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Coming Out of Our Comfort Zones: Recovery From Addiction - by Candace Plattor- 10 Benefits of Quitting Marijuana - by Submitted on Feb 03, 2011 from Sean BurrowsI'm not at all shy to admit I was a regular pot smoker for over 7 years of my life. I smoked almost everyday because I enjoyed it. It was something that eased my mind and gave me a sense of relaxation. Over time however, I began to see that everything I thought I enjoyed about it was only an ...
Views: 37297(5 votes) - HOW TO STOP GAMBLING NOW: 10 Steps You Can Take To Stop Gambling Today - by Submitted on Dec 23, 2009 from J CWhen you absolutely must stop gambling right now, here are 10 steps you can take today. STEP 1: GET RID OF YOUR MONEY If you want to stop gambling right now, the first step begins by stopping to carry money. This includes credit cards, debit cards, access to bank accounts, checks, loans, ...
Views: 32877(3 votes) - How To Overcome Codependency In 3 Simple Steps - by Submitted on May 28, 2012 from Fariborz ArbasiWhat Is Codependency Codependency is a learned behavior that refers to an obsessive need for affection, attention and affirmation. It is also known as “relationship addiction” because; this relationship based on emotional dependency is the other side of the coin of emotionally destructive and ...
Views: 31020(1 vote) - What is Self-Respect? - by Submitted on Sep 04, 2009 from Michelle MorandRecently a client asked me what Self-respect meant to me. She also shared her own definition and it got me thinking that my readers might benefit from considering this question and exploring their own definitions. Have a read of my off-the-cuff answer to my client and then please take a moment ...
Views: 24462(5 votes) - 6 Tips to Remove YouTube Addiction - by Submitted on Apr 01, 2011 from Nelson BerryBy The Pioneer of Subliminal Messages Online. Yes, you don't watch a lot of television but you're spending too much time in YouTube. This video-sharing website has garnered millions of followers all over the world, for only a very short time. With so many videos to watch you can't help but ...
Views: 23416 - Diet Changes To Help Ease Your Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms - by Submitted on Apr 29, 2010 from Sandra Kim LeongIf you are going through some alcohol withdrawal symptoms while trying to kick your drinking habit, making some diet changes can help you during this process. These changes may sound like a whole lot of common sense but they are, nonetheless important. The changes can help you ease your ...
Views: 20750 - Love, Sex, Relationships, And Early Addiction Recovery - by Submitted on Sep 26, 2008 from William BerryAs many people in recovery have probably heard, (and often ignored or debated) it is detrimental to early recovery to become involved in romantic relationships. This article will discuss some of the reasoning behind the often-proposed suggestion “no relationships for the first year.” Perhaps ...
Views: 18861(1 vote) - What Makes Addicts Stop Caring? How Empathy Gets Hijacked by Addiction - by Submitted on Nov 14, 2011 from Dr. David SackWhen you walk into a 12-Step meeting, one of the first things you may see is a sign that says, “We Care.” Though short and seemingly insignificant, this message highlights one of the components of 12-Step recovery that makes the program so effective: empathy. What Is Empathy? In its ...
Views: 18752(1 vote) - Understanding Why Pornography Addiction is a Brain Disease - by Submitted on Dec 06, 2011 from Gordon Bruin“One ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them. One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them. In the Land of Mordor where the shadows lie.” -J.R.R. Tolkien Pornographers are acutely aware of the information that I am going to give you. They will do whatever they can to keep ...
Views: 16888(4 votes) - Do You Love an Alcoholic? – Stop Rescuing and Enabling (Part 1) - by Submitted on Jan 15, 2007 from Angie LewisDo you love an alcoholic? How can you live with an alcoholic and love them at the same time? Very carefully. It’s true, it is very difficult to live with an alcoholic, but people do it all the time. Alcohol controls the mind and spirit of a person, so in affect as long as the alcoholic is ...
Views: 16629(2 votes) - Putting Out the Flame of Desire: More About Love Addiction - by Submitted on May 19, 2004 from Susan PeabodyThe following letter was written to one of my readers in response to his letter of April 13, 2004. He has given me permission to excerpt his letter so that others might benefit from my advice. Dear Tom, Thank you for sharing your story with me. I have excerpted some of your thoughts and made ...
Views: 16427(1 vote) - So! I Finally Quit Drinking. Why am I so Angry? - by Submitted on Jun 05, 2010 from Hoot HootenSo – I Finally Quit Drinking. Why am I so Angry? By Claude “Hoot” Hooten aka: Brad Edwards Believe it or not, when we drunks finally quit drinking, we're angry. I remember thinking, "alright, I'm not drinking, what else do they want?" "I was giving up all the ...
