The first months of recovery are never easy. There is a focus on progress and even the feeling of changes going on. When this finally stops, it seems you are working towards rebuilding trust with loved ones and things are coming together (finally). You are allowed to miss your addiction. For a little while at…
Therapy is a helpful way to work through triggers that may be harmful in recovery. When they come on stronger than ever, it is good to have some strategies to deal with them effectively. It starts with outlining how to navigate them when they hit and what to do if they are too strong to…
Recovery from addiction has its ups and downs, especially early on. At any point, a person can find themselves in a slump of sorts. This might be due to career changes, economic shifts, changes in their personal lives, or any number of things. Recovery is not easy and certainly does not come without its challenges.…
Tension can be a difficult thing to address in recovery. It pops up unexpectedly and may linger for a while, depending on what is going on. The hidden signs of stress left unaddressed, can become triggers to use substances or some other means of coping. Even for people who have been in recovery awhile, stress…
Summer is a time of happiness and joy, lots of sunshine and fun ahead. The challenge for people in recovery is to figure out how to be sober through a summer when it seems everyone is drinking or doing things that trigger you. Summertime relapse triggers are possible but you don’t have to give into…
If it seems like people are more irritable nowadays than ever before, you may be right. Life happens, holidays happen, and, yes, sobriety happens. Those are all things that can be irritating but at people’s cores, they generally seem to be more irritable on a daily basis. You do not have to join the ranks…
Recovering from an illness like addiction is no easy feat, and while it’s a joy to look back on a successful journey, it’s important to remember that past triggers can still have a negative effect on your life. In fact, studies show that even those who have celebrated sobriety for years must actively focus in…
In 2016 the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the American Bar Association produced on of the largest and most in-depth studies on the prevalence of substance abuse in law, The New York Times reports. Just 175 lawyers short of 13,000 responded to questions for the analysis. Of that 12,825, a mere 3,419 lawyers chose…