Answer Addiction

Tag: support

  • How To Party Without Mixing Alcohol And Drugs

    How To Party Without Mixing Alcohol And Drugs

    ARTICLE SUMMARY: Are you a young person in early recovery? Take note! You need to know when to avoid a party. But when you’re ready to hit the scene, practice these refusal lines. More here.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS

     

    Night Life in Addiction Recovery

    Leaving old habits behind might be challenging and tricky. If you used to mix alcohol with drugs, it can be really uncomfortable to go out again. Can night life ever really be the same? If you’re in recovery, you actually might want to pass it up for a while.

    Why?

    Being near the scene can be dangerous. Just exposing yourself to triggers can lead you to relapse. If you are in treatment, it’s highly advisable you stay away from direct triggers. Sounds. Smells. Images. These are the things that can jeopardize the effort and progress on your road to reaching and maintaining sobriety.

    So how do you party when in recovery? Is it possible to have a good time without the influence of drugs and/or alcohol?

    Of course you can.  Keep reading further to find out how to protect yourself when the environment and people around you act as a temptation. Plus, read about alternative fun activities that do not include the use of alcohol and drugs. All your questions and/or personal experiences about partying without mixing alcohol and drugs are welcomed at the end.

    Can I Party In Drug And Alcohol Addiction Recovery?

    Absolutely!

    Recovery programs exist to teach addicts that sobriety is not boring! On the contrary, recovery opens up a lot of new opportunities. You just need to learn and practice some alternatives to bring you fun and joy without exposing yourself to danger.

    Q: Who should refrain from partying?
    A: If going out endangers your recovery, maybe you should stay home.

    At least for now.

    Why?

    Common Triggers

    When you make a decision to quit mind-altering drugs, some situations are just not healthy. Seeing a set of friends who look like they are having fun. Or, hearing the sound a lighter hit glass. Or, listening to that song that brings back nostalgia and a desire to get high.

    These are all triggers that might set off a desire for you to reach out for drugs and alcohol again.

    Theoretically, there are two types of triggers:

    1. Internal triggers, which usually manifest themselves as negative feelings.
    2. External triggers, that include people, places, things, and situations that provoke you to get back to your old substance abusive behaviors after a period of abstinence.

    When you are in early addiction recovery, you’ve just started developing a sober lifestyle. You aren’t quite used to feeling subtler emotions. We who are in recovery have all been through it.  You’re used to getting high…and dealing with the lows. But, we just don’t have healthy habits ingrained into our brain pattern yet.

    So, it’s best to avoid:

    1. Parties at clubs where you used to drink alcohol or use drugs.
    2. Acquaintances that still drink and take drugs.
    3. Visiting places while you are in an emotional period where drugs and alcohol are expected to be present.

    In fact, a night out can be super confusing. While it can be a learning experience, you need to be in a really stable place in early recovery. This is because hitting the night life can make you feel vulnerable. It might even lower your enthusiasm for change, or impact your self-esteem…both of which eventually may increase the possibility of relapse.

    The Cycle of Craving

    So, here’s a little deeper explanation into why you might want to wait. I’m not suggesting that you not have fun. I’m just saying that changing the way you have fun can be worth it.

    Addiction triggers involve high-risk situations. They are viewed as stressors that spark a thought, feeling, or action which makes you desire drugs/alcohol over and over again. When a trigger strikes in you get a sudden and unexpected urge to use again, it’s called a “craving”. In short, addiction triggers usually lead you to cravings and cravings stimulate your urges to use.

    This is why one of the main focuses of rehab is to teach you to become more aware of your specific triggers. Once you identify the trigger, you can learn how to control the sequence of events. Perhaps you can avoid the trigger totally. Or, you can learn how to change your related thought pattern. Or, maybe you intervene on the behavior-level.

    This is possible only through education. If you learn successful craving or coping management skills, you’ll necessarily learn techniques for fighting craving in recovery.