Views: 16027 - Tips to Stop Enabling - by Submitted on Oct 12, 2009 from Beverley GlazerThere are very fuzzy boundaries between helping and enabling. If you’re enabling, you think that you’re helping, but what you’re doing is anything but helpful. Here's some information so that you don't confuse the two. Helping When you help someone you are doing something that they cannot ...
Views: 15641(4 votes) - 7 Steps to Overcome Withdrawal from a Break Up of an Addictive Relationship - by Submitted on May 09, 2013 from Jim HallAre You a Love Addict? Are you in a Break-Up from an Addictive Relationship? There is no doubt that for most people, “breaking up is hard to do”… for love addicts, breaking up is especially difficult. One of the most disturbing and defining features of addiction is withdrawal and obsessive ...
Views: 14547(3 votes) - A Relapse Prevention Tool - Emotional Cues for Cravings in Relapse Worksheet - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonWe experience sensory, emotional/psychological, cognitive, environmental, and physical cues on a daily basis in early recovery. These cues or triggers, if left unchecked can turn into powerful cravings for the chemical. Cravings can lead to relapse. In order to avoid relapse it is crucial that ...
Views: 13957(2 votes) - Free Drug And Alcohol Rehab At The Salvation Army - by Submitted on Nov 28, 2007 from John LeeWith the costs of private rehab reaching as much as $20 000 per month and more, those people without private health insurance or the means to pay for rehab often wonder what they can do to better painful and crippling addictions to drugs and or alcohol. It's unfortunate that everyone is not in ...
Views: 13902 - Addiction and Recovery: The Cross Addiction Worksheet - by Submitted on Feb 13, 2010 from Peggy FergusonMany recovering people who begin the process of becoming clean and sober, harbor the notion that they can continue to hang on to some remnants of an old drinking/using lifestyle. They often initially believe that specific drugs are The Problem. Initially alcoholics/addicts may not consider use ...
Views: 13551(4 votes) - 10 Stop Smoking Self-Hypnosis Affirmations to Help You to Quit Smoking - by Submitted on Dec 29, 2011 from Nancy PhilpottAs you begin your smoke free life, it is important to constantly remind yourself of why you quit smoking. An excellent and effective way to do this is to use a form of self-hypnosis. Stop smoking hypnosis can be used at all stages of consciousness. You don’t have to be in a deep trance in order ...
Views: 13297(8 votes) - How To Recover From Fantasy Addiction - by Submitted on Mar 15, 2011 from Caroline NettleAddiction to fantasy is a defence mechanism against the pain that we feel in our lives. It is a behaviour that is generally rooted in childhood, and it is a coping strategy that was learned to enable the child to survive the pain. Very often the child will use stories like fairy tales to ...
Views: 12693(1 vote) - Methods for Drug Smuggling - by Submitted on Dec 16, 2011 from Rikkie ThampsomDrug smuggling operations can rely on willing or unwilling couriers. In either case, the transport possibilities are seemingly limitless. Cartels and small-time transporters alike are driven by the high profitability of the drug trade and they will go to any length necessary to accomplish ...
Views: 12539(1 vote) - What psychological and physical problems develop after stopping opiates? - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2010 from Dr. Mark AgrestiLet’s look at the opiates first. An opiate is a narcotic pain killer like Roxycodone, Oxycodone, Loratabs, Loracet, Methadone, Vicodin, Actiq, and Stadol. The action of these drugs may last varying amounts of time and has varying doses. For example, some people can be on 100mg a day of Oxycontin ...
Views: 12516(2 votes) - The Work Addiction Syndrome - by What is the Work Addcition Syndrome
Today’s business executives are faced with complex challenges surrounding what I call “Life Balance” choices. This dynamic has become one of great concern in assessing both the physical and mental health of today’s executive in the workplace. The multitude ...
Views: 12141(2 votes) - Meth Myths - Can Meth Addicts Really Recover? - by Submitted on Dec 28, 2009 from Joe HerzanekMethamphetamine is much different from regular amphetamine pills. Without going into a chemistry lesson, meth is simply a more refined or condensed form of amphetamine. It is much more powerful than what some people might think of as diet pills or speed. It produces both an intense feeling of ...
Views: 11960(4 votes) - Purple Drink, Cough Syrup Abuse - What "Syrup" Does to Your Body - by Submitted on Apr 15, 2011 from ChooseHelp.com Addiction TreatmentPurple Drink Promethazine and Codeine containing cough syrup abuse has become popular in certain circles, especially in Houston and the South. Mixed with soft drinks and soda, it is drank and taken in high doses creating a euphoric effect that can "slow" people down. This relatively new ...
