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One day at a time is common recovery phrase.  It may seem simple enough to live for today, but the phrase can mean more to the recovering addict or alcoholic.  There are reasons this statement is so important in recovery. Once an addict or alcoholic enters recovery, living one day at a time becomes necessary.  At the start of recovery, the addict faces financial, relational, vocational, and social problems.  There is a lot to address.  No one can fix everything in one day!  Recovery is a lifelong commitment to staying clean and sober.   Living one day at a time gives the addict the opportunity to focus on what they can do today and not worry about yesterday or tomorrow.  Research supports the idea that if an addict begins to focus too much on the future, recovery might be jeopardized.  During recovery there will be time to focus on the issues of the past including healing family relationships or resolving financial concerns.   One day at a time also emphasizes the positive idea that you did not use alcohol or drugs just for today.  This mindset allows many addicts to put the emphasis on not using today; tomorrow will take care of itself.  Living one day at time also means that one will not take on what cannot be worked on.  In some cases, recovering addicts will change this one hour at a time or one minute at a time.  This illustrates how difficult, but not impossible, recovery can be. Living for today is also spiritual.  This is the day we have been given and we will make the most of it.  We will focus our energy on the day ahead of us and what we can accomplish today.  If we cannot work on a problem today, we can review it tomorrow.  Living one day at a time provides a sense of serenity knowing that all of your post-addiction problems do not need to be fixed today.  We will find the time to work on our problems and find solutions as recovery unfolds.  For today, you did not use drugs or alcohol and that is a very good thing!

Addictions have a wide range of causes and no one cause is more relevant than the other.  There are those in the addiction community who believe that the causes of our addictions are not important.  What is important is getting help and abstaining from drug and alcohol use.  Genetics and the environment both play a role in addictions.

While trying to recover from your addiction, it is important to use all of the resources you can find- including spiritual resources. You do not have to be religious in order to partake in these rituals. You just have to find your faith in a place differently than where you have visited before. Spiritual tools advocate inner peace and help you feel larger than yourself. Your emotions will be controlled and can help you deal with the average ups and downs of everyday life. An inner strength could be discovered that you may not have known that you had. Making use of these spiritual tools involves you to keep your mind opened and be at one with yourself. One spiritual tool you could use is daily prayer to help make sense of the disorderly world we live in. Prayer will help you discover where your joy comes from as well as being thankful for what you have. You would be able to find guidance, strength, and wisdom from a Higher Power and express good wishes to your friends, neighbors, loved ones, and strangers. It also helps to read from spiritual texts of your choice every day. There are spiritual books of different religions you could read as well as ones from spiritual leaders like the Dalai Lama, Paulo Coelho, or Pope Francis. This may inspire you to find your faith by learning how these leaders found theirs. Another spiritual tool is meditation which could end up being frustrating for the first time but if you keep an open mind, it can end up being very rewarding. Feelings of serenity, clarity, and peace can follow you on your walks of life. Meditation can even cause physical changes in your brain to increase creativity, relieve stress, improve mental focus, boost compassion and strengthen memory. This also could be a good time to revisit and rethink your faith by joining or rejoining a place of worship. You can find religious groups that appeal to you and give you a new outlook on life. This will allow you to become more social with those around you as well as nurture your soul. Yoga is another great way to empower your soul as you will learn to deal with uncomfortable emotions, self-acceptance, and cope with stress. Using spiritual tools that are right for you will bring you on the right path to a healthy recovery.

