Addiction

Admitting we are having a problem and struggling in life is not always easy. We face a lot of challenge in overcoming our pride and ego when it comes to admitting we need help. Asking for help for treating a substance use disorder or getting a hold on a mental health disorder is not failure. In fact, it is a tremendous demonstration of strength and success. To continue living in struggle when there are real life threats to your safety, sanity, and livelihood is a grave mistake. We often find that once we finally get over the fear and ask for help, we wonder why we didn’t ask for it sooner.

Anxiety is one of the most highly occurring mental health disorders and co-occurring disorders with substance abuse. According to the ADAA, the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, 18 percent of the population suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder. Anxiety is a misfiring of the survival system in the mind. When fight or flight takes place the body goes into a natural state of panic or anxiety. Firing adrenaline and cortisol, the brain and body are put on high alert in order to survive. For anxiety disorders, even the thought of anxiety is threatening enough to trigger off a chain of reactions which can become debilitating. Some believe that anxiety is triggered by fear alone. Fear is a complicated process in our minds which can take many forms. What we experience and how we experience it contributes to what we fear and how we fear it. Not all anxiety disorders are the same. General anxiety is different from social anxiety, for example. Different triggers create different kinds of anxiety, thusly requiring different methods for reducing anxious symptoms and returning to a state of calm.

Have you ever been shown a picture or been told a story about the past or your childhood so many times that you start to remember it like your own memory? One day, you’re telling the story to someone else and the memory is alive, practically vivid. You find yourself saying you can’t even remember if you were told about this memory or if you remember it yourself. The experience can be quite disorienting. When looking at the deeper implications, it can be quite terrifying. Understanding the way the brain reacts to false memories is important for understanding mental health and substance use disorders in which the brain is vulnerable.

Hand sanitizer abuse has increasingly growing problem in recent years. What started off as a dangerous trend among adolescent age teens and children in classrooms has become a nation wide phenomena for intoxication. The sanitary part of hand sanitizer comes from the stringent quality of alcohol. Hand sanitizer can contain 60% or more alcohol.

We are born out of water. The first nine months of our lives are spent in a warm and comforting waterbed. Water is a natural part of life. Over 75% of the planet is water, as is the human body and the human brain. Connecting to water is therapeutic because it is a natural connection. Water therapy uses this connection to work with the body and the mind to create healing.

Alcohol is a cooking ingredient for many recipes. Seasoned chefs and home cooks who come to recovery have often put too much alcohol in themselves rather than the food they were cooking it with. For them, and any home cook or professional chef, there is a challenge in one of their most beloved hobbies. Many questions arise regarding cooking with alcohol. We’ll try to answer them here so you can continue to be your best chef and make recipes you love.

Depression is the leading mental health diagnosis worldwide. Over 300 million people suffer from depression around the globe. Though your depression may be leaving you feeling isolated and disconnected in your thoughts, you are not alone. Even people without a diagnosable depressive condition experience depression. Chronic depression and major depressive disorder is common in all walks of life. To all those thoughts telling you that you are alone and the only one feeling this way-- tell them they are not true. There are others, just like you, struggling with their emotions and working toward living their lives.

Obsessive compulsive disorder is a psychological disorder commonly misunderstood. Mainstream media depicts OCD as being about having to repeat patterns and attain to a very specific lifestyle so as not to induce anxiety. OCD is not about being out of control of one’s behaviors as it is about being in strict control of one’s behaviors. OCD is often stemmed out of trauma, which is a violent event in which one feels out of control. OCD develops as a coping mechanism to create calm, order, and control. Definitively, OCD is “a pattern of unreasonable thoughts and fears (obsessions) that lead you to do repetitive behaviors (compulsions).” At its worst, OCD can mean not being able to leave the house unless a certain pattern of behavior is completed. OCD can interfere with the quality of one’s life and create more chaos than calm.

