Counselling & Therapy Online

6 Tips For Dealing With A Relapse

By 3 Comments

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

By Leave a Comment

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…]

5 things your anger is trying to tell you.

By 2 Comments

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…]

Our Location

20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU England

CONNECT WITH US

contact@recoveryfromaddictiononline.com