Category: Addiction

There’s a lot to love about Southern California.

The year-round pleasant temps. Proximity to the sea. Epic hiking. A city packed with culture, activities and energy. 

It’s no wonder that SoCal is a vacation destination for many.

More importantly though, given the sheer amount of specialized rehab facilities, Southern California is also a beacon of hope for many struggling with addiction and looking for solutions.  It could be that where you’re from is something of a “rehab desert” in that you don’t have all that many options for treatment or ones that align with your needs. Or it could be that just getting away from wherever you are is something that could make a big difference in its own right.

Long story short, there are plenty of reasons to consider alcohol rehab in Southern California.

We’ll elaborate further below but first, let’s discuss alcoholism.

What Are the Signs of an Alcohol Addiction?

As defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), alcohol use disorder (AUD) is “a medical condition characterized by an impaired ability to stop or control alcohol use despite adverse social, occupational, or health consequences…Considered a brain disorder, AUD can be mild, moderate, or severe. Lasting changes in the brain caused by alcohol misuse perpetuate AUD and make individuals vulnerable to relapse”.

The signs of alcoholism become clearer as the addiction progresses, what may start as “manageable” can quickly spiral out of control. Here are some things to keep an eye out for:

• Drinking more than intended
• Can’t stop or cut back despite best efforts
• Spending a lot of time getting, drinking and recovering from alcohol
• Mood swings and irritability
• Onset of withdrawal symptoms when you stop drinking
• Lack of attention to general hygiene
• Weight loss
• Strong and persistent cravings
• Avoiding activities once enjoyed because they don’t include alcohol
• Finding yourself in increasingly dangerous/reckless situations, i.e., drunk driving
• Work, home and school life suffer
• Drinking despite clear problems it’s causing
• Financial hardship due to spending on alcohol
• Legal issues from what you do while drinking or in the pursuit of more drinks
• Blacking out
• Having to drink large quantities to get the same effect due to building up a tolerance

Alcohol addiction will manifest differently in each person but chances are you’ll start to see some of these the longer the addiction carries on.

Why You Should Go to Alcohol Rehab in Southern California

So why Cali then?

Specialized care

Because Southern California has so many alternatives for rehab, you’re much more likely to find the treatment option that works best for you here. With rehabs running the gamut from purely evidence-based to holistic and alternative therapy-centric, both inpatient and outpatient, you can really get the care that matches your requirements and sensibilities.

New perspective

A new setting allows you to see the world through a different lens and that can be hugely beneficial in the pursuit of sobriety.

Remove yourself from triggers

It’s often tough to get clean in the place that you got addicted. Why? Because you’re surrounded by all the triggers that may have led you to drink in the first place. Getting away from it all – the people, places, access, etc. – can lift a tremendous weight and free you to succeed.

Weather

With over 200 days of sun a year and year-round comfortable temperatures, it’s tough to find a more pleasant atmosphere for recovery – and that matters. Fresh air, sea breezes and endless sunlight truly do make a difference in how you feel and they all aid in your recovery. Just think of how down you feel when you see cloudy skies for a month straight or are snowed in. Now consider going through treatment under those grey skies. Is it doable? Of course. But it’s just that little bit more difficult.

Nature & City

Love hiking? Swimming? Climbing? Running? The natural beauty of SoCal isn’t just your new playground with mountains and sea right next to each other, it can also be incorporated right into your rehab. On the flip side, you’ll have access to one of America’s largest cities where you can find museums, food from all corners of the world, theme parks and more.

Southern California clearly has a lot to offer, to learn more about our backyard, reach out to us at Inneractions.

Recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction is a lifelong process that takes constant attention, consideration and effort to maintain.

The toughest work, of course, takes place in those early days, just after you take that last hit or final sip.

The detox and withdrawal are arduous.

The rehab itself plumbs the depths of your psyche to uncover the roots of addiction and help you develop new ways to think & interact with the world. 

It’s all part of the process.

By the time you get to the end of treatment you’ve put in weeks and perhaps months of work but that’s not the end of it. You’ll always be an active participant in maintaining your sobriety so how do you give yourself the best shot of sustaining it once you leave treatment?

For some, the answer is to rely on support services and recovery assistance like a sober living facility.

What Is a Sober Living Facility?

A sober living facility, sober living home or halfway house as they’re sometimes referred to, offers a transition from a rehab facility to the real world.

Life in a residential inpatient center is much different from your day-to-day life. In treatment, you’re in a controlled and supervised environment, focused squarely and totally on your recovery program. There are quite literally no outside distractions and you don’t go to work, school or interact with people from your “old” life.

