Recent news has broken about Nicole Bobek, former Olympic figure skater and US champion from the 1990′s. In 2009, she was arrested for her alleged involvement in a crystal meth distribution ring. Just recently, she was sentenced with five years of probation and community service. However, she greeted the news with optimism for the future and a desire to help others. It sounds like she might even start training on the ice again.

Sheltered And Protected From Regular Life

Nicole Bobek captured the hearts of figure skating fans fifteen years ago with her beauty and spirit. Today she faces her personal demons and tries to start anew. The never-give-up spirit that endeared her to so many fans will serve her well in her current situation. Despite her fame and success, it seems she more strikes against her than the public realized.

As a professional skater, she was removed from much of the organic social support many girls her age would have developed. She apparently did not attend regular school classes of any kind in order to focus on her career. Her mother raised her alone with no involvement from her absent father. Nicole’s life was set up for athletic success, but maybe not for personal satisfaction and well being.

Isolation And Celebrity Status

Imagine the isolation from doing just one thing for most of your day. Imagine the hyper-focus that allowed Nicole to excel upwards but did not permit her to experience the more relatable ups and downs of her peers. It seems she and her mother have been close, but it’s hard to tell about friendships. How much time could she have had to develop them with such an intense schedule?

Also, consider the price many celebrities have to pay every day for their fame. Private events become publicly scrutinized in a heartbeat. Personal struggles become public struggles. Celebrities are misquoted, second-guessed, glorified, and manipulated to serve other people’s needs. For some people, fame is intentionally self-serving. For others, it is extremely isolating.

Drug Scene Started After Career Faded

One of the first things that NFL rookies do is meet with people to help them figure out what they are going to do after the NFL. Their careers are typically only a few years, so it makes sense for them to plan for life after athletics. Nicole had been constantly competing and working single-mindedly for years. Once her career started to fade, reports say she was ultimately not prepared. Perhaps she didn’t have the type of career transition guidance that NFL rookies receive.

Nicole’s drug use history is unclear. It has been said that she liked to party, but there’s been no direct mention of an addiction to crystal meth or any other drug. It may take more time for the facts to come out about her situation. If she is planning to help people, she may reveal more about her journey in the future.

Nicole Bobek’s Future Without Meth

As Nicole professes, maybe some very good things can come from this. It may be somewhat delayed, but maybe now she can find her way to a peaceful satisfying lifestyle. Maybe she can speak out to others about getting trapped in the dead-end world of drugs. Hopefully, the spotlight on Nicole Bobek will show her on the rise once again.

Most people would expect to find some kind of counseling therapy at drug rehab.  But what really happens in group and individual therapy? And what do you know about holistic treatments? If you aren’t sure how these all work together to promote sobriety, take a few minutes here to find out.

Group Therapy At Drug Rehab

Group therapy is a staple in nearly all drug rehab programs. There’s nothing like the group dynamic to get people talking, changing, and feeling. It’s a very powerful way of working with people, especially with addiction problems. Recovering addicts need accountability, perspective, and support as they explore their situation. Group therapy can provide all of those things simultaneously.

The group dynamic can take a life of its own, which means no two groups are exactly alike. People may even behave differently in groups than they do one-on-one. This makes group therapy a unique and ever-changing experience.

Everyone is equally considered part of the group no matter how much or little they participate. This choice honors both sharing and listening as valued behaviors. With guidance from the therapist leaders, group therapy can support profound change and growth in each participant.

How Individual Therapy Works At Drug Rehab

Individual therapy is much more private and personalized than group sessions. A counselor privately works with each person on their treatment plan to guide them through treatment and after discharge.

Each person’s unique needs are reflected in their plan.

These private sessions also provide an opportunity to discuss very painful secrets. Many people with addictions have experienced severe mental anguish or abuse. When they can bring these issues out in a safe private environment, the counselor shows compassion and steady support. For a person who may not have ever felt emotionally safe, individual sessions can be very meaningful.

