How do you manage the cravings in early recovery? Do you have a strategy for when those cravings hit? Do you know some easy things you can and should plan ahead to avoid those pesky cravings? Today I am giving you 3 super simple tips on how to manage cravings. Yes it is almost too simple, but they work. Always keep it simple - the important thing is just to actually do it, and not just read about it.
Read MoreAfter getting clean many expect an almost overnight change and applaud from their nearest ones as well. The road has been long and winded and often we thought we just wouldn't make it. That this life was not for us. That we didn't have what it takes to live in this skin. Every minute felt like another stabbing pain. Yes, that is how many feel that long road to finally figuring out how to live in this paper-thin skin without relying on drugs, food and alcohol.
Read MoreMedication-Assisted Treatment (MAT), represented typically by Suboxone and methadone, is used to treat opiate addiction and appears to be useful in reducing overdoses and decreasing transmission rates of HIV and hepatitis C. The short term benefits of MAT begs the question, as to what the long-term perspectives are. What happens when the addict needs to come totally clean and face what life without any drugs feel like? Considering that most people admit to feeling numb on any amount of drugs after prolonged time. Being numb will eventually itself lead to depression, thus MAT is only temporary.
Read MoreSummer is Pitta season - pitta is also one of the 3 personal constitution types in Eastern medicine: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Each roughly corresponds to what we in Western medicine call serotonin, dopamin and GABA dominant natures. Pitta imbalance is often seen in overeating and binge patterns.
Read MoreIf you are a vegetarian or rarely eat meat and have a craving for carbs and just don’t feel satisfied until you are filled up on breads, pastas or sweets, you may have unstable blood sugar due to a deficiency of protein.
Read MoreIn recent years, a "myth" of sorts has sprung up, where people who avoid animal foods believe they can simply consume plant-based omega-3 ALA to meet their needs. But this isn't true and the science doesn't support this assertion. Omega-3s EPA and DHA from marine animal and plant sources are NOT interchangeable. Plant sources that contain omega-3 ALA do not provide the same benefits as the omega-3s you find in marine sources.
Read MoreHim: "I feel no emotion, that's the reason I do this". Her: *I close my eyes and just feel the pain melt away*. In this doc series you get an insight to what heroine addiction looks like. Anne and Digger are parents and both addicted to heroine.
Read MoreAll the things we do, eat and take to avoid any uncomfortable emotion. How many of us are guilty of this, even without having what can be diagnosed as a full-blown addiction?
Read MoreAlcohol, drugs and many eating disorders cause damage to the stomach lining. If this is not fixed, discomfort will remain. Digestion disorders always follows addiction. So what can we do to damage control?
Read MoreAddictive behaviors, such as certain eating disorders like binge eating, overeating and addictions to sugar, alcohol, smoking, chronic masturbation, sexual addictions, etc. all have their root in the brain. A toxic and nutritionally deficient brain is far more prone to addictive behaviors. Heavy metals like mercury can totally screw up our dopaminergic system and make us more likely to engage in addictive behaviors unable to quit them.
Read MorePrince passed away a couple weeks ago, and it is now clear that he too struggled with an addiction to painkillers - likely what killed him. Prescriptions for opioid painkillers have risen by 300 percent over the past 10 years. Deaths from overdosing on these drugs now far surpass those from illicit street drugs.
Read MoreOur current state of balance, can change yearly, monthly, daily and even minute-to-minute. Knowing our current state of balance is an essential tool for figuring out what needs attention right now. We can then feed those needs, rather than continue in a state of suppression and denial - all of which only leads to further imbalance and built-up. You don't fix needs by ignoring them, you fix needs by listening and caring for them.
Read MoreNest time you feel like you are about to do something that you have promised yourself not to do - ask yourself this simple question: Are you Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired? This is one of the most easy tools to begin to replace bad habits, step by step. So simple that many refuse to do it - because "it is just too easy" and thus a waste of time, because everything else in life seems like a battle. This is the lie we tell ourselves to NOT take action: if it is not hard, it must not work. Yet it is the simple things in life that works best.
Read MoreRecovery involves a personal recognition of the need for change and transformation. Recovery is a process through which we gradually achieve greater balance of mind, body and spirit in relation to other aspects of life, including family, work and community. Each person’s recovery process is unique and impacted by cultural beliefs and traditions. Our cultural experience often shapes the recovery path that is right for us. The take-away here is that no one single thing is enough to focus on, not the abstinence, not the trauma, not the nutrition and not the spiritual aspects of connecting with self, others and God. Recovery is complex and requires us to focus on all aspects simultaneously in order to get all the legs on the stool stable.
Read MoreRecovery is not just about quitting past destructive behaviors and addictions. We might like to think that recovery is simply being abstinent - being clean, not engaging in bad habits and not taking xyz. Recovery that lasts, however, is not passive. It is not us sitting it out, waiting for the craving magically to just disappear over time. The most frequent relapse happens, when we think our recovery is about focusing on just NOT doing that or taking that. This will simply exhaust our willpower over time and we will give in. We will give in to the craving, because we are not creating a space for the recovered new self, we are just abstaining - and life feels empty when we go about it this way.
Read MoreI am not a big fan of so-called cheat days. And anyone with a history of addiction issues likely want to avoid this black-white pattern of planning their eating schedule as well. Cheat days easily turn into binge days. And this leaves us in a mental state of feeling like a failure - we went overboard, we felt like we lost control and allowed our impulses to completely take-over. This is a red flag situation for anyone to relapse back into their primary type of addiction. Simply because our MINDSET is now one of "whatever", "I can't control myself" so "I might as well xyz".
Read MoreA study reveals this anxiety medication is reaching an all-time high of deaths now. Scott Disick has revealed his anxiety medication addiction. This is an addiction that hits every age group and wealth group. It is not harmless and it causes tremendous damage to the body and brain - it basically rips your gastrointestinal tract to pieces and causes multiple chronic health issues in its waters. Not to mention, highly deadly especially when combined with alcohol, as it often is in cases where one needs to "calm the nerves". So how do you figure out why you are anxious in the first place and thus, what the right actual treatment for you is, rather than mask it with drugs shown deadly?
Read MoreAccording to a 2008 study in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 38.7% of women report decreased libido as their primary sexual health concern. What has sex got to do with addiction and recovery you might think? Well, the biochemical imbalances following an addiction often leads to a complete wipe out in sex drive.
Read MoreIs it all or nothing - what do you think? I like to think that most things in life can be enjoyed in moderation. Although learning to embrace parts of something that has once controlled one, can be difficult. And indeed for some substances it is not possible, as the biochemical component is too strong to ever gain a sense of how to enjoy in moderation again. Yet, from my years of having worked in the addiction field, I am convinced that the deeper lesson of addiction is to embrace the gray zone.
Read MoreHello, my name is xyz and I am an addict. Not something anyone ever wants to have to say out loud. Therefore, we often make excuses, explanations and elaborations for our destructive habits, as to not have to attach ourselves with the term "addict". When we are scared of change, when we fear we won't make it through to the other side, when the light seems so far away and we feel weak... That is when we will often tend to deceive ourselves. We will lie in an attempt to survive in the midst of the misery. We will often lie so much, that we convince ourselves, that we do not have a problem. That everything is OK. We are OK. This is OK. What we are doing is fine - everything is just fine. When in fact we are slowly drowning.
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