Fentanyl Is Deadly Beyond Manageability, Government Warns

Fentanyl has become synonymous with the experience of the opioid epidemic. The synthetic opioid has been available as a prescription for many years. Up to 100 times more potent than morphine, the synthetic opioid was created to serve the need of medical patients who did not get pain relief from traditional morphine based opioid painkillers. As the opioid epidemic took off, fentanyl slowly became a problem. In 2016, overseas manufacturers got access to formulae for fentanyl and started mass producing it. Selling it as its own pill or lacing other drugs like heroin, cocaine, and Xanax with it, fentanyl became a household name because it has been claiming dozens of lives at a time. Within the course of a year, illegal fentanyl has become an increasing problem with increasing potency. Fentanyl has become so dangerous that the federal government issued a warning to all local police recently to handle the drug with the utmost care, according to USA Today.

“Accidental contact with a quantity equivalent to five or six grains of table salt can be deadly if inhaled or absorbed through skin abrasions,” the article cites. Local officers are being encouraged to wear gloves, masks, protective glasses, and more for protection against fentanyl. Recently, a new fentanyl analog was discovered and aptly named “Gray Death”. Combining all of the last year’s most recent forms of synthetic opioid, Gray Death is completely lethal. Fentanyl, carfentanil, W-18 and other potent synthetic opioids are all combined into one powder. The drug caused overdose on contact and inhalation.

Dangers of Fentanyl

By the numbers, the increase in fentanyl is almost overwhelming, which is why many local police and first responders are being put at risk. The article reports that:

• Of 52,000 deaths due to drug overdose in 2015, an approximated 33,000 involved opioids like fentanyl

• Advanced calculations for the drug overdose death rate in 2016 is expected to rise by 8,000 to almost 60,000

• Between 2013 and 2014, the amount of fentanyl-related seizures has more than tripled

• Since 2013 the number of fentanyl-related submissions to the National Forensic Laboratory Information System has gone up by 942 submissions, for a reported 3,344 submissions relating to fentanyl.

There is hope in the opioid epidemic with providers like Enlightened Recovery Solutions who are bringing a whole person approach to addiction treatment. OUr compassionate environment is home to spirit healing therapies which treat mind, body, and spirit for effective dual diagnosis care. For information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

Relapse Prevention Is Critical For Long Term Recovery

You send a loved one with an addiction problem to treatment. They spend 30-90 days getting clean and sober, talking about their feelings, and getting healthy again. After treatment, they move back home and start to live life again. Shortly thereafter, they relapse. You might repeat this cycle three or four times. What is missing? Relapse prevention.

Treatment is not a cure for addiction. Treatment, meaning attending a clinical recovery program, is an answer comprised of many different answers for living with addiction, without using drugs and alcohol. Relapse prevention is a particular set of tools which helps those in recovery learn how to live in a way which does not trigger them to use drugs and alcohol to cope. Without relapse prevention specific methods and techniques, treatment is a mere break form a hazardous lifestyle.

Stress Management

Overall, stress management in every form is one of the most important methods for relapse prevention. Stress triggers the brain to seek relief from stress. In the addicted brain, most often that happens through some form of creating pleasure. Due to the way addiction causes learning and memory association, creating pleasure is intimately tied with drugs and alcohol or other harmful behaviors. Managing stress includes learning what causes stress, how to identify stress, how to cope with stress, and understanding how stress relates to triggers for cravings.

Self-Care

Recovering from drug and alcohol addiction can feel like having to start life over and learn everything new. Too often self-care refers to the luxurious pampering and quality time one spends with themselves to feel good. Self-care also refers to the everyday responsibilities which need to be fulfilled to take care of the self like eating, hygiene, paying bills, managing tasks, and getting enough rest. Often called “life skills” learning how to incorporate essential themes of recovery into everyday life is critical to living a new lifestyle free from dependency on drug and alcohol.

Communication

Being acknowledged, heard, and understood are core needs of every human being. For addicts and alcoholics in recovery, it couldn’t be more important. Healthy forms of communication help maintain proper boundaries, boost self-esteem, and articulate emotions, wants, and needs.

