Rather than buy into a $5000 a plate dinner to benefit the cause of the month as many celebrities do, Beyonce Knowles has decided to take a different philanthropic route. She and her mother, fashion designer Tina Knowles, have opened the Beyoncé Cosmetology Center at the Phoenix House Career Academy in Dumbo, Brooklyn for those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and/ or mental illness.

The Benefits of Beauty School for Dual Diagnosis

Beyonce’s new beauty school offers those who are dually diagnosed an opportunity to gain job skills in a supportive environment. Those who have successfully completed rehab and who are focused on getting their lives back on track after active addiction can come here without worry of being judged for their past or discriminated against due to psychological issues. As long as they remain on a healing track, the Beyonce school offers a 7-month program that is focused on continued dedication to recovery and learning.

Beyonce, Hair Salons, and Recovery

According to Beyonce, hair salons are inherently a place for community and support. Her mother, Tina Knowles, worked in a salon when Beyonce was a child and Beyonce remembered it as a place to “share stories, cry, laugh, and get advice. The first sign of recovery is caring about your appearance and hopefully, this Center will be a place that will change lots of lives every year.”

Combining beauty school with recovery was an idea that came to Beyonce when she spent time at Phoenix House while preparing for her acting role as Etta James.

Says Beyonce: “Through their stories, I realized that all of us have our personal struggles and we all have something to overcome. But it is mostly drug and alcohol addiction that has the stigma that must be removed. Drug addiction is a disease and these beautiful women I met did not choose to become addicts, but they have chosen to get better, and the staff at Phoenix House is important to that healing process.”

This isn’t the first move Beyonce has made on behalf of the women who inspired her at Phoenix House: she also donated her salary from her role as Etta James to the foundation. She and her mother will also donate $100,000 a year to their beauty school.

Recovery and Rejuvenation

While there are only a limited number of openings at Beyonce’s new beauty school, there are a ton of opportunities for those coming out of drug rehab and looking for a new focus in life. Programs are available across the country that provide a sober living as well as assistance if not training in reaching a new educational or job goal post-rehab.

The Canyon is one such place. Located in southern California, we can provide a sober living environment for those who have successfully completed drug rehab. Contact us today to learn more about our program or to schedule a tour of the facility. Find out if The Canyon is the right place for you.

Many studies over the years have touted the positive benefits of exercise for those who are in recovery. One organization in St. Petersburg is putting those theories into practice in an organized way. CLEAN (Citizens Learning to End Addiction Now), associated with Goodwill Industries in St. Petersubrg, is an organization dedicated to helping those in early recovery “recreate” themselves in a new and positive way.

Chris Nelson is a counselor at CLEAN. He says: “If we can recreate in a more positive different place with a more positive activity maybe we can recreate the brain to do something different other than crave a drug. The concept of sobriety is mind, body and spirit concept — that’s what we do in treatment.”

Vivian Sarber, 20, a recovering heroin addict, was a participant in the program. She says: “For me, it’s being able to finish something, you know, finish something that’s positive, because I have been kind of down the wrong path for a couple of years now.”

Michael Musser has been in recovery for a decade and also found personal benefits through CLEAN. He says: “I just get out, run, take all that anger and aggression that I had on me and just put it in my feet and run.”

Why Does Exercise Assist Recovery After Drug Addiction?

Is it the endorphins released in the brain during and after exercise? Is it the “runner’s high” that can only be accomplished through intense exercise, a close cousin to what you experience on drugs and alcohol without the residual negative effects of addiction?

Chris Nelson thinks so: “They don’t need the drug anymore, because they can achieve the satisfaction that the drug would provide by doing some other physical activity.”

There’s also the fact that if you’re running, you aren’t using. Those minutes on the track or running in the park or on a treadmill are minutes that aren’t spent getting high. In early recovery, finding a positive way to fill your time is a crucial part of avoiding relapse.

Another benefit is the ability to clear your head and physically vent pent up aggression and anxiety that often comes with large life changes like drug addiction treatment. Building a whole new life without drugs and alcohol is taxing on many levels; running gives you an outlet to address those emotions physically.

