There can be no doubt that the last year of the COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for many people. Unknown aspects of the virus, its effects, and prolonged isolation from others have caused people around the world to experience heightened levels of anxiety. When we face daily challenges associated with addiction and its underlying causes,…
After you have completed intensive rehabilitation and are back at home, you’ll have an aftercare plan in hand and will want to resume your relationship with your children once again. However, for those of us whose access to our children has been temporarily removed due to addiction-related custody issues, our situation may be a little…
Self-reflection is the notion of looking back on our past, our activities, our decisions, and their outcomes. It is something we are encouraged to do when we’re in recovery or learning to manage our drive for substances. An essential part of moving forward is self-reflection. The process of self-reflection is important to recovery because it…
When we’re impacted by addiction, it’s easy to feel ashamed of our actions and their impact on others. Everywhere we turn, it’s as though we’re faced with a reminder of the person we would rather not be, rather than the person we’re trying to become. It can be challenging to see beyond where we’re at…
Working through addiction can be challenging. However, if some form of trauma lies beneath your addiction, recovery often presents additional challenges. In these instances, developing coping strategies to address trauma becomes as essential as dealing with the primary substance abuse issue. If trauma is the underlying cause, addressing your addiction while ignoring past trauma or…
Yoga, which was once on the fringes of alternative medicine, is now considered a mainstream therapy in the treatment of addiction, mental health, and even chronic pain and disease management. Most detox and rehabilitation programs offer yoga to work in conjunction with individual and group counseling. One of yoga’s attractive qualities is that the barrier…
An essential part of recovery consists of rethinking our relationship with friends. It is an integral part of healing and should not be overlooked. Before entering treatment, your behavior reflected the choices you made as an addict. The friends with whom you had things in common may still be engaging in addictive behaviors. They may…
As kids, most of us watched The Wizard of Oz. We remember the lion, how he pretended to be fierce when really, he was a coward. He knew he needed to be braver but didn’t know how. What he did know, though, was that he needed courage. Due to this, he went along with some…
We all have a relationship with ourselves and we project this perspective of ourselves onto the world at large. How we view ourselves can affect the quality of our relationships, our professional prospects, our job satisfaction, and our inner well-being or emotional health. When we experience traumatic events or must deal with the aftermath of…
No matter how difficult the past, we know its story. We know how the movie ends. Why? Because it lies in the past. What else is unavoidable? Change. No matter how much we desire, anticipate, or don’t expect change, it can be challenging all the same. With no known road ahead of us, we are…