Toxic relationships can be more detrimental to recovery than people realize. Early in recovery, people are susceptible to the influences of loved ones and friends they surround themselves with, making it more important than ever to get rid of those relationships that are toxic. Cutting off toxic relationships is not about not seeing people ever…
Summer is a time of happiness and joy, lots of sunshine and fun ahead. The challenge for people in recovery is to figure out how to be sober through a summer when it seems everyone is drinking or doing things that trigger you. Summertime relapse triggers are possible but you don’t have to give into…
The word ‘sober’ has negative connotations for some people who think it maybe is cliched or old hat. On the flip side, it is another term for what lies ahead, which is sobriety, a clean slate, and a fresh beginning. Sober is the one word that beautifully represents the hugely positive transformation people experience in…
The first 60 days of sobriety will be very challenging. Addiction affects all aspects of a person’s life. The brain becomes physically and psychologically dependent on drugs and alcohol. In treatment, you will learn how to make lifestyle changes to cope. The brain needs to be re-trained to function normally without drugs or alcohol. In…
Holidays can be very stressful. Some people drink alcohol throughout the holiday season to cope with stress, loneliness, or depression. While many families get together during the holidays, many people do not have family members who live nearby or have a difficult time getting along with them. People also drink during the holidays to celebrate…
Just as drug and alcohol use harms your body and brain, it can also have a devastating impact on unborn children. In pregnancy, your baby receives all of its nutrients from you. As both food and oxygen travel through the umbilical cord and to the placenta without dilution or filtration, it’s important to remember that…
All 50 states recently adopted a .08% blood alcohol concentration limit as the new legal limit for DUI’s and DWI’s. This means that for a 140 lb person, more than two drinks before driving would get them into trouble with the law. While the drinking and driving limit is more or less cut and dry,…
Addiction in and of itself is a sick, debilitating, invasive disease that affects all manner of people. It has no definitive characteristics, nor does it have a particular type of individual that it seems to prefer. The truth of the matter is that it is one of the very few diseases that science simply cannot…
It’s no secret: millions of Americans fight the chronic struggle of drug dependency every day. While addiction recovery centers nationwide are working effortlessly to provide resources for these victims, the simple fact of the matter is that while some are getting better, many others are regressing rapidly. In fact, studies indicate that the volume of…
Measuring the success of addiction treatment programs is almost the same as attempting to measure the success of a particular medicine or prescription. Both addiction treatment programs and medicine have been designed to be as successful and efficient as possible. Whether they are, however, is completely up to the patient! Studies indicate that the success…