For as long as you can remember, you’ve had a pretty hot temper. It’s no coincidence that your assault arrests have happened while you were drunk. People keep telling you to get your anger under control, but they don’t understand. This is coming from a place so deep and dark you can’t even see the bottom. You’re angry, but you now there is something else there, too.

Anger Is a Scapegoat When You Have an Addiction

Anger is the scapegoat for a lot of problems in our world. If people would just do some “anger management”, they’d be a lot better off. Well, true enough. But sometimes people only pay attention to the behaviors connected with anger and not the true source. More than likely, it isn’t even really anger creating such a well spring of intense emotion.

Anger is the feeling that is on the surface, the red flag that something inside doesn’t feel right. Anger never acts alone – it is always a two-part emotion. Think of the last time you were angry about anything – gas prices, waiting in line somewhere, your kids talking back to you, your football team missing the game-winning field goal. Take a moment and think what other feeling came right before or during your anger. Were you disappointed? Reminded of past hurts? Regretting how much you over-scheduled your day?

Self Medicating With Drugs and Alcohol Covers the Problem

The problem of self-medicating depression with drugs and alcohol is that the chemicals affect how a person shows their anger. Alcohol lowers inhibitions, which means you have less hesitation about jumping into a fight or provoking someone. Also, your judgment is impaired. You may know that fighting in a bar will make problems for your probation, but when you are drunk your mind may justify your anger and let you get involved anyway.

People generally don’t set out create an addiction, but when there is endless fuel for the fire such as an untreated depression, it can spin out of control in a short time. As long as you focus on just the surface details like the constant conflict and your selfish desires, you keep yourself from honestly addressing the real source of your troubles – your depression and addiction. Before long, you become a hazard to yourself and others. You are driving straight at the side of a mountain with a blindfold on. It’s just a matter of time before you crash head-on.

Drug Rehab Can Get Addiction and Anger Out of Control

If this situation sounds like you, then dual diagnosis drug rehabis your light of hope. This is bigger than just you. If you could have gotten it under control, you would have by now. It doesn’t mean you are weak, incompetent, or a hopeless mess. It’s just time to take off the blindfold, put on the brakes, and get off the path to disaster. Intense anger usually means some form of depression is afoot. Don’t let it stay in control of your life – take control by starting drug rehab.

Grief is such a heavy complex emotion. It is sadness mixed with longing, and often questions. Why that person, and why now? How can I ever get through this? Can I ever love that much again? Can I make it through tomorrow? An addiction can take you away from the pain for a while, but the pain is still there.

Escaping The Pain of Grief With Addiction

When you lose someone close to you, it can tear you apart. In order to have such a strong reaction, you must have invested yourself a lot in a relationship with them. The depth of your grief is a measure of how meaningful that person is to you. Think about it – if you hardly knew a person who died, you may have compassion and sadness but you wouldn’t linger on it long. A close friend dying could take a long time to recover from.

Grief is not a place people like to stay in for long. It hurts, it just plain hurts. And who wants that? But anytime you try to think about this person who was in your life or in your memories, you can’t help but face the reality that they are gone from this earth now. Doing that means consciously revisiting pain. If you have an addiction (or addictive tendencies), it’s very likely you will be tempted to escape the pain and reality through alcohol and drugs.

Addiction is Just a Bandaid For Grief

An addiction is a temporary fix turned into a bad habit. Drugs and alcohol will cover or distort your feelings of grief for a while, but eventually they create a bigger problem than they solve. Not only does a drug or alcohol addiction cut you off from being aware of your emotions, it pushes the grieving process out in front of you longer. In other words, it doesn’t let you skip your grieving. It’s put on hold until you face your emotions more honestly, and then you get to go through the grieving process for real. Otherwise, you are completely shutting off your grief any time it gets close to the surface.

However, a person with an alcohol or drug addiction often ends up hurting their body with the chemicals they ingest or inject. And if you already have a mental illness such as bipolar or intense anxiety, adding grief to the mix can really crank up your addiction. If you have been sober for some time when your grief hits, you are at a serious risk for addiction relapse.

The only way to really cope with your grief is to face it and learn how to live with it. The empty place in your heart may never go away. But the terrible sting can be softened, making your loss something you can put aside when you need to and visit for periods of time if you want. This takes time and emotional honesty. You can’t be emotionally honest with yourself or anyone else if you have an active addiction.

Drug Rehab Can Help You Come Back From Addiction and Relapse

If you are in this spot, you may need drug rehab. A person facing grief and a dual diagnosis can really benefit from the specialized support of drug and alcohol rehab. Grief may knock you sideways for a while, but it doesn’t have to completely suck your life away. Drug rehab can offer hope in the presence of painful grief.

