Volunteering in recovery can be a great way to heal yourself while helping others. Volunteering reduces loneliness and enables someone to hone social or work skills in a low-stress environment. It builds confidence and makes someone feel like a valued member of a community. Many enjoy the structure and schedule that volunteering in recovery provides as they build their new life. And it offers the opportunity for someone in recovery to meet new people, who often times share in the same passion, interests or beliefs that drove them to volunteering at the same place. Read more →
Addiction Treatment Magazine recently ran an interesting article about recognizing the five stages of grief in addiction recovery. Yes, paying close attention to your actions is important in addiction recovery. But checking in with your feelings and emotions is also just as important. Sometimes, we think that if we ignore our feelings they will simply go away. But the truth is, submerged or dismissed feelings can reappear, sometimes in more harmful ways. Read more →
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. Read more →
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) Read more →
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:
With summer in full swing, I decided to do a post on the “mocktail.” This is a cocktail drink sans the alcohol. And it makes a great summer addition to parties and other social gatherings. The mocktail has also been making appearances at young adult birthday parties and office parties/professional gatherings. Living life in recovery doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy or host a great party. I’ve also found many restaurants to be more than accommodating when it comes to ordering a mocktail.
- The “Ginless Tonic.” On a hot summer night, squeeze one or two wedges of fresh lime over ice, then fill the glass with tonic water. It’s very refreshing and satisfying.
- The Summer Spritzer. Over ice pour lemon/lime seltzer or Fresca. Top it off with a nice berry juice, such as cranberry, blueberry or pomegranate. Add a slice of lemon or lime.
- Pink “Champagne.” (makes 10 servings). Ingredients: 1/2 cup sugar; one cup water; 6 oz can frozen orange juice concentrate; 6 oz can frozen grapefruit juice concentrate; 28 oz bottle chilled ginger ale; 1/3 cup grenadine syrup. Early in the day, mix sugar with water in saucepan and boil 5 minutes. Cool. Add frozen juice concentrates. Refrigerate. At serving time add ginger ale and grenadine syrup. Stir lightly.
- The Mockarita. Take four large limes and one lemon. Squeeze them into a blender with a handful or so of ice. Add a can of sprite or sprite zero and a dash of salt. Blend until its the consistency you like. Pour in a chilled glass rimmed with salt and garnish with a lime wedge.
- The “Mojito.” Take one tablespoon of sugar, a small bunch of mint, the juice from three limes, and soda water. Crush the sugar and mint leaves together. Put a handful of crushed ice into two tall glasses. Pour in the lime juice and mix in the mint and sugar. Then top it off with soda water.
- Crushed fresh fruit with shaved ice, topped off with soda water is also nice. Here are some other mocktail ideas.
