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Tag: Addiction Treatment

Creating Space for Healing

When working towards recovery, one of the challenges we can find ourselves confronted with is feeling totally overwhelmed by the turmoil and chaos in our lives. Sometimes this tumult is internal, coming from deeply rooted fears, unhealed trauma and unresolved issues. Sometimes our conflict is interpersonal, and we struggle with toxicity in our relationships and endless cycles of unhealthy relationships. For many of us, the turmoil is both internal and external, with both playing off of each other and exacerbating one another. One way we can remedy this conflict is to create space within ourselves and our lives. When we create space, we distance ourselves from the healthy patterns we’ve become embroiled in and make room for healthier patterns to take root.

Creating space can be challenging because it asks us to shed things we’ve become accustomed to, things we’re familiar and comfortable with. Take a look at what is causing the overwhelm in your life. Is it a toxic thought pattern causing you to obsess about unnecessary things and bringing you down? Is it a relationship that leaves you feeling drained and depleted of your energy? Is it someone in your life who is toxic for you, who encroaches upon your space and doesn’t allow you the solitude you need to heal? Taking inventory of all the things taking up your mental and emotional space is an important first step in creating more room for yourself.

We can create space for ourselves in different ways. We can remove the relationships that are harmful to our well-being. We can work to heal the thought patterns occupying our minds. We can give ourselves plenty of time for solitude. Mindfulness practices help us to access the space within us that offers us peace, tranquility and stillness. Meditate and learn to reach for that silence. Journal to help you process the thoughts and emotions that are cluttering your mind and overwhelming your heart. Practice visualizing yourself liberated from the constraints and limitations that were robbing you of your internal space and freedom.

When we’ve learned how to access our inner stillness, silence and spaciousness, we create room for new and healthier things to develop. We can practice habits that lead to better health. We can take better care of our minds, hearts and bodies. We can form relationships that bolster our well-being rather than detract from it. We can start develop new patterns that reflect self-love and healing rather than conflict and turmoil.

Holistic healing is an important part of recovery here at Enlightened Solutions. We work with you to heal mind, body and spirit. Call (833) 801-LIVE for more information on our effective and transformative treatment programs.

Benefiting from Support Groups

Many of us struggling with addiction have formed the very destructive and limiting belief that we need to recover alone. We isolate ourselves thinking that no one else can relate to us or understand our pain. We often have given up hope altogether and don’t believe we can be helped. When we isolate ourselves, we remove ourselves from the communities and resources that can in fact support us in our recovery. One of the best resources available to us are the many support groups with regular meetings we can attend and benefit from.

Support groups are comprised of other people living with similar addictions and experiencing similar struggles. When we join a support group, we can immediately feel less alone and less isolated. We can look around us and see just how prevalent addiction is. We see firsthand how it runs the entire spectrum of religion, ethnicity, background and socio-economic status. When we feel less isolated, we’re more likely to come out of our shell and share our story. This powerful experience helps us to conquer our fears of expressing ourselves. Our addictions no longer have our silence, avoidance and denial to feed on. We’ve allowed our pain to come into the light of our awareness. We start to develop courage and resilience. We learn that we are stronger than our addictions.

Being in community with other people is like holding up a mirror to ourselves and our lives. The people with whom we are in fellowship help us to measure our progress, track our efforts and take inventory of where we can improve. We learn so much not just from sharing our own experiences but from hearing the stories of the people around us. We absorb all their wisdom. We benefit from their learning experiences almost as if they were our own. We share of ourselves and learn things about ourselves we might never have been aware of had we not joined this community. We can become more mindful of the behaviors and thought patterns that contributed to our addictions. We benefit from the cumulative awareness and collective consciousness of a group of people all striving towards the same goal of sobriety.

Support groups can give us the encouragement and motivation we need. They can be our source of strength when we feel down, weak and defeated. In addition, we can benefit from a renewed sense of purpose and fulfillment when we feel we are of service to other people.

Enlightened Solutions is here to provide you the community, love and support we all need for a successful recovery. Call us today: (833) 801-LIVE.