    Refusing an Offer

    Learning to say NO takes a little practice. Relapse prevention tips and refusal lines are taught during every addiction treatment program. But we’ve noticed that you need to actually practice these lines BEFORE you’re in a tight spot. Here are some suggestions about what you can say/do in different situations.

    1. First, go to events where there are no drugs and alcohol.

    2. Second, connect with friends who support your decision not to use drugs. Ask for support from these friends when others become pushy in their offerings.

    3. When in a problematic situation, make an excuse to leave. Just get out of there.

    When you are offered with drugs or alcohol, use definitive refusal lines such as:

    • I’m good.
    • No, thank you.
    • I can’t.
    • I have some medical issues right now.
    • I pass.

    I made the mistake in early recovery of trying to “explain it all”. No one who’s using wants to hear why you’re not using. They just want you to join them so that they can feel less alone.

    So, the bottom line is that you don’t feel like you need to explain yourself. No one needs to “get it.” They probably don’t want to.

    Alt Partying

    The sober community has many members. Most of us know what it’s like to wake up the next morning, blacked out. But just because we’re not using doesn’t mean that we’ve lost the will to have fun. Recovery is about building a new life, one that drugging and drinking parties are not a part of any more.

    If you want an alternative way to party, think about hosting your friends at your house. You can be the host of a sober party. You don’t need to socialize with just people in recovery. But make sure people know that substances are off limits.

    Some people like board games. Other people just party around food and music. Still others meet and then go to an event together. Whatever. Just get some people together and find something you all like to do. Talk to people at the party and connect. That’s more than a party; that’s creating a community.

    Or, find hobbies that don’t involve alcohol/drugs but are still entertaining such as: table sports, darts, card games, going to the zoo, or to the movies. Dancing is one of most recommended ways lifting your mood.

    Finally, be prepared. If you’re going to an event where psychoactive substance will be present…resolve to:

    • Choose mocktails instead of cocktails.
    • Use your refusal lines.
    • Plan an escape if temptations gets too great.

    Your Questions

    At some point, mixing alcohol and drugs gets old. It leads you down that same dead end.

    But maybe you have questions about what you’ve just read. Maybe you have an experience to share? Feel free to leave your comments below. Me and my team will make sure to get back to you with a personal and prompt response.

    Reference sources: Dr. Chad Coren: TRIGGERS OF ADDICTION
    Girl’s Health: Ways to say “no” to drugs
    NIH: Building your drink refusal skills

    View the original article at addictionblog.org

  • MyPillow CEO's Past Addiction Battle Inspires Him to Help Employees

    MyPillow CEO's Past Addiction Battle Inspires Him to Help Employees

    “Addicts are hard workers. Addiction’s a lot of work… I’m all about second chances. When people come to me, that’s their past.”

    Mike Lindell, CEO of the popular MyPillow line of bedding, understands how substance use disorder can derail a person’s ability to pursue their dreams or even maintain basic quality of life.

    He struggled with years of addiction to cocaine and crack cocaine while attempting to launch MyPillow before gaining sobriety in 2009, two years before his company became an as-seen-on-TV sensation and a multimillion-dollar business.

    Lindell now uses his success to provide employees and prospective workers who may be struggling with similar dependencies with the support they need to gain recovery, including direct connection with him for guidance and assistance.

    Lindell estimated that 10 to 20% of his employees have “had struggles,” as he told the Daily Caller, and said that he makes a point to hire people who have made recovery a priority. “Addicts are hard workers,” he explained. “Addiction’s a lot of work… I’m all about second chances. When people come to me, that’s their past.”

    Of his 1,600 employees, Lindell estimates that 500 have his direct phone number, which with he said “they can tell me what’s going on. We get them help. We’re all about helping people.”

    The Daily Caller cited an example of Lindell’s efforts in Patrick, a MyPillow employee whom the site chose to identify by first name only. The thirty-something had been drinking what he described as a bottle a night, which eventually impacted his work performance. Eventually, Patrick found himself on the phone with Lindell.

