addiction

What are some helpful tips for staying sober and overcoming a drug or alcohol addiction?  Well let us take a look at some of the principles that have worked best for many people in the past in helping them to achieve long term sobriety in recovery.

1) Create a new life with purpose.  This is huge.  Most people do not even consider an idea like this in recovery from addiction, as they are too focused on group therapy and simply not taking a drink in the early days.  But eventually you will become better at avoiding your drug of choice, and it will become automatic for you, and then you will be facing more subtle problems in your recovery.  Think long term.  This is where you want to be constantly building a new life for yourself in recovery, building healthy self esteem and taking positive action every day.  This goes beyond traditional 12 step recovery and you will not hear about ideas like this in regular drug rehab centers.  Nevertheless, this is a huge key to long term success in addiction recovery, and any addict who has achieved long term sobriety can look back and see how they have created a positive new life for themselves through daily action.

2) Another tip for how to stay clean and sober is to get involved with helping others in their recovery.  Nothing could be more helpful and this is a principle that you will also find in traditional recovery–because it works so well.  Help others and you help yourself.

3) The key to achieving long term sobriety is in raising your own level of self esteem and finding real purpose in your life.  These two things can combine to protect you from the threat of relapse.  Anyone who is building self esteem and genuinely looks forward to living a sober life is not going to relapse.

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Psychiatry and Drug Abuse

by admin on March 13, 2010

People are usually not only physically addicted to drugs, but they are often mentally addicted as well. In fact the mental addiction can often be stronger, and more difficult to break, than the physical addiction. Our mind is like a powerful computer, with many different connections being made on all levels of our brain, to the point that we often end up having little control over some of our actions.

It is very easy to under-emphasis the power that the mind has over the body. Most people believe that they are in control of their mind and their body, and that they are likewise in control of their actions. However, when it comes to drug abuse, this is not true. In situations where someone is addicted to drugs, they are often powerless to resist the urges their mind gives them to use drugs.

A simple example is often seen in the children of addicts. Many children whose parents were addicted to either drugs or alcohol oftentimes head down the same path when they are older. Their mind takes over, and they justify themselves in their own mind, thinking that if their parents did it, then it must be fine for them to do the same.

There is also the added complication that drugs themselves directly affect and stimulate the brain, and work oftentimes on a subconscious level. This is particularly true the more often that any substance is abused. Gradually the mind takes over, even subconsciously, and demands that the body takes in the substance, that it must have it in order for the body to function properly.  This is often communicated on a subconscious level, so often the person abusing the drugs is not even aware of this exchange.

If you need help to stop drinking alcohol and get off of drugs and  to overcome the psychiatric implication of substance abuse, you should talk to a health counselor or professional. If they are not able to help you, they should be able to direct you to someone who can.

There are different programs that you can avail yourself of, that will help aid you in overcoming substance abuse and the psychological aspect of drug addiction, as well as the physical symptoms. A full program should help you first of all through the physical withdrawal symptoms, and then provide further counseling and support until you are completely addiction free and your overall health and fitness will improve with recovery.

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Alcohol Detox-How I Survived

by ChangeYourLife on March 13, 2010

Everyone on earth, sometime or another has had some bad times, and has had stress in their lives.  Some of us can handle these bad times, and then there are the ones, including myself, who turn to a different source.

Unfortunately, these sources can lead up to Alcohol or Drug abuse.  We start out just trying to relieve our stress, and try to feel a little better about what is happening in our life, so we turn to Alcohol or Drugs to fix the problem.

As we continue to drink to relieve our stress, we start to get used to how our problems seem to disappear while under the influence.  At this time our bodies start to become used to this pressure release, and we have now gone from Abuse to now Addition.

I can say this because, this is what happened to me.

I was to weak to face the stress and the problems on my own without a crutch to lean on.  Now, after admitting that this has gone to far, I had to figure out how I was going to get out of this addiction, and face my problems head on and become Sober again.

I was afraid to stop drinking because I was worried about what might happen to me if I should stop.  My body was now so use to the Alcohol and I wondered how I would feel with out it.

Everyone would say, just slow it up a little, cut down a little at a time.  Well, that’s great if your are that type of person.  I, was not, I had to face the fact that I would have to go Cold Turkey or nothing.

So, there I went on my  journey to Sobriety.  I was afraid, but I knew I could do it, not only for myself, but for my family and friends as well.

I started off with the most important thing first, and that was a Positive Attitude .  Now, I have to get through the Alcohol Detox part of my journey.