Drug Rehab With Alternative Therapies

Therapy in drug rehab isn’t limited to just traditional methods. Many alternative therapies are now being included in drug rehab programs. The holistic perspective on health has strongly influenced the drug treatment community over the last few decades. Take a look at some of the holistic treatments offered in many drug rehab programs.

Yoga can help a person become more comfortable and accepting of their own body. Meditation sessions can teach a person how to quiet their mind and let go of unhealthy thoughts. Nutritional counseling can introduce a person to healthier ways of eating. Outdoor experiences can help people get back in touch with nature. These treatments can support sobriety and healthy coping in very personal ways.

Types Of Therapy In Drug Rehab

Today’s comprehensive drug rehab program offers a variety of therapies. Each type is valuable in different ways. They work together to form an effective recovery plan for each individual. If you need drug rehab now, contact us today to learn more.

Meth is a hard-hitting drug. It takes your body on a wild ride every time you use it. Over time, the chemical influences can really harm your body. Drug rehab is essential with a drug as powerful as crystal meth. But the challenges don’t stop once you get sober. With a lot of support and persistence, you can start feeling better and rebuilding your life. Take a moment to better understand how and why your body may take a while to recover from crystal meth addiction.

Possible Brain Damage From Meth

Your brain is a very flexible and resilient organ, but it can’t always bounce back when it’s been damaged. Meth can significantly harm your brain over time. In some cases, normal functioning can return after a few years of sobriety. But the longer you have used meth, the more likely you are to suffer some level of permenant damage.

One of the biggest problems with meth addiction is its powerful effect on the body’s dopamine reward system. Dopamine is neurotransmitter that allows you to feel pleasure naturally. Eating, sex, or an happy event causes dopamine to flow through your body. It keeps you motivated to do things that are essential to your survival.

Meth overstimulates the dopamine system, causing an intense rush sensation in the early stages of use. Over time, your dopamine system shuts down. Excessive meth use can even kill nerve endings that use dopamine. When you get sober, the dopamine system doesn’t quite know what to do for a while. As a result, you may find that fatigue and depression challenge you in your first year or two of recovery.

Feeling Fatigue After Sobriety

Many crystal meth users have a lot of trouble feeling energetic shortly after becoming sober. Meth is a powerful stimulant, giving you an unnaturally high feeling of energy during your first several uses. As time progresses and your body adjusts to the presence of meth, you need the drug just to feel normal.

Your body dramatically alters the production of dopamine and other chemicals that help you regulate your cycles of energy and rest. Also, the addiction lifestyle will cause you to neglect your nutrition and physical health. This can also be part of the fatigue experienced in early recovery.

Feelings Of Depression

The lack of dopamine moving through your body also affects your mood. Without the natural ebb and flow of dopamine, you will likely feel many symptoms of depression. You may lack motivation or interest in doing things, feel hopeless, and feel unhappy much of the time.

Exercise, good nutrition, and healthy social connections can gradually retrain your brain and body to enjoy naturally positive things. It may take some time and patience, but recovering meth addicts can and do get through this period. If you are newly sober from meth, you can do it, too.

Meth Addiction – Adjusting To Sobriety

When you get sober from meth, you go through stimulant withdrawal. You experience the exact opposite of what you felt when you were using meth. Fatigue, depression, and lack of motivation are common hurdles in your first year or two of sobriety. When meth use is stopped early enough, you may eventually feel more like you did before your addiction. But you’ll need drug rehab to get you started. Don’t hesitate to call us for more information today.

People in addiction recovery always need to be mindful of relapse. It can be just around the corner if someone doesn’t follow their recovery plan closely. Have you been to drug rehab or alcohol treatment at some point in your life? Even if you have been sober for years, it’s a good idea to review important ways to reduce your risk of addiction relapse.

Who Is In Your Social Network?

Your social connections make a big difference with your relapse risk. Do you hang out with people who truly respect your sobriety, or do some have lifestyles that include plenty of drinking or drug use? It’s a good idea to evaluate this from time to time.

Human beings often adjust to whoever they spend a lot of time with. They may not think about how their social connections affect their lives. If you are a recovering addict or alcoholic, this oversight can be risky. Because someone is familiar to you, you might dismiss them drinking in front of you or using drugs. You can start making excuses for people who maybe aren’t the best influence.

