How to Learn Coping Skills for Drug Addiction

How to Learn Coping Skills for Drug Addiction

Recovery is a process.

Or, recovery is a journey, not a destination.

You may have come across lines like these when looking into rehab options for yourself or a loved one. Perhaps you even scoffed at them, feeling like you were reading trite cliches or platitudes.

Thing is though, recovery is a journey. Why? Well, let’s look to a definition of drug addiction from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to add some color here:

“Addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing disorder characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use despite adverse consequences. It is considered a brain disorder because it involves functional changes to brain circuits involved in reward, stress, and self-control. Those changes may last a long time after a person has stopped taking drugs”

Because addiction is thought of as a brain disorder and not as a purely physical concept, it’s something you constantly work on and nurture. Moreover, if you stop working on it, a relapse is possible at any point.

Learning coping skills for drug addiction, therefore, becomes imperative to staying on the path of sobriety.

Signs & Symptoms of Drug Addiction

Addiction to drugs manifests itself in several ways that tend to compound the longer a substance use disorder lasts.

  • Intense cravings
  • Trying to quit but unable to
  • Developing a tolerance and thus having to take larger and larger doses
  • Shifting friend groups
  • Secretive behavior
  • Financial issues related to purchasing drugs
  • Legal issues, i.e., theft, from getting the money to buy drugs
  • Work, school and home life are all suffering
  • Engaging in riskier behaviors like driving under the influence
  • Spending a lot of time either getting, using or recovering from drugs
  • Using despite very obvious negative effects 
  • Having withdrawal symptoms whenever the flow of drugs stops
  • Changes in appetite and associated weight loss or gain
  • Shift in sleep patterns, either too much or too little
  • Lack of attention to hygiene and general neglect of appearance
  • Lethargic and no motivation
  • Relationships with family and friends become fraught
  • Mood swings and irritability
  • Paranoia and anxiety

These are just some of the signs you may encounter and if you see any of them, it’s important to take note and monitor. Ignoring symptoms only makes things worse and harder in the future.

How to Learn Coping Skills for Drug Addiction

Coping skills are what help you stay the course, they’re the little “tricks” that help overcome those cravings and inevitable tough times on the journey of sobriety.

Among the best places to learn these new skills is in treatment for addiction.

In rehab, you’re in a place where all your attention is focused squarely on healing and developing the tools necessary to cope with triggers back in the real world.

As the physical addiction to drugs dissipates after detox, working on the mental side is what rehab programs are all about. You’ll work with professional addiction specialists in both individual and group settings to dig deeper into the root causes of addiction.

This is also the time you’ll be introduced to a host of coping skills ranging from practicing mindfulness, breathing exercises as well as general exercise, journaling, the importance of keeping busy, building a support system, 12-step programs and more.

What to Do After Rehab

As mentioned at the top, the journey of recovery doesn’t end when your time in rehab does, it’s something you actively work on but shouldn’t feel like work. Your post-addiction life is meant to be more fulfilling and enjoyable than the days of addiction and developing a routine that you love is crucial to that.

That’s where aftercare planning and sober living come into play, these are important parts of cementing a sober life. Sober living homes are particularly beneficial because you live in a supportive setting with a community that’s going through the same thing and building bonds with them. It also allows you to transition slowly back into your day-to-day life in a way that doesn’t feel overwhelming.

To learn more about the coping skills you’ll develop or what sober living is like, reach out to us at Inneractions today.

Why You Should Go to Alcohol Rehab in Southern California

Why You Should Go to Alcohol Rehab in Southern California

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.

How Heroin Addiction Works

How Heroin Addiction Works

Heroin is an opioid.

The addictive nature of opioids is excruciatingly well known at this point. The lives it’s destroyed and the suffering endured by users and bystanders alike is incalculable.

In regards to heroin specifically, though, the numbers are numbing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):

  • Nearly 130,000 died from overdoses related to it from 1999 to 2019 
  • The number of heroin-involved overdose deaths was more than 7 times higher in 2019 than in 1999
  • Almost 1/3rd of all opioid deaths involved heroin

What Is Heroin?

Aside from being an opioid, an illicit one, what exactly is it?

As defined by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “heroin is an opioid drug made from morphine, a natural substance taken from the seed pod of the various opium poppy plants grown in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Mexico, and Colombia. Heroin can be a white or brown powder, or a black sticky substance known as black tar heroin”.

It can be injected, sniffed, snorted or smoked.

Since it’s an opioid, you may be wondering if there’s a link between prescription opioids and heroin use.

Unfortunately, that does look to be the case, NIDA notes that “research now suggests that misuse of these medications may actually open the door to heroin use. Some also report switching to heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids”.

A 2013 study found that “nearly 80 percent of heroin users reported using prescription opioids prior to heroin”.

Why Is Heroin Addictive and How Does Heroin Addiction Work?

As a nation, we’ve collectively come to understand the incredibly addictive nature of opioids and heroin is very much part of that mix. The same mechanisms that make prescription opioids so addictive are at play with this illegal alternative.