    “I called him up and basically put myself where I was at 28 or 29 so I could connect with him,” said the CEO. “I said, ‘Here’s your best help.’”

    Though reluctant to enter rehab, Lindell’s promise that a job at MyPillow would be waiting for him when he completed treatment convinced him to seek help.

    “I’ve worked multiple other jobs with the same problem, and I’ve never had this,” said Patrick. 

    Lindell subscribes to the notion that addiction is less of a disease than learned behavior as a coping mechanism. “It’s a mask for pain that usually comes from childhood and fatherlessness,” he opined, noting that he believed that the root of his addiction came from his parents’ divorce when he was 7 years of age.

    But he also understands that recovery requires support and understanding, which is what he hopes to give to employees, both current and prospective.

    “I’m giving people hope because I just put it all out there,” he said.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Ariana Grande’s Brother: Mac Miller Helped Me Get Sober

    Ariana Grande’s Brother: Mac Miller Helped Me Get Sober

    “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking.”

    Frankie Grande paid tribute to Mac Miller in an Instagram post, stating it was thanks to the late rapper that Grande got sober.

    “I am beyond heartbroken over Malcolm’s death. He was a good friend and was wonderful to my sister,” Grande posed, referring to the relationship his sister, Ariana Grande, and Miller shared. “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking, when I couldn’t imagine living without them. It was the place where I found the community of support that showed me that living life without drugs was a possibility and I would have never discovered that if it weren’t for Malcolm.”

    Grande went on to recount all the times Miller showed up to support Grande’s sobriety milestones before calling for sympathy for those who suffer from substance abuse disorders.

    “I am beyond heartbroken over Malcolm’s death. He was a good friend and was wonderful to my sister,” Grande wrote in the caption. “He was the reason I went to the rehabilitation center where I was detoxed safely from all of the drugs alcohol and medications I was taking, when I couldn’t imagine living without them. It was the place where I found the community of support that showed me that living life without drugs was a possibility and I would have never discovered that if it weren’t for Malcolm.”

    Grande recounted all of the times Miller showed up to celebrate his sobriety milestones, treating him with gifts and “words of encouragement.”

    “Addiction is a TERRIBLE disease… many people are suffering from addiction like I am and many many of them are losing,” he  wrote. “Those of us who are struggling with addiction must stay strong. We must continue to work HARD on ourselves every single day and help each other. Our disease is strong but WE ARE STRONGER and I vow to work every moment of my life to have myself sober so that i may be there for others.”

    Grande included several numbers to resources that anyone who may need help with substance abuse.

    “Malcolm my friend, you will be dearly missed,” he added. “And I know you will be looking down on me from heaven, proudAF for every day I live my life clean and sober… 453 days and counting… Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Relapsing While Famous: Demi Lovato, Stigma, and Compassion

    Relapsing While Famous: Demi Lovato, Stigma, and Compassion

    “We would typically not blame a patient with a chronic medical condition for their problem; nor imbue the patient with shame over their offending organ—why do we seem to do this with addiction?”

    The news that Demi Lovato was hospitalized of a suspected drug overdose has sent her celebrity friends and fans into overdrive; they are full of praise and well wishes for the singer.

    The support offered has been a beautiful response to witness, and this outpouring of encouragement is the exact caring that Lovato needs right now.

    This overwhelmingly positive response is a very different reaction than we normally associate with people falling off the wagon. Our society has painted the ordinary (non-celebrity) person with an addiction—whether it be to drugs, alcohol, sex or some other negatively perceived behavior—who loses their sobriety as a monster, as someone who cannot fix themselves, as a loser, as an undisciplined and unhealable soul.

    How many Internet memes have been generated that show the unforgiving and unflattering face of addiction? How many ill-conceived jokes about addicts relapsing have you heard? How often do you see mockery of those who have lost their fight? Or a sense of them being not strong enough to withstand the urges we all face?

    But the reality is that relapses are oftentimes part of the process, even for those who have spoken about their recovery. Just because someone has stood up and celebrated their recovery does not mean they will never possibly have a setback.