Relapse prevention is a primary focus at Enlightened Solutions where we show clients how to live along spiritual lines in a new life of recovery. For information on our partial care programs for addiction and dual diagnosis issues, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

3 Qualities You Should Look For In A Healthy Sponsor

Finding a sponsor quickly in early recovery can help you get started on the twelve steps as soon as possible. Choosing the right sponsor is easy by looking for these three qualities about the way they sponsor people. In addition, they should be someone you feel you relate to, whose life in recovery is something you admire, and who you feel you can trust.

1. They Are Generous With Time And Knowledge: Once upon a time your sponsor was in the same position as you. New to recovery, uncomfortable with feelings and cravings, not sure how to make it through another day sober. A sponsor reached out to them offer generous amounts of time and knowledge about recovery, the Big Book, the twelve steps, and more. Sponsors in a relationship with a sponsee are supposed to give their time and knowledge generously as it was given to them. If a sponsor is holding back or creating requirements to “earn” what they know, they are not the right person.

2. They Do Not Sugar Coat Things For You: A sponsor does not have to be rigid, rude, and confrontational on the borderline of emotionally abusive. Likewise, a sponsor does not have to be gentle, soft, cooing, and affectionate. Ideally, a sponsor should have a healthy balance of realism and optimism, compassion and empathy, with some healthy boundary settings. Your sponsor is not your therapist or your parent. Your sponsor is someone who dedicates their time to showing you how to live a clean and sober lifestyle of recovery. As a result, they should be realistic and assertive with you when necessary. Addiction is a sneaky disease which can quickly turn the brain. Sponsors are there to help you realize when your thinking has gone astray and put it back on track.

3. They Are Loyal And Maintain Confidence: Going through the twelve steps with a sponsor means that individual will b getting to know you on a deep and intimate level. Sharing your fourth step, your moral inventory, with your sponsor means going through some of your darkest moments together. A sponsor should be committed to your relationship with them, not anything else. Too often, sponsors have a tendency to talk about their sponsees and what their sponsees are going through to other people. Understand, your sponsor is not a perfect person. At times, they will need to seek outside advice so they can best guide you in their recovery. This is an important quality which teaches you that it is always okay to ask for help.

Enlightened Solutions believes in the spiritual principles and lifestyle of the twelve steps. Our partial care programs for addiction and dual diagnosis issues bring together the twelve step philosophy with proven clinical treatments and holistic healing modalities. For more information, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.

Holistic Treatments Are Slowly Replacing Painkillers

The widespread toll of the opioid epidemic has served as a wake up call to doctors to be more attentive to the specific needs of each of their clients and seek alternative therapies for relieving pain before prescribing narcotic opioid painkillers. Opioid painkillers like brand names Hydrocodone and Oxycontin are highly addictive and habit forming drugs. Without abusing a prescription, patients become chemically dependent upon the medications for relieving pain. Slowly, they lose their ability to experience pain relief without the medication, except the medication no longer provides pain relief. Instead, the opioid medications have actually compromised the brain’s ability to create pain relief, thereby enhancing the sensitivity to pain. Desperate for pain relief, patients innocently take more than their prescription, or at their pleas, their doctor increases their dosage. A relentless cycle of addiction begins, leading many to heroin, overdose, and death.

Doctors have undergone a true spiritual experience when it comes to the responsibility they bear in treating their patients. Many have seemed to wake up to the idea that other treatments are more beneficial for relieving pain. Doctors have called for prescribing mindfulness, meditation, yoga, and other holistic treatments. Emergency rooms have massage therapists and energy healing practitioners on site to provide relaxation and pain relief. Though the drastic and euphoric effect of opioid painkillers is not quite the same experience for holistic healing treatments, doctors have found that overtime, holistic practices provide recovery. Releasing tension in the body and the mind, holistic healing practices bring a holistic approach to pain. Opioid painkillers do not target specific pain or any emotional underlying issues which might be contributing to physical pain. The mechanism of opioid drugs is to create overall pain relief, which is why the drugs are so powerful and alluring. Newer medications are pain-specific, meaning they target the site of pain and treat that one area. Holistic treatments like acupuncture, massage, yoga, as well as meditation can target specific pain areas and provide healing.

It may not be possible for holistic therapies to completely overtake the popular trend of prescribing opioid painkillers. However, there is a growing movement of awareness and mindfulness when it comes to treating pain. More lives can and will be saved.