Despite being equipped with tools to cope with triggers that might lead to relapse, you’re in something of a fragile state after rehab. You haven’t had the chance to really put into practice all that you’ve learned and going back to your old neighborhood or living situation can be daunting.

A sober living home is exactly what it sounds like; a supportive place you can live which is completely free of drugs or alcohol and therefore without the temptation. While your days aren’t as structured and regimented as inpatient care, each sober living facility has rules to follow; often a curfew and usually a requirement to attend therapy sessions or some sort of support group like a 12-step program.

Moreover, you’ll be surrounded by people who are on the same journey as you and have gone through similar events, forming a community of sober-minded individuals that serve to build each other up through those shared experiences. You can perhaps even come away with strong, lasting friendships that are founded on sobriety which can be hugely beneficial.

Unlike inpatient care, you’re not required to stay at a sober living home 24/7. You have more independence and can slowly start to reintegrate into regular life. You’re able to go to and from work or school and take care of whatever your responsibilities might be to family and friends.

How Inneractions Sober Living Facility Can Help You Maintain Sobriety for the Long Run

The goal of rehab is not just to help you get clean but also to assist you in understanding your addiction and ultimately how to cope with it. A sober living facility picks up where that leaves off by allowing you to ease your transition back to the daily grind. It serves to set you up for lasting sobriety that you can hold onto and nurture for the long haul.

Our Inneractions Sober Living Environment in Woodland Hill, California, or The ISLE as it’s come to be known by our residents both past and present, offers all those aforementioned benefits housed in a luxurious Southern California retreat. A quiet, private place to call your own from which you can set yourself up for a lifetime of sobriety.

Get in touch with us to learn more about our sober living facility and if it’s right for you.

When you picture rehab, what comes to mind?

Is it the one-on-one sessions with a psychologist or psychiatrist most? Group therapy? That’s a good start, those are the critically important elements after all and they’re found in both outpatient and inpatient rehab.

A more specific question that speaks to the major difference is this; when you think about treatment for yourself or a loved one, do you envision it at a place you live in for a while or that you visit on a regularly scheduled basis?

The chief distinction to these types of rehab lies there.

The Difference Between Outpatient and Inpatient Drug Rehab

Treatment for substance use disorder is a process that moves along a gradient. Like day shifting into night, the parts of the journey aren’t clear cut. There are transition points on the way that ease you into the next part of the journey.

Addiction itself functions in much the same way, there’s an escalation from mild to moderate to severe drug use. You don’t go from sober to addict overnight, a person shifts from one stage to the next as their dependency grows increasingly more all-encompassing over time.

Inpatient care or residential inpatient care, the more literal and descriptive term, is meant for people who are on the severe side of the addiction spectrum. Those who truly require constant supervision and guidance because they’re at starkly higher risk for relapse.

Living at a treatment facility means you’re required to leave your life behind temporarily and commit fully, 100% to rehab. The point is to eliminate distraction and potential triggers.

Inpatient rehab is broken down into long- and short-term care with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) defining long-term treatment as providing “care 24 hours a day, generally in non-hospital settings. The best-known residential treatment model is the therapeutic community (TC), with planned lengths of stay of between 6 and 12 months. TCs focus on the “resocialization” of the individual and use the program’s entire community—including other residents, staff, and the social context—as active components of treatment.”

And short-term as providing “intensive but relatively brief treatment…[afterward] it is important for individuals to remain engaged in outpatient treatment programs”.

You can see the sort of continuum of treatment within those definitions and they bring us nicely to outpatient care.

For someone with a heavier addiction, the idea is that they could transition their way through treatment and end up in outpatient care but that’s not the only use for it. 

What to Expect in Outpatient Rehab

Those with milder substance abuse issues, who managed to recognize the problem early, can find great success and value in an outpatient program.

As mentioned, you can expect the same types of treatment in an outpatient setting – the individualized and group work with an addiction specialist – but with the flexibility to carry on with your regular, day-to-day life. With outpatient care, you’ll have the ability to go to work or school and maintain whatever familial obligations you have.

We make a point at Inneractions to equip you with techniques and tools – like self-affirmations, assertive communication exercises, self-dialogue exercises, mindfulness, meditation, breathing exercises and more – to help you cope with the stresses you might encounter on a daily basis.

Let Inneractions Be Your Outpatient Drug Rehab

Naturally, because you’re not living at the rehab center, outpatient treatment is a more affordable option. Don’t think of it as a way to save money though. If you or a loved one is suffering from severe addiction and opt for outpatient care when you truly need the 24/7 support of an inpatient facility, you very well may end up spending more in the long run. Get the care you need.

Get in touch with us and we’ll help you figure out if drug rehab in Southern California – at our intensive outpatient program – is right for you.

