Employee substance abuse problems cost U.S. employers hundreds of billions of dollars each year in health care and lost productivity. The 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that 18.9 million adults suffer from drug or alcohol dependence or abuse. Of that number, 52 percent were employed. That means the odds of your business being effected are high.
Many people wonder, who becomes an addict? The truth is, addiction does not discriminate. It doesn’t matter someone’s age, race, gender, financial background or social status. As was the case for Christina Huffington, the 24-year-old daughter of the editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post and prominent spokesperson, Arianna Huffington. Christina Huffington has recently spoken out about her struggles with addiction (primarily cocaine), an eating disorder, and anxiety (It is not uncommon for someone to suffer with more than one addiction, secondary addictions such as an eating disorder, or other disorders).
Learning how to identify and manage stress is a key component in any addiction recovery program. This is the second post of the two-part blog entry about how to manage stress and reduce the risk of relapse. There are unhealthy ways to coping with stress. For example, smoking, drugs or alcohol, unhealthy eating patterns, withdrawing from friends or family, sleeping too much, procrastinating, lashing out at others or angry outbursts, are all negative coping mechanisms. These habits may temporarily relieve stress, but end up causing more damage.
Learning how to identify and manage stress is a key component in any successful addiction recovery program. This is a two-part blog entry with the first post about identifying stress and the second about coping mechanisms for stress. Clients who learn how to identify and address stressful situations instead of avoiding them or letting them build, are less likely to relapse while in recovery. (Addictive Behaviors)
What is the true relationship between smoking and anxiety? During the past several years, research has shown a strong correlation between lower risk for relapse and longer periods of abstinence, being directly related to smoking cessation during the detox phase of drug and alcohol recovery. I have found that clients often assume that smoking helps relieve their anxiety symptoms. When the truth is, the anxiety is usually a major symptom of nicotine withdrawal. So the anxiety they think they are relieving by smoking is actually being caused by the smoking in the first place.
One of the most crucial components of a successful addiction recovery is changing your lifestyle. This most often includes distancing yourself from old drinking friends and haunts, such as a favorite bar. Addiction recovery usually entails making new friends. This may seem like a daunting task, but it’s something we all do throughout our lives. Healthy friends are important to our emotional and physical well-being, and they can impact someone’s recovery by decreasing the risk of relapse.
Here are some tips from PsychCentral.com on how to find new friends while in addiction recovery:
