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Addiction – Why It’s Not A Disease.

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Addiction - Why It's Not A Disease.

Addiction a disease? Really?

The debate about the nature of addiction has raged for decades. Is it disease? Is it a matter of choice? Is it a weakness of character? A moral failing? Today, the most widespread and prevalent view is that addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disease. The majority of addiction treatment centres in the US and the UK address addiction from a disease perspective, prescribing total abstinence from the offset and using the twelve Steps as their treatment method.

So why is there still a debate about the disease concept of addiction? it doesn’t happen with other diseases like Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart disease or multiple sclerosis. Well, basically because:

  • addiction has  little in common with any disease that we know of
  • the current methods of addressing it don’t make sense from a disease management point of view
  • the foundational elements that the disease concept is based on, can be disproved by multiple sources of evidence.

First of all let’s look at some of the principles that drive the disease concept and the evidence the refutes it. [Read more…]

6 Tips For Dealing With A Relapse

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Relapse

So you’ve relapsed, what now?

Well let’s look at the options; you can do one of five things

  1. Writhe around in self-flagellating shame and drink / use more to numb it
  2. Consider yourself a loser/failure and give up all hope of being able to change –  drink or use more, what’s the point in trying?
  3. Believe that all the time you spent sober is now completely null and void – you’re back to ground zero so why not carry on drinking more.
  4. Keep replaying the relapse in your head, what you did , what you said, have a panic attack and drink/use more                                                                                                                                                    
  5. Get a grip, look at what played into the relapse, learn from it and move on.

So I assume if you are still reading you’ve probably tried options 1-4 numerous times before and perhaps they didn’t end so well? In that case, read on and look at what you need to do to get through this relapse.  [Read more…]

Managing Cravings and Urges

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Managing  Cravings and Urges

Addiction Monitor Shows Craving And Substance Abuses

It goes without saying that success in recovery relies on the ability to manage cravings and urges. Intellectually, you fully understand that one drink / hit / smoke or whatever it is that you do, will inevitably end up with you either puking up on the bathroom floor or waking up the next day full of the remorse and shame of yet another failed attempt to stop. You KNOW this, so why is it that you can’t seem to curb those impulses? Why is it so hard to overcome the urge to do something that you know will ultimately end in carnage?

Understanding cravings and urges is the first step to managing them. It is not about being weak-willed – it is about over-riding the brain’s hard-wired natural survival mechanisms, which is not an easy task.

Drugs and alcohol target the parts of the brain that are involved in learning, memory, reward and emotional regulation. In order to survive as a species, we have to learn and remember what is good for us and what is dangerous. When we do things that encourage survival such as complete tasks, connect with others, eat, drink and have sex, we are rewarded with neurochemicals that promote feelings of well-being, satisfaction, pleasure and contentment. One of the chemicals – dopamine -amongst other things, motivates us to seek out activities that produce these feelings, given that they are associated with survival. Unfortunately or fortunately depending how you look at it, drugs and alcohol activate the same chemicals and so the brain starts to believe that they are essential to survival. [Read more…]

Feeling stuck? 5 Ways to Move Forward in Recovery

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Feeling Stuck In Recovery? Here are 5 ways to get unstuck

 Feeling Stuck in Recovery?

The first few weeks of abstinence from drugs or alcohol are often accompanied by a surge of motivation. You are sleeping better, you have more energy, you are starting to feel ‘normal’ and friends and family are complimenting you on how much healthier you look and how well you are doing. But as the weeks go by, you might start to feel restless, agitated or simply bored with your sobriety. People have stopped commenting on your efforts at abstinence, the initial excitement is beginning to wear off and the first thoughts of returning to active addiction are starting to rear their ugly head.

Coming off the “pink cloud” as it is known, has derailed many a person in the early days of sobriety. As the pink cloud slowly drifts away, you can become plagued by thoughts such as “Is this all there is”? “Life was much better when I was using / drinking.” “I can’t do this” “ I’d rather die from my addiction than live like this” “ I could end up being run over by a bus – so what’s the point” “Why can everyone else drink but I can’t” “ Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was” “ I’ll just drink / use at weekends and not during the week” These thoughts just generate more discontent, confusion, misery and in the end a feeling of paralysis – you can’t seem to move forward in your recovery and part of you – the healthy part that wants to live – doesn’t want to go back. You feel like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So what can you do to move forward?

[Read more…]

5 things your anger is trying to tell you.

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5 things your anger is trying to tell you.What is your anger trying to tell you?