How Long Does Exercise Aid Recovery and Continued Drug Addiction Treatment?

As long as you continue to do it. Nelson says that a number of CLEAN graduates continue to run, even training for marathons in some cases.

If there isn’t a program near you or associated with your drug and alcohol rehab, you can start your own running regimen. Like recovery, you’ll be more successful and gain more benefits if you have a partner or a group of people holding you accountable. Try to find a local runner’s group or start your own. If you attend 12 step meetings or are currently in rehab, encourage others in recovery to join you. It will help you stay clean and sober, not only to run but to keep each other accountable to clean and sober goals as well.

You’ve gotten through the roughest parts of drug and alcohol detox. You’re at home and you continue to go to outpatient rehab on a daily basis. You maintain the schedule of educational classes and 12-step meetings and therapy that they request of you. If you are on a continued opiate detox, you take your methadone or Suboxone as prescribed. If you have a job, then you head there and if you have small children, then you spend time with them. If not, maybe a meeting, out for coffee, take care of the house….

No matter how busy you are, when you are new to recovery there is one stark reality: all the time you used to spend chasing your drug of choice or getting and staying high or drunk is now dead time.

What are you supposed to do all day or all night after you get out of outpatient rehab?

One of the problems with recovery is that it’s boring. I’ve heard so many people say that they ended up relapsing because they didn’t have anything to do. TV got old and they just weren’t getting any ideas about how to spend their time. The opportunity arose to get loaded, and so they did. This is where chaos comes in.

Chaos and Drug and Alcohol Addiction Treatment and Recovery

It may seem counterintuitive, but just like you have to ingest some fats while you’re trying to lose weight, you also need a certain amount of chaos in your life in order to successfully navigate life during drug and alcohol recovery. Yes, you need to stay away from the negative elements and stressors that put you in a position to use in the first place, but you can’t bury yourself at home and hide for the rest of your life, either. Humans crave contact and contact breeds chaos. And a little chaos can help you fight off the boredom that may drive you to relapse.

Chaos is especially effective for those in recovery while they are undergoing outpatient alcohol and drug rehab. With a daily support system behind you, you have a network of advisers who can assist you as you get through the tough times. Every time a development occurs, you can discuss it with your therapist, in group meetings and with your peers. You can get an opinion about how to proceed from the perspective of someone who understands your issues with drugs and alcohol as well as the nature of triggers. It’s important to be tested during early recovery when you have someone there to help you.

Where to Find Chaos

For most, this is a given. They simply walk through the door at home or answer the phone and chaos finds them. But if you need assistance in this area: Maybe a friend of yours is having issues with her boyfriend or husband and needs someone to listen. Maybe you have a niece or nephew who could use a little “auntie” time. You can always find someone who needs something at meetings, whether it’s advice, companionship or a ride somewhere. The point? Controlled chaos can help you take your mind off yourself, get you out of the house, appreciate your situation and your newfound sobriety.

How do you create balance in your life during drug and alcohol rehab? What about after? How do you fend off drug and alcohol relapse?

The past few weeks, I’ve been reading and researching and thinking quite a bit about those few days before you enter drug rehab and the weeks following your return home. What do you do during those days? You’ve likely lost your job, you’ve alienated positive friendships, and all you want is not to get drunk or high and yet it’s all you can think about. How do you stop yourself from relapsing?

During my research on relapse prevention, I find some research that says exercise may help prevent substance abuse. Well, of course it does! We knew that, right? But it’s always nice to be validated by the scientific community.

The United States government is pushing for even more research in this area, something that explores the effects of “regular” activity as opposed to the “runner’s high” achieved after a really intense workout. In other words, can normal people like us who aren’t athletes benefit from exercise in the area of drug and alcohol use prevention?

Drug Addiction Rewards and Exercise Rewards

It’s all about the reward system in the brain. After prolonged periods of drug and alcohol use, this is one part of the brain that suffers long-term, if not permanent damage. It’s harder to feel happy or even normal without drugs once you’ve grown dependent on getting high. This means that events that “normal” people may be able to take in stride seem more like a mountain than a molehill to those with opiate addiction issues. The stress of the incident can make an addict want to use, to manually trigger the reward system in the brain to numb the drama. Herein enters exercise as a possible solution.