If you or a loved one are struggling with opioid addiction, there is help available. At Enlightened Solutions, we approach addiction recovery holistically, providing compassionate care for healing mind, body, and spirit. Call 844-234-LIVE today for more information on our partial care services and programs.

MDMA Addiction: 3 Signs

The popular club drug, commonly known as ecstasy, is highly addictive and can be extremely harmful when abused. If you are concerned you or a loved one are struggling with MDMA addiction, look for these signs.

1. Change In Mental Health: MDMA is a mix of many different drugs unless it is pure, which is rare. In the brain, MDMA interacts with different chemicals, producing an array of reactions. Primarily, MDMA interacts with serotonin, which is a brain chemical which helps regulate emotion. Creating extremely high states of pleasure and euphoria can create a deficit after using MDMA. Many normal users in addition to addicts describe a “come down” period where they are severely depressed. Thoughts as though they may never feel the pleasure and happiness they felt while under the influence of MDMA are common. Overtime, at addictive and abusive levels of use, this depression can last long term. As the brain becomes increasingly dependent upon MDMA for producing chemical reactions of happiness, pleasure, and joy, it becomes unable to produce these sensations on its own.

2. Physical Health Problems: MDMA is an amphetamine and a stimulant, similar to cocaine. The reason MDMA is a popular club drug is because of the way it creates high amounts of energy for dancing and partying for days on end. Like other amphetamines and stimulants, MDMA can cause health problems in the heart. A constantly racing heart rate can cause hyperventilation. Problematically, in the club, rave, and music festival environment, there is a high amount of heat. MDMA can raise body temperature, in addition to all of the dancing and the close proximity of many warm bodies. Becoming severely dehydrated is a dangerous side effect of MDMA which can lead to muscle tension, dizziness, and immediate issues in the kidneys. Long term kidney damage can cause serious health complications. Lastly, MDMA can cause a problem with dental health. Clenching and grinding teeth is common under the influence of MDMA. Jaw problems, teeth health, neck, and headache issues can result.

3. Cravings For MDMA/Experience Of MDMA: A sign of any addiction is experiencing cravings for a drug when not under the influence of that drug. Because the experience of being under the influence of MDMA is so emotionally strong, many people find they don’t just crave the drug itself but the entire experience of being on MDMA in any environment. As a result, life might become second in priority to spending time with people who take with MDMA, going to clubs, raves, parties, festivals, or other environments which support it.

MDMA addiction shouldn’t be overlooked. Many have lost their lives or suffered severe and permanent health damages due to the abuse of MDMA. If you are struggling with club drug addiction, call Enlightened Solutions today. Our continuum of partial care programs bring together the best of scientific and holistic healing. For more information call 844-234-LIVE.

The Real Effect Of Seasonal Affective Disorder On Mental Health

Spring should be sprung all over the country, yet persistent climate changes have kept the weather glum. April showers bring May flowers, but May has been gray and June gloom awaits in many areas. Long lasting winter and dark weather can have an affect on mental health with the very real seasonal affective disorder, a form of depression.

The Reach Of SAD

According to The Independent which wrote extensively on the way sunlight deprivation is experienced around the world, “Seasonality is reported by approximately 10 to 20 per cent of people with depression and 15 to 22 percent of those with bipolar disorder.” Those with preexisting mental health disorders prone to periods of sadness and depression are not the only ones to experience SAD. “Even healthy people who have no seasonal problems seem to experience this low-amplitude change over the year, with worse mood and energy during autumn and winter and an improvement in spring and summer,” the article explains.

What Causes SAD

Winter time, or a prolonged season of winter-like days can be draining in physical and mental health. Most fingers point to the way a lack of sunlight messes with the body’s natural circadian clock. Our circadian rhythm is what helps us wake up in the morning and be tired by nightfall. In a normal 24 hour cycle, we have a natural programming for when to be asleep. Constant lack of sunlight mimics the nighttime and causes the circadian cycle to become confused. Should we be awake or asleep? During winter months specifically, daylight hours are shorter. Instead of being overcast and cloudy, the days are filled with dark. The effect can be the same for extended seasons full of gloom and rain covering the skies. The Independent explains that this theory is called the “phase-shift hypothesis” which points to melatonin. Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone which helps the body feel that circadian-scheduled sleepiness. Too much darkness, or, too little sunshine, can produce too much melatonin, causing more drowsiness, and sleepiness, which can lead to feelings of depression and lethargy.

