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For those suffering from an addiction to alcohol, engaging in a recovery program can be invaluable for learning more about oneself and one’s goals within a safe, supportive and sober environment. However, it is essential to remember that the recovery sphere is a tightly curated setting that is intentionally devoid of specific stressors that a person may otherwise encounter in their daily lives. When making the transition back into the “real world,” or even when a person meets with family members, it is possible that aspects of drinking culture can seep their way into one’s mind. Addressing drinking culture is a crucial point in recovery. Therefore it is essential to identify what the culture looks like, how one intends to interact with it, and safe ways to avoid harmful practices or establish a new culture focused on sobriety as a whole.

Our modern lifestyles don’t offer us many ways to spend time outside naturally. Make a conscious effort this spring to get outdoors to enjoy the beauty this season offers. Spending time outside supports the health and well-being of every person. For those in recovery, the advantages of time outdoors bring an even more profound beneficial impact. Although time outside cannot cure addiction independently, it builds upon the healthy lifestyle that recovery encourages and provides a space for healing and connection. Here are some ways spending time outside promotes your recovery.

Living with alcoholism is already a battlefield. Coping with alcoholism during a global pandemic complicates sobriety. COVID-19 has forced millions into “locking down” in their homes due to job loss, providing home-schooling for children, or health issues. People are dealing with isolation from their friends and family. They find themselves with a lot of extra time on their hands. Due to the uncertainty of the pandemic, stress and anxiety rise, creating a perfect storm for leaning on unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with their scary “new normal.” For those already struggling with alcoholism, these changes can be a recipe for disaster.

Someone who has ever struggled with a drug or alcohol addiction knows that they might have said or done anything they needed to get their next fix. When you are caught up in the addiction spiral, you may not see the dysfunction behind any manipulative or abusive behavior displayed that helps to maintain your addiction. Learning to identify “gaslighting” can help put an end to this traumatic and abusive behavior.

When we experience trauma in our lives, we might begin to experience anxiety or PTSD afterward, but why does this happen? Is there a physical component to it, or is it all psychologically driven? Understanding what the limbic system is and what limbic trauma loops are can help answer these questions.

Achieving lasting recovery becomes complicated when your ego still rules you. The ego is one major contributor to addiction for some people, leading them to believe they don’t have a problem or push others away since they don’t think they need their advice or help. If you are in recovery and still have your ego assuming an influential role in your decisions and life, know that it affects you on many levels, not just in your recovery. Likely, it is also preventing you from truly connecting with yourself, your partner, and others.

The words “recovery” and “treatment” are often used interchangeably through each individual’s journey to sobriety. However, they refer to two distinct parts of the process. While “treatment” is the actual program in which a person is enrolled, such as their detox or residential treatment that has a distinct start and end date, the term “recovery” refers to the entirety of an individual’s journey to sobriety. Recovery is not just the things an individual learns during treatment but also incorporates how a person conducts themselves outside of the treatment sphere, reflecting the entirety of one’s new journey through their sober life. This recovery may have a start date that coincides with their treatment depending on the individual, but recovery as a whole will often extend far beyond when a person may have graduated from a treatment program. Completing a treatment program is undeniably an impressive and difficult feat, but it doesn’t mean that one has completed recovery as a whole. Because of this, aftercare planning and preparation are paramount for maintaining many of the skills and mindset initially instilled during treatment.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 264 million people suffer from depression worldwide. Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. Depression can look very different depending on the person, with over 50 symptoms associated with depression. You may not even realize depression could be affecting you, so it’s important to be aware of your thoughts and how they influence your behavior. By challenging and redirecting any negative thoughts you have, you can ease the symptoms of depression and find a piece of the solution to overcoming your depression.

Turning off the voice inside our heads that tells us we need our next quick fix is made much more complicated by the world around us continually reinforcing that instant gratification is entirely normal. Everything is available to us at a push of a button, from the information we want at a second’s notice online to the food we can get delivered to us from almost any restaurant. Living in a world that promotes instant gratification makes it harder to exercise impulse control. However, by self-imposing delayed gratification into your lifestyle, you may become more successful in long-term recovery.

Springtime signifies a season of rebirth and new beginnings, popularly used as a time for cleaning our homes and reorganizing our belongings. Realizing that the environment we create might reflect our internal state of mind can help us understand that if our rooms need tidying, our minds probably do too. Two simple but powerful ways of helping “clean” our minds to lower stress, improve focus, and support good mental health are through meditation and visualization.

The addiction world is full of helpful resources and information, compelling stories of individual recovery journeys, and countless recovery centers dedicated to the success of helping those struggling to find lasting sobriety. Among this beautiful world of helpers and healers trying to support and encourage others in their path to sobriety, myths and misconceptions persist and prevent some from getting the treatment help they need. Probing the truth behind these claims helps to bring greater understanding to the reality of addiction issues. Dispelling common myths about addiction can stop the cycle of hurtful misinformation that brings unnecessary pain to family, friends, and those suffering from addiction.

March 2020 was the month that marked a complete 180 turn in every American’s lives (along with everyone around the globe). Now one year later, for better or for worse, we have all learned a thing or two about how to better care for ourselves in totally new ways. Some of the most important lessons we learned were how to better care for our mental health through self-care routines. We realized that contrary to what we believed self-care to be, it turns out to be some of the least glamorous things we may have to do in our day.