Eating disorders are a behavioral health issue.  Eating disorders include bulimia, anorexia, and binge eating disorder. All three can have emotional, behavioral, and physical effects on the individual and can even be life-threatening for both males and females. Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa are a behavioral health issue in addition to being much more.  A person with anorexia will go to great lengths to hide their weight through wearing bulky clothes or pretending to eat food even when they are not.  Calorie restriction is common with anorexics and the daily number of calories is far below the recommended daily requirement.  Additionally, the anorexic will exercise excessively throughout the day and may take laxatives or diuretics to keep from gaining weight.  An anorexic has an underlying fear of gaining weight and a distorted body image.  They see themselves as overweight even when the scale puts them within a normal range for their height. A person with bulimia can consume over 10,000 calories per day.  The behaviors associated with consuming this amount of food includes shopping for the food and hiding the food from family members.  With bulimia, another behavioral health issue is the purging that occurs following consumption of food.  Bulimics can experience health-related issues such as an inflamed esophagus or tearing of the throat lining.  There is a great deal of dishonest behavior that occurs with bulimics including lying to family members and friends.  They too will go to great lengths to hide their behavior. Binge-eating disorder is also known as compulsive overeating.  Individuals will consume large amounts of food on average two times per week for six months or more.  The person with this disorder will have difficulty in stopping the behavior, once started.  Mental health issues are commonly present including depression and anxiety. There are biological, psychological, and social factors at play with eating disorders.  A person can have a hormonal imbalance, which causes the overeating.  Psychological factors include low self-esteem, depression, lack of control over life in general, and an inability to experience healthy expression of emotions.  Eating disorders are commonly seen with those who have been sexually abused or who experience social pressures from peer groups and the media to look a certain way.

Bipolar disorder is also known as manic-depressive illness. It was coined by German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin who coined manic-depressive psychosis as an episodic disorder with no permanent brain damage. It is more common to use the term bipolar disorder than manic-depressive as the former is less stigmatizing towards others. There are still some psychiatrists and other people who use the term manic-depressive if that term displays the nature of the disorder accurately. Bipolar disorder causes unusual shifts in energy, mood, activity, and doing day to day tasks. There are moments where you could be extremely upbeat, thrilled, energized (manic), very sad, gloomy, and hopeless periods (hypomanic). There are different types of bipolar disorders such as Bipolar I which are manic episodes that last seven days or severe manic symptoms that need immediate care. Depression and manic symptoms can occur at the same time. Bipolar II is when you experience depressive episodes and hypomanic episodes. Cyclothymic Disorder is when you go through many moments of hypomanic symptoms as well as depressive symptoms that can last two years. You can undergo emotion, sleep, and activity level changes as well as unusual behaviors. There are differences between manic and depressive episodes. In manic episodes, you can experience feeling cheerful, having a lot of energy, feeling more active than usual, talking really fast, and doing a lot of things simultaneously. There are also moments where you could have trouble sleeping, become agitated, irritable, and touchy as well as engaging in risky activities that you would not normally do. Depressive episodes consist of a lot of negative symptoms such as feeling sad, empty and hopeless. Your energy levels are very low as well as your activity levels. You feel like you cannot enjoy anything, tend to forget things, and have trouble concentrating. People who are depressed can also experience thoughts of death or suicide. To avoid these life-impacting consequences that come with being bipolar, there are treatments to control your mood swings as well as psychotherapy. Medications to treat bipolar disorder can be antidepressants, atypical antipsychotics, and mood stabilizers. It is best to talk to a doctor or therapist about the pros and cons of each medication before taken. Psychotherapy is also known as talk therapy to help give support, education, and guidance. There is family-focused therapy, psychoeducation, and cognitive behavioral therapy. All of these helpful treatment options can help you live a typical life.

