Living Recovery

Transitional Living 7: What is Sober Living?

Living Recovery — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:26:00 +0000

After attending a treatment facility, a person in addiction recovery is generally recommended to attend a sober living/transitional living facility. Although treatment facilities may completely change a substance abuser’s behaviors, the needed accountability a sober living facility provides is crucial to maintain recovery.

So what does sober living offer? Sober living offers continued accountability, support from professionals, support from peers also in recovery, a safe place to live, group support and so much more. Without an evironment to remind a person of his or her addiction, a relapse is highly possible. A relapse is still possible even in a sober living environment, but when a relapse does occur, the professionals can immediately take action, address the situation and help guide the individual back to the path of recovery. At Living Recovery Inc., we do just that- keep the substance abuser on track and help pick them up when they fall off track.

Sober Living 7: Heroin Use Rises in the Suburbs

Living Recovery — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 00:58:08 +0000

Heroin. To hear someone you know is on heroin is almost as bad as hearing a judge rattle off a life sentence - promising a life of pain, misery, and possibly death. To many however, the possibility of ever using heroin or having someone close to you use heroin is as far fetched as mickey mouse walking through your front door idea. Maybe the fact that heroin users generally inject the drug into their vein is the reason we tend to not fear of heroin becoming an issue with someone we know. I mean, to get to a position where you have to inject a drug into your vein is simply not fathonable for many people.

What if this all changed – the whole process of using a needle to get high off heroin? What if heroin was manufactured in a form that allowed a user to simply snort the drug like cocaine or methamphetamine? Would the fear of someone using heroin feel closer to home? What if heroin use was rising in the suburbs, nearly touching your own backyard. Would you be scared then? Well get ready because heroin is being manufactured in a powder from that can be snorted. Get ready because heroin use has increased in the suburbs. Get ready because heroin is here to take lives. Watch this video by Target 5 News about heroin being manufactured in powder form causing an increase of usage in the suburbs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Y__5vohrE

Transitional Living 6: Addiction Recovery-7 Ways to get High

Living Recovery — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 02:22:22 +0000

Many people consider addiction to be a disease of feelings. A disease of feelings means people with a substance abuse disorder use drugs and alcohol to feel good no matter what repercussions they may incur. To make recovery more enjoyable after the drugs have been taken away, something other than a drug or drink needs to create a positive affect. Below is a list of 7 ideas to create a positive mood. However, these 7 ideas require work which is opposite of the passive methods of getting high through drugs and alcohol. Feeling good in recovery is possible, it just takes work.

1. Help Someone: To perform a self-less act for the benefit of another person is by far the best way to achieve a natural high. During an active addiction, life is full of selfish behaviors so why not perform a behavior that is polar opposite of a substance abuser’s lifestyle. If you are serious about recovery, engaging in self-less acts is the best way to treat the addiction.

2.Exercise: Any form of exercise, whether it’s intense, average, or slow is a good way to feel good. Try going for a morning hike to enhance the experience or go for a jog when the sun is rising. Make exercising more than something you have to do, make exercise a natural high.

3. Read a good book: Reading for leisure is a sure way of changing from a substance abusing lifestyle to a healthy sober lifestyle. Discover a book that captures your interest, then find a cozy spot to read. You could light a fire, brew a cup of coffee, turn on a mood light, or light some candles to create the optimal environment. Remember using drugs and alcohol made you feel good so now you must create a healthy habit that makes you feel good as well.

4. Check off the To-Do-List: You know that list of things you’ve said you were going to do for the last six months? Well now that you are clear headed, it’s time to tackle that list. Accomplishment is a sure way of boosting your self-esteem and gaining a little high to enhance your mood. Now is the time, just do it already!

5. Tell three people you love them: Pick three people currently in your life and simply tell them how much you love and appreciate them. Don’t expect anything back, just express your love.

6. Apologize: This may be a bit harder and may not sound appealing but you will achieve a strong high. Guilt and shame can really damage your mood but to have the burden lifted will feel incredible. Because apologizing is no easy task, plan to apologize to only one person and apologize for only one thing.

7. Do something you enjoy: We all have activities we enjoy doing. Maybe you like to paint, or maybe you like to write, or maybe you like to play tennis or a game of chess, whatever you like to do, picking up activities that you enjoyed doing before substances snuffed everything else out is extremely important in recovery. You must find activities to fill you time, helping to keep your mind off using drugs and alcohol.

