How Equine Therapy Can Help Heal Sex Addiction How Equine Therapy Can Help Heal Sex Addiction Experts say that equine therapy and other therapies, like zip-lining and art therapy, can help people recover from sex addiction. How can being on a horse or expressing yourself through art make a difference?
12 Sober Christmas Gifts to Give Yourself 12 Sober Christmas Gifts to Give Yourself Being in recovery is a challenge, especially around the holidays. But there are plenty of coping strategies to include in your game plan for holiday joy. Rewarding yourself for your hard work in getting and staying sober is one of the most fun holiday sobriety strategies.
9 Healthy Steps to Staying Sober During a Disaster 9 Healthy Steps to Staying Sober During a Disaster Our world seems to be spinning out of control from traumatic events. With Category 5 hurricanes, earthquakes, brush fires and another mass shooting on American soil, many people are finding themselves in the midst of unexpected calamities and natural disasters. If they are not personally affected, they may have loved ones who are.
Recovery Lifestyle: 6 Tips for Staying Sober Recovery Lifestyle: 6 Tips for Staying Sober It is a common belief that a person with an addiction is “fixed” or cured during drug rehab. But because addiction is a chronic disease, even after completing drug or alcohol rehab, there’s still work to do. Thanks to detox and treatment, you have cleansed substances from your body and gained new insights in therapy and education sessions to help you transition from being in “active addiction” to being in “early recovery.”
If You Have an Employee With a Substance Use Disorder, You Could Be Their Lifeline If You Have an Employee With a Substance Use Disorder, You Could Be Their Lifeline When the holiday season arrives, workplace parties are a common form of celebration. Some amount of alcohol consumption is expected during these events, and most who attend will drink responsibly and in moderation.
Soccer Legend Wambach Scores New Goal — Sobriety Soccer Legend Wambach Scores New Goal — Sobriety On the soccer field, she may have seemed superhuman. But in her personal life, she was anything but, says Abby Wambach, the world’s leading scorer in international goals.
After Addiction and Broken Dreams, a Life Gone Good After Addiction and Broken Dreams, a Life Gone Good Each day, Brent Clark carries five index cards in his back pocket as a reminder of where he’s been and where he could be headed.
Preventing Relapse: How Strong Is Your Safety Net? Preventing Relapse: How Strong Is Your Safety Net? If you are working to overcome an addiction to drugs or alcohol, here’s a basic truth: No one can do it for you. But here’s another: Others can help, and you’re much more likely to make it to successful recovery if you have a strong safety net in place.
Arm Implant Called ‘Game Changer’ in Opioid Treatment Arm Implant Called ‘Game Changer’ in Opioid Treatment A small implant that delivers a constant stream of a drug that eases physical withdrawal from opioids, limits cravings and blocks their effect in the brain is being hailed as a game changer in the fight against heroin and prescription painkiller addiction.
Sober Stick Figure: A New Life for the Life of the Party Sober Stick Figure: A New Life for the Life of the Party In many ways, it was a morning like any other. Amber Tozer awoke with a raging hangover after too much partying and too much wine and vowed never to drink again.
5 Strategies for Successfully Dating in Addiction Recovery 5 Strategies for Successfully Dating in Addiction Recovery In the early months of recovery, you’ve given up a lot — your go-to coping strategy, your social network, your approach to life. It’s natural to look to the comfort of new love to counteract the loneliness. Relationships can be part of healing, but finding healthy partners who support your recovery is a challenge.
Learning to Be a Party Animal While Sober Learning to Be a Party Animal While Sober Adam Daar remembers what he was thinking when ordered by the courts into addiction treatment at age 14: “I’m never going to have fun again.” How could he? Partying was how the young had fun, and that just wasn’t possible without drugs and alcohol, he believed. “I was even thinking ahead to college. How am I going to have fun in college? That was my biggest fear.”
7 Best Foods for Reducing Alcohol Cravings 7 Best Foods for Reducing Alcohol Cravings For individuals in recovery, managing cravings can be a daily struggle, but certain foods can help. The key, addiction experts say, is to choose foods that do one of three things well: improve digestion, promote steady blood sugar throughout the day or support brain chemistry.
