May 16, 2018
In Addiction Recovery, Focus on Small Wins
When you’re recovering from addiction, there’s no shortage of advice about how to stay sober. People will tell you to exercise every day, eat healthy, get plenty of regular sleep, go to 90 meetings in 90 days, start meditating, make sober friends, and so on. Most of the advice you get from therapists, doctors, and fellow recovering addicts will be useful in some way, but it’s also a lot to take in. It’s even harder to incorporate all of it into your life.
May 15, 2018
Can I Work the Steps if I’m not Religious?
People who are considering attending 12-step meetings are sometimes put off by the idea of a higher power. 12-step proponents often point to the loophole in step three that they ‘Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him’. As we understood Him--see? Nothing religious there. That could mean Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and possibly even Hinduism. And Buddha is a god, right?
May 14, 2018
3 Ways to Build Empathy in Recovery
Empathy is a useful trait to have in recovery. It helps you support others and get out of your own head. It makes you more willing and eager to be of service. Empathy for the people you’ve hurt helps you make amends by showing people you understand what you put them through. Empathy also helps you let go of resentments and anger, as you can better appreciate other people’s perspectives. Most people have some degree of innate empathy.
May 11, 2018
How to Identify a Resentment
According to the Big Book resentment is the main driver of addiction, especially to alcohol. Carrying resentments makes you angry and self-destructive. You attribute your problems to others, who you believe are out to get you. As the Big Book puts it: ‘Resentment is the “number one” offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else.
May 10, 2018
How Keystone Habits Can Simplify Recovery
When you first get sober, you are faced with a conundrum: You have to make several major changes at once to maintain sobriety, but trying to make too many changes at once often results in failing to make any changes. How do you make the changes you need to make and still have a reasonable chance of success? The answer may lie in what author Charles Duhigg calls ‘keystone habits’. When you establish a keystone habit, other parts of your life improve without any special effort.
May 9, 2018
Will You Be a Different Person Sober?
Getting sober is a big life change. It means quitting a substance you are physically dependent on, changing your habits that formed around using, making new friends, and adopting a healthier lifestyle. As with any change, it will feel weird at first but you will eventually feel normal again. Whether you experience sobriety as a change in identity largely depends on how you think about yourself.
May 8, 2018
4 Ways to Repair Your Immune System in Recovery
Addiction to drugs and alcohol damages your immune system, making you more prone to illness and even cancer. Alcohol and other drugs suppress your white blood cells, dehydrate you, and cause you to be malnourished. The good news is that you can heal and get sick less often. If you are sober, but still not feeling great, here are some ways to get your immune system back up and running.
May 7, 2018
How Alcohol Damages Your Immune System and Makes You Sicker
Most people know the feeling of waking up feeling sick after drinking a bit too much. While that feeling will go away within a day or two, regular drinking can impair your immune system, leading to more frequent infections and illnesses. In addition to being hungover, you are more likely to get the flu as well. There are several reasons this happens.
May 4, 2018
Will Sobriety Hurt My Creativity?
Creativity has long been associated with drugs and alcohol. Writers are especially known to drink and musicians are especially known to use drugs. And drink. If creative pursuits are especially important to you, either professionally or recreationally, the belief that you need drugs or alcohol to be creative can be an impediment to recovery. Fortunately, drugs and alcohol are not at all necessary to be creative and they are often a hinderance.
May 3, 2018
3 Foods that Make You Feel Terrible
Eating a healthy diet is one of the most important lifestyle changes you can make in recovery. A healthy diet helps repair the physical damage caused by addiction, it gives you more energy, and it improves your mood. While it’s important to eat a diverse selection of nutrient-dense vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, beans, and healthy fats, it’s also important to avoid junk.
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