Views: 11626(2 votes) - The Pleasure Compulsion: Play It Again Sam - by Submitted on Sep 08, 2003 from Susan PeabodyThe Freudians use the term repetition compulsion to describe “the mind’s tendency to repeat traumatic events in order to deal with them.”1 Another Freudian term, the pleasure principle, describes the need of the infant to seek gratification.2 In adults, this would be called the “production of ...
Views: 11542(1 vote) - How to Stop Enabling Behavior - by Submitted on Feb 05, 2011 from Beverley GlazerWhere is the line between support and enabling? Support means you’re doing something because someone can’t do for themselves -- caring for a two-year-old, or preparing meals for your elderly grandmother, for instance. Enabling is giving assistance that makes it easier for someone to ...
Views: 11432(2 votes) - Alcoholism: Why Can't I Stop Drinking? - by Submitted on Aug 06, 2007 from Margaret PaulThe underlying basis of all addictions - and alcohol is no exception - is the avoidance of pain. While there is evidence that some people have genetic and biological predispositions toward alcoholism, not all people with these predispositions abuse alcohol or become alcohol dependent. Many ...
Views: 11226(2 votes) - Addiction Recovery Worksheet For Identifying Healthy Replacements for the Alcohol and Drugs - by Submitted on Jun 16, 2010 from Peggy FergusonOne of the most important tasks of early recovery from alcohol and other drug addiction is learning to replace the chemical with health living skills. When you have taken the chemical out of your life, it leaves a big gaping hole, where something of substance was. Alcohol or other drugs have ...
Views: 11104(2 votes) - Do you have a soft addiction? - by After a tough day, do you come home and flop in your easy chair, grab a bag of chips and zone out in front of the television? Or maybe you compulsively check your e-mail, spend hours surfing the Net or stay up late chatting with strangers in chatrooms. Whether you get lost in cyberspace, over ...
Views: 11031(3 votes) - Addiction and Recovery: The Social and Environmental Triggers Worksheet - by Submitted on Jul 25, 2009 from Peggy FergusonAssociations between particular feelings, people, places, and events becomes intertwined with the alcoholic or addicts drinking and drugging behavior. When alcoholics and addicts find their way to recovery, the old associations between the drinking and drugging and the old feeling, people, ...
Views: 10513(2 votes) - The healing power of service - by A few years ago in a small rural town in Oregon, USA, a teenage boy died in a drowning accident. In all likelihood his death could have been prevented if an ambulance and trained medical personnel had been available. However, this small town was too poor to afford these services.
The boy’s ...
Views: 10500(2 votes) - Definitions & Characteristics of Addiction - by The question comes up often: “What is the definition of addiction?” The assumption is that one true definition actually exists. It doesn’t. Indeed, there are many definitions of addiction--hundreds, perhaps. A few of those are quite good.
Morse & Flavin’s (1992) definition of addiction is the ...
Views: 10477(1 vote) - Ethical Issues faced by Addiction Counselors - by Submitted on Sep 03, 2009 from John DerryCodes of ethics and standards of practice are set forth by professional associations such as the American Counseling Association (ACA) and the National Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors (NAADAC). Such codes define principles of ethical behavior required by the profession. ...
Views: 10427(3 votes) - How to Cure Any Addiction—Holistically and Completely - by Submitted on Nov 25, 2008 from Marie Antoinette KelleyWhenever I have used the word cure in speaking about alcoholics or addicts in the presence of people who work in substance abuse treatment, they’ve cut me off in mid-sentence, as if I had uttered an obscenity. “There’s no such thing! Alcoholism and addiction are forever!” I was told again and ...
Views: 10409(1 vote) - The Ambivalent Love Addict: Love Addiction & Love Avoidance - by Submitted on Sep 06, 2012 from Susan PeabodyWhen it comes to toxic love and relationships, there are two kinds of people, those who love too much (the Love Addict), and those who love too little, (the Love Avoidant). If you vacillate between the two you are an Ambivalent Love Addict. Love Addicts: Love Addicts obsess about someone, ...
Views: 10358 - ***Values in Recovery - Part 1 - by Submitted on May 14, 2013 from Recovery NationUnderstanding the Role of Values Values are intended to help you lay a solid foundation for permanent change. This three part series is focused on the single most important aspect of your recovery: your values. Specifically, your ability to recognize, develop and use your values in practical ...
Views: 10232(1 vote) - Looking For Love in All the Wrong Faces - by Submitted on May 13, 2005 from Susan PeabodyFALLING IN LOVE WITH AN UNAVAILABLE PERSON Many love addicts find they have a history of falling in love with an unavailable person and they wonder why this keeps happening over and over again. The following is a list of the most common reasons love addicts keep falling into this ...