Clues That Exercise May Fight Drug Addiction Relapse

Here’s what some researchers have found to support the idea that exercise can be an important part of a relapse prevention program:

• Rats were less likely to ingest amphetamines if their cages had running wheels, suggesting exercise stimulated a reward pathway in the brain to leave them less vulnerable to the drug’s rush.
• In people, exercise acts as a mild antidepressant and relieves stress. Depression, anxiety and stress increase risk of alcoholism, smoking or drug abuse.
• Volkow is intrigued that attention deficit disorder and obesity both involve problems with the brain chemical dopamine, one system that drugs hijack to create addiction.
• Baby monkeys who do not play enough in childhood have problems controlling aggression when they’re older. The most aggressive tend to have defects involving the feel-good brain chemical serotonin — and binge-drink when researchers offer them alcohol.
• Back to rats, physical activity increases production of growth factors and stem cells in key brain regions important for learning and mood; increases formation of blood vessels; and strengthens communication networks between brain cells.

Exercise, Schmexercise… Bring Out the Bleach

Personally, when I feel triggered or feel any of the emotions that used to precipitate a run, I get out my arsenal of cleaning supplies and a bucket of old rags and get to work. And I don’t mean light dusting. I’m talking pulling everything out of the closet and reorganizing in earnest, pulling the refrigerator and stove away from the wall to scrub the floors beneath, getting on all those projects that tend to get put off during normal life. It’s a workout with a tangible result at the end.

Do you work out to fight off the impulse to relapse? Do you clean the house when you’ve got too much idle time on your hands? How do you fight off drug relapse?

When you finish drug rehab or are waiting to enroll in your drug and alcohol rehab of choice, it’s crucial that you put some effort into creating a strong support network. You need peers who are going through the same thing you are to commiserate with and mentors who have been there and done that who can give you advice. You also need a little impartial guidance. So how do you get the support you need before or after inpatient or outpatient drug addiction treatment? Just ask.

Peer Support During Drug Addiction Recovery

This is as simple as showing up to an NA meeting, sparking up a conversation with someone at a coffee shop or a bus stop. Addicts in recovery are everywhere in all walks of life. You’d be surprised how forthcoming most are about their pasts, too. Most who have been through it know the benefits of sharing their experience and how important that can be to someone who’s in the beginning stages of detoxing and getting clean, no matter what the drug of choice.

Alternatively, there are a number of blogs where people who are going through exactly what you are talk about the things that are happening to them. Here are just a few (besides this one):

• What Winners Do
• The Fleeting Present
• Improve Our Conscious Contact
• Diary of a Quitter

Mentor Support During Drug Addiction Recovery

You can find mentors and role models in recovery in the same places that you find peers. When you’re first starting out, it’s important to see that others have followed the path of sobriety and succeeded. These are the people who–no matter what they once did–now have jobs, children, families, people who don’t drink or use drugs every day. They may not always be happy or nice or anything like you want to be, but they’re functional and they’re clean and sober and you might just learn something from them.

Impartial Guidance During Drug Addiction Recovery

Impartial guidance unfettered by the dogma of recovery is best found in therapy or from religious authorities. If you are particularly religious, then a group leader at your local meeting place may be a good person to talk to. If not, then a therapist or counselor is another way to go. This person should be able to help you see through the fog of recovery so that you may better find yourself rather than blindly clinging to the prevailing wisdom of any one 12-step group.

The point is that support is out there. Friends and family members who are clean and sober and want what is best for you would most likely be willing to help you in any way they can. Just getting out of the house to go to the gym, indulge in a hobby, volunteer, or take a walk can facilitate the meeting of any number of new people outside of recovery and these kinds of contacts are just as important. Don’t limit yourself and don’t be shy. If you want support, you have to ask for it.

Statistics show us that few relationships survive drug addiction, whether or not both parties are victims of drug abuse. But if your loved one is addicted to drugs and/ or alcohol and goes to drug rehab, what can you expect from your relationship when drug rehab is over and they come home?