Remedies For SAD

• Take a high dose of Vitamin D for sunshine nutrients

• Go to a tanning salon to get doses of UVA and UVB rays

• Get lots of exercise to keep the body’s energy running

• Use the down time for reflection, reading, and growth

Coping with long periods of the blues often leads people to fill their time with drugs and alcohol. If you experience difficulty coping with the phases of life and turn to substances to cope, there is help available. Call Enlightened Solutions today for information on our partial care programs for dual diagnosis addiction and mental health disorders. 844-234-LIVE.

Breakfast Is Essential For Daily Recovery

You might have heard a saying in the rooms of twelve step recovery support groups or treatment center walls about how every day in recovery is  chance to earn the “daily reprieve”. Each day, you have the opportunity to put into practice the various tools you have been learning. Together, all those tools add up to important decisions which keep you sober throughout the day. The most important decision being not to pick up a drink or a drug, no matter what happens during the day. Four famous “horsemen” can contribute to a day gone wrong which can ultimately lead to relapse. Especially in the early months to first few years of recovery, maintaining these four warning signs is critical. They’re called HALT: hungry, angry, lonely, and tired.

Hunger comes first in this list for an important reason. When the body is malnourished, the brain cannot function properly. Anger, loneliness, and exhaustion can all result from a serious case of hunger. Crafting a well balanced and nutritious breakfast is an excellent and effective way to kickstart your metabolism and fuel your day from the get go. By starting off your day with a full breakfast, you won’t catch those hungry monster cravings in the afternoon. Hunger can cause moodiness and moodiness can be difficult to manage in early recovery. An addict’s impulses are to turn to drugs and alcohol when emotions become overwhelming or uncomfortable. Addiction takes over the brain in such a way that it takes true work and practice to recognize cravings for food- i.e. hunger- over cravings for drugs and alcohol- i.e. a programmed response to triggers.

Conquer breakfast and the rest of your day like a champion with a breakfast fit for one with these suggestions:

Utilize Your Cupcake Pans

Among many others, one of the gifts of recovery is a busy and full life. If your day starts from the get go because you’re a go-getter you need a grab-and-go breakfast. Try making mini baked egg dishes. Using eggs or egg whites you can include your favorite breakfast pieces like bacon, tomato, spinach, and onion. You’ll get a good boost of protein and some vegetables while you’re on the run.

Put Your “About Last Night” Stories Into An Omelette

Another great gift of recovery is never having to wake up with a hangover due to drugs and alcohol again. Instead of having to deal with leftover symptoms, turn your breakfast into a leftover specialty. If you’ve never scrambled your leftover pasta into an omelet, you’re missing out.

Pre-Package Awesome Smoothies

Put your favorite fruits and veggies into portion ready baggies and stick them in the freezer. Each morning you just have to empty the contents into the blender and add your favorite liquid and supplements. Coconut milk or coconut oil is a great way to start your day giving the brain all the essential omega acids it needs to function.

The Breakfast Sandwich Of Recovery Champions

Eggs, avocado, and whole grains is about as good as it can get. Research has proven that this is quite possibly the best breakfast for living in recovery from a mental health issue like depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders. Full of proteins, healthy oils, healthy fats, and essential acids, vitamins, and nutrients, there is no way to go wrong with this simple breakfast.

Learning how to live a balanced lifestyle is part of recovery. The programs at Enlightened Solutions include organic meal preparation and practical cooking classes including life skills for budgeting and grocery shopping. Our integrative programs bring enlightenment to the treatment process. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

What Is The Success Rate Of Going To Treatment?

There’s no big data for addiction treatment. Currently, multiple companies are working relentlessly to create a system of accountability to find a way to track patients and analyze data. Many treatment centers today include alumni programs as part of their total packages. Alumni, sometimes called after care, can include phone calls and tracking for up to a year. Of course, there is little way to gauge whether someone in recovery is telling the truth when they say “Yes, I’m still sober and doing great.”