Sober Living 6: Service Work

Living Recovery — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 01:11:00 +0000

Addiction is a selfish disease. More than anything else in the entire world, the addict or alcoholic wants to feel good. Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol have offered the abuser a guaranteed way to feel good and for this reason the cycle of addiction has turned into a one dimensional disease. The addict desires a state of positive affect and the drug or drink guarantees the feeling he or she craves – it’s that simple. But what happens when the drug or drink is taken away and suddenly the addict or alcoholic has nothing to make them feel good? Immediately, a substance abuser will find himself or herself lonely without a drug or drink. For this reason, something needs to create a positive affect in the user that isn’t a mood altering substance.

The concept of having to use something other than a substance to create a positive feeling may be an entirely new concept to someone in recovery and therefore he or she will need guidance to discover activities in life than can create the feeling an addict desires without taking a drink or drug.

A good place to start is service work. Simply acting to helping somebody else, without expecting anything in return, can create a positive feeling. What’s better than seeing the face of pure gratitude, knowing that you helped someone not because they were giving you a paycheck, but simply because it was the right thing to do? Now imagine creating a habit of helping others instead of staying in a habit of selfish acts and see what happens to your overall mood and desire to use drugs and alcohol. Although the desire to use will certainly not be eliminated through service work, it is one type of new behaviors that will be incompatible with addict behaviors.

To fing ways to get involved with service work try this website: http://www.handsonatlanta.org

Transitional Living 5: Eliminating Friends in Addiction Recovery

Living Recovery — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 22:32:24 +0000

When recovery becomes a serious part of an addict’s life, the decision to eliminate old using friends will eventually have to be made. Associating with people who are in their active addiction is a recipe for a relapse. The good time memories connected to drugs and alcohol are too closely associated with ‘using’ friends to still be hanging out with people that use. Remember addiction plays off feelings therefore associating with people who still use drugs or alcohol will create only one memory, the good feelings of using drugs and alcohol. The realityof where addiction is truly centered; pain, suffering, shame, guilt, misery and emabrsment will dissaper leaving only the addiction to be in control. So why risk it?

Treating an addiction means letting go of an old lifestyle and embracing a lifestyle polar opposite of the using lifestyle. Yes, this means eliminating friends or people that use drugs or alcohol no matter how long the addict has known the friends. Even if the frienship was developed before the addict and the friend used together, the memorable feelings of using together will be too strong to resisit. Addiction will slip back in, whispering, tempting and destroying any attempts at recovery. Besides take out the substances in a relationship based around drugs and alcohol and what’s left? Nothing really… probally only awkwardness.

Think about this… isn’t a lost friendship better than losing your own life?

Sober Living 5: Reducing Triggers in Addiction

Living Recovery — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 01:30:47 +0000

What are triggers? A trigger is anything that reminds a substance abuser of fond memories directly related to using drugs or alcohol. Maybe a trigger is a song that reminds a user of the fun nights with a drug or maybe a certain smell reminds the user of the euphoric feeling of a high or maybe a trigger is a billboard sign promising a beer drinker a guaranteed good time with a cold beverage while watching a football game, but whatever one’s triggers are, unfortunately triggers are impossible to avoid.

Although triggers can not be completely avoided, there are certain steps to be taken to reduce the number of triggers a former substance abuser is exposed to. For example, a former drug user can immedietly turn the radio station when a triggering song comes on or not attend a party where alcohol will be consumed. Some addicts and alcoholics even go to lengths of cutting the tie to their television in order to avoid the constant wave of beer and liquor adverisements. Yes, recovery from addiction takes work, sometimes more work than what a user wants to put forth, but without taking action to reduce triggers maintaing sobriety will only become more difficult. At times the power of a drug or drink is nearly unstoppable so why add more momentum to a nearly unstopabble train? Find your triggers, be aware of them, take whatever action to avoid the triggers, and when avoiding the trigger is not possible reach out to someone to talk through the decietful thought that drinking and drugging is worth risking everything.

Transitional Living 4: The Dangers of Teenage Marijuana Use

Living Recovery — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 19:55:35 +0000

Marijuana… some think it’s harmless, some think it’s a gateway drug, and some think it’s a sin, but whatever our beliefs are surrounding marijuana, teenage marijuana use is still something to be concerned about. According to findings in neuroscience and pediatric psychiatry, the last part of the brain to fully develop is the prefrontal cortex- responsible for judgement, self-control, emotional regulation, organization, and planning. Now, imagine the brain trying to fully develop while the toxic chemical THC found in marijuana is swimming through the blood stream. What will that do to a teen’s decision making? What will the teen do when he or she is already essentially handicapped in decision making and the time comes to make a snap judgement behind the wheel of a ten thousand pound Dodge Ram while puffing down the last few hits on a joint? You make the call.

Recent statisitcs support evidence fo almost have of all high school seniors to have used marijuana once and 20% of high school seniors to have used marijuana withing the last month- an 8% increase since 1992 according to a survery by teenhelp.com. Among the teenagers surveyed, 85.8% knew where to buy marijuana, the majority of the marijuana connections being made through fellow students during school.

