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Young people are always at a higher risk for developing addiction. Today, in a marketing centered world, the word addiction is used rather loosely. For the tech-savvy millennial generation, addiction applies to the internet, to smart devices, to food, and anything they do. Rather than being a criticism on the influential youth, the addictive tendencies of the millennial generation are an indication of their neurochemistry.

Ready to change the way you and your loved ones feel about yourself? Follow these 6 suggestions!

Check the labels all you want, you’ll rarely see the word “sugar”. Today, sugar and its analogous compounds run under 61 different names, making their way into over 70% of all processed and packaged foods. Humans are supposed to consume, at most, just over 100 calories of sugar today. For Americans who consume a mostly packaged and processed diets, they could be consuming up to five times that amount of sugar each day without even eating a single sweet. Added sugar is a problem under great controversy in America. Many feel that it is added and processed sugar which contributes to food addiction, eating disorders, and poor physical health including problems of obesity. America has one of the worst obesity problems in the world. Simultaneously, America boasts a high rate of child starvation as well as a high rate of child obesity.

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.

Teenagers are sensitive and malleable. What is experienced during the teenage years leaves a lasting impact. According to Colorado State University, “teens exposed to frequent and hostile interactions between their parents often experience anxiety, depression and difficulties with managing other stresses in their lives.” Anxiety, depression, and poor coping mechanisms is what leads many teens to recreationally experiment with drugs and alcohol in their youth. Seeking an escape and way to make sense of and control and nonsensical and uncontrollable world, teens find refuge in abusing substances and participating in other harmful behaviors.

Once we start saying “yes” to life, we can accidentally take on too many responsibilities. We feel more capable than we have in a long time and are happy to be of service to others. Having a hard time saying no usually stems from some deeper unforeseen issues. For most, a fear of rejection keeps them saying “yes” to more than they can handle. For others, it might be a matter of codependency, or wrapping their identity up in what another person thinks of them. Those with a martyr complex will feel they have to sacrifice themselves and take on more responsibilities. Suggestions For Harnessing The Power Of “No”

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.

We see them everywhere. Meeting rooms of sober support groups, visiting treatment facilities, staff members at our various treatment centers- people really love being sober. They use AA sayings all day, they speak in recovery cliches, and they're always talking about how grateful they are to be sober. Nothing, they report, is better than recovery.

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.