Addiction and alcoholism are hard to gauge in terms of success. The addiction treatment and recovery industry as a whole is uniting in its strive to define just that. Is it the amount of time spent clean and sober? Is success only defined by lifelong abstinence? Should abstinence be the hallmark of success? If a client is prone to chronic relapse, should success be determined by at least a reduction in how often they relapse? These are just some of the dozens of questions to ask. Additionally, there are questions regarding treatment methods and their success. What defines the success of detox and symptoms reduction? Is a treatment inefficient if it doesn’t completely eliminate symptoms of craving or obsessive thinking?

Trying to define success can be confusing. Numerous statistics float around the internet which indicate the “dropout rate” or “success rate” of treatment. However, making such conclusions is generally problematic because they cannot be generalized. Addiction treatment and recovery is highly individualized. One treatment center does not offer the same exact program as another. While in medicine there are the same medications prescribed, the same treatments, and the same surgical procedures, with mental health there is no one course of treatment. Treatment plans are designed around the specific nuances of an individual client, based on the treatment methods available. Treatment methods are chosen because of their proven efficacy in reducing symptoms and contributing to long term recovery. Called “evidence based treatments, they are so far the most ‘successful’ forms of treating addiction.

Success Is What You Make It

Recovery is largely defined by personal goals. With a treatment center staff, you or your loved one will define those goals and create a cohesive plan to reach them. One day at a time, you will participate together in the beginning of a lifelong journey toward recovery. It starts with you.

Start your recovery with Enlightened Solutions, offering partial care programs for co-occurring addiction, alcoholism, and mental health disorders. Integrating 12 step philosophy with spiritual holistic care and proven clinical methods, our clients leave enlightened on their journey to wellbeing. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

Hidden Signs Of Opioid And Heroin Addiction

You might think that heroin addiction would be obvious. Part of the disease is protecting the addiction as long as possible, by making it as least obvious as possible.

Missing Houseware

Where did all the spoons go? How are we using this much tinfoil? When you are unaware of the signs of opioid addiction, you might not put your loved one’s odd behavior and missing housewares together as two pieces of the same puzzle. Intravenous drug users “cook” their drugs in spoons and use the pool of the spoon to draw their drugs into a needle. For those who smoke painkillers or heroin, they use tinfoil. Bottle caps can go missing, rubber bands, or belts.

Unseasonal Clothing

Opioid addiction causes a number of physical effects. First, it can cause tremendous weight loss. Wearing bulky, oversized clothing is often an effort of hiding an increasingly emaciated body. Second, opioid addiction through intravenous drug use can leave “track marks” or bruises from needles. Additionally, needles can cause abscesses or infection points. Long sleeve shirts and long pants hide the track marks and hide addiction.

Screws Unloose

Closets, drawers, air conditioning vents, shelves, cabinets, could all have a screw missing. Leaving out one screw is a way to remind someone where they have hidden their drugs. Finding a secret hole or place to stash drugs in case of emergency is a common practice.

A Busy Schedule

Considering how terrible your loved one looks- withdrawn face, sunken eyes, pasty skin- you’re wondering how they are keeping up with their busy schedule. They always have somewhere to be, something to do, someone to see. Lately, they’re out of the house for more hours of the day than you can count. Opioid addiction quickly takes a physical toll and leads to evading the truth. Your loved one is likely avoiding being home to avoid getting caught getting high. They’re schedule is full of finding, obtaining, and using drugs.

Physical Symptoms Of Withdrawal

When an addiction can no longer be hidden, it is made obvious through withdrawal symptoms. Coughing, sneezing, sniffling, and itching are common symptoms of withdrawal from opioids and heroin. Detoxing from heroin and opioids after it has been out of the system for too long results in a flu-like experience where someone gets sick.

Opioid and heroin addiction can be fatal. If you are concerned your loved one might be struggling with an opioid addiction, call Enlightened Solutions in New Jersey today. We offer integrative programs for compassionate healing of mind, body, and spirit, to ensure long term recovery. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

Working Through Grief When Losing Someone To Addiction

Addiction is a deadly disease. Without help or treatment, it can claim a life in a flash. Overdose is now a more common cause of death in America than car crashes and gun violence. Accidental deaths due to alcohol abuse is common. Drugs and alcohol kill people every single day.