Heroin is extremely fast-acting, particularly when injected and binds to opioid receptors in the brain. In addition to the pain vanishing in seemingly an instant, heroin also comes with a wave of euphoria and pleasure. It’s largely this euphoric surge and the hours it can last that people crave.

As you continuously seek that “reward”, you find yourself needing to take ever larger doses of heroin because you’ve built a tolerance where the same dose just doesn’t cut it anymore.

To put it in more scientific terms we’ll defer back to the National Institute on Drug Abuse; “heroin binds to and activates specific receptors in the brain called mu-opioid receptors (MORs). Our bodies contain naturally occurring chemicals called neurotransmitters that bind to these receptors throughout the brain and body to regulate pain, hormone release, and feelings of well-being. When MORs are activated in the reward center of the brain, they stimulate the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine, causing a reinforcement of drug taking behavior”.

In a nutshell, that’s how heroin addiction works.

How to Get Help With a Heroin Addiction

Deaths from overdose continue to be a widespread issue and the pandemic has only made matters with 93,000 lives lost last year – a tragic record.

Of course, this is on top of the ongoing opioid epidemic, heroin included, that the US has been trying to work through over the past couple of decades.

With respect to highly addictive drugs like heroin, it’s imperative to seek help because these drugs are frequently just too powerful to kick on your own as we’ve come to find.

Fortunately, help is never farther than a phone call away nowadays.

At Inneractions in the San Fernando Valley, our intensive outpatient program utilizes evidence-based methods to help you overcome your heroin addiction and avoid ending up a statistic.

If you or a loved one are struggling with this, don’t hesitate to reach out because as we’ve seen all too many times, opioid addiction can often end in heartbreak.

How to Find a Treatment Center

How to Find a Treatment Center

There’s an absolute abundance of choice these days with respect to places you can go to get treatment for substance use disorders.

Not all rehabs are created equally though. Some are focused on particular types of addictions, i.e., alcoholism or opioids. Some focus just on outpatient care, where you’d come in for scheduled sessions but not live at the facility like you would for inpatient treatment. While others base their programs on evidence-based treatment methods like cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, in contrast to those that put more weight on alternative modalities like yoga, mindfulness and the like.

These rehabs are spread across the entire country, creating easier access for all.

Just how many are there?

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) estimates that “more than 14,500 specialized drug treatment facilities provide counseling, behavioral therapy, medication, case management, and other types of services to persons with substance use disorders”.

Finding the right one for you or a loved one just takes some time and research.

What Is a Treatment Center for Alcohol or Drug Addiction?

A treatment center for addiction is a facility that’s specialized in providing treatment for substance use disorders.

Rehab can be broken down into two main silos: inpatient and outpatient.

Going back to NIDA for the definitions:

Inpatient

Inpatient, or residential, treatment can be either long or short term.

Long-term residential treatment “provides 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”

Short-term residential treatment programs “provide intensive but relatively brief treatment based on a modified 12-step approach”.

Outpatient

Outpatient treatment, as mentioned above, means you wouldn’t live at the facility. This type of treatment is for those who’ve already finished inpatient rehab and are transitioning or for those with less severe addictions to begin with.

As noted by NIDA “Such treatment costs less than residential or inpatient treatment and often is more suitable for people with jobs or extensive social support”.

As far as who will be treating you, the team administering the rehab is full of licensed addiction specialists often with master’s level degrees. Additionally, rehab centers that offer alternative or complementary treatments will have trained specialists in those fields on staff as well.

At Inneractions, for example, our diverse team has over 30 years of combined experience working with addicts and includes counselors, therapists, a hypnotherapist, a breathwork specialist and more with the goal being to deliver as complete a treatment experience as possible. 

How to Find a Treatment Center

After all that, you may rightly be wondering how to find a treatment center that’s fully aligned with your needs. There are nearly 15,000 out there after all!

It can feel overwhelming, we get it.

The good thing about having that many available to you though is that you have a great shot at finding one that fits your requirements perfectly.

During your search you’ll want to consider these questions:

  • Is inpatient or outpatient care better for you?
  • What’s the cost?
  • What’s the length of the program?
  • Where is it?
  • What are the amenities offered?
  • Would a gender-specific rehab be right for you as opposed to a coed facility?
  • Is it an all-in-one treatment center? I.e., can you do detox, inpatient and outpatient care all at the same place and with the same people?
  • Is the treatment center accredited and are the staff licensed?
  • Are they using evidence-based methods?
  • Do they take a multidisciplinary/holistic approach and treat all aspects of addiction – the mental, physical and spiritual?

These are just some of the big ideas to ponder when narrowing down your search and eliminating those that don’t match. It also helps to consult with experts in the field to help guide you. 

If you have any questions on navigating the world of rehab, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at Inneractions.

What Is Heroin Rehab In Los Angeles?

Heroin addiction

Heroin is an incredibly powerful and devastating drug that falls into the opioid class of drugs.

