Author: Christy Weeks

Overcoming Addiction

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Recovering Addicts less likely to develop new addictions

A recent study has shown that individuals who are able to overcome a substance abuse addiction are less likely to develop an addiction to another substance. The study found that 27 percent of those that had never developed addictions, or never recovered, and 13 percent of those who had recovered from their addictions had developed an addiction to a different substance after three years. The study shows that those who have recovered from their addictions are less than half as likely to develop a new addiction to a substance other than their original drug of choice.

Recovering from an addiction to drugs or alcohol requires drastic changes to one’s life. The addict has to change their life to stay sober long term. To ensure lasting recovery, new groups of friends are acquired and relationships with families are mended. Many times, the individual in recovery is a totally different person than they were in active addiction. They have left more than the addiction behind; they’ve left their old way of thinking and living behind. It makes sense that individuals such as this would be less likely to revisit addiction.

The study highlights the need to get proper, individualized treatment, and recover fully. Those who work to recover at full capacity are less likely to develop another addiction to a different drug. Those who give it half effort end up with the same likelihood of developing another addiction as those who never attempted to recover at all. Getting sober cannot be achieved by exerting anything short of a full effort.

If you or a loved one want to recover from a substance abuse addiction, and are ready to take the steps necessary to achieve it, contact Harmony Foundation to learn more about what our program can offer you.

Addiction and the Downward Spiral

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Actress June Fairchild, know for her roles in “Up in Smoke” and “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot”, died Tuesday in Los Angeles from complications related to liver cancer. Fairchild appeared in several films in the 1970’s, and it appeared she had the ability to become a star before addiction came into her life. Fairchild’s drug and alcohol addiction led to her living in a cardboard box on skid row in Los Angeles.

Stories such as this highlight the destructive nature of substance abuse addiction. Going from appearing in films alongside Clint Eastwood to living in a cardboard box shows addiction affects everyone, and is detrimental to everyone.

Stories like this often don’t get as much notoriety as other celebrity drug stories. A well-known celebrity getting in trouble with the law or overdosing, while in the prime of their career, provides a juicier storyline. However, stories such as this probably show the nature of addiction in its truest form. There is a good chance addiction will lead to overdose or getting arrested, but it is a certainty that addiction will negatively affect the trajectory of your life. For every rock star that dies from a drug overdose, there are probably dozens of individuals who had promising careers that drifted into obscurity before their careers took off due to addiction. Many tragic Hollywood addiction stories happen when the camera is no longer around.

All addicts, regardless of their place in life, suffer from a gravitation pull towards rock bottom. This downward life trajectory may be “televised”, it may not. Many times, only recovery can reverse the downward trend. If you have an addiction, and would like to learn how to our program can help, contact us for more information.

Alcoholism in the Overworked

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Addiction can sneak up on a person in many ways. Rarely, if ever, does an individual develop a substance abuse addiction intentionally. Many addict’s stories involve a set of misfortunes that started initially as a harmless act. Perhaps a person was injured, and was prescribed opiate painkillers at their local doctors office. There are several innocent-seeming acts that can lead someone down the path to addiction.

Being overworked has proven to be a top contributor to increased drinking. Recent studies have found that individuals who work 48 hours or more in a week are more likely to engage in risky alcohol consumption. Risky alcohol consumption is defined as women having 14 or more drinks in a week, and men consuming 21 or more drinks in a week. Working longer hours, or being a “workaholic”, has been loosely attributed to increased drinking for some time. Television and movies typically show an individual who works long hours in a bar after they finally leave the office. Though this has been acknowledged in media, science is beginning to show proof that working longer increases alcohol consumption.

A troubling thought regarding this study is the fact that the individual drinks more, with less time on their hands. If they are spending more time at work, they have less time for leisure activities. What little time they do have at the end of the day is being filled with alcohol consumption. This can lead to an individual associating leisure or free time with drinking, which can be a dangerous association. When alcohol consumption becomes the main recreational activity, addiction can become much more likely. Attributing alcohol to fun can also be unhealthy because the individual fails to live a well-balanced life. Less time, and more drinking, leaves much less time for exercise or other healthy outlets that well-rounded, healthy individuals have in their lives.

If you’re struggling with a problem with alcohol abuse, Harmony Foundation offers programs to help you get your life back on track. If you would like to learn more about out programs, contact us for more information.

