The importance of nutrition is often overlooked in the recovery process. If you’re eating enough to maintain your weight, you may assume you’re getting everything you need, but that may not be true. “Recovery” means gaining back what you’ve lost, and in addiction, one of the things that people have often lost is nutritional balance.…
One of the standard therapies used for addiction recovery and mental health treatment is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). There are many versions and forms of CBT, but they share the principle that thoughts and core beliefs affect feelings and actions and that paying attention to our thoughts can help us change unwanted feelings and behaviors. The…
Treating all co-occurring mental health conditions simultaneously in a coordinated way makes addiction treatment most effective. When someone has both obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and addiction, addressing both leads to lasting healing. Understanding OCD A study reported in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders found that 27% of people with OCD had a substance use disorder…
Alcohol abuse is a pervasive issue, affecting people from all walks of life. It’s easy to think you would know for sure if you or a loved one had crossed the line and become addicted, but it isn’t always obvious. If you’re keeping up your daily responsibilities, it’s easy to make the argument that your…
Words have power. What we say about addiction impacts the stigma around it. Saying words like “addicts,” “alcoholic” or even “drug-fueled” can cause problems. Stigma can lead a person to keep their addiction a secret. They may also avoid seeking help. You may not even be aware that you are promoting stigma, but a…
What do we mean by “stigma” in addiction recovery? The Society for the Study of Addiction defines stigma as “a sociocultural process in which social groups are devalued, rejected and excluded on the basis of a socially discredited health condition.” They note that it can be seen in at least three levels in addiction recovery:…
The path to sobriety is often a rocky one, full of hills to climb and curves to navigate. It is completely normal to experience a setback or even relapse on the lifetime journey to maintain your recovery from addiction. Life is full of circumstances that can make alcohol and drug abuse recovery challenging. The passing…