In the beginning of my journey to Sobriety, yes I was not feeling that great, but drinking every day of my life, I also didn’t feel wonderful by far.  But, as days and weeks went by I felt as if the world was lifted off my shoulders.  I was surviving on my own without my crutch.

As time goes by, your body gets use to NOT having the alcohol in you system, just the same way as it gets use to HAVING alcohol in your system.

Things began to start getting better in my life, and everything started to become easier to deal with.  I learned to deal with my problems being Sober.  When I drank the problems where always there but I just didn’t care due to the alcohol.

Granted, so many people have an Addiction that is far worse than others.  I was fortunate that I could do this Detox on my own, thanks to all the support of my family and my good friends, and most of all, God, that has given me the willingness and the strength to  be able to do this on my own.

You may read my stories, thoughts, and my ideas on how I was able to Survive my Alcohol Detox on my own.

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Getting the Drug Addiction Help that You Need

February 16, 2010

What is the best way to get the addiction help that you need?  This depends on the person, what drugs they are on, and how far along in their addiction they may be.  It also depends greatly on what exactly they are willing to do in order to get help for their problem.  So let’s [...]

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Helping Addicts to Overcome Addiction

February 8, 2010

There are many different ways that addicts can overcome an addiction to drugs and alcohol.  One of the most common ways is through traditional recovery and 12 step programs.  In fact the majority of recovery uses this approach and it does work for some people.  On the other hand, some addicts need to explore other [...]

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Tips for Recovery and Helping Alcoholics

February 8, 2010

It is not easy to overcome an addiction, so here are some tips to help you out with it. First of all, if you are trying to help alcoholics, then you should do so by first getting yourself the proper help.  This means going to an organization called Al-anon and attending one of their meetings.  [...]

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Withdrawling From Heroin

February 7, 2010

Heroin is reputed to be one of the more dangerous, life-threatening addictive drugs around. Not only does the drug itself cause considerable damage to the human body, especially with long term use, but it also is responsible for most of the drug related fatalities amongst users. Not only is it very hard to get over [...]

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Benefitting From Alcohol Detoxification

January 29, 2010

For those who are addicted to alcohol, undergoing alcohol detox treatment is one of the best ways to overcome this. When undergoing detox, your body eliminates all alcohol from it, mainly through totally eliminating all acohol instake.  Medication is also usually used to help control detox symptoms and the person’s diet is re-evaluated as well.  [...]

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Suboxone for Heroin Detox

January 23, 2010

Heroin addiction is a debilitating and often fatal issue. Heroin is a highly addictive illegal opioid used recreationally by many people across the world. Not only can the heroin addiction itself be fatal, but the symptoms associated with heroin withdrawal can also prove to be fatal for many addicts. These symptoms can include excessive sweating, [...]

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How to handle vicodin addiction

January 23, 2010

Vicodin Addiction Vicodin addiction has been in the news in recent years. Radio personality Rush Limbaugh admitted to misusing this drug. But what is vicodin, and what kind of addition does it produce? Vicodin is a powerful painkiller. It consists of acetaminophen, which most people know as Tylenol, and hydrocodone, an opium-based cough suppressant. The [...]

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Alcohol Detox: Keep Your New Years Resolution

January 22, 2010

It’s a common New Year’s resolution: “I’m going to quit drinking.” It is actually the 4th most common resolution, coming in after “lose weight”, “quit smoking” and “start a savings account.” Why do so many people make it a resolution? And what is so hard about stopping drinking? First, it is hard because alcohol is [...]

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Heroin withdrawal

January 20, 2010

Heroin addiction is very painful. It destroys the life of the addict and the people he or she loves. It’s a misconception that drug addiction is all about willpower. If that thinking predominates, the person addicted to drugs will not stand much of a chance at being free of it. Heroin withdrawal involves determination and [...]

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Finding Serenity from Calamity

January 10, 2010

For years growing up I wanted to believe in something… something besides Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. As a child, I would sit in trees for hours, watching all the birds and the clouds floating by. I was inspired by the vastness of the universe and all the things that it could hold. Then, [...]

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Marijuana Withdrawal and Addiction

January 7, 2010

Something funny happened to me when I stopped getting high: I went through withdrawal. And I’m not talking about crack or blow or something hard. I’m talking about happy old mary jane, the green friend to millions of people worldwide. She gave me so much fun and so many good times, but I started to [...]

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