Insomnia in Early Recovery

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Insomnia in Sobriety

Early recovery offers an array of challenges. In addition to being newly sober, those in early recovery are forced to face life and its problems without the use of substances. This is usually a monumental challenge, and anything from showering to going to the grocery store seems totally different in the early stages of recovery. Addiction likely leaked into every aspect of the individual’s life. Towards the end, every activity was completed with a buzz. Being under the influence became a prerequisite for all things. A common activity that is hindered by addiction is sleeping.

Sleeping is also hard to attain in early recovery. Mental and physical changes, coupled with having to process a drastically different life, lead to many hours lying awake in bed. Recent studies have indicated that individuals in early recovery are 5 times more likely than the general population to experience insomnia. These studies also typically indicate that insomnia in early recovery raises the risk of relapse.

Insomnia and addiction are closely linked across the board. Individuals who experience insomnia are more likely to develop addictions, and individuals with addictions are more likely to experience insomnia.

Sleep, like all other activities, was easier to achieve in addiction if a certain ritual was upheld. Many times, if any step in the ritual was excluded, the activity became difficult or impossible to complete. One aspect of the ritual will almost always include using the drug of choice, but many times the ritual goes deeper than that. The dose, method of consumption, time, and location must all be orchestrated perfectly to accomplish the task. Sleep is almost always one of these tasks.

With the ritualistic mindset so engrained in those with addictions, it can be hard to accomplish sleep or other tasks sober. The motivational engine behind the machine has been removed. Sleeping, and other day-to-day activities, will have to be completely re-learned.

The importance of recovering in a safe, supportive environment cannot be stressed enough. Trouble sleeping will lead to trouble doing everything awake. Without adequate sleep, those in early recovery face a difficult challenge with dulled senses and slower thinking. A residential treatment program, with a recovery curriculum that fills the addict’s day, leaves the body and mind tired and at peace at the end of the day. Facing early recovery with a fresh body and mind, coupled with profession care designed to help learn how to accomplish life’s challenges sober, provide the best chance for long term recovery.

If you are interested in learning more about our program, contact us for additional information about how to achieve long-term recovery.

The Consequences of Addiction

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Addiction Consequences

Individuals in active addiction frequently have an impaired ability to fully realize the damage their substance abuse is causing to their lives. They also typically can’t fully realize the toll their addiction is taking on the lives of others around them. More often than not, any consequences stemming from their addiction are given a pass. Losing a job, relationship, or financial security while in addiction is contributed to anyone and anything besides the substance abuse. A common opinion on this occurrence is that addicts contribute problems in their everyday lives to things other than their addictions in order to justify continued use.

A recent study suggests the misdirection of fault addicts place on the source of their problems may not be entirely voluntary. The study measured the brain activity of cocaine users and sober individuals while playing a simple gambling game. The results showed that the cocaine using subjects had significantly impaired loss prediction signaling, a signal a nerve sends the brain to regulate dopamine. This signaling occurs to alert the individual that the act produced an unfavorable outcome, and should be avoided in the future.

The study further proves that the disease of addiction physically, mentally, and emotionally affects addicts in forms that are deeper than they appear to the outside world. While those around the addict, who don’t suffer from addiction, see the addict’s decision making as poor judgment, the study indicates what is occurring is a loss of ability to make sound choices. While in the grips of addiction, an addict has a severely dulled sense of the harm they are causing to their lives.

To improve this dulled sense of consequences takes time. An inpatient addiction treatment program, incorporating the 12 Steps, provides the time, setting, and teachings necessary to help addicts fully realize the damage their addictions have caused. This not only allows the individual to stop the damage being done, but also teaches them the steps necessary to repair some of the damage.

If you or a loved one have an addiction that is causing negative consequences to lives, Harmony Foundation provides treatment programs that teach the methods necessary to stop these consequences. If you suffer from addiction, and are interested in reversing the trajectory of your life, contact us to learn more about the solution.

Inpatient Rehab versus Outpatient Rehab

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Many individuals seeking treatment for their addictions will weigh the pros and cons of inpatient treatment and outpatient treatment when making their decision. There are many differences between these two treatment options. Inpatient treatment involves around the clock care while the client lives in the facility. Outpatient treatment involves care within a specific time period, while the client lives at home, or somewhere other than the facility. Outpatient treatment can initially be attractive to those in active addiction because it seems to be less of an interruption to their daily lives. While the addict may be well aware of the fact that they need inpatient or residential treatment, the ability to continue living at home and attending work or school may sway their decision in favor of outpatient treatment. Recent studies have suggested that, depending on the circumstances of the individual and their addiction, the decision between inpatient and outpatient treatment may be more clear-cut than originally thought.

