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.

When we talk about drug addiction and why it is a problem, we usually focus on the personal effects: health problems, financial problems, issues with family and relationships, lost jobs and opportunities. We don’t often talk about how others connected or only briefly connected to us suffer when we are a victim of drug and alcohol addiction. Today, we’ll talk about our actions under the influence and why they alone are enough to add up to a need for drug addiction treatment.

Drug Addiction Treatment and DUI

Most people associate a Driving Under the Influence, or DUI, charge with drinking and driving. Though this is one of the more common DUI issues since many don’t realize they are impaired when they get behind the wheel, it is just as common to get pulled over due to impairment by prescription drugs, marijuana and other common drugs. The accidents that occur due to bad choices made by a driver under the influence are exceedingly common and the victims, though they may often include the driver as well, also includes others who did nothing but end up in the wrong place at the wrong time: pedestrians, small children, mothers, fathers, grandparents…. The stories of loss due to DUI are endless and heartbreaking, and when the perpetrators aren’t killed in the accident, new and harsh laws are making sure that they spend plenty of time in prison suffering for their crime.

A Personal Story of the Effects of Drug Addiction

Linda was married for over a decade before her husband’s cocaine addiction affected their children. Though their marriage had suffered due to his infidelity under the influence and abusive behavior, they had both managed to keep the problem away from their children… or so they thought. When Linda’s husband cleaned out their savings while gambling on cocaine and lost his job a week later due to his erratic behavior, the addiction was still there and so, too, was his physical abuse. It was impossible for them to hide it from the kids when they moved, changed schools, and their father was around the house all the time. Though he didn’t technically use the drug in front of them, they still recognized the change in his behavior and, primarily, his anger that was amplified by the cocaine.

When Linda left him, he told her that all the behaviors she hated—the abuse, the cheating, the lying, the stealing from the family, yelling at the kids, the late nights, losing his job—all of it was because of his cocaine addiction and that it would all go away if he could stop. She agreed that all that was true, but having heard the promises of quitting before, she simply told him: “Go to a cocaine rehab. If you don’t, you can add us to the list of things you lost when you finally do get clean.”

Drug Treatment Now

If you are struggling with cocaine addiction or addiction to another drug, no one expects you to go through it alone. Contact a drug rehab today that can help you with your personal needs and proved treatment that will help you to get back on track before you hurt yourself or anyone else.

The Recovery Project, sponsored by A&E television networks, just might be the largest initiative ever to reach out to addicts and families in need of this kind of specialized guidance and support.

The press release on the show highlights findings from the 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to drive home the importance of the project: “More than 22 million Americans struggle with addiction to alcohol and other drugs, yet fewer than ten percent receive the treatment they need because of stigma, lack of awareness or cost.”

So how does one lead an addict from the depths of despair to the shores of hope and recovery?

Build a Bridge toward Recovery

On September 27 last year, thousands of individuals, families, friends, treatment partners, advocates, celebrities, and community leaders linked arms and crossed the Brooklyn Bridge showing solidarity in the fight against the stigma of drug addiction. As a symbolic vow to support those on their quest through recovery, the human bridge progressed towards Lower Manhattan and rallied on the grounds of City Hall Park.

“Inspired by the incredible response from viewers, individuals and families in recovery to the Emmy-nominated documentary series Intervention… The Recovery Project strives to shed light on the scope of the addiction crisis, and its impact on society,” the release said.

Partner With Organizations Committed to Successful Recovery

A&E is joining forces with nation-wide non-profit groups and federal agencies to spread the word about this multi-year campaign through education, personal stories, recovery and treatment options, plus resources to help parents connect with their kids in an effort to prevent drug abuse:

• NCADD – National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.
• SAMHSA – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• PDFA – Partnership for a Drug Free America

Participate in Awareness Rallies or Organize One in Your Hometown

They are doing the rally again this year on September 12, 2009. To become a part of this historic nationwide event, just visit www.therecoveryproject.com to sign up. If you can’t make it to New York, you can rally your own town to join forces against the stigma of addiction by hosting your own march for solidarity. Spread the word through your town’s newspaper and local radio station, then visit Recovery Month to add your event to the history books.

Tell Us: Do you think this is an effective way to raise awareness about the issues that drug and alcohol addicts face?

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.

Nutrition and Drug Rehab

Think of your brain as the Internet. Every brain cell is a different PC that needs a modem (or, in this case, a synapse) to connect to all the other cells on the neurologic network. But as any IT expert can tell you, plugging in the right wires is only half the battle. Power has to be turned on for the machine to be able to function.

Chemical messengers called neurotransmitters must be running at peak performance for information in the brain to be processed correctly. Four specific neurotransmitters handle all communications relating to our emotional well being and tranquility: serotonin, endorphins, GABA, and dopamine.