This can be a slippery slope because the boundary between sobriety and relapse becomes fuzzy. If you can make excuses for one or two people, how about a whole group of old drinking friends? It becomes too easy to gradually drift away from a sober mindset.

So when you make plans with friends or run into people you know, take a step back in your mind for a moment. Am I better off with this person in my life, or do their choices put me at risk? If you think someone puts you at risk, then you do need to keep some distance. If you can’t avoid them completely, be sure you stay on your toes and keep your direct contact very limited. Also, make an extra effort to boost your relationships with positive people. The reduced contact with the negative people will make less difference to you.

Keep Your Body and Mind Healthy

When you were in drug rehab, you probably learned about many different ways to keep your mind and body healthy. That’s still important to keep up long after your rehab program has finished. Your state of well-being can protect you against some stressors that could trigger potential relapse.

When you keep your mind calm and positive, you reduce the chance that your addiction thinking will return. The more you use your healthy coping skills to manage your emotions, the less likely you are to drink your pain away. The healthier your body feels, the more you are inclined to feel naturally good each day.

Healthy habits keep your sober lifestyle rolling forward with positive energy. Negativity and unhealthy habits pull you away from sobriety, making you less concerned about your overall well-being. If you think you need to improve your health habits, now is a good time to get started. See your doctor, talk to other people in recovery, or just start reviewing your original recovery plan to get you back on track.

Staying Away From The Addiction Relapse Trap

For anyone who’s battled addiction, relapse is a genuine risk. If you have been through drug rehab, you have lots of ways to support your sobriety and avoid the traps. Stay on top of your health and keep good people around you to make sure every day is a sober day.

Rock bottom – it’s a phrase everyone’s heard about drug addiction and alcoholism. When a person hits rock bottom, that’s when they are finally ready to turn their life around. While this may be true for some people, not everyone gets that low before they get sober. If you are struggling with drug addiction, you have a chance to make your life better today.

What Is Your Rock Bottom

Do you know what your rock bottom is? It’s the ultimate low spot you could imagine in your life. Think about family difficulties, money problems, legal problems, or health issues. Maybe you would still have your job, but you would teeter on the verge of divorce. What would scare you more – having a heart attack or losing custody of your kids? There’s no cookie-cutter answer for everyone. If you know it could still get worse from here, then maybe your rock bottom is still beneath you.

What’s most important is that you understand what you could lose if your addiction continues. When you realize what’s at stake with your addiction, you know you have a choice to make. Your chance at a better life can start right now. You can step forward with courage and start drug rehab.

You may feel a lot of fear facing so much change. How will you get through the day? What will your body feel like? What will be going through your mind when you aren’t high or drunk anymore? This kind of uncertainty is a normal but manageable part of moving forward. If you are willing to deal with these worries now, then you might be able to avoid your rock bottom.

Caring Drug Treatment Professionals Ready For You

The Canyon Rehab Center is staffed with caring professionals. Our compassion and expert care will help you get through your most challenging days at rehab. When you go through our residential program, you can count on lots of support.

Take action now and tell your closest friend you need help getting sober. Talk to a family member you trust. Call our treatment center number today and talk to someone who understands. Just do something to get the ball rolling forward. Getting started is sometimes the most challenging part. But once you do, you’ll get the attention and help you need right away.

Get Sober Before You Hit Rock Bottom

You don’t have to find out what your rock bottom is if you know you need to get sober. You just need to take a step of courage, a leap of faith. Tell yourself it’s time to stop this way of living. It’s time to rebuild your life, even if the changes scare you. You’re not alone in this – call us today to find out more about our drug and alcohol treatment programs.

Change can be uncomfortable, even if you are looking forward to all the benefits that come with it. Once you are familiar with something, you like the comfortable feeling that settles in. But if this comfort comes from an alcohol or drug addiction, your very survival could be at stake. Are you willing to turn away from that familiar feeling to have a better life?