Power is a powerful thing. Jimi Hendrix once said, “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” As addicts and alcoholics in a constant power struggle with our drug of choice, we know the power of power. We might have thought at some point we had power over our addictions. Somehow, it always ended up that our addictions really had the power over us. The first step of the infamous twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous reads, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol; that our lives had become unmanageable.” A love for power is unmanageable. Our love for trying to extend power over our addictions was unmanageable. Admitting to powerlessness in the first step is critical. If we continue to live under the illusion that we have power over our addictions, we might be inspired to try using or drinking once more. A recent study looked at how the idea of power and powerlessness affects the way people see themselves. It found that when subjects were prompted to imagine a powerless situation, their personality traits seemed to shift from one area of their life to the next. When subjects were prompted to imagine a situation in which they felt powerful, they seemed to be more authentically themselves. Inherently, there is power in becoming powerless, strength in weakness, and courage in fear. “The biggest implication of this sort of study,” the author wrote, “is that having power allows people to freely express themselves in situations where others might more carefully consider how their behavior impacts, or even harms, others.” Many of us thought that drugs and alcohol revealed our true selves. Once we experienced those euphoric sensations, we were suddenly free to be who we truly were- who we didn’t even know we truly were. We find through the work of recovery, however, that we hadn’t really any idea who we were and that the “power” we were experiencing was a false pride. Returning back to our original states, we are challenged in our powerlessness to truly discover our authentic selves. Avalon of Malibu overlooks the cliffside and coastline of beautiful southern California- a perfect reminder of the powerlessness we all experience. Surrounded by serene nature, Avalon provides a luxury environment for healing mind, body, and spirit. Offering programs for both substance abuse and mental health treatment, Avalon is able to work closely with each patient’s individual needs. Call us today for a confidential assessment 1-888-958-7511.

Methamphetamines and exercise target some of the same regions in the brain. The “high” one gets from exercise is, on a physiological scale, similar to the high one gets from meth. Meth, also known as crystal meth or ice, is a synthetic stimulant drug. Being high on methamphetamine is characterized by having an excess amount of energy, alertness, awareness, focus, and enough blood to make the body feel stronger than normal. Meth abuse can keep people up for days at a time with endless activity. Researchers feel that exercise can help make use of that tendency to be hyperactive, especially once meth leaves the body. Meth addiction in extreme cases can leave someone awake for ten days or more. Usually the person isn’t conscious for the whole ten days, but their brains and bodies are still moving. Circadian rhythm is the natural 24 hour process the brain and body experiences, which includes sleep. Because methamphetamines keep people awake for days on end, it directly disrupts natural circadian rhythm. Resetting an unsettled sleep pattern in recovery usually requires the use of prescription medications for sleep. For meth addicts in particular, even a sleeping pill might not work. Exercise helps reset the circadian rhythm. People report sleeping better after including twenty minutes to an hour of exercise into their daily routine. Exercise helps the body get rid of excess energy so there is less to disrupt sleep. Additionally, having been worked and done physical output, the body is prone to sleeping deeper as well as longer. Even without the presence of methamphetamines or other stimulating medications, exercise can help a recovering meth addict get a good night sleep. Part of the equation is the similarity in the way exercise and meth affect the brain. In recovery, the brain is desperately seeking some source of pleasure. Without pleasurable stimuli, the brain is restless, resorting to sending out signals of distress in the forms of cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Exercise as part of a methamphetamine recovery program helps to reset the otherwise unorganized brain circuits. Essentially, the brain’s natural clock is reset. Avalon By The Sea offers clinically renown care for substance use disorders like methamphetamine addiction. For a confidential assessment and information about our treatment programs, call 1-888-958-7511.