Views: 10135(1 vote) - Top 10 Best Alcoholics Anonymous Alternatives List - by Submitted on Aug 31, 2010 from Melanie SolomonOver the past few years, I have examined the effectiveness of Alcoholics Anonymous and a lively discussion has followed these posts. AA is a group that many have very strong feelings about - both positive and negative. For some, AA has been a life-saver and allowed them to manage their ...
Views: 10095(2 votes) - Inpatient Drug Rehab - by Submitted on Aug 13, 2008 from Robert JohnsonWhy is it so important to enter into an inpatient drug rehab rather than an outpatient? For one, the alcoholic or drug addict will be committed to staying for the duration of the rehab program and not be able to use drugs or alcohol. Also there is no outside environmental condition like drug ...
Views: 10000(3 votes) - The Health Benefits of Giving Up Alcohol - by Submitted on Apr 16, 2011 from Mike MillerOften when I teach alcohol awareness classes clients query me , "Is drinking really that bad for me?" This article will talk about some of the main physical benefits of abstaining from alcohol, and then will discuss the mental and psychological advantages of ...
Views: 9768(4 votes) - Solutions to Computer and Internet Addiction: - by Submitted on Oct 12, 2011 from battle horseComputers are a very important part of our life. One can say that, playing computer games, surfing the internet, chatting with friends, social networking etc. are regular activities a person may perform every time he or she logins. Sometimes the above mentioned activities can become an obsession ...
Views: 9626(1 vote) - Love And Despair: Recovering From A Break-Up - by Submitted on Jul 15, 2010 from Ken FieldsWhen we are in love, the world is golden and nothing gets us down. When we are out of love, we are desperate to regain those feelings we had while in love. The desperation can be so intense, we find ourselves thinking and doing things we would be ashamed to tell our best friend. The excitement ...
Views: 9322(1 vote) - Are there any Prescription Drugs that will Block the Cravings of Alcohol? - by Submitted on Oct 20, 2010 from Dr. Mark AgrestiIt’s the Holy Grail in the world of addiction to find drugs that will block the craving for alcohol. There are three medications on the market that have been studied and show some benefits. Pros and Cons of Drug Used for Alcohol Dependency or to Block Craving Campral, also known as ...
Views: 9069(1 vote) - Accepting Change - by Submitted on Dec 21, 2008 from Keith BrayChange is a word we hear oh so often. Whether we like it or not, things are going to change; we can influence how they change, and whether the change has positive direction for our life. There is much that directly affects our own well being that is within our control. When the journey to a new ...
Views: 8964 - How To Overcome Sex Addiction - what not to do - by Submitted on Jun 12, 2007 from Joe ZychikOne of the most successful advertising campaigns is Nike's "Just do it." It works for selling sneakers. It doesn't work for overcoming sex addiction. Anything – reading, eating, exercising, working, talking - can be used addictively. About 20 years ago I helped a woman who went to sleep ...
Views: 8958 - How long does it take to break a pornography addiction - by Submitted on Nov 14, 2011 from Tony LitIf you knew the real figures, you would be astonishedhedat how many of the men and women in your life secretly have a pornography addiction. Some of the fresh surveys indicate that as many as 70% of men and 25% of women struggle with this topic. And unfortunately, they have to keep it a ...
Views: 8874 - Kick the Cigarette Habit: A Little Known Spiritual Cause of Addiction - by Submitted on Aug 07, 2011 from Scott & Stephen PetulloIf you've tried many times to quit smoking but you haven't been able to make it permanent, it may be time to consider the little talked about spiritual side of addiction: Ghosts. What do ghosts have to do with an addiction to cigarettes? More than you may realize. We've found through our ...
Views: 8755 - Top 3 Reasons That Make Meth So Horribly Dangerous - by Submitted on Mar 19, 2010 from Serj SaganWhenever we hear something on the news about the “war against drugs,” meth is almost always mentioned as well. We hear about how badly it is spreading. For those of you who are around meth then you know that it is spreading throughout our neighborhood, our friends, even spreading to our kids. ...
Views: 8736(3 votes) - Sexual Addiction Behavior Types (Patrick Carnes) - by Submitted on May 30, 2011 from Ross Rosenberg, M.Ed. LCPC CADCAccording to Patrick Carnes, there are 11 sexual addiction behavior types. This information is important when when working with sexually addictive or codependents or co-addicts of sex addicts. As you will see, sex addiction comes in many forms and types. Anything from the lone web surfer who ...
Views: 8379(5 votes) - Do You Love an Alcoholic? – Setting Boundaries For You (Part 2) - by Submitted on Jan 15, 2007 from Angie LewisLoving an alcoholic is not about taking care of them, but about taking care of you. You have a responsibility to protect yourself from any of the alcoholic’s negative and destructive behavior. Setting boundaries for you is how to become healthy, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. You may ...
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