4 Reasons to Consider Inpatient Addiction Treatment
There are two general categories of addiction treatment: inpatient and outpatient. Outpatient treatment generally involves daily to weekly meetings with therapists, addiction counselors and often includes involvement in a twelve step program. There are many benefits to outpatient treatment, but it can be hard to ensure you’re getting the best treatment possible if you’re juggling treatment with other activities as [...]
Will Sobriety Ever Get Easier?
Living a clean, sober life is a marathon of epic proportions, not a quick sprint to the finish line of sobriety. It’s every day, every week, every year of your life that you’re clean. It’s every step you take to get your life back, or to start fresh with a clean slate and good habits. When you’re fresh out of [...]
Do I Have to Cut Ties when a Loved One Won’t get Help?
One of that hardest moments when you are the friend or loved one of someone struggling with an addiction is when the addict person refuses to get help or admit that they have a drug or alcohol addiction, even if their friends or loved ones are offering to help get them into treatment. This can be hurtful, shocking and heartbreaking [...]
Should I Include Yoga in my Treatment Plan?
There are several different programs and plans available to treat drug or alcohol abuse and addiction, anything from traditional, to holistic or even specialized programs that focus exclusively on an activity, like horse training riding. What many of this programs have in common is that the focus is shifting from treating only the addiction to helping treat the person, giving [...]
Why it’s Important to Have Hope
There’s a line, in Shawshank Redemption, that you hear paraphrased commonly: "Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.” “Hope is a dangerous thing.” In a way, hope can be a dangerous thing. People drive thousands of miles for hope. People have crossed oceans and mountain ranges for hope. A lot of those same people have died [...]
Is Marijuana Really a Gateway Drug?
One of the most common reasons we give people, especially young adults and teenagers, to avoid using marijuana in any way is that it is a gateway drug that leads people to try out harder drugs, like heroin or crack. This tends to be fueled by the idea that once a person feels the effects of marijuana, they’ll enjoy it, [...]
How to Change Your Perspective on Life
Life can be a bear sometimes. It can be hard, and ugly, and just downright miserable. Especially in today’s world, where news is right at our fingertips, it seems like we’re just constantly swimming in bad news, horrible stories and awfulness at every turn. With so much negativity in the world, it’s easy to get caught up in it, and [...]
Is Addiction Different for Men?
Men and women alike often find themselves facing a battle with drug or alcohol addiction. While they may show many of the same behaviors or make similar choices, there are actually several differences between how the two genders experience addiction. These include the type of substance use, the likelihood of a relapse, how they respond to treatment and even the [...]
It’s Okay to Focus on Treatment
When you make the decision to get help for addiction to drugs or alcohol, it’s one of the biggest choices you’ll make. It can be uplifting and freeing, knowing that you’ve made the decision to take charge of your life again, but in the same breath, it can be an overwhelming prospect, especially if you’re considering an inpatient treatment program [...]
How Long Will I Struggle with Alcoholism?
Alcoholism can have a major, lasting impact on how your brain and body works, which causes changes that impact your emotional and physical well-beings and how you behave. Recovering from the affects of alcoholism is a challenge, one that can take many years to overcome. At the beginning of the road to recovery, it can seem impossible to escape the [...]