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The music we listen to says a lot about our likes and interests, our personality, our perceptions on life and also how we feel. There are a number of reasons why we may play certain songs or keep the station on the radio for a bit longer – and while sometimes it’s merely to pass the time, it’s often the case that we listen because we either feel a certain way or we want to feel a certain way. Consider the last time you were feeling depressed. Did you listen to positive, upbeat music or did you find yourself leaning towards songs that expressed pain and sadness? Human beings are vulnerable, and we desire to connect with others through emotional messages in music.

Do you know of someone who seems to only care about their needs, only to brush off yours? Do you know someone who acts as though they’re better than everyone else? Narcissism is a spectrum disorder, and a healthy amount of narcissism is okay – but if narcissistic levels are too high, a person may have narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) without even realizing it. If you think that you or a loved one may have this disorder, it’s important to understand why this disorder is often overlooked – and with the right tools and information, you can move forward in the right direction for you or you loved one’s needs. Help Guide explains that NPD is, “…a pattern of self-centered, arrogant thinking and behavior, a lack of empathy and consideration for other people, and an excessive need for admiration.” Others may view someone as being manipulative, selfish, or even patronizing – but it can be hard to tell whether a person has a true personality disorder over someone who just acts on narcisstistic tendies every now and then. Earlier this year, writer Katie Heaney noted a book on The Cut titled, Rethinking Narcissism: The Bad – and Surprisingly Good – About Feeling Special; the author of this book, clinical psychologist and Harvard Medical School lecturer Craig Malkin explained that narcissism is something that we all have – it’s a universal tendency that, in many cases, can help us do well in interviews, dream hard, work towards our goals and more. The disorder itself is when tendencies of narcissism get taken to the extreme – it’s the need to feel special; with this disorder, a person is typically willing to lie, steal, cheat, or do whatever it takes in order to feel at the level where they want to be. If you’re ready to restore your mind, body and spirit from NPD, substance abuse and/or other conditions, please speak with a professional from Avalon Malibu today.

Marijuana addiction has been a long-debated topic over the past few years, as many people believe that since it’s considered a “natural herb”, it doesn’t have addictive properties. If you ask a large number of people, however, you might receive different stories; in 2015, writer Kitty Gray shared her story via Vice on how she struggled with marijuana dependency. She explained that for 6 years in a row, she’d deliberately smoke marijuana three times a day; she described her dependence as this: “I can now admit that I’ve been psychologically addicted to weed for the past decade-plus. If I need to eat, sleep, be amused, calm down, forget a horrible experience, practice self love, run errands of any kind, watch TV or create something: I smoke.”    No matter what your relationship to marijuana has been in the past, it’s important to know the facts. While marijuana may not be considered physically addictive, it’s psychologically addictive. Individuals who go through this dependence stage with marijuana tend to think about using a lot – and if they’re not able to use it in an effort to control how they want to feel, they’re likely to become disappointed. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) explains that those who use marijuana frequently already tend to report symptoms like irritability, cravings, restlessness, decreased appetite, sleep issues and more – and this is because the brain adapts to the effects that marijuana produces. The earlier that a person begins using marijuana – especially if they start using before the age of 18 – the more likely they are to develop marijuana dependency as an adult. If you’ve been struggling with marijuana or another substance, speak with a professional from Avalon Malibu today. Recovery is possible – and you deserve to get back control over your life.

As the body heals from the damage caused from substance abuse, it’s common that many people in addiction recovery feel aches and pains. Withdrawal symptoms, such as headaches, insomnia, anxiety and discomfort may arise for awhile – but even after withdrawal symptoms have subsided, the body may still experience pain as it heals. Holistic care opens many doors for patients in recovery to heal and restore their mind, body and spirit. Massage therapy is an excellent practice that can bring you many benefits if you’re open to it. Massage therapist Nicole Cutler explained on the main website for the Institute for Integrative Healthcare that massage is beneficial for someone in addiction recovery in all stages: withdrawal, detoxification and abstinence. She stated, “The physical, emotional and spiritual components of recovery all can be directly benefited by the healing power of therapeutic touch. The nurturing contact of massage utilizes skin as the translator of the therapist’s intent.”

Individual psychotherapy (also known as talk therapy) can afford us the opportunity to dig deep within ourselves; the therapist-client relationship is so important because it fosters a person’s growth and development in areas of a person’s life they wish to thrive in. Recovery involves so many different aspects of healing and restoration – and individual therapy isn’t the only way those in addiction recovery can grow. Group psychotherapy sessions provide a unique, safe space for individuals to build upon the foundation they’ve developed in other areas of treatment; because it’s a format different from individual therapy sessions, clients can gain different benefits from attending.

Recovery is a time when we can take a step back and focus on our health. Before recovery, you may have struggled greatly substance abuse and/or mental illness, leaving you with little room to lead the life you’ve always wanted. Holistic recovery is less about treating solely your addiction or mental illness – it’s more about treating you as an entire person. The Association for Addiction Professionals describes holistic recovery as this: “Recovery encompasses an individual’s whole life, including mind, body, spirit and community. The array of services and supports available should be integrated and coordinated.” In the past, professionals have focused primarily on the addiction/mental illness as the sole focus on treatment – but as researchers have been studying for many years, it’s more about compassion for everything a person’s gone through that truly helps them heal. There are many aspects of a person, such as:

In many cases, it feels as though we simply woke up one day, just to find that we’re suddenly struggling with symptoms of mental illness. We may begin feeling more anxious than normal, more depressed about our lives or more paranoid about seeing friends or family. Before, everything seemed fine – so why are we going through this now? While it may feel as though mental illness simply came “out of the blue”, it had to have started somewhere, right? Let’s take a look at some potential causes for the development of mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety, phobias and more. Genetics: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) explains that if someone in your family has a mental illness, the odds that you will develop one increase. First-degree relatives – such as your parents, siblings and children are the best sources of information, followed by your second-degree relatives, such as your nieces and nephews, half-brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts/uncles, etc. Environment: Our lifestyle both growing up and as adults can have major impacts on the development of mental illness. Some of these environmental risk factors can include: smoking, sleep deprivation, pollution, exposure to toxins during childhood, extreme weather conditions, hazardous work conditions and more. Other environmental factors could involve people – such as the early loss of a parent, poverty, social stigma, etc. Trauma: Traumatic events can have a significant impact on a person’s livelihood, and sometimes this can lead to the development of a mental illness, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Substance Abuse: In some cases, addiction can bring out symptoms that cause a person to develop a mental illness. When this happens, a person then has two conditions to treat, often called a co-occurring disorder. If you’re ready to get started towards complete health and rejuvenation, speak with a professional from Avalon Malibu today.

As we progress through recovery, we learn more about ourselves; we learn more of what matters to us, what we struggle with in life as well as our personal beliefs about ourselves and life. Essentially, life is a classroom with so many different lessons – and for many people in recovery, the concept of boundaries is a bit blurry. Even after seeking treatment, it’s common for those in recovery to deal with cravings to use again; people, places, situations and emotions can spark that feeling to return to substance abuse, because that’s what’s made us feel comforted in the past. With this new stage of life, however, it’s important that you develop certain boundaries with yourself so that you can stay on the road to success. According to the American Psychological Association (APA), highlights the work of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in forming a relapse prevention plan, which truly helps those in recovery establish healthy boundaries with themselves. A scenario of a person who previously struggled with alcoholism, for example, may work on identifying several factors:

We’re not given a “Book of Life” when we’re born, and if that were the case, a lot less people would struggle with mental illness, addiction, and other painful experiences because we’d have already taken the right steps to seeking help. It just doesn’t work that way – and, unfortunately, it’s typically not until we’re well into adulthood that we begin recognizing distressing symptoms. Even as adults, we may believe that this is how life really is – and we may not seek any help at all. If this is something you can relate to, it’s important to know that seeking treatment is not only going to provide you with more answers regarding your day-to-day experiences, but it will also help you prevent any conditions you have from developing further.

There are some beautiful moments in recovery when we find ourselves at a steady pace – we’ve set a routine, we’re building momentum and we’re starting to see our goals become actualized as we continue to push forward. As this occurs in life, however, this too occurs in recovery; we find that even after having just been recently confident in our recovery efforts, we suddenly take a plunge and we begin to go back into the “lows”. There’s no stopping the highs and lows from coming and going, but if we take the lows too seriously, we may wind up holding ourselves back in recovery. A few years ago,  a young man shared his journey of recovery via Be Inspired Everyday. He explained that through addiction, he learned to become comfortable with conflict and chaos; even after he’d been working hard in recovery, he found himself self-sabotaging. He explained, “One of the lessons I learned in the process is that addiction and other forms of self-sabotage come from internal conflict…We become convinced, though usually not consciously, that our self-sabotaging behavior is necessary in order to protect ourselves.”

Alcohol is a major part of our society today; it’s used for celebration, social occasions, and even as a “self-care” tactic after a long day of work. While alcohol is incredibly mainstream in our culture today, there are far too many people who struggle with dependency and alcoholism – yet they don’t even realize it. In many cases, alcohol causes people to change in attitude and behavior, and that’s when situations can become incredibly risky – especially when violence is involved. The first question many people ask is, who’s at risk? According to ABC Heatlh and Wellbeing, an Australian source that provides information on health topics such as diet, fitness, mood, relationships and more, explained a few years ago that those who are more irritable, who have poorer anger control and who display lower levels of empathy towards others are most likely to get caught in this dangerous trap. A 2015 study published in the journal Trauma, Violence & Abuse highlights that alcohol is often a major factor in child maltreatment and intimate partner violence – and if help isn’t sought quickly, a person may continue to spiral. To those who are on the outside looking in, alcoholism and violence can seem so absurd – and while it certainly may not make sense, often those abusing alcohol are just searching for a solution. In 2017, writer Amy Anderson explained that for her, alcohol was a solution. She told Success, “Most people look at addiction or alcoholism from the outside and wonder, ‘How could they sink so low?’ What these well-meaning people don’t understand is that sometimes addiction and alcoholism feel like a step up from someplace worse.” As a person continues down the path of alcoholism, they often find that violence escalates – and the symptoms of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic disorder (PTSD) or other deep-rooted issue only become covered up. If you’ve been struggling with alcoholism, it’s time to seek help. Speak with a professional from Avalon Malibu today to start experiencing healing and restoration – it’s never too late to turn your life around.

Valium (generically named diazepam) is a drug used for its calming properties; medically, it’s typically prescribed to help treat anxiety, muscle spasms and seizures. If not taken directly as prescribed, however, a person can become dependent on this drug, later developing an addiction. Just last year, WebMD reported that drugs like Valium and Xanax, along with other benzodiazepines, are being misused by around 1 in every 5 people who take the prescription drug. Drugs like valium are becoming used twice as much by adults than what was previously reported; by getting a clearer grasp on what Valium is, how it can affect a person and what a person needs to do to seek help, we can hopefully provide more support for our loved ones who are struggling with addiction.