Investigating our Triggers

For those of us living with addiction, something we often have in common is that we are easily triggered by certain things. Our triggers are the things, events or people that cause us anxiety and distress. We normally feel inclined to want to avoid our triggers at all costs. Our instinct is to not want to have to feel the weight of the bothersome trigger. We try to escape the sadness and fear that accompany them. Part of our recovery is learning how to manage the things that bother us so that we can be at peace no matter what comes our way. Our avoidance has a way of making issues grow stronger until they are totally overpowering us. To work through our triggers, it’s so important that we take the time to investigate them so that we can move through them instead of avoiding them, so that we can reclaim our power and maintain our inner peace.

To investigate our triggers, let’s take a closer look at them. What is it exactly that caused the spike in anxiety and sadness for you? Was it something someone said or did? Are you triggered by specific people, events or statements? Rather than running from your trigger, turn towards it. Face it, and lean into it. As you expose yourself to your trigger, you become more desensitized to it. The more you face your triggering issue head on, the less power it threatens to wield over you.

Let’s start to examine what our triggers represent. We might not be consciously aware of the reasons we’re so triggered, and the more we avoid our issue in question, the less awareness we’re able to develop around it. Let’s dig deep and look at what underlying issues are triggering us and causing us to feel so distressed. For example, someone mentioning death might be particularly triggering for you if you’ve experienced a tragic loss.

Once we know what is fueling our triggers, we can take the necessary steps to do the important healing work we need to do. We can start therapy, attend support group meetings and work with a sponsor. The first step is mustering the courage to face our triggers head on and reminding ourselves that even though they hurt, they don’t have to overpower us if we don’t allow them to.

Addiction has layers of complexities that we aren’t always familiar with. At Enlightened Solutions, we have years of experience helping people heal in profound, life-changing ways. Call us today: (833) 801-LIVE.

Learning the Signs of Addiction

Working to prevent addiction can feel like an uphill battle, an impossible undertaking. We can feel like we’re up against an indestructible and formidable force that we have no hope of conquering. An important step we can take in preventing addiction in ourselves, in our loved ones and in the people we work with is to learn the signs of addiction. The warning signs of addiction can often mirror and parallel the signs of mental illness. Since addiction and mental illness often go hand in hand, learning more about the warning signs for both can help us respond to a crisis more quickly and get the help and support that are so urgently needed.

A common sign that an addiction is developing is experiencing increased depression and anxiety. We feel sad and hopeless more of the time. We might be increasingly more worried and stressed. We might be more reactive and experience drastic mood swings and unpredictable changes in our emotions. We might start feeling things we can’t explain and don’t understand. We lose interest in doing the things we once loved to do. We neglect our passions and interests. We isolate ourselves and avoid interaction. We might feel more fatigued and can find ourselves feeling exhausted even without expending much energy. Getting out of bed in the morning can feel impossibly difficult when we’re filled with fear and sadness. We might struggle to get to sleep and suffer from insomnia. We might lose our appetite and stop eating, or start binge eating as an anxious compulsion.

An obvious sign of addiction is an inability to monitor and control our use of a substance or our engagement in a certain behavior. We might see other people being able to drink in moderation, for example, whereas we always seem to overdo it. We might feel as though we can’t stop ourselves, no matter how unhealthy or dangerous we know it to be. We can feel as though we’re losing our sense of self and our ability to live our lives normally.

Learning the signs of addiction can help us to recognize when we are headed down a dangerous path, and can help alert us to the fact that we need help. When we know the signs, we’re more likely to seek out resources and reach out for support.

At Enlightened Solutions, we are a community of people with firsthand, personal experience with addiction and recovery. We have helped countless people heal, and we can help you too. Call us today: (833) 801-LIVE.

The Relief Of Getting Sober

Addiction is a struggle. At first, drugs and alcohol can be fun. In fact, many a recovering addict or alcoholic can recall multiple times before they became addicted when drugs and alcohol were fun. Eventually, however, drugs and alcohol were no longer fun. Using drugs and alcohol isn’t a disease. Even abusing drugs and alcohol isn’t a disease, though it is a problem. Addiction is a disease. When you become addicted to something you become sick. You aren’t just “sick” because you are addicted. You’re not just metaphorically experiencing a sickness because you can no longer make healthy decisions. You are completely and totally ill in mind, body, and spirit. Everything in your holistic system is shutting down and the only thing you can continue thinking about is taking that next hit or getting that next drink.