So what do all these statistics tell us? The statics tell us we need to be in tune with what is going on in our teen’s life. As parents we need to be attentive to our teens needs and be ready to step up to the plate and make a judgement call about what’s best for our teens, since science has proven the teen to be at a disadvantage when it comes to decision making.

To read more about the statistcs regarding teen drug use, click this link: http://www.teenhelp.com/teen-drug-abuse/teen-drug-abuse-statistics.html

Sober Living 4: Al-Anon

Living Recovery — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 23:44:25 +0000

Are you tired of feeling that your loved one is putting their addiction before you? Does it seem like your relationship with someone special in your life, whether it’s a family member or a significant other, seems to be fading into unknown territory? If so, you are not alone. Millions of people are connected to somebody they know that is struggling with substance abuse. In my personal experience, anytime the topic of addiction comes up in conversation, the person I am talking with, will almost always bring up somebody close to them that is struggling with addiction.

The biggest misconception of dealing with the addiction of someonebody else, is a feeling of being alone. Addiction is everywhere folks and everyone is effected by it. The more we isolate the problem, thinking we are alone, the worse the situation. We must reach out to other human beings going through the same struggle we share and talk through the situation. Unity is stronger than any individual and to think you can take on someone else’s addiction without a supportive environment is as insane as the user thinking he or she can keep using without paying any serious consequences. The supportive environment I am talking about is Al-Anon. Al-Anon is a group that meets about how to handle the addiction of someone close to you. If you are personally struggiling with somebody going through addiction or is in recovery, Al-Anon will give you a whole new life. There are meetings for Al-Anon all over the country and all over Georgia. For a complete list of where to find a meeting near you, click on this link. http://www.ga-al-anon.org/

Transitional Living 3: What’s the most dangerous Drug?

Living Recovery — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:34:03 +0000

We’ve all heard it before, marijuana isn’t dangerous. It’s nothing but a gateway drug, that’s all. If you just stick with pot then you’ll be fine. Ok, let’s get this straight. Yes marijuana is not as harmful to the body as other drugs. And yes, if you smoke pot for the rest of your life, you may not end up in a grave or under a bridge or facing a life sentence. However, when you smoke pot that becomes your life. You go to work, you come home, and you light up your bong. Then what? Nothing! You’re not doing anything but going through the motions of life. All you’re doing is taking up space and wasting resources. There is only so much mental energy one possesses and when all that mental energy goes toward smoking pot, then what? You have nothing left to do the things that really count in life like using your talents to help other people or to push your mind and body to new heights or to feel alive, or most importantly, to leave this world better than you found it.

Just because marijuana is not as dangerous to the body as other drugs it does not mean it’s not dangerous to your potential. We need to take a bigger look at the effects of drugs than to only the user. A recent article assessed the dangers of different substances, not by a scale only assessing the effects to the user, but using a scale to measure the effects of substance usage on crime, environmental damage, family conflict, international damage, economic cost, and damage to community cohesion. Findings supported evidence for alcohol to be more dangerous than any other drug and marijuana was ranked 8th out 16 drugs. But the ranking is not the point. The point is that marijuana was ranked on a scale measuring harmful effects to not only the user, but to family, society, and life.

Ok, so maybe some drugs are less harmful than other drugs, but at the same time it’s harmful. It’s harmful because marijuana prevents you from being the person you were born to be. So the next time you reach for the joint to escape the pain of life, take a moment and think about if you’re just getting by.

Read more from the article dissucsseed in this blog: http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20101101/NEWS-US-DRUGS-ALCOHOL/#

Sober Living 3: Finding Serenity In Addiction

Living Recovery — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:43:21 +0000

A life full of drug use is a life full of turmoil, chaos, and uncertainty. For this reason, when a user enters recovery it is crucial to find serenity. So what is serenity you ask?

Serenity is peace, calm, quiet, still, reflection, and comfort. Serenity can be achieved by finding a quiet calm place and taking a deep look into the soul of who you are. Are you a drug user? Are you an alcoholic? Are you both? Take time to answer these questions not with your mind, but with your heart. Feel the turmoil you have created during your active addiction, then dwell on it, soak it all in, feel it, hold it and endure the pain of the life you once lived. Accept the pain you created in your life and other’s lives, not because you are a bad person, but because the disease of addiction was in control. Realize that drugs and alcohol effected your life on a daily basis.

Once you come to terms with being powerless over drugs and alcohol, accept it and know that is who you are-not a bad person, but a responsible human being ready to do what is right. When you accept this you will know serenity and will be able to carry it wherever you go.