After Drug Rehab: State of Mind

In general, most who make it through drug detox and graduate from drug rehab come home excited about their new life, energized to make it on their own without drugs and alcohol and… a little nervous. This is something new for them—for some it may be totally new if they’ve never lived as an adult without drugs and alcohol before—and the idea that someone is depending on them to get it right, i.e., you, is stressful. They are coming from a very supportive place where they got to focus on themselves, their personal issues and had constant attention on multiple levels. They should feel encouraged and ready to try living the way they’ve been taught for the past few weeks.

How to Be Supportive After Drug Rehab

First and foremost, lower your expectations. This doesn’t mean you should expect them to fail, but it does mean that you shouldn’t expect that everything in your relationship will now be perfect. Even relationships where there are no issues with addiction go through hard times, so even if you think that all your problems are solved now that your loved one has gone through drug rehab, think again. There is still quite a bit of work to be done, both on a personal level for your loved one and together as a couple.

Give your partner space. Let him or her go to support group meetings, maintain friendships made during drug rehab. If he or she wants to talk about what they’ve learned, listen. If they want you to go with them to meetings, attend one or two. Above all, be supportive in ways that your partner finds helpful. Chances are, if they need something from you, they’ll ask. As long as it’s reasonable and within your boundaries, go for it.

What Not To Do After Drug Rehab

Though you likely have quite a load of resentments about their behavior while your loved one was using and more than a few hurt feelings and trust issues, now is not the time to talk about them relentlessly. Bringing up things they did during their addiction, blaming them for problems with money or with others in the family that may have arisen while they were gone or began during addiction, or alternating between icy tolerance and wanting “to talk” is not the way to go. Constant criticism or expecting your loved one to fail is not helpful and may end up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If You Need Drug Rehab…

In many relationships where drug and alcohol addiction is present, both people suffer from drug addiction issues to some degree. If you struggle with drug and alcohol issues as well as your partner, it may be your turn to go to drug rehab now that they have come home. If you feel that you would benefit from outpatient or inpatient drug treatment, talk to your loved one about it. There’s no reason why both of you shouldn’t get help if you need it.

So you’ve heard of the chicken and egg debate… you know, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, this type of ‘which is the instigator and which is the instigated’ sort of debate in the drug addiction treatment and law enforcement community is common as well: which came first, the drug dealers or the drug buyers? If we take away the drug dealers on the street, will those who want the drugs just find other sources or will the problem be taken care of? If we eradicate drug addiction, will we put drug dealers out of business or will they just create new addicts? Ultimately, the big question is, which group do we target to mitigate the cost and damages done to communities due to drug addiction?

Drug Buyers Fuel Worldwide Drug Trade

According to TimesCall.com, “When a person in America lights up a joint, injects heroin or methamphetamine, swallows a pill of ecstasy, snorts cocaine or takes any other controlled drug, he or she is contributing to a world of drug trafficking and violence.”

Though some drugs are made or grown in the United States (like crystal meth or marijuana, respectively) there are more than 146 countries on the CIA’s World Factbook as sites of drug trafficking, growth and manufacturing. Unfortunately, the destination for a great amount of the drugs grown in these countries is none other than the United States. It’s our demand for the drugs that keeps these countries—and their illegal abuse of children and local resources and reign of international terror—in business.

Stop Drug Manufacture and Growth

In my opinion, if you stop drug addicts from buying, you simply fill up the prisons with nonviolent offenders and waste the community’s money. Meanwhile, new drug addicts are growing in their place. If there were no drugs to experiment with, then there would be fewer addicts, right?

But if we take out the drug dealer in the community—someone who likely started out as an addict, someone who must get money from somewhere to continue to support his or her habit and likely won’t be able to hold down any legitimate job—then we are again putting more people in prison and opening up a spot that someone else will just quickly fill.

So why not start with more stringent control of international trade? The Coast Guard routinely takes down ships traveling international waters toward the United States with literally tons of cocaine and marijuana. Stepping up the search of incoming vessels and packages should be the focus of federal funding, while state funding should go toward treating our addicts and increasing the education of children and teens on the devastating effects of drug abuse and addiction.