Living with the pressure of addiction is hard work when an addiction fully develops. You have to keep your cravings satisfied. Avoiding the symptoms of withdrawal and detox is a fulltime job. Nothing about addiction is fun when it is at its peak. The euphoric effects once produced by drugs and alcohol don’t last long enough to make up for the pain of being sick and in withdrawal. Your life revolves around finding a way to stave off detoxing in order to feel normal, not even to feel good anymore. Carrying the weight of addiction is carrying a tremendous burden which makes finally coming to sobriety a wild relief.

Going to rehab, going through detox, and getting sober might not sound like a relief to some. Too many addicts and alcoholics, it isn’t a relief at first. The obsession of craving can be so pervasive that those in recovery don’t feel like they’ve made a good decision by getting sober. For many others, however, it is a welcome relief. They no longer have to live their life in pain and suffering at the hands of addiction. Detox can be tough, and treatment is a challenge, but the payoff of getting clean and sober is infinite.

Enlightened Solutions offers a clinical, holistic and 12-step approach to the road to recovery.  If you’re struggling with addiction and/or mental illness, our program is specialized in dual-diagnosis treatments. Don’t hesitate and call today: 844-234-LIVE.

Why Is Sound Therapy Effective For Addiction Treatment?

Sound therapy is one of many alternative treatment methods that can be used during treatment for addiction, alcoholism, and co-occurring mental health disorders.

How Does Sound Therapy Work?

Sound therapy can be conducted through different mediums of producing sound. Traditional sound therapy uses a variety of instruments like chimes, drums, gongs, and tuning forks. Modern sound therapy utilizes electronic sound and computer technology to create specific rhythms, patterns, and frequencies.

See How Sound Therapy Works

The primary function of sound healing is using vibrations to create change and healing in the mind and the body, thereby helping the spirit heal. For example, some electronic sound therapy mimics the primordial sounds we experience in the womb as we are carried by our mothers during pregnancy. Such ambient sounds can be relaxing and conjure a sense of calm, safety, and protection.

Why Does Sound Therapy Work?

Specifics of sound therapy have not been deeply researched on a scientific level. According to The News Minute, there are different theories. Physical vibrations from instruments or a “sound bed” cause vibrations in the physical body which encourages relaxation and pain relief or release of tension. Sound waves interact with brain waves, which is how we hear and create meaning out of what we hear. Sounds have different frequencies, which can cause different frequencies in the brain. A more simple theory suggests that ambient sounds are simply relaxing and being immersed in sound for an extended period of time causes deep relaxation. More complicated theories include Pythagorean formulae and complicated tonal systems which are complex and specific to the need for healing.

What Is The Connection Between Sound Therapy And Addiction Treatment?

Addiction lives in the mind, the body, and the spirit. During treatment, the body is in the earliest stages of recovering from addiction. Toxic energy lives inside of the joints and muscles which inhibit full recovery. Additionally, there is a lot of stress in early recovery due to withdrawal, coping with emotions, and working through cravings. Sound therapy helps neutralize the brain, stimulate healing in the body, and create a much-needed sense of relaxation.

How Sounds Are Healing For Recovery

Enlightened Solutions has witnessed the transformative and healing effect of holistic healing and spiritual wellness in addiction treatment. Our partial care programs for dual diagnosis integrate healing, clinical therapy, and 12 step philosophy. For more information on how we are helping clients find lifelong recovery, call us today at 833-801-5483.

What Is The Success Rate Of Going To Treatment?

There’s no big data for addiction treatment. Currently, multiple companies are working relentlessly to create a system of accountability to find a way to track patients and analyze data. Many treatment centers today include alumni programs as part of their total packages. Alumni, sometimes called after care, can include phone calls and tracking for up to a year. Of course, there is little way to gauge whether someone in recovery is telling the truth when they say “Yes, I’m still sober and doing great.”

