Addiction

There is a big secret to overcoming addiction that is counter-intuitive and thus remains elusive for most people. The secret is that beating addiction involves creation, not elimination. What does this mean?

Most people think of recovery as an act of elimination. We need to purge the drugs and the alcohol and all of the toxic relationships and bad environments that came along with our drug use, right?

Well this is part of the process, of course, but real recovery goes much further than an elimination strategy.

Why do we need to create? You need creation in recovery because if you simply eliminate the drugs and the alcohol then you will be left with a shell of a life. With no purpose or passion in your life you will inevitably return to drinking and drugging. The way to overcome this is through creation.

What is creation? It is purposeful, conscious living with an emphasis on holistic growth. The idea is that you're going to create a new life for yourself in recovery. This is necessary because you are not just replacing the drugs and the alcohol, you are in fact replacing an entire lifestyle that came along with using and drinking every day.

For some people, they can replace this lifestyle with a new lifestyle of 12 step meetings and the fellowship that comes along with those meetings. But others will seek a different path and that is what creation is all about. You don't have to accept 12 step meetings as your only solution for recovery. Meetings represent a very valid path and some will in fact take that route and do well with it but many fail to find sobriety in the fellowship and that is where the creative theory comes in.

The secret of recovery is creation. Even those who are working a 12 step program are actively creating a new life for themselves, they are just doing it within the framework of the 12 step program. The actual framework is irrelevant though. What's important is the creation.

So how can we create this new life for ourselves? I would suggest 3 basic strategies as a starting point for newcomers:

1) Push for personal growth 2) Caring for self 3) Networking with others

These are the 3 pillar strategies to focus on. Push yourself to grow holistically. That means that you try to grow in every area of your life, from the physical to your emotional balance to your spiritual growth.

Caring for self means just that: take care of yourself and putting a high level of importance on your health.

Networking with others is especially important in early recovery. Reach out and connect with other recovering addicts in order to strengthen your own recovery.

The big secret is in creating a new life with purpose. Ask any person who has many years sober if they basically had to create a new life for themselves in recovery and they will tell you that yes, they did in fact do exactly that. It's more than just giving up the drugs and alcohol. We have to create.

*This article has been published by Patrick Meninga. If you in need for any addiction help, feel free to visit http://www.spiritualriver.com/.

Labels: addiction, advice, Overcoming addiction, tips

Individuals who are chemically reliant want to keep taking the drug use as much as they can in maximizing quantities. They will alter it in any way, including by making up fantasies. They did all this to tell themselves that it was considerable to talk with their drug addiction. This is because of the casualty imposed on themselves and others around them.

Time over time, drug abuser will finally realize that they are sicker and sicker when they are not using drugs. That’s make them to have it more often. They realize they require more quantity of drugs to get high. That can be sign of drug addiction symptoms.

Then, these people no longer can convince themselves they’re not hurting others. While then, the feeling to keep taking drugs still strong. They know they’re destroying themselves and others, but they cannot help it. The urge is stronger than them. It’s frightening.

If stop using drugs is easy, then we would not have drug addicts today. It’s a very long process. To stop using drug, to stop the addiction, the only solution is to put your addiction in a state of remission through abstinence. Everyone will have to help to accomplish that.

The best suggestion in getting started to seek drug addiction treatment is to get an assessment by a professional doctor. For sure the treatment is not effective for all people, but there are different levels and types of drug addiction treatment available.

Labels: addiction, drug, tips, treatment

There are many ways you can approach overcoming addiction - some techniques work much better than others, while some are bound to fail in most cases, and identifying the best (or most adequate) technique for you is much more important than most people think.

For example, when trying to quit drinking, the focus is usually on the imperative of not drinking. But as long as one still desires to drink, abstaining from drinking can only lead to tension, frustration and a mix of negative emotions that make him question whether the stress is not actually more harmful than alcohol. This is one of the reasons most people struggle with overcoming addiction -- they focus on the negative aspects, on what they have to resist from doing, instead of focusing on what they should do. It is actually possible and also quite enjoyable to enjoy yourself while avoiding addictive habits, even in the presence of withdrawal effects. Sure there will be a degree of physical, mental and emotional discomfort, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it, with the right attitude.



The First Step Is Acknowledging the Alternatives

Most drugs, legal or not, are so seducing because they induce feelings of euphoria and relaxation, they lower inhibitions and produce various mood-altering effects. These are all good things in themselves, and any person who cares about her well-being would normally seek to attain them. However, this can be don by other, more healthy means, as well. It is therefore important to know what these means are, as well as a few tricks on how to apply them. The purpose of this article is to teach you how to overcome many of the difficulties in implementing any healthy habit and avoid the traps that lead to going back to previous harmful habits unnecessarily. One of the most effective activities that promotes a happy mood is fitness training. The mild feelings of euphoria it produces are attributed to an increased release of endorphins. When this state is attained by running it is referred to as "the runner's high". Both aerobic and anaerobic exercise have similar effects. However, some research indicates that lifting heavy weights has an even greater positive effect on the mood, lasting long after exercising. Apart from helping you maintain a positive mood, these activities also lower blood pressure, help you increase your lung capacity and cardiovascular health and promote better blood flow to the brain, thereby improving mental performance. Getting up early and going out for a walk in the sun is another powerful way of improving your mood. Adopting a better diet, taking up dance classes or enjoying a massage are just some of the countless ways you can improve your mood and fight stress. Stress relief is another common benefit people seek through drinking, smoking or drug abuse. Some of the alternatives for relieving stress are well known to most people. Taking a hot shower or listening to relaxing music are just a few examples. However, there are many reasons why people tend to ignore this alternatives completely and go straight for what they know - pouring themselves a glass of whiskey, lighting up a cigar or turning on the TV. Here are a few tricks that make it easier to chose the alternatives, which is a necessity for effectively overcoming addiction.