Drug Addiction Treatment Prescriptions

Using drugs to fight off drug use seems contradictory, especially when some medications (such as methadone) are synthesized from the same addictive compounds as their hardcore cousins. Dependence on prescribed medications has far fewer side effects than those of addictive substances, though, and allows for a controlled landing that minimizes harmful or permanent side effects.

The Need for Managing Withdrawal Symptoms with Medications

Cold turkey withdrawal from a severely chronic addiction can be deadly. The body finds itself suddenly void of the chemical messengers it relies on to ferry information around the nervous system and launches into a neurologic tailspin. Every function is on overload because suddenly the “wires” in the brain have lost their “insulation” and everything starts to short-circuit.

Severe depression, anxiety, agitation, hallucinations, nausea, tremors, and even seizures are the hallmarks of drug and alcohol withdrawal. Most symptoms sprout up after six to 12 hours following the last session of use and can continue for upwards of 4 weeks. After this initial period of intensity, cravings may still sneak up on you weeks, months, or even years later.

Without prescribed medications, the first sign of withdrawal symptoms can send the user right back to the original substance of abuse.

The Fundamentals of Managing Withdrawal Symptoms with Medications

Electrolytes are the most commonly available “medications” for treating withdrawal symptoms. Found in popular sports drinks at every gas station and grocery store, electrolytes are the ionic charge your muscles, organs, and nerves need to maintain optimal functioning. IV supplements are sometimes used to offset extreme cases of electrolyte depletion.

Additional medications used for treatment and gradual weaning of withdrawal symptoms can include:

• Benzodiazepines (Valium, Librium, and Ativan) – Low doses administered for alcohol withdrawal calm the nervous system without excessive euphoria
• Phenobarbital – Anticonvulsant for controlling seizures (especially necessary when the addiction includes barbituates)
• Clondine – Antihypertensive given to opiate addicts to ease muscle cramps
• Methadone – Also for combating opiate use, a long-acting analgesic that binds to pain receptors in the brain, making other opiates ineffective and useless for getting high
• Naltrexone (Vivitrol) – An opiate antagonist that reverses the effects of opiate substances, used primarily for rapid opiate detoxification (ROD) while a patient is anesthetized, sedated, or unconscious due to overdose.
• Buprenorphine (Suboxone) – An analgesic combination of opioid agonist and antagonist, meaning it binds heavily to opioid receptors, but only to a degree. Any attempts to reverse the effects are met with only partial success, although studies have shown it to be more effective than methadone with fewer doses.

The Importance of Drug and Alcohol Rehab after Withdrawal

Detox might just be the scariest ride of your life, and potentially more violent than anything you’ve ever experienced. But when the worst is over, it’s over. Walking through fire burns away the impure aspects of the self and leaves the essential elements of our inner nature free to be reconfigured. Rebirth brings a chance for renewal.

Detox leaves us feeling scared and vulnerable, which is why competent counseling services are so desperately needed. Therapy teaches valuable new skills for managing in the world, finding answers to our problems, and coming to terms with the pain in our lives without relying on substances to numb the mind.

Detox rids the body of lethal toxins, and then it’s up to each of us to choose the path we take from there.

Tell Us: What’s the most terrifying thought about getting clean and staying sober for you? The change in surroundings at rehab? Going through detox? Therapy? Coming home? Or just being without drugs or alcohol for the first time?

You relapsed – again. You swore this was the last time, and you were going to finally get it right now. You’ve been through this a hundred times. How does it keep dragging you down again and again? Are you just weak and destined to have this half-drugged life all the time? The thought of it all just makes you more depressed than you already were.

Nobody Enjoys Going Through Addiction Relapse

Relapse is kind of the ugly unpopular part of a person’s addiction recovery. Nobody wants to go there, nobody likes it when they end up there, and it can seem like “relapse” is really a four letter word. To some it may mean failure, not doing recovery the right way. If you did things perfectly, you wouldn’t relapse ever. To others it may mean weakness – their drug addiction has exposed a perpetual defect they can’t fix, which lowers their value as a person. Relapse may even bring back words you have heard others say to you, how drug rehab was pointless and you were just going to end up a loser drug junkie like so-and-so.

Actually, addiction relapse is an opportunity. People can have the same experience “on paper” but have a completely different outlook from it and perception of it. Walk down a busy street during the daytime and one person will only notice the crowded feeling, the noise, and the industrial smells of gas and rubber. Another person taking the same walk will notice the smiling mom and her daughter walking toward them, the bright sunshine, and the crisp hint of autumn in the air.