Recovery can be a lifelong trend. Relapse does not have to be part of your story once you decide to get sober. Unfortunately, for many people, it is. Relapse is dangerous not just because you go back out to drugs and alcohol, but because there is no guarantee you will come back. When you have been in treatment and recovery for even a few weeks, you start to understand the magnitude of staying sober. One by one, you will witness people decide that sobriety is too much for them and that they would rather go back out and use their substances of choice. Some of them will come back eventually. Many of them will die. Problematically, most people think that after detoxing their body and spending weeks sober, they can return to drinking and using the way they did before getting sober. Their bodies are not equipped to handle the toxicity of the drugs and alcohol. Overdose happens more quickly than it would have before. Coping with grief and loss is a sad part of being in recovery. Tragically, learning to cope with the grief of losing a friend in recovery is a necessary skill.

Reflect On Your Relationship

Friendships have varying degrees in recovery, but that never makes the reality of the loss any less devastating. Each day sober is a gift which should be cherished. Watching a friend die to relapse is a reminder of the seriousness of the disease. Some friends are acquaintances you knew by name from meetings. Others are people you hang out with on a regular basis. Even more can be close friends and confidants. Reflect on your relationship with them and what they meant to you, your recovery, and your experience in sobriety.

Find Gratitude For Your Recovery

Your relationship to your recovery is one of the most important things to focus on when grieving a friend who has passed away due to addiction and alcoholism. Though your life might not look the way you want it to and things are difficult, you are sober today and that is crucial to your survival.

Take Time To Grieve

Grieving is a process. After learning the news of a friend’s passing, there is no need to hide the wealth of emotions you will be experiencing. Take the time you need to cry, feel afraid, feel sorrow, and call a friend. These are healthy emotions you need to let out in a safe and structured way.

You don’t have to lose your life to addiction. You can gain your life through recovery. Enlightened Solutions is here to bring compassion back into your life through integrative treatment and healing. For more information on our programs, call 844-234-LIVE.

Do You Know The Truth About Codependency?

Codependency is defined in many different ways. One of the leading definitions was coined by Melody Beattie who is a leader in codependency work. She defines codependency as letting someone else’s behavior impact you in an extreme way. Codependency takes on many different forms from care taking to manipulating to neediness to destructive behaviors. People criticize and characterize codependency in negative ways to try to make sense out of it. When codependency arises in someone, it is hard to understand. For example, when an alcoholic husband finally goes to treatment and gets sober, his angry wife seems to worsen in her moods, attitudes, and behaviors. The husband heals yet the wife remains something resembling mental illness. Doctors tried to understand the phenomena of codependency for years until they figured out something basic. A person who becomes codependent essentially loses themselves and their life to someone with a problem.

Codependency Takes People-Pleasing To The Extreme

Caretaking, people-pleasing, and serving others isn’t just a behavior of codependents but a compulsive behavior. Similar to the way an alcoholic reaches for a drink or a drug addict reaches for a drug, codependents reach for other people- to take care of them, control them, please them, and serve them, to the point of losing themselves. It isn’t about being overly nice and extra helpful, but feeling a deep and insatiable need to give to other people in order to feel wanted, appreciated, and not abandoned.

Codependency Has Many Gray Areas

Being codependent is not a matter of being codependent. The behaviors which accompany codependency can range from clinginess to avoidance. Everyone has some kind of boundary lacking which causes them to act codependent in some kind of way. The length to which someone get lost in their codependent behavior is what differs.

Codependency Is A Sign Of Weakness

Low self-esteem? Yes. Low self-worth? Yes. Needing to feel wanted, needed, useful, in order to feel validated? Yes. All of these things are part of codependency. However, they are not a sign of weakness. Instead, they are sign that someone has had to work extra hard in their lives to feel wanted. Often, people who develop codependency have carried a tremendous emotional burden on their backs for many years.

Codependency is not a shortcoming, a character defect, or a weakness. It is a coping mechanism and a means for survival. Many addicts and alcoholics develop codependency as the result of growing up in a dysfunctional home. We know the pain of codependency and addiction is real. If you are ready to heal and transform your life, call Enlightened Solutions today for information on our treatment programs. 844-234-LIVE.