Genetic Mutations Set the Stage for Drug and Alcohol Addiction

When the synapses or neurotransmitters fail to function like they should, transmission gets garbled and we begin to feel intense loneliness, stress, anxiety, and depression. Most often this malfunction happens because of genetics. In fact, an estimated 33 percent of people have some type of genetic predisposition to addiction.

Drugs and alcohol make us feel good because they stimulate neurotransmitter functioning, which is why we keep going back for more. It is a false sense of euphoria, however, because addictive substances eventually deplete the neurotransmitters necessary for healthy functioning.

What’s more, drug and alcohol addiction impedes on the uptake of vital nutrients our body needs to stay alive. When drugs take over, changes in appetite bring malnutrition which exacerbates the awful symptoms we try to avoid. We can’t get enough because we never actually feel good anymore.

Prime the Mind for Successful Drug Addiction Recovery

If you could jump-start your body into feeling good again without the need for addictive substances, you could essentially erase all cravings and free the mind to focus on behavioral and cognitive improvements.

Amino acids have been found to be the stuff neurotransmitters are made of. Supplying the body with an abundance of specific amino acids can help restore their functioning, reduce cravings, increase sensations of wellbeing, and minimize relapse.

Brain Food for Drug Addiction Recovery

Amino acids are found in foods high in protein. Below is a list of specific amino acids that have been shown to alleviate symptoms of addiction, and the most commonly available food sources from which they come:

• L-tryptophan – Egg whites, spirulina, atlantic cod, raw soybeans, parmesan cheese
• L-5 hydroxytryptophan chromium salts – Minute traces in turkey and cheese, supplements derived from the seeds of Griffonia simplicifolia
• L-Glutamine – Meat and dairy products, beans, beats, spinach, parsley, and cabbage
• L-phenylalanine – Cow milk, goat milk, aspartame sugar substitutes
• L-tyrosine – Cheeses, spirulina, soy protein, egg whites, salmon
• Phenylalanine – Meat, poultry, fish, soybeans, dairy products, nuts and seeds

The body is a sucker for sweets and carbohydrates when it’s lacking other vital nutrients. Replacing sugar and refined starches with just some of the foods listed here can help restore balance and emotional integrity to an otherwise stressful situation.

Along with psychological and spiritual therapies for overcoming addiction, nutritional support and dietary supplements are quite literally the food our brain needs for enhanced recovery.

Tell Us: What’s your favorite recipe using some of the foods mentioned above?

You’d better fasten your seat belt – the road of addiction recovery can have some surprising turns and bumpy spots. All this new awareness and the realizations, it can all seem like too much to absorb at once. How do you keep on the straight and narrow without getting overwhelmed with it all?

Addiction Keeps You in the Dark About Yourself

Well, there is no guaranteed way to prevent you from feeling overwhelmed. For quite a while, you’ve been shutting out your self awareness and the truth about your own life. Seeing these things for the first time can feel like a sharp change in the weather, like a sudden stiff breeze from the north. Add a few more new discoveries, and you may feel like you’re about to be blown over flat.

When the mind does feel overwhelmed, it tries to shut things out again. This is a fairly normal self-protective action taken by your brain. It’s the same process that keeps us from actually attending to every single bit of stimulation in our environment. You need to be able to “tune out” certain things to be able to pay solid attention to other things. But when you have a drug addiction, you do way too much of this. The important stuff goes right out the window with the trivial things. That’s really how you got to this narrow crooked viewpoint in the first place. It was shaped by your addiction, and when you are in recovery it can be shaped again.

Balancing New Ideas and Not Being Overwhelmed

It can be challenging to know when shutting out new ideas is helpful and when it resembles your old addiction way of thinking. This is why AA, other support groups, and professional drug treatment can help you get and keep your bearings. This kind of support is especially important in the beginning of your addiction recovery. During drug rehab, you most likely had professionals surrounding you and able to help at any moment. When you are back into “real life”, you will still need some help as you get started.

Is it the exact topic that you are thinking about that is overwhelming, or is it just the amount of new things you are trying to process? What triggers are getting lit up because of your new awareness? Talking to a support person or writing down your thoughts about what overwhelms you can get it off your mind for a while. You may not really be ready to deal with everything yet, which is OK. Digest smaller amounts at first so you can keep moving forward. You can revisit your list or notes again and see what you’ve learned since you wrote them down.

You may not really be ready to deal with everything yet, which is OK. Digest smaller amounts at first so you can keep moving forward. You can revisit your list or notes again and see what you’ve learned since you wrote them down. This gives you peace that you’ve acknowledged these important thoughts, and you won’t forget them. You are not ignoring your insight, just keeping some aside for a short while.

Self Discovery Helps Everyone Not Just Recovering Addicts

Learning how to manage self-discovery and emotional stability is a skill everyone needs, not just people recovering from a drug addiction. Don’t be concerned that you are singled out or a real loser if you struggle with this. Everyone struggles with it! You have been out of touch for a while, and you’re getting yourself back in the game. New perspectives can be scary, but they are also filled with opportunity.