Congratulations! You’ve completed your rehab program, which surely is a magnificent accomplishment that you should definitely be proud of. However, you need to be aware of a potential relapse because finishing your treatment program is only the start of a long road of recovery and living a clean and sober life. You probably received some...
If you’re struggling with a drug or alcohol problem, you may also be dealing with feelings of depression, mood swings or anxiety. When you suffer from both a psychiatric condition and a substance abuse problem, you’re said to have co-occurring disorders or a dual diagnosis disorder. It’s common for people with a mental health disorder to...
If you’ve made the decision to get help for drug or alcohol abuse, you’ve conquered one of the toughest challenges on the road to recovery. Before you begin your journey of learning how to live a sober lifestyle, you need to have a clean, substance-free system. Most addiction treatment programs begin with a medically-supervised detox to...
Addicts are all too aware of the difficulty involved in overcoming a serious substance abuse problem. There are withdrawal symptoms, detox, intensive therapies, triggers to manage and stress to cope with. It can be quite overwhelming. Yet there is profound joy throughout the addiction recovery process, and even its darkest moments, it can be illuminated...
Many individuals experience trauma during their lifetimes. Although many people exposed to traumatic situations demonstrate few or no lingering symptoms, those who have experienced repeated, chronic or multiple traumas are more likely to exhibit pronounced symptoms and consequences, including substance abuse, mental illness, and health problems. People of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations and...
The American Society of Addiction Medicine defines addiction as a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This dysfunction is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors. But what if...