Drug Addiction Treatment

The Canyon offers highly personalized drug addiction treatment that speaks to the need of anyone who is struggling with any kind of drug of addiction. Be it cocaine, marijuana, heroin, crystal meth, alcohol, club drugs or a combination thereof, you can find a drug addiction treatment program that

There is a common question asked by those considering drug and/ or alcohol rehab: which is more effective, inpatient drug treatment or outpatient drug treatment? The answer is one that is subjective. The type of treatment that will be most effective for you will vary based on a number of things. However, there is also some research that has been done that sheds some light on what, in general, works in terms of longevity of effect in treatment. In other words, there are statistics on who stays clean and sober longer: those who attend inpatient drug treatment or those who attend outpatient drug treatment.

First Things First

There are no guarantees with medical treatment. The best you’ll get in terms of guarantees as far as medical effectiveness for any treatment is 99.9%. For chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes and drug addiction, the numbers are far less encouraging. But the fact remains that medical treatment is the only chance at recovery and this is undisputed.

Also, remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Certain drugs of addiction lend themselves to a longer, more intense treatment while others may not require as intense attention. Also, a readiness to adopt a clean and sober lifestyle choices is of huge importance when it comes to outcome of treatment. Though research has shown that a desire to enter treatment does not necessarily have a direct effect on outcome, if a desire to change is present, then the scales begin to tilt a bit in favor of longer sobriety with fewer incidents of relapse.

Lastly, there’s no such thing as a magic pill when it comes to drug addiction treatment. Drugs of addiction affect us on too many levels for there to be some quick, neat solution to wrap it all up in a neat package in a finite period. Rather, drug addiction is a lifelong disease and as such requires a lifelong solution. Drug rehab is the first step.

After the Disclaimers

Now that we’ve cleared up any misconceptions that simply signing up for a certain program will or won’t change your life, let’s look at the research on the effectiveness of short-term drug addiction treatment versus long-term drug addiction treatment:

Studies show that the longer you spend in treatment, the longer you will remain sober when you return home and the shorter the relapse if and when you use your drug of choice again. In an effort to balance cost effectiveness with outcome, drug rehabs across the country are now offering the option of longer treatment.

Additionally, those who undergo residential inpatient drug addiction treatment tend to fare better than those who opt instead for outpatient day treatment programs. It’s a simple investment of time and focus: the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. The more ready you are to make real and lasting change in your life, the more likely that your recovery will last when you return home.

If you have questions about whether inpatient or outpatient treatment, long-term or short-term rehab is right for you, contact The Canyon today.

Acupuncture, an ancient Chinese medicinal practice, is becoming more and more accepted as a preventative medicinal practice as well as a technique to relieve acute and chronic symptoms and disorders. One such disorder that seems to respond well to regular acupuncture sessions is drug and alcohol addiction.

What is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture is based upon the idea that energy (called ‘qi,’ pronounced ‘chee’) runs through the body along certain lines called meridians. When this energy is blocked, ailments and medical disorders develop. The idea is that by inserting long thin needles into the first couple layers of skin (painlessly) at certain points along meridians that correspond to certain ailments and body parts and systems, you can unblock that energy, increase energy flow throughout the body, and relieve the symptoms.

The Effectiveness of Acupuncture in Treating Drug and Alcohol Addiction

There are a number of studies that have focused on the effect of acupuncture on drug and alcohol addiction treatment. Conclusion? Acupuncture is highly effective drug and alcohol treatment.

But how do you test the effectiveness of acupuncture? The way it is usually done is to divide the participants into two groups. They share all the same treatment options (that is, they are all enrolled in inpatient drug addiction rehab or they all attend one AA or NA meeting per week) and both have regular acupuncture sessions, but one group uses the needles randomly without paying attention to meridians or points thought to be related to drug and alcohol addiction while the others are meticulously placed according to acupuncture tradition. In a study that divided 80 into two groups of 40 and followed these guidelines, of the group that had random acupuncture done, only 1 remained clean and sober at the end of the two-month study. Of the other group in which acupuncture was done correctly, 21 of the 40 remained at the study’s end.