The word opioid alone most likely conjures thoughts of the enduring epidemic the United States is still struggling with.

“From 1999–2019, nearly 500,000 people died from an overdose involving any opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids”, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Of course, that’s not all related to heroin but as an opioid, it does play a role and in that same stretch, 1999 to 2019, 130,00 people died from overdoses related to heroin. The amount of those deaths was 7 times higher in 2019 than in 2019.

It’s important to note here that heroin is illegal, an illicit opioid as it’s commonly phrased. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) labels it a Schedule I drug it has “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”.

As we’ve all collectively come to find out in the last couple of decades, that abuse has come to pass and the devastation that heroin and other opioids have left in their wake have been catastrophic.

What Is Heroin?

What exactly is this drug that in 2019 was involved in nearly 20% of all drug overdose deaths?

As defined by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), “Heroin is an opioid drug made from morphine, a natural substance taken from the seed pod of the various opium poppy plants grown in Southeast and Southwest Asia, Mexico, and Colombia. Heroin can be a white or brown powder, or a black sticky substance known as black tar heroin.”

It can be taken in a variety of ways; smoked, injected, sniffed or snorted.

You may naturally be wondering if there is some sort of link between prescription opioids and heroin given that they function in essentially the same way.

Research shows that to some extent that does look to be the case.

Data from 2002 to 2012 showed that the “incidence of heroin initiation was 19 times higher among those who reported prior nonmedical pain reliever use than among those who did not”. Additionally, and more to the previous point, “data from 2011 showed that an estimated 4 to 6 percent who misuse prescription opioids switch to heroin and about 80 percent of people who used heroin first misused prescription opioids.”.

Some contributing factors that drive the transition to heroin and its use in general are the extremely high availability and the low price compared to prescription opioids.

As NIDA notes, “a number of studies have suggested that people transitioning from abuse of prescription opioids to heroin cite that heroin is cheaper, more available, and provides a better high”.

Does a Heroin Addiction Require Rehab? 

Given what we’ve come to learn as a society about the ravages of opioids and heroin, it has become increasingly clear that rehab goes a long way in helping people beat their addiction.

Heroin is a powerful, powerful drug that sinks its teeth deeply into people and doesn’t let up without a lot of fight.

Dedicated treatment gives you the support system and guidance you need to create a solid foundation upon which to build the rest of your life on. Heroin rehab in Los Angeles at Inneractions is honed and shaped by over 30 years of impassioned experience in helping people get through their darkest and lowest times.

Treatment is designed to help you discover the root causes of your addiction to heroin and learn new, healthy ways to deal with those issues as well as the triggers that will continue to arise going forward. In both individual and group sessions – utilizing evidence-based modalities and complementary therapies – you’ll work with our addiction specialists to break the cycle.

Reach out to us today to learn more about our program for heroin addiction.

Sober Living Facility: What It Is & Who Should Go?

Sober living facility, who is it for and what is it ?

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.

Outpatient Drug Rehab Southern California Explained

Outpatient Drug Rehab Southern California

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.

Mindfulness and Addiction: Can One Help the Other?

Mindfulness and Addiction

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.

Finding an Alcohol Rehab in Woodland Hills

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.

Adults Coping With Alcoholic Parents

 

Growing up in an alcoholic household can be tremendously traumatic for a child. But there are instances when the problem remains buried or perhaps nonexistent until that child reaches adulthood. As you grow older and more observant, you may begin picking up signals that a parent in the home was hiding an addiction. And as difficult as it may be; once you hit adulthood, you may be called upon to identify and resolve this life-threatening issue.

 

The BBC actually flagged this growing trend on their website. In an article on their homepage, the global news outlet called out a sharp increase in grown children taking their parents into treatment. For example, the Association for the Children of Alcoholics (also known as ACOA) received inquiries from more than 23,000 people last year. That pales in comparison to the stats from 2013, which leveled off at 6,400.

 

But the data doesn’t end there. The site went on to report that as many as one in three older adults battling alcoholism first developed it later in life. Now there could be a myriad of reasons for this occurrence. An aging parent may find themselves drinking after the loss of a spouse, or perhaps depression after retirement. They could also be dealing with more physical pain at an advanced age and look to booze as a coping mechanism.

 

This scenario can be especially difficult for the adult children, as they never grew up with alcoholism in the home. Seeing a problem occur somewhat suddenly in an older parent can stir up a variety of difficult emotions, as NACOA rep Stephanie Page explained to The BBC.

 

“The parent may have retired and is lonely; they may have had issues adjusting to retirement,” Page told he site. “The adult child of the alcoholic often finds that really difficult because they haven’t seen this side of them before and they may not know what to do. It can be really surreal seeing this side to your parent.”

 

Having to take the lead and “reverse roles” with a parent can be very difficult, especially when it comes to seeking out treatment. At Inneractions, we have been through these instances countless times and are happy to offer support or counseling before step one is taken. If you or someone you are close to is dealing with an alcoholic older parent, please reach out so they can get the care and recovery regimen they need.