5 Tips for Sober Travel 5 Tips for Sober Travel For anyone in recovery, some of the most perilous times are when you’re on the road and away from your usual routine. It may be tempting to forego meetings, especially since you don’t know anyone at this new location and rationalize that it’s OK to skip it just this time. But that’s not the best approach, according to recovery experts. How can you keep your cool and remain steadfast on the road? Here are five ways to stay sober while traveling that may just prove to be a lifeline:
Narcan Training Saves Lives, Offers Addicts Hope for Recovery Narcan Training Saves Lives, Offers Addicts Hope for Recovery After New Jersey’s law protecting first responders who administer the opioid overdose antidote Narcan was signed into law in March, a free training program is helping ordinary citizens learn to administer the drug and save lives, as well as shining a spotlight on the issue of addiction.
Author Tells of His “Ultra Recovery” Author Tells of His “Ultra Recovery” Now that David Clark has run 100-mile races through mountains and deserts, it’s hard to picture him during his first weeks of sobriety. To the stunned clerks of a running store, he announced his plans to run a marathon. His basketball shorts had a waist size of 50. He weighed 320 pounds. When he got on a treadmill he could run— for only 15 seconds.
Applying the 12 Steps to Your Therapy Practice Applying the 12 Steps to Your Therapy Practice Sometimes the best advice we could receive is the advice we’d give others. That’s why the guidance in the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and its offshoot support groups could be just as helpful for therapists as it is for their patients.
The Top Five Ways to Relax Without Alcohol The Top Five Ways to Relax Without Alcohol If you have been through the alcoholism acceptance stages, you asked for help, went through rehab and joined a support group, you have done everything right to get and stay sober. These are just the basics, though. How do you plan to live the rest of your life without alcohol? Do you know how to have fun without drinking? Do you have motivating factors to keep you from reaching for the bottle? If stress and anxiety are important triggers for you, do you know how to relax without alcohol? Here are the best ways to relax without resorting to drinking:
Elements Behavioral Health Launches Free Cassava℠ Recovery App Elements Behavioral Health Launches Free Cassava℠ Recovery App The Cassava app℠ makes it easier for people to take the steps required each day to build a strong foundation in recovery. Users can easily locate nearby support group meetings from a comprehensive database with over 140,000 12-step and non-12-step listings, monitor their moods and activities, and track their daily progress.
Coping With Illness, Pain in Sobriety Coping With Illness, Pain in Sobriety When you’re in recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction, you’re on a continuous journey of learning to live life sober. Each day presents new lessons on coping with life chemical-free, and some lessons are more challenging than others. One of the biggest challenges people in recovery may have to face is dealing with illness and pain.
How Parent Involvement Helps Kids in Addiction Recovery How Parent Involvement Helps Kids in Addiction Recovery Parents have a powerful influence on their children’s choices, setting the tone for values and behavior. How can a concerned parent help prevent substance abuse and/or help kids in addiction recovery? The National Institutes of Health offers suggestions including early awareness and intervention, family bonding, and supervision of children’s activities.
A Recovering Addict’s Guide to Finding Balance A Recovering Addict’s Guide to Finding Balance For a recovering alcoholic or addict, learning to find balance can be particularly challenging. Leading a balanced life means avoiding extreme highs or lows. It also means paying attention to tendencies that many addicts have to focus or obsess too much on one activity, such as exercise or work. When the scales are tipped too far in one direction, it can trigger the urge to turn to mind-altering substances.
Getting Through Veterans Day Sober Getting Through Veterans Day Sober For many people, Veterans Day brings to mind celebratory traditions such as parades and family gatherings. It’s a day that marks the service of all U.S. military veterans, so if you or other members of your family are veterans, celebrations may be even more wild or intense.
Addiction Recovery and “The Anonymous People” Addiction Recovery and “The Anonymous People” A film has made the rounds in the recovery community, touting the importance of choice in declaring one’s status as a “Friend of Bill W,” as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has been euphemistically called for decades. A secret handshake of sorts has linked those who spend hours a week in rooms where they find support and acceptance when they might otherwise feel like outcasts. The film “The Anonymous People” features subjects who are proud of their process of healing from addiction.