A recent study found that residential treatment had a much higher success rate than outpatient treatment with young adults with an opiate dependence. The study found that 30 percent of young adults with opiate addictions who participated in a month long inpatient treatment program were still sober one year later. The same study indicated the same demographic who attended outpatient treatment showed only 17 percent of its participants sober after one year.

Seeking help for an addiction is a monumental step in the recovery process. However, seeking the right treatment for the specific addiction you face is vital to the long-term chances of your success with sobriety and recovery. In many cases, the convenience of outpatient treatment alters the opinion of young adults with opiate addictions looking for treatment, and leads to them electing outpatient treatment due to the convenient aspects it offers. Though outpatient addiction treatment certainly has its benefits, inpatient treatment at a tried and true addiction treatment facility provides the greatest chance at a lasting recovery for young adults with an opiate dependence.

Harmony Foundation offers a specialized inpatient addiction treatment program designed for young adults. If you or a loved one would like more information about how to achieve long-term recovery from addiction, please contact us today.

Dartmouth College Takes a Hard Stance Against Hard Alcohol

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Beginning March 30th students will not be allowed to consume liquor with greater than 15% alcohol on campus or at campus sponsored events. Pledging into fraternities will also be banned.

The motivation behind the Ivy League’s new policy is to cut down on student binge drinking and alcohol related hospital visits. The college’s president, Phil Hanlon stated in a speech on Tuesday that “The Steering Committee found that high-risk drinking is far too prevalent on our campus,” and that “the vast majority of alcohol-induced medical transports, it is hard alcohol—rather than beer or wine—that lands students on a hospital gurney.”

The ban on fraternity pledges came as no surprise after an article in Dartmouth’s student newspaper reached national headlines in 2012 when a student wrote about the hazing practices that occur with fraternity pledges. As an alternative to pledging fraternities, Dartmouth promised to create new opportunities and spaces on campus for social activities. Although he didn’t ban Greek Life on campus, Hanlon warned, “If the Greek system as a whole does not engage in meaningful, lasting reform, we will revisit its continuation on campus.”

Banning hard alcohol on campus echoes similar attempts by college campus to cut down on binge drinking, like Penn State University who pays local bars upwards of 170K every year to not serve liquor on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

Binge drinking among college students can have immediate health consequences and for a certain percentage, long term consequences. When the binge drinking episodes become more frequent they can lead to alcoholism. Many young adults who have sought treatment for alcoholism recall the start of their binge drinking while in college that persisted and quickly lead to negative consequences. Dartmouth’s new policy may deter many from drinking hard alcohol, but if a student has a problem greater than occasional alcohol abuse, they will find a way to abuse their drink of choice. For those that find themselves ignoring the ban or going off campus just to drink hard alcohol, may want to take a closer look at the precedence they give to alcohol in their lives and seek out help.

Romancing Recovery

Posted on by Christy Weeks
Many suffering from the disease of addiction, whether they’re in recovery or still out there, have formed their own ideas about recovery. These ideas about recovery are formed from cherry picking the experiences of others in recovery they have met or heard about. They hear a fellow addict in a meeting describe how recovery has led to their career taking off, how their relationships are better than ever, and all the fun outings they were part of. Impressionable addicts in early recovery may latch onto these positive experiences but not hear the less attractive aspects of the stories, regarding the difficult work needed to achieve the attractive aspects of recovery. This can lead to those early in recovery forming somewhat unrealistic expectations about what recovery will, or should, be like. They begin to expect the “pink cloud” in their lives.

Having high expectations about recovery isn’t a bad thing, as long as they are properly managed. Recovery can certainly lead to achieving nearly any goal you want, as long as the work is put in. These expectations can become harmful if all the good aspects of other’s recovery experiences are highlighted, while the work needed to achieve these things is not. This can lead to someone in early recovery thinking that everything should improve by default. It can leave them wondering why aspects of their life haven’t improved as much as others.

Those in early recovery have a tendency to romanticize their addictions. This, coupled with thinking their personal recovery isn’t as “fun” as others, may lead them to think about going back to their drug of choice. They feel the fun aspects of life they are not achieving in recovery were achieved when they were under the influence of their drug of choice. This is a dangerous thought process, which can lead to relapse. If an individual does relapse, they typically find that addiction wasn’t as they remembered it. Many times, things are much worse the second time around.