The Benefits Of Boundaries

Boundaries are lines which mark the limit of an area. In relationships with other people, we don’t exactly go around drawing imaginary lines and struggling to make sure nobody crosses them. If everyone displayed their boundaries with each person they interact with on a visual plane, we would live in a criss crossed tangled world of millions upon millions of lines. One’s person's boundaries will differ from another’s. Everyone has to spend time learning what their boundaries are, how to make their boundaries work for them, and how to ask others to respect them. Similarly, we have to learn how to respect other people’s boundaries when they set them with us.

What Is The Purpose Of A Boundary?

The purpose of a boundary is to create a definitive place where you end and someone else begins. Boundaries are what help us keep our personal space mentally, emotionally, and physically. It’s the place where we feel safe and comfortable. Boundaries can be rigid, which might be problematic, and they can be loose, which can also be problematic. Working to create balanced boundaries is a way to make sure you have balanced, happy relationships in every area of your life.

Why Are Boundaries Important?

Simply stated, you can’t let someone walk all over you for the rest of your life. Likewise, you can’t walk all over other people in any way either. Boundaries are the way to make sure everyone is treated fairly, with respect. According to one Huffington Post article, boundaries can help:

• Make you more self-aware

• Be a better friend

• Be a better partner

• Take better care of yourself

• Reduce stress

• Improve communication

• Help you trust people

• Limit your anger

• Say “no”

• Be more understanding

Recovery from drug addiction, alcoholism, and co-occurring mental health conditions is about learning to “live life on life’s terms”. Boundaries are a way you can make the way you live life on life’s terms a little more flexibly. You get to live in relationships on your terms as you learn to be flexible and make room for compromise.

Promises of better relationships and better tomorrows are just the beginning of recovery. If you are ready to recover and enter treatment, call Enlightened Solutions today. Our integrative and holistic programs are designed to heal mind, body, and spirit, for lifelong recovery. For more information call 844-234-LIVE.

Recognizing And Treating Trauma In Addiction Recovery Is Essential For Long Term Sobriety

Almost every human on the planet will experience trauma in their lifetimes. This is a fact. Trauma is no longer defined as being a soldier experiencing the active battlefields of war. Life is an active battlefield. When circumstances are taken out of our control, it can feel like war. Trauma cannot be defined by someone outside of a situation looking when. If a traumatic episode causes stress, distress, and ongoing mental health issues, the situation was traumatic.

Though most people will experience trauma in their lifetimes, they will not likely experience post traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is a specific clinical diagnosis given to those who have extreme reactions to trauma for an enduring amount of time. To be fully diagnosed with PTSD one has to meet specific clinical requirements. However, many people have symptoms similar to PTSD which negatively influence their ability to have relationships, perform at work, develop emotionally, and manage stress. Trauma, even though it might not be displayed through obvious symptoms like hyperarousal and hallucinatory flashbacks, can be debilitating and often lead to substance abuse.

Drug and alcohol abuse is an obvious answer to trauma. Euphoria, analgesia, hallucination- many of the physical and psychological effects of drugs and alcohol provide escape from trauma. Until trauma is worked through with a professional psychologist, one who has experienced trauma continues to live with it. Overlooking the presence of any kind of trauma in one’s life when attempting to treat their substance abuse problems is ineffective.

Treating addiction without treating trauma is like putting Neosporin on a severed limb. Regarding trauma with care and delicacy is essential for healing during the treatment process. How someone relates to their world is defined by mental illness. That mental illness can be enhanced or worsened by the experience of living with untreated trauma.

Defining Trauma

Bullying is trauma. Verbal abuse is trauma. Watching a sibling be taken away is trauma. Living in a non-emotional household is trauma. Rape is trauma. Divorce is trauma. Anything which creates a significant and life-altering impact is trauma. Your trauma does not have to meet any specifications. If it is affecting you, it is traumatic.

You do not have to live with the pain of trauma forever. Healing is possible for both trauma and addiction. The integrative and healing programs at Enlightened Solutions are designed to help you find peace in your life through recovery. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

Staying On Medication and 3 Other Helpful Habits For Bipolar And Addiction

Psychiatrists, physicians, and treatment professionals often quip that bipolar disorder is one of the most curious mental health disorders to treat because of the way that people relate to their medication. Bipolar disorder is well known for creating delusion within its two emotional states: depression and mania. Mania is defined by highs which make depression seem even lower. Part of the depression is caused by the sudden loss of euphoria which can be experienced during mania. Mood stabilizers and other medications which treat bipolar disorder help someone feel more stable and feel better in their lives. Once they feel better and like the way they feel, people with bipolar seem to forget they’re bipolar and in need of medication. They stop taking it, stop attending meetings with their psychiatrists, and slowly spiral back out of control. Problematically, they will repeat this cycle over and over again.