See Addiction Relapse In A New Light

When you relapse, it’s tempting to beat up on yourself. But take look at it from a different angle. Trace back your steps between when you seemed to be doing OK to when it all hit the fan. Did you start getting overwhelmed with a difficult emotion? Were you lured into spending time with a friend that still uses drugs? Have you been dropping your exercise routine, forgetting your medications, eating or sleeping poorly?

Anyone with a dual diagnosis needs to pay double attention to their relapse. Very likely, a problem with your mental illness could be involved. If it has been in remission, perhaps some symptoms have emerged that you were trying to minimize or ignore. The importance of you thinking you have it under control may have fooled you into pushing aside clear warning signs of your depression, bipolar, anxiety, or PTSD returning with stronger force.

Talk with a few people that you trust will respect your need for sobriety. Have they seen signs of you changing back to some old habits, showing some symptoms of your mental disorder, disregarding their well-meaning suggestions because they thought you might be headed for trouble? Again, this isn’t about lecturing yourself about how you “blew it” yet another time. If you learn something valuable that you have missed through other relapses, you have been given a golden gift.

Dual Diagnosis Drug Rehab Helps Addiction Relapse

If you should find that your relapse has sent your life totally out of control, it may be time to seriously look at dual diagnosis drug rehab. Anyone with a dual diagnosis needs to see their situation as serious as a heart condition or high blood pressure. It needs monitoring, a healthy lifestyle, and occasional intense treatment for flare-ups (relapse). The right drug rehab can make the difference between having lots of relapses or longer sobriety.

Therapeutic Drug Addiction Treatment

The stereotypical reaction to the phrase “therapeutic arts” conjures up images from the movies that depict severely mentally ill patients wearing hospital gowns and building popsicle-stick sculptures in the psychiatric ward.

While it is true that therapeutic arts are widely used for emotionally and physically handicapped people, this is because it’s one form of rehabilitation that reaches across the boundaries of conventional talk therapy and opens up new methods of communication.

The goal is to provide an outlet for healing where clients in recovery can tap into uncharted territories of the mind and a way to interpret the symbolism brought up from the unconscious. The medium you choose to create with can vary greatly depending on your skill level and personal desires. And, no, you don’t have do it in your pajamas.

What are Therapeutic Arts and How Do They Enhance Drug Addiction Recovery?

Any activity you participate in with the purpose of creating and sustaining health is considered therapeutic. Art is a broad term that encompasses any creation specifically designed for aesthetic or thought-provoking pleasure. When art is utilized as a therapeutic tool, spontaneous creation is the most important part of the process, and the finished work a representation of our innermost selves.

The two sides of our brain communicate in different ways. The left half (which controls the right side of the body) is analytic and logical in nature, using language and speech to convey information. The right half of our brain (which controls the left side of the body) is creative and emotional in nature, using symbolism as a means of expression.

Just as powerful imagery triggers emotional reactions, overwhelming emotions trigger intense imagery, most often in the form of dreams. Honoring the metaphors and symbolism within us by giving it a voice through therapeutic arts provides a practical means of processing complex feelings and a healthy way to purge them without trying to stifle their existence.

Group discussions and evaluations of one’s art help to clarify and interpret images that have been expressed and bring light to those issues which may not have been explored before in great detail.

Types of Therapeutic Arts that Enhance Drug Addiction Recovery Methods

Plastic arts – Works created by shaping or molding a medium to produce a physical three-dimensional object: collage, ceramics, glass, metal, sculpture, woodworking.

Performing arts – Presentations which rely heavily on the artist’s face, clothing, makeup and posture: dance, music, theatre. Most effective therapeutically when performances are improvised under the direction of a group leader (i.e. role playing).

Visual arts – Also known as “fine arts”, most popular as therapeutic models, highly effective even for individuals who have little to no previous experience: drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and filmmaking.

Tell Us: Would you be more likely or less likely to check in to a treatment center that uses therapeutic art throughout the course of the recovery program?

You take drugs as a normal part of your daily life. It wasn’t always this way, but it’s what you’ve known for the last few years. It’s getting harder and harder to remember the way life felt before you hit the drugs so hard. You remember most of what happened, but the feelings are fuzzy.

Drug Addiction Throws Emotions Out of Whack

One of the most popular effects of heavy drug or alcohol use is how they numb or excite your feelings. The calming feeling or emotional rush of the first few uses becomes so attractive. This isn’t what you feel during normal life, and why shouldn’t it be this way more often?