Alcoholism is hard to define. How can we conceive into words what is an inexplicable inability to stop uncontrollable drinking? There seems to be no satisfactory answer to explain what alcoholism is, what alcoholism does, and how it can be cured. Ironically, many definitions of alcoholism exist. Webster Dictionary, for example, defines alcoholism as “a diseased condition produced by alcohol.” The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was a monumental and revolutionary text produced in the late 1930’s by two alcoholics, one of whom was a doctor. At the time, there was quite literally no answer to alcoholism. Men and women alike suffered in hospitals, “health farms” and “sanitariums” beyond the medical help of a doctor. When a doctor tried to treat the physical symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, they couldn’t seem to stop the desire to keep drinking. Trying a more psychiatric based treatment, they couldn’t seem to stop the physical cravings. In both instances, doctors were confounded by the spiritual lacking in their patients. No promise, no reward, not even the prospect of developing a “wet brain” or dying of cirrhosis could stop these alcoholics from continuing to drink. Dr. Silkworth, the attending doctor to AA founder Bill Wilson, wrote an introductory letter for The Big Book in which he describes alcoholism to be a mental and physical disease. Mentally, alcoholics suffer the “phenomenon of craving”. Physically, alcoholics have an allergy to the drink, meaning that once an alcoholic has one drink, they cannot stop consuming more. What came as a surprise to both Bill W. and Dr. Silkworth was the spiritual component of alcoholism. Bill’s friend Ebby was once his drinking partner. As Bill’s drinking came closer to bottom, Ebby visited him, seemingly recovered. Famously he quipped, “I’ve got religion.” Shortly thereafter, Bill entered the hospital once more where he had what he called a “spiritual experience”. From that moment forward, Bill no longer had a desire to drink. That is until one business trip when he found himself pacing back and forth across a hotel lobby looking longingly upon the bar. Having developed some time sober, he did not want to drink again. He commenced to reach out to another alcoholic. Together, they discovered the healing power of two alcoholics, out of which AA was born. Alcoholism is a chemical dependency upon alcohol which results in a diseased condition of mind, body, and spirit. The right approach to recovery integrates treatment of all three. Avalon of Malibu combines evidence based treatment methods for mental, physical, and spiritual health as part of a highly customized treatment plan. Set along the iconic southern california coastline, Avalon offers privacy in a luxury environment. Call us today for a confidential assessment, 1-888-958-7511.

Boundaries are lines which set limitations. Geographically, boundaries divide areas of land. Emotional, boundaries help us set limitations on what we are willing to do and what we are not willing to do. Like a line in the sand, a boundary divides ourselves from others. Autonomy Autonomy is a political term applied to autonomous governments. Specifically, an autonomous government is one that has the ability to rule itself. Boundaries help with gaining a better sense of self. Without boundaries, we are easily influenced by everyone and everything. We aren’t able to demonstrate self-knowledge in a way that says, “this is what I want. This is what I need.” Setting boundaries helps us to grow and be ourselves in exactly the way we need to be. Boundaries are not means of control. Ultimately we are never completely in control of things. However, boundaries are a way of setting up some guidelines for how you want to be treated and how you want to engage with others. Self-Care As a result, you are able to better take care of yourself. Child psychology frequently finds that children with a lack of boundaries growing up have a hard time later in life. They are challenged in taking care of themselves or having healthy relationships. When you set boundaries you will be better able to create time and energy for self-care because you prioritize yourself. Having a healthy balance in relationships is a form of self-care in itself as well. Freedom When you set boundaries, you stop saying “yes” to everything that’s asked of you. You stop harboring resentments toward the people you aren’t saying no to you. You stop burning out and burning up in anger. Instead, you start saying no, with love. You have time to do the things you really want to do. You are freed from the prison of stress that comes from not setting boundaries or setting poor boundaries. Communication Setting boundaries can be confusing at first. With boundaries, practice makes...for better boundaries. There’s no such thing as perfect. In time, you will learn more about yourself and your needs, making your communication more clear and precise. Not only will you communicate more articulately about yourself, you’ll be able to ask more about others. Avalon By The Sea offers both certified substance abuse and mental health treatment. One of California’s only mental health facilities capable of treating psychiatric issues as a primary diagnosis. Providing the highest quality care, Avalon is committed to helping you succeed in life long sobriety. It is possible. For more information and a confidential assessment, call 1-855-464-8608.