Addiction Recovery Articles

By Danielle StewartWhile we all have different journeys in recovery, most will agree that accountability is a crucial component when it comes to staying clean and sober. Once we admit we want to rebuild our lives—whether it’s to a close friend, a family member or all our followers on Instagram—it becomes a lot harder to just pick up a drink or pop a pill.

When someone wakes up after a night of drinking and feels dehydrated, nauseous and achy, we label this a hangover – a side effect of drinking too much. When an alcoholic or dependent drinker wakes up after a night of drinking, he or she will have different symptoms, due to drinking what their brain perceives as too little.

Misconceptions abound about what a person should do to help an alcoholic friend. Many feel they can make the person stop drinking by shaming them, disposing of their alcohol, hiding their money, or getting them arrested. Others think that if they simply love them enough, the person will stop on their own. None of these methods are particularly effective for truly helping an alcoholic.

There are a couple questions I get a lot when people find out I work at a treatment center. The first is how to tell if you are an alcoholic, which I covered in a previous blog. The second is whether binge drinking is the same thing as alcoholism, or if it is just harmless fun. That brings up the difference between alcohol abuse and alcohol dependence.

Recovery is ongoing; it isn’t achieved in a short, 30-day period. Addiction is classified as a chronic illness, and relapse is an unfortunate reality that the recovery community actively works to prevent through various methods. One such method of fending off relapse is monitoring programs.

My brother came home from a 12-month stay in rehab. My confidant, my jokester, my BFF is back! His year in rehab seems to have passed in the blink of an eye, but in the moment it seemed like every minute without his free spirit in our home took a lifetime to pass.In the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed my anxiety has doubled, no, scratch that, it’s tripled without him.

I often wonder how I was so blind to the fact that I was an alcoholic. Looking back, all of the signs were there.My life was out of control; once I had my first drink of the day, I had little-to-no control over the amount I drank. All bets were off. And when I truly wanted to stop drinking, I couldn’t.The tricky part there is that I thought I had a choice in it all.

Finding balance can be difficult for anybody. But balance in recovery is even more difficult because you lacked balance for so long while in the throes of your addiction. A common emotion after recovery is to feel a void where the alcohol used to be. You have newfound time, and new hobbies can be exciting. But the key to lasting recovery is balance.

Throughout high school and college, I was the girl who always had a serious boyfriend.I’ve been in love two times in my life. Actually, that’s a lie…three times. But only two of those were with men…the other was with alcohol.I was introduced to alcohol years before things got serious between us.

A new friend has just invited my family to an event where drinking will be the main activity.Here we go again. Do I respond with:A. “My parents don’t drink.”B. “My parents are recovering alcoholics.”C. Pretend I didn’t hear them and hope they get distracted.The debate begins almost immediately in my head.