Managing expectations for recovery is very important for those new to sobriety. It is crucial for the newcomer to understand that recovery can offer many things, but all these things require work to achieve them. Harmony Foundation’s addiction treatment programs incorporate teachings that help our clients understand the work needed to achieve their individual goals in recovery. If you have recently relapsed, Harmony offers a program to help you in your recommitment to recovery. We help you incorporate the tools and mindset necessary to achieve all of your life goals in recovery.

Opiate Addiction & Recalibrating the Brain’s Reward System

Posted on by Christy Weeks

The reward system of a person’s brain while they are in active opiate addiction is similar to an intense roller coaster ride. When the user takes opiates, they peak during the high and fall after the effects wear off. After prolonged use, the peak isn’t as high, and the low spots seem to go lower than before. This leads the user to increase the dose and/or frequency with which they take opiates.

This heightened dependence on opiates leads to the individual losing the ability to stimulate the brain’s reward system with other life activities. Eating a good meal, watching a good movie, and even hanging out with friends or loved ones doesn’t provide the same level of happiness for an individual who is abusing opiates as it does for a substance free healthy person. All aspects of life, outside of drugs, start to lose value as the addiction progresses.

This impact on the activity of the brain’s reward system lingers into sobriety. Studies have found those those who are still detoxing and those who have been clean for 1-2 weeks from opiates still show a heightened reaction within the brain’s reward system to images that relate to opiate abuse (such as pills). These individuals also showed a declined response from the brains reward system in such things that would typically stimulate happiness like tasty food or people having fun. The same studies found that individuals who were 2-3 months removed from active opiate addiction showed a lesser response from the brain’s reward system when showed drug related images and a near normal response to images that people typically associate with happiness.

This further strengthens the case for residential treatment as the route to long-term sobriety. Detoxing from the substance only removes the drug safely from your body. For the first month or two, the brain still performs similar to the way it did in active addiction. The time to fully heal, and fully enjoy life again, requires a timeframe of sobriety that is much easier to attain with residential treatment than it is by simply detoxing.

Harmony Foundation offers both men’s residential treatment and women’s residential treatment, as well as an Aftercare Program for those who complete our Residential or Family Programs. Both programs offer premier addiction treatment services that will help ensure that your recovery, and outlook on life, are successful.

How Addiction Impacts The Family

Posted on by Christy Weeks

Addiction unravels the life of the individual in its grasp. As circumstances in the individual’s life began to spiral downward, those around the addict begin to suffer as well. Addiction is a family disease. This includes not only immediate family members, but also coworkers and friends that are involved in the addict’s life. As addiction takes a toll on the quality of life of the addict, negative consequences of their disease begin to creep into the lives of those around them.

The addiction and its consequences instill an atmosphere of negativity around the addict. Whenever anyone is around them they are often surrounded by an aura of negative emotions. These emotions can include anger, sadness, confusion, and anxiety.

These emotions are related to common situations that impact families during addiction. First, money will often be a factor that impedes upon the family dynamic during the addiction process. As the addiction grows the addict needs more of the substance to achieve the same result. When they can no longer afford to support their addiction, they must lie, cheat, borrow, or manipulate their way to gaining the funds necessary to get the substance they need. Those closest to the addict will typically suffer first, and the hardest. The addict will try to borrow money from friends and family. They may manipulate those close to them to get money from them. This can include concocting untrue and elaborate stories or circumstances that explain why they need money. Those involved in the addict’s life will feel used and hurt when they find out the truth, and may chose to stay away from the addict altogether.

Another common way addiction impacts family and work relations is when the addict starts not showing up – emotionally or physically. The addicted individual will likely not pull his or her own weight at work or in the family. They may show up late or not at all. Even when they do show up their work, be it helping around the home, with the kids or on the job, is sub par. This leaves family members and coworkers resentful because they have to compensate for the addict’s lack of involvement or production.

Being in addiction can also cause inconsistent boundaries at home. The addict may seem to get away with a lot of negative behaviors because they are chalked up to their disease. Meanwhile, other family members are not granted the same leniency, leading them to resent the addict. Or the parents or spouse of the addict may develop a problem with co-dependency. This essentially means they place such a high priority on taking care of the addict that they stop sufficiently taking care of themselves. Those close to the addict may go another route by denying the fact that there is a problem or even enabling their behavior by turning a blind eye or supporting them financially or emotionally.

Because there are many situations that can arise from addiction that will cause negative emotions and circumstances for those involved in the addict’s life, these feelings don’t go away when the addict gets sober  or enters addiction treatment. That is why Harmony Foundation places the utmost importance on the recovery of the family alongside the addict. We believe through education and communication the family can recover. For more information about our family program, click here.