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3 Benefits of Practicing Mindfulness Why Mindfulness? Everyone at one point or another feels weighed down with negative thoughts and…

Sticking to Your Recovery Resolutions Everyone looks forward to the New Year for many reasons – good food, quality time…

This time of year may also be an ideal moment to refresh the relapse prevention techniques learned in recovery and even attend an unscheduled therapy session or two to reinforce the principles of long-term recovery and sobriety. An individual can also use this time to reach out to their treatment center, confirming that their sobriety is on track and revisiting an environment that they know is both welcoming and supportive.

Sometimes when recovery is going well, you may get too comfortable in your new state of being and you make think, “I can handle it from here.” You must stay on track with working the steps or the inevitable backward slide begins. Don’t let success be your trigger!

Many people have broken free from the isolation and oppression that substance use disorder can bring.  Treatment centers, therapy, and community self-help groups offer opportunities to learn more about the disease, yourself, and how to live a more fulfilling life instead of just surviving.

We challenge the notion of grief as something you “get over,” or as something that can be done a right way or a wrong way. We face head-on the grief that comes from being in active addiction, the multiple losses…family relationships, control of your life, financial stability, health, friends to overdose, and the list goes on. These are the losses that are often over looked or negated, but are no less painful.

Ben Affleck is interviewed on Nightline

In working with lawyers, physicians, pharmacists, physicians’ assistants, counselors, executives, and educators there are some issues that arise for professionals that are (but don’t have to be) unique.

It the responsibility of the person in recovery to identify and know their own triggers.  A trigger prompts a thought, which if romanced, can become a craving.  A craving can become a relapse if action is not taking to deal with it. Smash that thought, play the tape to the end, and remember the pain you felt in active addiction. 

When you’ve done 90 meetings in 90 days – start over. Attending a meeting keeps you engaged in a constructive activity – if you’re not at work, or volunteering, or helping out your family, why aren’t you at a meeting?