Acupuncture and Drug Addiction Withdrawal Symptoms

Studies done on animals that focused on acupuncture’s effect on withdrawal after drug and alcohol addiction shows that acupuncture goes a long way toward decreasing the intensity and length of withdrawal symptoms.

An interesting note: the studies done on animals and on people in other circumstances have shown that so-called “sham” acupuncture in which meridians and location of needles are purposely placed incorrectly and true acupuncture in which needles are placed according to meridians yield no different results. Both work equally well and reduce drug addiction withdrawal symptoms. Perhaps it is the relaxation effect or the belief that you are doing something healthy or perhaps taking one step towards a healthy lifestyle encourages other healthy choices like organic eating, better rest and gentle exercise, all of which are thought to reduce the effect of drug addiction withdrawal.

Acupuncture and Drug Addiction Treatment

The most effective drug addiction treatment is one that incorporates as many different types of treatment as possible. Addiction is a personal experience. Addiction treatment should be personal as well. If acupuncture is what makes the difference for you, then it’s important that it’s an option provided by your drug rehab. How will you know whether or not it will work for you unless you try?

The Canyon is a drug rehab that offers acupuncture as one of its many treatment options. If you have questions, contact them today for more information about acupuncture and drug and alcohol addiction treatment.

The goals of Chinese medicine—using approaches like acupuncture—are very different from our goals here in the United States. For one thing, Chinese medicine is very preventative in nature, offering you treatments that focus on whole body wellness. Americans, on the other hand, often don’t even think about their health until they don’t feel well… and then they treat the symptoms they’re experiencing rather than the cause.

Recently, however, Americans have started to pay attention to Chinese medicine and incorporate it into medical treatments like drug and alcohol addiction treatment. Western research and thousands of years of Eastern experience has proven over and over that acupuncture is an effective part of treatment.

Acupuncture Basics

The only tools used in acupuncture are long thin needles that are inserted into the top layers of skin painlessly along certain meridians or routes of energy that flow beneath the skin. The meridians and the energy are invisible, but it is believed that energy along these routes can get blocked and that the needles, inserted at the correct points, can unblock that energy. The Chinese believe that many ailments of the mind and body are directly related to these blocked energy routes. Drug addiction, which manifests with both mental, psychological, spiritual and physical symptoms responds well to acupuncture treatment.

Those Who Are Against Acupuncture in Drug Addiction Treatment Say…

Though research has been done that proves the effectiveness of acupuncture in drug treatment, there are some who don’t think that the studies were extensive enough or followed the recipients of the treat more long enough to be definitive.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) sponsored a review of acupuncture in detox programs and had this to say:

“It is clear that some of the reasons for the wide divergence of opinion regarding the efficacy of acupuncture result from the non-standard terminology used to describe it, the wide range of procedures that have been called acupuncture, the lack of a clear mechanism to explain the purported benefits of acupuncture treatment and perhaps most importantly, the lack of systematic clinical research in this area.”

Those Who Are For Acupuncture in Drug Addiction Treatment Say…

Though energy is not and cannot be medically quantified according to Western methods, thousands of years of effective practice is difficult to argue. Western science has proven that the insertion of the needles used in acupuncture stimulates the production of beta-endorphins, which could be a modern way of talking about ‘energy’ and ‘life force.’ Also, a number of studies have proven that the needles don’t even have to be placed in the correct positions according to meridians in order to be effective. Acupuncture in any form has a positive effect when integrated into drug and alcohol addiction treatment, minimizing the physical withdrawal symptoms and psychological cravings and lengthening the time in sobriety without a relapse.

Acupuncture in Drug Addiction Treatment

It is relatively simple to integrate acupuncture into alcohol and drug rehab whether in group settings or one-on-one. The Canyon makes sure to incorporate a number of alternative treatments like acupuncture. If you’d like more information on how acupuncture works or how it affects drug addiction recovery, contact The Canyon today.