Doing the Things You Want Before Needing the Things You "Need"

It is admittedly easier, faster and more effective to drink a glass of wine than it is to take a shower, get dressed and go for a walk outside or make yourself a cup of relaxing herbal tea. These natural remedies take more time and only combining several of them can match up to the immediate (even if short lasting) efficiency of a good drink. That is why it is important to rush and do as many of the "good" things as possible before you get into such a mood that you can barely restrain yourself from reaching for the object of your addiction. Go straight for the shower. Start making some Chamomile tea right away, don't wait. Besides, some counter measures, such as regularly exercising to stay fit and positive, are simply not suitable for somebody who has just come home, tired after a stressful day at work. Maybe you can find the time to go to the gym in the morning, or install a pull-up bar in your house - working out is a wonderful way to start the day and especially recommended when you know for a fact you will not have another opportunity to exercise unless you do it in the morning. Think about it and com up with your own strategies.



Remembering Past Experiences

It is easy to overlook what you know from past experiences when you are not feeling right. Have you ever had a hot shower after a busy day, and not enjoyed it? The thing is, many times, when you are tired and tense, you simply cannot visualize or imagine how good it would feel to do such things, and even after you begin, it takes a few minutes to relax. But if you make an effort to remember that you have done those before and they worked, it gets much easier. On the other hand, it is easy to forget and not take into consideration the negative effects of drugs when you feel temped to use them. We usually tend to imagine the immediate, positive effects very easily. But because we are so in touch with those addictive habits, it's also pretty easy for us to visualize the subsequent, negative effects, if we try.



Avoid Drawing a Line Between Indulging and Not Indulging

Another example of limiting attitude is to think of our options in terms of either indulging in an addictive behavior or going without it. The reason this attitude is not useful is that, if we do chose to indulge, we eliminate the possibility of doing anything else to help us achieve the desired effects, and therefore, we feel obliged to continue indulging in our vice until we get enough of it or we fall asleep exhausted. Additionally, the choice for healthier alternatives becomes harder, since in our mind, such a choice implies refusing ourselves even the slightest enjoyment of our vice. Therefore, if we do not feel prepared to resist the object of our addiction altogether, we chose not to resist at all.

A more useful attitude is to be more tolerant towards ourselves so that even if we do drink a small glass of wine or smoke a few (or more) cigarettes, we still regard ourselves as being in control and having the option of doing a few healthy things, together with the unhealthy ones.

Dan Adrian from http://www.portal-to-self-healing.com - Self Healing Techniques That Will Really Help.

Emotional Healing, Addictions, Healthy Habits, Qigong, and Tai Chi

Article source:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Overcoming-Addiction-Gently-and-Effectively&id=1851853

Labels: addiction, effectively, gently, overcoming, tips

There are quite a few signs of alcohol misuse, but in this day and age where drinking has become the norm when done in moderation, alcohol abuse has turn out to be a serious problem in our culture. Alcohol recovery pertains to everyone in all walks of life, from the mailroom to the boardroom and it has no age barrier.

The alcoholic is very sick. They are sick physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You see, addiction stunts your growth; it literally makes you stop growing emotionally. The alcoholic does not know this and they sure don't mean to be this way, it’s just part of the sickness. Immaturity is a symptom of alcoholism.

A few years back, there was a story going around the 12-step rooms about a frog in the water. It goes like this:
If you put a frog into a pan of boiling water, it will jump out faster than the eye can see. But if you put the frog into a pan of water that is the frog's body temperature and then slowly turn up the heat the frog will stay in the water -- even to the point of boiling alive. Why? Because the frog does not notice the gradual change in temperature.

Alcoholism works the same way... the heat is constantly turned up but nobody notices. Cunning and baffling! A progressive disease. It may start out with casually accepting unacceptable behavior -- Oh, he didn't mean that, he just had too much to drink last night. A few years down the road the behavior has slowly grown more and more intolerable, but it is still being accepted and becomes the "norm."

Alcohol recovery for the alcoholic is promising and it is important to know that alcohol abuse is a sign of an underlying trouble and it is good to know that getting an individual to stop drinking alcohol many times is the easy part of the recovery process. When a person is in alcohol recovery the most difficult part can sometimes be learning how to be happy once again, without the use of alcohol.

Using a Vision Map Video to remind the person in recovery daily of the joy and happiness that is available and can be found again, is a perfect tool in the recovering person’s sober toolbox. Many people know about Vision Boards for mind mapping, but now there is Vision Map Videos and they are so much more private than a board for all of the family and friends to see. No matter how hopeless and unmanageable a person's life has become due to the effects of alcohol, recovery is possible. The person in recovery needs as many tools as possible to overcome the urges to drink again.

Labels: addiction, advice, alcohol, effect, tips