Staying Motivated For Sobriety

As you get sober, you develop new habits and patterns of behavior. They can feel foreign and strange for a while as you get used to them. You may even look back at your drinking or drug-using days through rose-colored glasses during your adjustment.

Eventually, your new habits give you that familiar and comforting feeling again. Your addiction activities and behaviors gradually become part of your past. When you can appreciate your healthier life while remembering the perils of your addiction history, you’ll find your motivation to stay sober.

Being Committed – Shutting The Door

Commitment is simply a decision, an unmovable rock-solid decision. Regardless of the distraction or barrier, you will do everything possible stick with to your decision. This may sound tough, but a strong commitment can protect you. When you refuse to compromise on your sobriety, you won’t stand for anything that threatens it.

Temptations or cravings may call to you, but you remain determined to work around them and stay clean. You don’t take chances that could put you at risk. You don’t leave an open door for having a drink or a hit again some day. You do your best to keep the excuses from lingering in your mind. You shut the door on drinking and drug use and you accept that it is shut for good.

Get Support To Stay Committed And Motivated

Of course, you still need support and a lot of good healthy habits to help you keep this commitment. This isn’t a show of will power because that can eventually break down. And

even if you do relapse, you can renew your commitment in a moment and make new decisions about staying sober again. Your recent reminder about the pitfalls of addiction can even refuel your motivation.

If you keep a good foundation of sober support, make good choices, and stay as healthy as possible, you can keep a firm commitment like this. When you accept this completely with your mind and heart, you have something to really stand up for.

Staying Sober – Staying Committed

Everyone who has ever committed to something has been tempted to give it up. If they aren’t very motivated or haven’t made a firm decision, they might not keep their commitment for very long. When staying sober, you face the same kind of challenge. You’ll stumble upon temptation, feel cravings, and wonder why it even matters.

Find your motivation by remembering the high cost of addiction and by focusing on the positives of your sober life. Commit completely to sobriety with your whole self. You will find confidence and strength to keep going forward when you do this. For more help staying committed to sobriety, call us today.

If you have lived with a drug addiction for some time, you know how upsetting cravings can be.  You are distracted, you don’t know how you can make it, and time seems to creep by.  But cravings are a part of reality for a recovering drug addict.  If you had a way to reduce your chances of having cravings, would you make a few adjustments to your lifestyle?  Find out more about how stress and support are related to your experience with drug cravings.

Minor Daily Stresses Related To Drug Cravings

People with an addiction often use their drug of choice to help them deal with stress.  It should be no surprise that added stress may make a recovering addict have the occasional drug craving.  When drug use has been a primary coping skill in the past, the body and mind are likely to have some lingering memory about it.

But you don’t have to let stress sideline your sobriety.  It’s nearly impossible to avoid all stress.  In fact, we all need a little to keep us motivated and active in our day.  When you get a little overwhelmed with minor stress during your recovery, you may feel the familiar twinge of a drug craving.  Good support from family and friends can help you see those cravings as more manageable and less disruptive.

Reduce Excess Stress To Prevent Cravings

When you are proactive about reducing your daily stress, you can do more to keep cravings at bay.  Stressful situations may be somewhat unavoidable, but you can maintain plenty of coping skills to keep yourself calm.

Do everything possible to get plenty of sleep at night.  Lack of quality sleep can really affect your mood and make you more sensitive to stress.  Exercise is also a great stress reliever.  You get a rush of endorphins as you finish up, and your mood stays lifted for a while afterwords.  Plus, exercise relieves tension that builds up in your muscles during the day.

Your body responds to stress better when you feed it well.  Caffeine, junk food, and random eating will leave you ill-equipped to handle the ups and downs of your day.  Stick with regular meals, eat healthy snacks to keep your blood sugars even, and get good nutrition throughout the day.  You will have lasting energy all day long.  Whatever comes your way, you will be able to think through it clearly.

Keep Yourself Healthy And Socially Connected

Your life rolls on every day, and some days are a little better than others.  Your stress has a direct connection with your potential for having drug cravings.  Staying healthy and socially connected can help you fight the effects of minor stress.  And when you have stress under control, drug cravings won’t bring you down.