, yet they still will deny that there’s a problem present.

Can't fall asleep? Toss and turn all night? Are you so anxious about not sleeping that you CAN'T sleep? Millions of us battle sleep deprivation. Most of us occasionally lose sleep, but for others, it's a serious problem. So serious, that you can create physical and emotional problems and ...

It is well-known that trauma and addiction are closely linked. Years of clinical research have demonstrated that many individuals who struggle with addiction report exposure to trauma during the course of their lives. It is not uncommon for those dealing with addictions to have experienced any of the following: prolonged physical, emotional or sexual abuse during childhood, adolescence and/or adulthood; profound neglect; long-term exposure to violence, war or terrorism; and the chronic long-term health problems associated with these things.

Your teen has relapsed. Despite whatever fear, disappointment, and frustration you may feel, you need to remain as calm as possible. Your loved one still needs your support. So, what can you do as a conce ed parent to help them get back on the road to recovery? 1. Envision Relapse as a Setback—Not a Failure

Smoking is a severe addiction. Therefore it is not surprising that most of ex-smokers need more than one attempt to finally quit smoking. This article gives you an overview of the two key factors of sustainably quitting to smoke. Key Factor 1: A Sound Method to Quit Smoking A good method to stop smoking consists of three levels. The initial point is a comprehensive and detailed smoking diagnosis. You need to describe all of your smoking habits. The description of the smoking