Addiction and alcoholism are hard to gauge in terms of success. The addiction treatment and recovery industry as a whole is uniting in its strive to define just that. Is it the amount of time spent clean and sober? Is success only defined by lifelong abstinence? Should abstinence be the hallmark of success? If a client is prone to chronic relapse, should success be determined by at least a reduction in how often they relapse? These are just some of the dozens of questions to ask. Additionally, there are questions regarding treatment methods and their success. What defines the success of detox and symptoms reduction? Is a treatment inefficient if it doesn’t completely eliminate symptoms of craving or obsessive thinking?

Trying to define success can be confusing. Numerous statistics float around the internet which indicate the “dropout rate” or “success rate” of treatment. However, making such conclusions is generally problematic because they cannot be generalized. Addiction treatment and recovery is highly individualized. One treatment center does not offer the same exact program as another. While in medicine there are the same medications prescribed, the same treatments, and the same surgical procedures, with mental health there is no one course of treatment. Treatment plans are designed around the specific nuances of an individual client, based on the treatment methods available. Treatment methods are chosen because of their proven efficacy in reducing symptoms and contributing to long term recovery. Called “evidence based treatments, they are so far the most ‘successful’ forms of treating addiction.

Success Is What You Make It

Recovery is largely defined by personal goals. With a treatment center staff, you or your loved one will define those goals and create a cohesive plan to reach them. One day at a time, you will participate together in the beginning of a lifelong journey toward recovery. It starts with you.

Start your recovery with Enlightened Solutions, offering partial care programs for co-occurring addiction, alcoholism, and mental health disorders. Integrating 12 step philosophy with spiritual holistic care and proven clinical methods, our clients leave enlightened on their journey to wellbeing. For more information, call 833-801-5483.

10 Tips For Moving Into Sober Living After Treatment

  1. Create a routine of meetings:

    Treatment has a daily schedule to keep you occupied and moving through the day. Sober living can present a suddenly open schedule. Sitting around bored is usually a recipe for disaster in early recovery. Learning how to structure your day and create a healthy schedule can be a challenge after spending so much time in a place where that was being done for you. An easy way to create a backbone for your schedule is with recovery meetings. Until you have a job, go back to school, you have a lot of time. Spending that time in meetings will help you stay busy and help your recovery.

  2. Fill your schedule with friends and fellowship:

    Many people continue to take time off of work and school after moving into sober living. Some might get a part time job as a way to fill their time and create a bit of income. In between, fill your schedule with friends and fellowshipping. The first year of recovery is doing everything “sober”. Going to the movies, going shopping, taking road trips, having an adventure- they’re all things people do all the time. For you and your friends in recovery they are brand new experiences. Find out what living sober in recovery is all about together.

  3. Maintain healthy boundaries:

    The growing doesn’t stop with treatment. You’ll meet many more new people, start dating, and forming new relationships. As you make amends and reconnect with people from your past you rebirth old relationships. Relationships require healthy boundaries. Remember to make time to take care of you and clearly define when that time is.

  4. Stay honest with your house manager:

    Outpatient, intensive outpatient, or aftercare are all partial care programs you might continue to do when you’re in sober living. Sober living is also where people choose to live once they’ve completed all levels of treatment they need and start to live life again. Staying honest with your treatment team and your house manager is important. Throughout the first year to first eighteen months you will continue to experience cravings, obsessive thinking, and struggles. Just because you’re in sober living doesn’t mean you’re expected to do recovery perfectly.

  5. Continue seeing your therapist:

    If you aren’t in continuing levels of care, it is important to continue seeing your therapist or find a new therapist to see if you can’t see your treatment therapist. Ongoing therapy will help you stay connected to your recovery and work on underlying issues.

  6. Practice Self-Care:

    Your life is going to become full more quickly than you realize once you’re in sober living. Between the meetings, work, after care, therapy, and adventure, it’s important to slow down and take time for yourself. Create your routine of self-care and take time to nourish your soul in the way i needs to be nourished.

Enlightened Solutions provides partial care programs for those who have completed residential inpatient and are looking to continue their treatment. Our integrative and holistic programs are designed to create transformative healing in mind, body, and spirit. For more information on sober living, treatment, and how you can recover from addiction, call 833-801-5483.

