Repairing the Damage

Escaping an addiction is a life-saving achievement, but it doesn’t mean everything is going to be restored right away. It can take a long time to repair the destruction caused by years of substance abuse, including rebuilding relationships. It may take some time to regain the trust and respect of people who have been hurt; there may even be relationships that are unsalvageable. Not everyone will be ready to forgive and forget. And while the threat of losing a relationship is a common reason why substance abusers finally get help for their addiction, just giving up alcohol or drugs alone may not be enough to repair the damage.

Setting Realistic Expectations

It is vital that people who are new to recovery have realistic expectations about their relationships. Years of hurt and disappointment cannot be put right overnight. The newly sober person has to work to regain any lost trust. The best way they can do this is by staying sober and building a good life in recovery. They need to accept that they have caused pain and be willing to give these people the space and time to heal.

Striving for Perfection

In our minds, we all have an idea of what life is supposed to be like. These ideals can extend into various aspects of our lives – from our relationships to our families, to our children, our work and more. Striving for perfection is a noble endeavor, but only if we are also able to understand and accept our limitations, which we all have; otherwise, we set ourselves up for constant disappointment. Life rarely goes according to plan, and those who expect things to be perfect are going to be regularly disappointed.

The same is true for substance abusers who enter recovery with high expectations of themselves; they develop an all-or-nothing approach to sobriety that sets them up for disappointment and threatens their chances for an enduring recovery.

When an individual is in the early months of addiction recovery, they often experience a kind of mental fuzziness. They may struggle to think clearly as their mind adjusts to life without substance abuse. This is also a time when their emotions are erratic. Those who fail to cope with these challenges in early recovery are more likely to relapse. Mindfulness meditation can be a great tool at all stages of sobriety. It gives people more control over their emotions and increases mental clarity.

What is Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness meditation involves purposely paying attention to the present moment. It also involves being aware of thoughts, feelings, and emotions as they occur without being carried away by them. Mindfulness is a non-judgmental form of observation that involves three elements: awareness, attention and remembering. The individual needs to be aware of the object they wish to focus on. They then need to focus their attention on this object, and remember to keep it there.

When an individual decides to enter rehab, he or she is making a lifelong commitment to maintain sobriety. Once in rehab, substance abusers learn that recovery isn't a destination, but a life-long journey, one that they must learn to navigate to avoid the danger of a relapse.

The Relapse Process

The warning signs of a return to addiction can be better understood in the context of a relapse process, which usually begins inside the individual’s mind long before they actually relapse:

The Holiday Season Temptations

Christmas parties…New Year’s Eve parties…these are times for family and friends, for celebrating–and for recovering substance abusers, holiday temptations.

Handling Emotions

Even without the problems that substance abuse brings, life can be a real struggle for an individual that is unable to handle their emotions. Without emotional maturity, it is virtually impossible to find real happiness. Adults who don’t mature emotionally are also more likely to engage in substance abuse. They turn to chemicals as a means to escape the pain caused by their emotions. It becomes a catch-22 situation, because addiction arrests further emotional development, and they become stuck.

When an addict decides to enter rehab facility and finally gives up alcohol or drug use, they will need to once again focus on their emotional development. If they fail to do so, they will struggle to build a comfortable life away from their addiction.

How does one learn to be helpless?

Learned helplessness…sounds like an oxymoron, right?

The idea of ”learned helplessness” originated from experiments on animals. Researchers would put a hapless creature in a situation where they were faced with unpleasant stimuli from which they tried but could not escape. Eventually, they just accepted their situation and stopped trying to escape. Even when researchers added a means of escape, they would fail to make use of it. They had learned to be helpless.

If you’re a recovered alcoholic or substance abuser, you know that escaping your addiction through rehab and recovery gave you a second chance at life. It’s a cause for celebration, after struggling through addiction and completing a rehab program successfully. You deserve to be acknowledged for your success!

However, it’s also important to remember that there can be dangers associated with the good times, as well as the bad times. It is therefore vital that people in recovery learn to enjoy their success without putting their sobriety in danger.

How do you know when you’ve hit it?

We’ve all heard of the term “hitting rock bottom”…but where exactly is it? Is it the same rock bottom that others hit?

For many, “rock bottom” is a point an addict reaches when they are finally willing to seek help. Things are now so bad for them that it is impossible to deny their problem anymore. Hitting rock bottom may result due to a particular event, or it can be a slow decline over time.

Substance Abuse Among the Elderly is a Growing Concern

Because of the unique life challenges that older people face, they are particularly vulnerable. Not only do they have a higher risk of abusing alcohol and drugs, but they are also a part of the population that tends to be ignored, as most media attention on substance abuse focuses on younger people. However, as the elderly population is projected to grow in the U.S. and other western countries, it is likely to become a greater problem in future years.

Senior substance abusers tend to fall into two categories:

• Those who have managed to live past 65 years of age despite the fact that they have abused alcohol or drugs for many years.
• Those who turn to alcohol or drugs later in life in order to deal with their changing life circumstances:


• - Loneliness
• - Grief due to the death of loved ones
• - Boredom/ lack of meaningful employment
• - Health concerns/ chronic pain
• - Reduced cognitive functioning
• - Fear of getting old
• - Family problems
• - Financial hardship

A Hidden Epidemic

Elderly substance abuse is sometimes referred to as a hidden epidemic, because it can be a lot harder to diagnose substance abuse in older people. A primary reason is that tools used to diagnose substance abuse tend to be biased towards younger people; there is often a focus on the ability of the individual to fulfill work commitments and family responsibilities. However, older individuals tend to have fewer such commitments, so it weakens the effectiveness of these standard diagnostic tools.