Willpower is our ability to resist temptation.  It is the same as saying no to a second dessert or saying no to buying something you already have.  Willpower in recovery is a separate issue.  For addicts, it is difficult to simply say no to drinking or taking drugs following months or years of abuse.  We have lived a certain way throughout our addiction and saying no might not be a simple option.  The behaviors we engaged in consumed our daily lives with seeking the drugs or alcohol, finding resources to get the drugs or alcohol, using the drugs or alcohol, and making adjustments to hide our drug or alcohol use.  It takes more than willpower but willpower does have a place in recovery. Willpower in recovery means that you are responsible for your sobriety.  Willpower alone is not sufficient to help you get through the work that is needed in recovery but it can help.  Willpower can be viewed as the willingness to work on yourself throughout recovery and is an important concept to understand.  Having an open mind during recovery can help you to make good choices.  Researchers have suggested that the ability to have freedom over choices during recovery helps to motivate us.  This becomes the “will” in willpower. When a person decides to stop using drugs or alcohol, the addict will need to admit there is a problem and be willing to make changes.  Also, the addict will need to take responsibility for their actions and recovery.  Recovery involves many changes in most areas of one’s life.  The addict in recovery will make lifestyle changes and learn to be present in recovery both physically and emotionally. Willpower does not really help one start an addiction, but willpower can help one recover from one.  There are others way to look at willpower in recovery.  There are many changes that take place in recovery.  You will have new support systems, you will learn new coping mechanisms, you will make lifestyle changes, and you will be educated on addiction and the recovery process.  Willpower in this sense can be seen as the “will” to recover and the power to do so.

Recovering from drug or alcohol abuse is a process.  This process will look differently for each person.  You might find that you enjoy a particular 12-step meeting or have non-using friends that can support you.  Whatever is working for you, keep doing it.  Below are some suggestions for relapse prevention that can serve as a guide to prevent relapse.

Social media is a way for people to connect with friends, share pictures, or update loved ones on current events. With social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter being accessible from laptops, computers, and smartphones, some may find it useful to share their recovery with others. Some may even take pictures and post them on Instagram. The recovery community debates whether or not social media should be used during recovery. Part of the recovery process involves developing support networks and some may find this support through social media. While it is normal to want to share your recovery with others, one should consider their own recovery and the recovery of others. First, recovery is personal. Posting comments about your own recovery or another’s recovery will be viewed by hundreds or even thousands of other people. Some of the information should be kept private particularly if you are posting information about someone you met in recovery or someone you attend 12-step meetings with. Personal conversations related to recovery should be considered in a more private setting. If you meet someone at a 12-step meeting or other group meeting, that person has a right to privacy and any information shared should not be posted on social media. In addition, it is important that pictures are not shared as confidentiality is expected in 12-step and other group meetings. In early recovery, a person can be vulnerable to what other people think and take it to heart. If there are those we associated with during our drug use, they may be listed as a “friend” on Facebook. If you post information about your recovery, these “friends” might try to get you to sabotage your recovery. Social media can also be considered an addiction. If you are using social media as a way to avoid working on your recovery, then you should avoid using social media. There is a positive side to social media use during recovery. Recovery groups are available on social media who are dedicated to helping those in recovery. Caution should be taken when using these groups as you do not want private information getting into the hands of those who could jeopardize your recovery. Social media, including using laptops or smartphones, can also benefit recovery by providing information and connections to others in recovery. Many smartphones allow downloading apps that you can use to connect with others through support groups and meetings.

Drug abuse and alcoholism are caused by many factors including mental health disorders, self medication, or unresolved past trauma.  There is a growing number of addicts who are compelled to abuse substances and these individuals tend to have problems with impulse control in other areas of life. Impulse control means that we make decisions without putting too much thought into it and we do not think about the consequences of our actions prior to acting on the behavior.  We all make decisions that we might regret later on such as taking on a new job or moving to a different home.  This does not mean that we are impulsive.  It means that all of us at some point make decisions that maybe we not in our best interest at the time. Impulse control and addiction means that at some point in our addiction, it was difficult to say no.  We may have tried our first drink or took our first drug with a group of friends where it might have been challenging to resist or say no. Impulse control also affects our ability to stay sober.  When an impulse to use takes over, we have a hard time saying no.   Over time, if our impulsiveness continues and we find it increasingly difficult to say no to drugs or alcohol, we might become addicted.  Research supports this idea and it is particularly common with college students.  Once we are headed down this path of addiction, we behave impulsively as we do not think about the consequences of our behavior and we make decisions without much thought. With treatment, we can learn to suppress our impulses and make good choices.  One technique that is commonly used is mindfulness.  Learning to have focus and awareness of our feelings, other people, and unhealthy situations can stop the impulse to drink or use drugs.  We also need to have a solid grasp on our thoughts and be able to stop, listen, and act, which can be learned in treatment.

