How Do I Encourage My Loved One to Get Help?

Addiction, like many chronic illnesses and diseases, is an issue that affects a lot more than just the victim. In many cases, in fact, the victim may be the only one that does not have a problem with the disease and its debilitating effects. Family members and loved ones often tend to be the most…

It’s Psychological: How You Could Be Your Own Worst Enemy

Drugs– like guns, gambling, and other vices– are inanimate objects or concepts that, in and of themselves, can do no damage. However, we as human beings are quite the opposite. We are quite capable of doing horrible and irreversible damage on our own– and we often use inanimate objects like drugs to do so. Studies…

How Do I Pick the Right Recovery Group?

Even after successfully completing therapy at an addiction recovery center, the journey to sobriety is still far from over. In fact, many individuals who have been sober for years indicate that they are still on the path to recovery, and that the journey never truly ends at all. One of the most advisable things to…

Why Ignoring Addiction Simply Doesn’t Work

Far too often, those suffering from an addiction to any one of a number of substances, attempt to downplay the severity of their dependency by ignoring addiction. Unfortunately, studies have shown that many of their would-be saviors do, too. Is it a coping mechanism? An attempt to err on the side of caution, in case…

Is Substance Abuse Keeping You From Your Goals?

Substance addiction is a disease that forces your brain to seek pleasure from something that does your body an incredible amount of harm and has absolutely no upside, save the fleeting feeling of euphoria that soon becomes weaker and weaker as your body begins to crave more and more of said substance. Those that abuse…

seagull at Laguna Beach

Is Professional Help Necessary for Recovery?

The short answer is a resounding yes. Research indicates that the detoxification process can be one of the most difficult and testing periods of an individual’s life. In this process, an individual effectively forces themselves to enter into a stage of intense withdrawal and allow their bodies to purge themselves of a substance that has…