Addiction treatment outcomes are determined in large part by motivation. Like most endeavors that require long term actions, motivation is vitally important. In the beginning, a client’s motivation might be that some consequence will come about if the client doesn’t go to treatment, such as…
Learning to recognize relapse triggers and relapse warning signs in addiction recovery is critical. Triggers are sights, sounds, people, smells, places and things in general that remind the person in recovery of their drug of choice. Some cocaine addicts in recovery can see powder…
There’s so much negative news about active addiction and its consequences it helps to balance that out with stories of recovery. Most people don’t hear about addicts in recovery because it’s not news worthy. I’m always careful when talking about addiction recovery — I…
Thanksgiving always reminds us of gratitude. Gratitude in addiction recovery is a topic we talk about on an ongoing basis as one of the main principles of recovery. The idea behind the principle of gratitude is that recognizing the things for which we should be grateful…
I find that most people are uncomfortable talking about addiction, addiction treatment or addiction recovery. The word addiction is loaded with negatives and stigma still remains. Some people have an image of a skid row “wino”, while others envision a drug addict using a needle in a…
In his book The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge wrote about a virtuous cycle. Senge was writing about learning organizations, but the same principles apply to individuals and a virtuous cycle in addiction recovery. We’ve all heard about the vicious cycle — addiction is a prime example of a vicious…
So, what is outpatient addiction treatment? First of all, the lingo is changing in the addiction treatment field. Although most professionals in the field still refer to addiction as addiction, there are some organizations referring to addiction as Substance Use Disorder or Alcohol Use Disorder….
Addiction thinking might seem insane to others, but to the alcoholic or drug addict it makes sense. The addicted person creates an alternate reality to make sense of his/her world, and to counter what’s perceived as an attack from others who’re pleading or demanding the…
We hear more about the downward spiral of addiction than we do the upward spiral – addiction recovery. Substance abuse counselors focused on long term recovery management are fortunate that they witness the miracle of recovery over and over. Fortunately, most people truly in recovery freely…
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