    Demi Lovato has been open about sharing her struggles through addiction, eating disorders and bipolar disorder. In her music (her song “Sober” details her ongoing struggle with sobriety), her interviews and social media accounts, Lovato has never shied away from speaking her truth. She is proud to be a mental health advocate and has spoken about how she knows her music has helped other young women struggling with some of the same issues that she has.

    Lovato’s openness in sharing her fight and the help her art has provided for others is all the more remarkable considering she was on the Disney Channel when she first entered rehab. There were many pressures and expectations upon her young shoulders and no one would have blamed her for wanting to keep that part of her life private.

    But admitting that the struggle continues after a setback can be the hardest part. Often, as a culture, we are not gung ho on offering people second chances, and especially not third or fourth chances.

    What’s that famous saying? Hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice, shame on me.

    As a society, we can be unforgiving when it comes to people relapsing, but we seem to be much more sympathetic and forgiving with celebrities who struggle with addiction than we are with our ordinary peers.

    There is an unwritten social contract that we follow with celebrities that allows them to loom larger in our minds than normal, everyday people. We see them as larger than life while at the same time feeling intimately connected to them, as though they are family. We feel we know them.

    And we do know them when they share their personal demons with us. We recognize our own struggles and feel buoyed up by their example of openness and honesty.

    Could Lovato’s suspected relapse be an opening for a new understanding of the addiction cycle and conversation about the role of relapse in recovery? Perhaps her experience can shine a light on why no one deserves to be stigmatized for their illness.

    Of course, this goes for all mental health conditions, whether the diagnosis is addiction, bipolar disorder, depression, schizophrenia or others. Historically, our culture has stigmatized people with mental illness so that they feel embarrassed or that they need to hide their condition. It is only in recent decades that more individuals have been brave enough to come forward and speak about their struggles.

    Lovato’s overdose can serve as an example and a beacon to help people understand that addiction and other mental health issues are illnesses which aren’t always cured on the first, second or even third try.

    The fact that wealthy celebrities, who often have the best treatments and practitioners at their fingertips, still suffer relapses shows us how devastating mental health conditions can be. How can we expect our neighbors—who have those same diagnoses but may be struggling to make ends meet—to fare any better than our most celebrated and privileged?

    Many individuals prefer to suffer in silence rather than seek help because of this prejudice. They would rather live with often debilitating diseases rather than expose themselves to the potential stigma that comes with admitting they need help.

    What can we do to help alleviate the suffering of those around us?

    We can read and learn more about addiction and how difficult the road is to recovery and we can work to understand that the road is not always without bends and turns and sometimes brief exits.

    “Research has consistently shown addiction to be a chronic/relapsing disease, where multiple treatment episodes are often necessary, and that recovery may be a cumulative and progressive (non-linear) process,” says Dr. David Greenfield, Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at University of Connecticut Medical School and a specialist in addiction medicine. “We would typically not blame a patient with a chronic medical condition for their problem; nor imbue the patient with shame over their offending organ—why do we seem to do this with addiction?”

    We can have compassion for those who struggle and sometimes fall in their recovery, which will help alleviate their feelings of shame. For those closest to us, we can be supportive without enabling them or being codependent. The celebrity outpouring of love and caring through social media is an example of how compassion can be expressed through this modern tool.

    But Lovato’s friends are not the only ones sharing the love; her fans are sending messages of support, too.

    How Demi Lovato speaks to the public about her reported relapse can have real consequences for the greater conversation society needs to have. Hopefully, she will use her celebrity status to continue the dialogue with her fans about addiction; at the same time, she may express a need for privacy and time for reflection.

    The real opportunity for change will occur around the water coolers at work or on our social media feeds. When we can openly discuss mental health conditions—not as signs of weak moral character or evidence of being less than or incapable—but as true illnesses which require assistance from all corners—financial, family and friends, and sociocultural—we will then be truly supporting not only the celebrities amongst us, but our neighbors and ourselves as well.

    View the original article at thefix.com