“Anybody can become angry – that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not within everybody’s power and is not easy.” – Aristotle

 

Anger is one of the most frequently cited reasons for why people relapse back to addictive behaviours.  Anger can be such an intense emotion that when triggered, all rational thought is lost, the logical brain gets hijacked and the emotional brain takes over. In such a highly charged intense state it’s easy to press the F*** it button and throw recovery out of the window. It is very normal to experience anger in recovery as in the past you would likely have numbed or suppressed it through drugs and alcohol. Once the anaethetizing effects of substances are no longer an option, anger and all its variations, – frustration, irritability, annoyance, impatience and intolerance So how can you learn to manage your anger? Classic anger management techniques might tell you to beat a pillow with a baseball bat, scream and shout until you’ve worn yourself out or count to ten and breathe through the anger until it subsides. However, while these techniques may help to calm you down temporarily, they don’t do anything about the underlying cause of the anger. [Read more…]

Mindfulness – just another fad?

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Mindfulness, just another fad?

 Mindfulness – What’s it all about?

Mindfulness seems to be the new buzzword these days. “5 ways to live in the now” “7 ways to be present” “Are you living in the moment?”  “4 ways to be mindful at work” You can’t avoid the explosion of articles extoling the virtues of mindfulness and telling you it is the key to happiness, well-being and an altogether more fulfilling life. It is being hailed as a cure for all sorts of problems such as addiction, anxiety, depression and chronic pain to name but a few.  The problem is, mindfulness is becoming so “fashionable” in the media it’s in danger of being seen as another fad or quick-fix self-help cliché, which would be a terrible shame as the effects of mindfulness are actually quite profound. [Read more…]

8 types of thoughts that cause anxiety

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8 types of thoughts that cause anxietyAn essential part of overcoming anxiety is to address negative thinking patterns that drive it. This might seem easy in theory, but if you’ve lain awake at night trying to stop worrying or replaying a situation over and over again, you know it’s not an easy task. But it can be done. The first step is to identify the type of unhelpful thoughts that you have. There are eight types of dysfunctional thinking patterns or cognitive distortions as they are called – that have been found to relate directly to anxiety. Catastrophizing – This is probably the most common form of unhelpful thinking that fuels anxiety. It involves always imagining the worst case scenario and often starts with “what if…..?” What if the plane crashes? What if I make a fool of myself? What if I lose my job? [Read more…]

Are you wired for addiction?

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Addiction
Are you hard wired for addiction

The link between addiction, anxiety and depression has long been known. Essentially, if you have one, you are highly likely to have the others.  But what is emerging from neuroscience research is how intricately they are all connected and how the stress hormone cortisol can hard-wire the brain to make a person vulnerable to all three.Cortisol is one of the primary hormones released when we are anxious or stressed. Its job is to provide extra energy to deal with the stressor. It does this by partially shutting down certain systems, such as the digestive system and the immune system and flooding the body with glucose. Along, with adrenaline, cortisol is responsible for the body sesnsations we get when we experience fear, anxiety and stress – rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, chest pains, tingling in the arms and hands, dizziness and butterflies in our stomach. Although these feelings are uncomfortable, they are our body’s way of giving us the strength, focus, energy and numbness to pain in order to help us get out of life threatening situations. This is all well and good when we actually have the ability to deal with and take action to remove the stressor but what happens when we can’t? [Read more…]

Addiction Treatment – What Works? – Evidenced-Based Paths to Recovery.

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There is no single effective treatment for addiction and any facility or treatment professional who claims otherwise needs to be given a wide berth. Addiction arises from a multitude of biological, psychological, social and spiritual reasons and can vary in nature and severity from person to person. Effective treatment needs to take into account what is driving and maintaining the addiction for each person individually, and use interventions which specifically target the underlying problems. In effect, you need to treat the person not just the addiction.

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6 Myths About Emotions That Can Hold You Back in Your Recovery

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6 Myths About EmotionsWe grow up hearing a lot about emotions, “boys don’t cry”, “suck it up” “get a grip” “look on the bright side” “pull your socks up”and numerous other sayings that encourage us to “put up or shut up” and avoid expressing “negative” emotions.  No doubt the intention behind these sayings is well-meaning – an attempt to encourage us to be happy and positive, but actually, messages that encourage us to hide, suppress, avoid or judge our emotions are downright dangerous. Misconceptions about emotions are the primary obstacle to developing emotional intelligence.

[Read more…]

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