Addiction is a struggle.

It’s exhausting. Isolating. Maddening. Aggravating. Painful. Lonely. Stressful.

It’s so many more adjectives that all serve to envelop you, swallowing you up entirely.

Getting out of it isn’t straightforward either and while rehab follows a plan, at the end of the day addiction is a mental illness. Naturally, there’s some confusion involved in recovery and the process of working your way through the ins and outs of substance abuse.

What led you there? Why? How?

That’s where something like mindfulness comes into play.

What Is Mindfulness?

It has a new-age type of feel and sound to it but mindfulness has its roots in and takes its influence from age-old Buddhist meditation traditions.

In short, and according to Berkeley University’s Greater Good Magazine, it means “maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens”.

It’s the epitome of living in the moment and essentially the very definition of it.

As noted by the National Institutes of Health, “studies suggest that mindfulness practices may help people manage stress, cope better with serious illness and reduce anxiety and depression. Many people who practice mindfulness report an increased ability to relax, a greater enthusiasm for life and improved self-esteem”.

How Does Mindfulness Help With Treating Addiction? 

Cultivating this sort of hyperawareness means mindfulness and addiction tend to pair well with each other as a complement to a treatment program and not a solution in and of itself to addiction.

A Tool for Preventing Relapse

While there’s no absolute, iron-clad guarantee that a relapse can be prevented, a program called Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) was created specifically towards giving someone the best chance at staying free of substances.

The program, as described by UC Berkeley, “combines practices like sitting meditation with standard relapse prevention skills, such as identifying events that trigger relapse. Rather than fighting or avoiding the difficult states of mind that arise when withdrawing from a substance, this combination tries to help participants to name and tolerate craving and negative emotion”.

Stress Reduction

Treatment for substance abuse isn’t necessarily a walk in the park and there are challenges involved. Meditation, the umbrella under which meditation exists, is thought to reduce anxiety and assist in getting a grip on stress. 

Anything that can serve to encourage a calmer mind and less wound up and stressed existence is a positive in recovery.

Being in the Moment

There’s much to be said about simply focusing on the now with purpose and intention. To really put your energy into dedicating yourself to pushing aside distractions and being there. The focus on the breath is a key aspect of mindfulness and in the early days you’ll be easily distracted from it. Our attention is constantly being pulled in all directions and that becomes more and more clear when you start mindfulness meditation.

With more practice though, you’re able to control your thoughts and stay focused and that newfound focus carries through to other aspects of your recovery.

As SMART Recovery puts it, “Mindfulness means owning each moment- good, bad, or ugly. Being grounded is a basic step in the state of being mindful. Mindfulness contributes to a richer, fuller life because you are noticing all the things around you…if you get all of the worries and regrets out of your mind, it is easier to focus on the things you want to do in the present”.

Inneractions Is Here To Help You With Your Addiction Today

At Inneractions, in the San Fernando Valley, we incorporate mindfulness exercises into our treatment programs and teach you techniques that you can continue to use at home because paying attention to the details, like your thoughts and words, helps manage behaviors, beliefs and emotions.

If you want to learn more about mindfulness, or have any questions, reach out to us today.

The common misconception about legally available, prescription drugs is that they’re inherently safe.

And when used responsibly, under the care and guidance of a doctor, these medicines do indeed have clear and distinct benefits to their users. They solve real problems. That much is clear but it doesn’t mean that risks aren’t bubbling under the surface. 

The use of prescription drugs can easily dovetail into dependency and turn what once was a solution into a tough to control problem. Amphetamines, for example, which are powerful stimulants are designed and prescribed to treat things like attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), are “famed” among students to aid study and stay awake. So much so that they trail only marijuana as the drugs most frequently used by adolescents.

Given their strength and effects, amphetamine’s very much fall into that category of drugs with a high potential for addiction.

Why Amphetamines Are Addictive

Amphetamines are potent central nervous system stimulants and, like other types of drugs, begin to alter the very way the brain works after prolonged use. Rewiring it in a sense and dramatically altering the pleasure response and making it increasingly difficult to even feel natural pleasure in the absence of the drug.

Diving deeper into it, amphetamines “make the messages between your brain and body move faster. As a result, you are more alert and physically active… Amphetamines also cause the brain to release dopamine. Dopamine is a chemical that is involved with mood, thinking, and movement. It is also called the feel-good brain chemical”. 

Unfortunately, as a person uses these drugs outside of their prescribed amounts, it leads them to take ever larger doses in order to chase that feeling which creates what can only be described as a vicious cycle of dependency and addiction fueled by overwhelmingly powerful cravings.