Before very long, you begin to forget what “normal” feelings are and how they weave through the fabric of your everyday life – the subtle shifts of disappointment, surprise, frustration, joy, humility, satisfaction, etc. Sometimes, emotions strongly punctuate a person’s experience – an exciting sports moment, a surprise tragedy, a friend’s betrayal that starts a heated argument.

Growing Up Around Emotional Chaos or Extremes

Perhaps you had depression at an early age, or were surrounded by dullness and other people with depression. Your emotional experience may have been kept to a small range of rather subdued feelings. An appealing drug might be one that gives you a large amount of stimulation and rushing feelings.

Another example might be a person growing up in a home with someone who has bipolar, high levels of anxiety, explosive anger, or other emotionally intense disorders. If you had this experience, you might be glad to find a drug-induced “happy place” where you are washed over with warm calmness.

While these may sound like interesting experiences at first, take a look at what you would sacrifice to pursue this constantly. The high-stimulation seeker would sacrifice their feelings of calm and steadiness. The calm-seeker would sacrifice their sensations of positive energy and intensity.

Drug Addiction is No Solution to Managing Intense Feelings

The problem is that when you pursue and addiction, you really rob Peter to pay Paul. You think you are helping one area of your life, but you are sucking away another part in order to do it. Humans aren’t built to be just perpetually “turned on” and constantly happy. Nor are we meant to be perpetually subdued, sad, and quiet.

When a person so desperately seeks to “fix” what seems to be wrong about themselves, they often go to the other extreme opposite without ever considering the middle ground. A drug or alcohol is a pretty quick way to reach these emotional goals. It’s also a pretty quick way to ruin your opportunities for some really rich emotional experiences.

Dual Diagnosis Drug Rehab is Better Than Self Medicating

This process of using drugs and alcohol to change a constantly bothersome emotional state is called self medicating. You let the toxic chemicals do the work of safely prescribed medication, support groups, and counseling. If you have self-medicated a mental illness such as anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder, you have a dual diagnosis.

Dual diagnosis is not something to treat on your own. Alcohol and drug abuse will only create an addiction, adding more problems to your life. The Canyon is a drug rehab with highly trained professionals who know all about self-medicating, mental illness, and how challenging it can be to get back on track. If you do just one thing today for yourself, call the Canyon to learn more. Emotions aren’t your enemy – let drug rehab help you feel them again.

Help Kids Understand Drug Rehab

“Why does Mommy have to go?”

The absence of a parent is a frightening, confusing time for children, but the need for drug rehab is rarely a surprise to a child. Preparing in advance to answer this question – and ones like it – gives you a leg up because you won’t be caught off guard and forced to make something up on the fly.

Young children rely on their mothers and fathers to provide for their every need and ensure their safety and survival. As a result, kids are unable to grasp the concept that their parents are not the knights in shining armor they believe them to be. If Mom and Dad are capable of doing anything and solving every problem, the instant something goes wrong a child perceives the fault as his own, even if it’s as blatant as drug and alcohol addiction.

Focus on The Child’s Feelings Surrounding Drug and Alcohol Rehab

Most people (kids especially) don’t express their frustrations directly. Instead, they become adamant about taking control of the situation in their own way. Small children express this desire through hitting, biting, throwing toys, and other general unruly behaviors. Strict punishments for these actions usually result in increased frustration for both child and caregiver, and extended periods of misbehavior.

Empathizing when kids get unruly by reflecting on how they might be feeling gives them an opportunity to label their emotions and understand their own frustrations. When Johnny starts hitting, you might say something like “Hitting hurts people. Let’s take a time out and talk about what’s making you feel angry.” Identifying the source of a complex emotion takes practice and patience, but children are much more capable of talking about their feelings when they have the right words to express themselves.

The Honest Approach about Drug and Alcohol Rehab

Little ones might not be mature enough yet to understand what has happened, to realize that Mommy or Daddy will only be away for a short time, or to recognize that parents are people too and subject to their own mistakes and shortcomings. Talking about your own feelings may help break the ice when things are stressful. Giving a voice to your concerns gives children something to identify with and let’s them know they’re not alone in how they are feeling.

When questions do come up, address them with simple, age-appropriate honesty, such as “Mommy’s having some problems right now and she needs help from special doctors to get better.”

Discovering Positive Qualities from Drug and Alcohol Rehab

While it’s not a pleasant situation for anybody, the act of going through with rehab is immensely brave. Be sure to point out how courageous Mommy and Daddy are for trying to fix their problems even when they’re scared. It’s also a great demonstration of responsibility for your actions, even if you’ve make mistakes and hurt other people. Kids need to know that hope is not lost and Mommy and Daddy will be home soon to take care of them again.

Tell Us: Do you think kids react better to stressful situations when they know what’s going on around them?