How the Right Diet Can Help Aide in Addiction Recovery
Whether you’ve just finished treatment or have been in recovery for a while, it’s important to know how much of an impact your diet can have during the process. What we eat literally has everything to do with how we feel. When it comes to the addict in recovery, a healthy diet can make a tremendous impact on the way they experience the recovery process. When a person is equipped with the knowledge of what to eat and why, serious change can occur in the way they feel both mentally and physically. Nature Offers Everything We Need to Heal Many addicts don’t realize the physical toll drug abuse takes on their body. From malnutrition and dehydration that’s common amongst most addicts, to more serious health problems such as liver damage and damage to the central nervous system, addiction can wreak havoc on a person’s physical health. Nature, however, gives us everything we need to heal. Aside from activities such as yoga and mindfulness, taking a holistic approach to addiction recovery involves eating nutritious foods and taking certain supplements. Holistic healing is far removed from the cigarettes and coffee so common at the corner AA meeting. Treating the body naturally begins with offering it everything it needs to repair and recover from the damage done during addiction. Knowing what foods to avoid, as well as what to eat for the best possible recovery, can help immensely in the way you feel and how much you enjoy your newfound sobriety. Foods to Avoid When Overcoming Addiction Sugar Sugar is a common substitute for drugs or alcohol for countless people in addiction...
Meditation and Addiction Recovery
With many people taking a holistic approach to treating addiction, meditation has become an integral aspect of many addiction recovery programs. Meditation has been used in Eastern cultures for years, and has recently found its way into Western culture as countless people turn toward more natural ways of taking care of their body and mind. And, while not considered a cure-all for those overcoming addiction, meditation is unprecedented at increasing self-awareness, combating stress and anxiety, decreasing negative emotional response, and helping increase connection. 5 Ways Meditation Helps in Addiction Recovery #1 – Lowers Stress Levels It’s no secret that stress leads to substance abuse. Anyone who has struggled with addiction is familiar with the immediate urge to use when hit with stressful situations. Whether it’s cigarettes, alcohol, heroin, cocaine, or food…when stress hits the addicted brain, the desire to numb it with a person’s drug of choice is clearly evident. A regular meditation practice can help relieve stress and invoke a sense of calm that permeates a person’s presence even when they aren’t meditating. Meditation works in harmony with the central nervous system, guiding a person out of “fight or flight” mode and into an oasis of increased calm and awareness. Meditating even five minutes a day can significantly reduce the stress that leads to compulsive drug or alcohol abuse. #2 – Increases Dopamine Levels Drugs and alcohol increase dopamine levels in the reward centers of the brain, part of which makes a person feel good when they’re high. When their drug of choice begins to wear off, however, dopamine levels plummet to levels lower than they were before using. This is what...
The Role of Environment in Addiction Recovery
Overcoming an addiction is one of the most difficult things a person will face in their lifetime. Addiction literally changes the way the brain functions and is all too often devastating for individuals and their families. Anyone who has beaten an addiction to drugs and alcohol knows that recovery is far from over when the addiction ends. Addiction affects each person differently. And while some people can easily get over an addiction, many struggle to get their life back on track after successfully quitting their drug of choice. For some, recovery is a lifelong process. For others, it many take months or years to fully recovery from an addiction. Environment plays a crucial role in overcoming addiction. The more comfortable and supportive a person’s environment, the better their chances of successfully sustaining their sobriety for good. A person who has just gotten over an addiction, whether through treatment or on their own, must contend with an entirely new reality. Without a proper structure and supportive environment, relapse can become a very unfortunate reality. Changing Your Environment Changing your environment can be an amazing help if you have recently overcome an addiction. Surrounding yourself with the people and places that remind you of your addiction can quickly lead to the triggers that ultimately lead you directly back to addiction. Changing your environment is a critical aspect of successfully staying sober and embracing this new life. 4 Tips to Change Your Environment While Recovering from Addiction #1 – Get Rid of Old “Friends” Chances are, the “friends” you used to hang out with when you were using weren’t really your friends...
Oxycontin Addiction – Getting Help
Oxycontin addiction has spread across the US and become one of the most abused substances there is. Widely prescribed to help people manage pain, it just so happens to be one of the most addictive prescriptions known. Oxycontin is formulated from opioids, the based drug for many modern medicines as well as heroin. Opiate prescriptions have become all too familiar on the medical scene. Addiction to opiates, especially oxycontin, happens more than many people realize. The number of addicts grows every year, with some two million Americans dependent on or abusing prescription opioids such as Oxycontin. Why is Oxycontin so Addictive? The Addictive Dangers of an Oxycontin Addiction Although Oxycontin is prescribed to help people with pain, it’s still an opioid. This means it poses an extremely high potential for abuse. A person taking Oxycontin for pain often finds themselves with more than they bargained for. An addiction to Oxycontin can go virtually unnoticed, until a person tries to stop. This is because the more a person takes an opioid (in this case Oxycontin), the more they need to achieve the desired effect. Oxycontin works by connecting to various opiate receptors in the brain. It triggers a massive release of dopamine–which not only masks a person’s pain but also elicits a sense of comfortable euphoria. It can make a person feel amazing, comfortably relaxed without a care in the world. This is why countless people abuse Oxycontin on a regular basis. Snorting or injecting Oxycontin only intensifies this pleasurable effect, something that has people continually seeking out this “legal” substance on a regular basis. For people that become addicted to...