The more addiction to amphetamines takes hold, the harder it is to wean yourself off the drug because any attempt to cut back is met with intense withdrawal symptoms. In addition to the cravings, that includes aches and pains, difficulty concentrating, delusions and hallucinations, intense fatigue, sleeping issues and more.

Different Types of Amphetamines

The most common types of legal, prescription amphetamines are ones you’ve certainly come across in your daily life, as they’ve achieved widespread saturation with names like Adderall®, Concerta®, Dexedrine® and Ritalin® among others. They all do more or less the same thing.

On the flip side, there’s an entire class of illicit, or illegal, amphetamines that don’t serve any sort of medical purpose.

Methamphetamine is the most well known type of illegal amphetamine and like its prescription cousin is a powerfully addictive stimulant. It’s so potent in fact that the DEA lists it as a Schedule II drug which means it’s not only potentially addictive but poses the risk of causing severe psychological and physical dependency.

The danger with meth can’t be understated as around 15% of all drug deaths from overdose involve methamphetamines.

How Inneractions Can Help With an Amphetamine Addiction

Amphetamine addiction can be overcome, and you can get your life back. The best way to do it is under the care, supervision and guidance of a dedicated team who know and understand what you’re going through and can help you navigate the storm.

Trying to go it alone and get yourself clean is a tough ask and the pull of addiction, particularly to amphetamines, is hard to break clean from. The withdrawal being strong enough to cause relapse among many. It’s admirable to try and do everything yourself but ultimately it makes the already difficult work of getting sober even more difficult. You’re already carrying such a heavy burden, reach out to us at Inneractions and let us help you light the load and beat addiction.

The very act of deciding to go to rehab is already an achievement worthy of celebration. It’s not simple and it’s certainly not easy.

Alcohol abuse and alcohol use disorder tend to wrap us up tight in what can falsely feel like a warm embrace. The drink becomes a crutch and coping mechanism for dealing with whatever our problems may be. Big and small.

The longer chronic alcohol use goes unchecked, the more we fall back on it and grow yet more dependent. It’s why quitting becomes increasingly more difficult and why eventually deciding to get treatment is a big step in its own right.

The self-awareness to make that move is huge.

What’s also important though is not just knowing you want to get better on a deeply personal level but also where that healing process takes place. The where can help and actually even compliment the how in that sense.

Even if you’re not from California yourself, there are benefits to considering alcohol rehab in Woodland Hills, CA. 

Who Should Go to an Alcohol Rehab in Woodland Hills CA?

Whether you’re in our neighborhood, in northern California, on the east coast or anywhere in between, venturing to Woodland Hills for rehab can be a boon to your recovery prospects.

For starters, depending on where you are there genuinely might not be robust, thorough and well-reputed treatment centers to begin with. At Inneractions, we’ve been doing this for quite a while so we not only understand the process but know what those with alcoholism truly need to succeed on their journey of recovery.

Our highly trained and qualified counselors and mental health professionals have a combined 30+ years of experience with alcohol use disorder and addiction. That type of concentrated and deeply developed knowledge isn’t available just anywhere, but it is our Woodland Hills rehab.

In addition to the expertise you’ll find in California, going to a new place altogether allows you to leave behind negativity and potential triggers. On a basic level, where you are and who you’re with could very well be contributing to your alcohol problems. If you’re in a toxic environment with people that rely on drugs and alcohol, that’s a tough place to get sober.

Moreover, leaving some of the relationships with friends or significant others behind can help you gain perspective.

Heading to a new part of the country, city or state gives you a chance to live within a sober community and have a laser-like focus on building a foundation for lasting sobriety. It quite literally puts distance between you and everything else. Alcohol rehab in Woodland Hills, CA allows you to put all distractions out of your mind and work on only what matters: recovery.

Also, there’s the plain old matter of privacy. Staying wherever you are for treatment is certainly doable and at the end of the day it’s all about getting better but some people prefer to keep that journey to themselves. If you’re attending a treatment facility in your own area, there are chances you’ll bump into people who you may not want to know that you’re in recovery. Now, that being said, this isn’t to say that there’s anything to be ashamed or embarrassed about regarding rehab at all. It’s to be celebrated. Addiction can happen to anyone after all but telling people should be left exclusively up to you and you shouldn’t have to feel like you’re sneaking around.

How Inneractions Can Help You Get Sober from Alcohol

As we mentioned above, we’ve been at this quite a while at Inneractions, in Woodland Hills, CA and that’s given us deep and profound knowledge on what really works for people. Let that experience of helping countless people get their lives back and onto the path of leading fulfilled, sober lives guide you as well.

Reach out to us and let’s get started.