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Visualizing Addiction and Success
Dec 15, 2020
Visualization is a powerful tool that our minds continuously use, even if we are unaware of it happening. Visualization is how anxiety and depression can seemingly become more overwhelming, as our minds paint pictures in our heads of hopeless outcomes or anxiety-ridden worlds. However, using visualization can help those in recovery begin to take hold of their success. Whether someone is engaging in a meditative visualization practice or utilizing a more physical representation technique, visualization is an incredibly powerful part of the recovery process. Learning how to acknowledge it and use it to benefit one’s recovery can help each person better understand their stresses and realize goals and resources in their lives along the way.
The Importance of Knowing Your Starting Point
Nov 6, 2020
Recovery is a personal journey. There are several different ways to realize that someone may need professional assistance in confronting their relationship with drugs, alcohol, or any number of potentially debilitating mental health disorders. For some, interventions may help them realize the extent to which addiction has affected the lives of those around them. Interventions may also help someone realize the importance of beginning the journey of recovery. For others, professional fallout or signs of unhealthy coping mechanisms may be the critical moment needed to start their journey. However, it is essential to note the various factors at play when someone makes this crucial decision. Finding the starting point of one’s recovery journey can be a critical moment in forming realistic goals that will help them through each step of the process.
Confronting Addiction and Work-Life Imbalance
Oct 27, 2020
Work is a common stressor in the United States, and the work culture that surrounds many people may have them working longer hours each and every week, leaving little time for each individual to decompress and get a break for their own health. This kind of work-life imbalance can lead to a number of different issues as someone begins to grasp at various methods to self-medicate themselves in order to deal with the stresses of work. However, there are some signs that someone can look for, either in themselves or in a loved one, in order to help determine a healthy work-life balance, or if their work-life balance is tending towards unhealthy practices. Establishing a proper work-life balance is important to combat many of the feelings of anxiety, depression, or exhaustion that may come as a result of improperly managing one’s personal and professional lives, and preventing dangerous methods of coping or self-medication as a result.
Who Can I Turn To in a Crisis?
Oct 26, 2020
There can be a number of difficult situations that come up during someone’s journey of recovery. Regardless of if someone is dealing with an addiction, mental health disorder, or is suffering from a co-occurring disorder, there can be any number of stressors or triggers that can induce a crisis in one’s life. These can be very difficult to cope with and will require the help of established support systems and the aid and comfort of loved ones in order for each person to begin to process the stresses that they have experienced. However, in order to determine who someone can turn to in a crisis, it is important to first understand the various kinds of relationships that someone can develop during their time in recovery. Different kinds of relationships can play an important role in one’s recovery from a crisis.
How to Plan a Sober Thanksgiving
Oct 25, 2020
Thanksgiving can be a difficult time for those in recovery, as many holidays can be. During these times, each person in recovery will have to deconstruct their expectations of the holidays and begin to establish new practices and traditions that can help support their continued sobriety. However, planning for Thanksgiving can take a lot of work in order to ensure that someone is minimizing their chances of stressors and establishing a set of coping strategies and contingency plans in order to remain safe through the holiday. While someone may feel as if their use of an addictive substance or behavior may be intricately linked to Thanksgiving, it is never too late to change traditions or create new plans that can help support ongoing sobriety while still enjoying the holiday.
Establishing a New Identity
Oct 23, 2020
Going through the recovery process is a transformative experience. While each person can learn and implement their own, unique skills into their lives to address the various stressors that they may face on a daily basis, recovery also means unlearning a fair number of practices and habits. Overall, it means letting go of the person that someone was, at least in some capacity, in order to pursue a better future for one’s self and their own goals in life. Recovery, and the transformations therein, are intended to give someone the tools they need to begin to establish their new identities in their newfound sobriety, or overall freedom from stressful work-life imbalances or mental illness. However, simply establishing a new identity is a complicated topic, and there are a number of ways that someone can begin to grasp at the idea of forming their new identities or even beginning to establish their unique identities for the first time.
How Can I Prepare for Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) in Recovery?
Oct 22, 2020
Seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.) can be a hurdle for anyone and can introduce even more complications into one’s recovery journey. The effects of seasonal affective disorder can cause someone to feel more isolated in their daily lives and can add to feelings of depression that coincide with the dwindling daylight. This lack of light can take its toll on everyone, but it can be especially dangerous for someone in recovery who may already be experiencing feelings of anxiety and depression on a daily basis. Accentuating these feelings can cause someone to compromise their own recovery process, or begin to feel overwhelmed by depression brought about through the winter months. However, there are ways that someone can prepare for the inevitable loss of sunlight in order to help them better cope with the effects during their recovery journey.
Thinking About Children After Maintaining Sobriety
Oct 21, 2020
Even as someone begins to implement their recovery coping strategies into their daily lives, and have achieved and maintained their sobriety through a transformational sobriety program, there are still many goals that someone may want to accomplish for themselves. There can be a number of personal and professional goals that someone seeks to achieve in their sobriety as they continue on their new paths towards their future. One of these personal goals could be a desire to start a family. However, this kind of goal needs to be thought about carefully, regardless of one’s history with addiction. For those who have been through a program for recovery from addiction, there may be additional considerations that must be addressed before someone can fully commit to such a huge life goal. Considering starting a family as someone in recovery is certainly possible, but there are dangers that each person must consider before making this kind of commitment.
Animal-Assisted Therapy and a Symbol of Pride
Oct 19, 2020
The idea of recovery can mean a lot of different things, depending on what someone is recovering from and how much it has affected their personal and professional lives. However, the idea of recovery as a forward-looking, transformational process is always at the heart of any recovery program. Even as someone is continuing their recovery on their own or attending intensive outpatient therapy, this transformational, forward-looking mentality can be aided by the use of a companion animal through the recovery process. Not only can spending time with an animal be very beneficial to one’s mental health, but they can also help someone continue to challenge their own responsibilities and life skills each step of the way in their own journey. Providing something that can unconditionally show affection, as well as instill values of responsibility and a continuous sense of pride, can help someone continue to transform their living style and own self-esteem and self-image.
You Have More Agency Than You Realize
Oct 18, 2020
Whether someone is in recovery from an addiction to drugs or alcohol, dealing with their own mental health disorders, or overall suffering from the daily stresses of maintaining a healthy work-life balance, the idea of agency and control can often feel out of reach. However, despite the overwhelming feelings that are prevalent throughout recovery, there are always certain aspects of someone’s life that each person always has control over. Identifying the elements of a given scenario that someone can control and building upon them can help each person understand and extend their agency over their lives, responses to stimuli, and ultimately, their path to the future.