There are many individuals who have committed illegal activities to support their drug or alcohol use.  In 12-step recovery, the checklist of whether one is an addict includes mention of illegal activity to finance the addiction.  The degree of illegal activity will range by the person and the addiction.  There is a picture that one conjures up of a drug deal in a dark alley or a person robbing a convenience store to get money to buy drugs.  These types of situations usually get media attention.  There are others who commit white collar crimes and get no media attention.  The issue at hand is more one of why addicts commit illegal activities in the first place and what can be done during recovery to overcome these problems. The addict can sometimes face problems obtaining money to finance their addiction.  Many resort to illegal activity because of desperation.  The addiction is very powerful and can play a role in one’s ability to know right from wrong.  There is a physical and psychological need to drink or take drugs and this need overshadows doing what is right.  Illegal activity becomes an option when the addict or alcoholic has run out of choices.  There are no friends or family members left to ask and your employer will not advance you any further money.  Credit cards are non-existent or maxed out.  At this point, the addict might consider illegal activity to get money. The type of illegal activity chosen is a personal matter or could be a group effort.  It might be easier and less threatening to take money out of your spouse’s wallet then to steal a wallet from a stranger.  It might be easier to embezzle money from your employer than to rob a store.  The point of these examples is to illustrate the desperation associated with an addict’s need to use drugs or drink.  There is also an increase of those who commit white collar crimes to finance a drug or alcohol problem. During recovery, if illegal activities were committed, they will need to be addressed.  Some problems will need to be addressed through the justice system and some can be addressed through 12-step meetings or through therapy.  There is a point when the addict needs to review these illegal activities in a safe space and learn to live with the negative things done to fuel the addiction.

In today’s world, the Internet is everywhere.  We have apps on our phones and links to websites on our computers. Access to information is 24/7/365.  Most individuals in recovery attend 12-step meetings in person.  This allows for personal sharing of recovery through the relationships that are formed and the fellowship that is shared in the meetings.  Attending a 12-step meeting online might have benefits; however, there are both positive and negatives associated with this type of meeting attendance.

During recovery we meet many individuals who are also in recovery.  We can meet people in these meetings and some might even become friendships.  While friendships are encouraged due to the support and connection provided, getting romantically involved during recovery might not be a good idea.  There are men and women who attend these meetings and we might find ourselves wanting to form a relationship with a person that is more than friendly. Forming a new intimate relationship during recovery is not unethical; however, it could jeopardize your recovery particularly if you are new to recovery.  Some people who have been attending 12-step meetings for a long time state that forming a new relationship is not an ideal situation until one has been clean and sober for one year.  Regardless of whether one meets someone through meetings or elsewhere, there are reasons for not getting into an intimate relationship during recovery.  It should be noted that recovery is a lifelong process.  It is not realistic to state that one should never begin a new romantic relationship during this process. Recovering from drug and alcohol abuse in the beginning is a difficult time for many, both emotionally and socially.  Starting a relationship at this early stage can cause problems as the persons involved may want to focus more on the relationship and less on recovery.  There is also an emotional consideration.  When quitting drugs or alcohol, there are many emotions a person might experience.  These emotions include depression, anxiety, or feeling overwhelmed. Starting a relationship can take the focus off of working through these emotions, which is important for recovery. Another reason to avoid forming an intimate relationship in early recovery, is the possibility of relapse.  If a person meets someone at a 12-step meeting and becomes involved with this individual and a relapse occurs, there could be the opportunity for the other person to relapse as well. There is some truth to not starting a relationship for one year at the start of recovery.  This first year should be a period of selfishness and working on recovery no matter what.  It would be a good thing to focus on yourself and develop relationships that are more friendly.  Having this friendship in recovery can assist in developing a good support system and having a friend to talk through emotional crises or bad days.