Sounds Are Healing For Recovery

Sounds and noises influence us from the moment we start developing in the womb. There is a reason mothers put headphones over their stomach bumps for the baby to hear. Parents start talking to their baby months before birth is due because the growing child will hear what is happening outside. Inside the womb there are all kinds of noises- the beating heart, the swoosh and gush of fluids, the movement in organs. Outside the womb there are all the noises of life, voices, music, and more.

Certain vibrations and collections of notes or sounds are calming while others induce anxiety. Metal rock, for example, has been proven to actually relax people, as has classical music and other forms of music. Our bodies react naturally to vibrations and sounds. Naturally, then, music or sound therapy makes sense as a healing modality.

What is Sound Therapy?

According to MNN, the Mother Nature Network, sound therapy is a form of holistic healing which “…can benefit the well-being of our bodies and minds, helping the body heal from mental stress and even physical pain.” The article explains that sound therapy is helpful for mind, spirit, and body. “Various studies have shown that the use of low-frequency sounds can lessen the pain and anxiety associated with fibromyalgia…”

How Is Sound Therapy Conducted?

All sound therapy needs to happen is sound. Sound therapy could include the use of specific instruments like acoustic guitar, violin, or Tibetan singing bowls, as well as the soundtrack to various natural sounds like birds, gurgling creeks, or the wind. “White noise” apps have a soundboard available to mixx all kinds of sounds to create the most perfect combination. Sound therapy is about helping clients get lost into a relaxing sensation of sound. Sometimes, clients can participate in creating that sound. Bringing treatment into the process can look like a sound therapy practitioner asking the clients about how they feel before and after the sound therapy, what kinds of feelings the sound therapy produces, and more. Sound can help balance the brain and the mind-body connection, bringing someone more into the present with themselves.

Why Is Relaxation Important For Addiction Treatment?

Cravings are high during the treatment phase of addiction recovery. Nerves and anxiety are usually coupled with cravings, as can depression. Relaxation is helpful for detaching the association between relief and one’s substance of choice. The more one relaxes, the more they can go with the flow of their feelings and experiences in treatment, without returning to old coping behaviors like substance abuse.

Enlightened Solutions has created a holistic healing program of treatment which utilizes spiritual modalities with proven clinical treatment. Start your recovery with us. 833-801-5483.

Benefits Of Art Therapy In Addiction Treatment

W. Somerset Maugham once said that, “Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul”. Recovery is, if nothing more, an adventure of the soul. Taking off on the exploration of a lifetime is what treatment is like- discovering hidden depths and wonders along the way. Art therapy is a healing modality which helps express that adventure in a creative way.

Relieves Pain

Art therapy can be very pleasing as well as very soothing. During an art therapy session, patients can experience feelings of joy as well as feelings of relaxation. Being able to play and create stimulates the dopamine production in the brain, sending healthy signals of pleasure throughout. In addition, the repetitious behavior of brush strokes, movements, working with clay, or other mediums can be very relaxing. Relaxation can stimulate the opioid receptors in the brain, helping the body to relax and reduce pain.

Reduces Anxiety

Art is a concentration and a focus. When people are given space to create and express themselves authentically, they fall into a state of meditation. Art can be performance, but most often art therapy is not drama therapy or performance therapy. Instead, it is a quiet time to focus on the activity at hand. Anxiety includes a lot of scattered and rapid thinking that is difficult to focus. Art makes time for that, allowing someone with anxiety to experience what it feels like to be focused on one activity which brings them joy.

Regulates Emotions

Using art as a form of expression can be helpful during what is otherwise very clinical treatment. Instead of having to talk, analyze, and process, art therapy gives people the chance to just express and create. Having a few moments of normalcy and privacy helps people to feel more human and like themselves. With art, there is no need to impress or please anyone. People are free to make whatever they want and proclaim it as art. Often this takes a lot of emotional pressure off, allowing people to feel as though they can express whatever they want. Usually this translates back into clinical treatment by helping with emotional regulation and more.

Enlightened Solutions creates a treatment program that helps heal the mind, heart, body, and spirit with traditional treatment methods, 12 step inspiration, creative modalities, and holistic methods. For information on our partial care programs, call us today at 833-801-5483.

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