Get Consistent Sleep

Having shifting moods which cannot be controlled can mess with your daily routine. Part of the challenge of living with bipolar disorder is creating consistency from one end of mania to the other end of depression. Mania causes people to lose sleep while depression can cause an excess amount of sleep. Maintaining a regular sleep schedule each night can create stability and not cause other major disruptions which result due to abnormal sleep.

Stay Sober

Bipolar disorder and addiction, as well as alcoholism are frequently co-occurring and present a constant problem. In times of a manic episode, someone is inclined to feel invincible and energetic, inspiring them to party and use substances excessively. During depressive episodes, someone with bipolar will turn to depressant substances to cope with their feelings or stimulant substances to try and make themselves feel like they did during mania.

Ask For Help

Learning to manage bipolar disorder during recovery from drug and alcohol addiction is challenging. Nobody expects you to do it perfectly! If you are struggling with manic-depressive episodes which are causing you to have cravings, it is okay to reach out for help. Don’t feel ashamed that you have bipolar and that you struggle with addiction. Courageously reach out for help and get the assistance you need to feel better.

If you are struggling with bipolar disorder and addiction, help is available. Enlightened Solutions has a variety of programs which can work for you to heal mind, body, and spirit. You will have balance again. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE

Does The 12 Step Philosophy Really Work?

Project Match is an infamous study, one of the first to dive deeply into the debate of Alcoholics Anonymous and the efficiency of the twelve steps as a viable form of treatment. 900 drinkers were split into three groups to receive one of three treatments, either using AA-based treatment which utilizes the 12 steps and emphasizes attendance of meetings, cognitive behavioral therapy, or motivational enhancement therapy. Problematically, there was not a fourth group of individuals who had to quit drinking on their own.

Conclusively, the study found that the twelve step approach combining the attendance of meetings and utilizing the program of the twelve steps worked as well as other treatment methods, according to Scientific American. Citing another study, the article points out that in 2006 a Stanford University professor found that AA worked remarkably well. This study followed problem drinkers for an astonishing 16 years. The drinkers had either quit on their own, attended AA, or worked with therapists. “Of those who attended at least 27 weeks of AA meetings during the first year,” Scientific American writes, “67% were abstinent at the 16-year follow-up,” the remaining 34% did not participate in AA in any way. For the participants who received therapy, 56% remained abstinent 16 years later.

Alcoholics Anonymous and the use of any twelve step program is not meant to be an exclusive treatment method, or a treatment method at all. The steps are called suggestions and a program of recovery. Within the primary text of the group, The Big Book Of Alcoholics Anonymous, the authors encourage people to work with therapists. A vast majority of treatment facilities today are 12 step based or utilize 12 step philosophy. Though this raises controversy because AA is not scientifically based, once one reads a section of the book titled The Doctor’s Opinion, they see points which directly correlate to many of today’s “evidence-based” treatment methods.

The twelve step approach does not work for everyone. Relapse can happen at any point in time throughout someone’s life if they let down their routine of recovery, which does not have to include AA. For those who adhere to the program, continue therapy, and create meaning in their new sober lives, long term, even lifelong abstinence is completely possible.

Enlightened Solutions believes in the spiritual solution of the twelve step philosophy and utilizes integrative holistic approaches to support proven clinical methods. Our partial care programs are designed to heal alcoholism and addiction in mind, body, and spirit. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

Art Therapy Is More Than Arts And Crafts For Rehab

Art is an expression beyond the confines of language represented by words. Art is a language of its own, using the symbols of expression to communicate metaphor, emotion, transition, and meaning. One of the only static communications styles to be so dynamic, art can create movement without moving. A painting can encompass a lifetime, a sculpture can encompass transformation. What is put into art is transitory, which makes the modality of art therapy so important. Everything is changing in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. From one minute to the next, the brain is healing, the body is healing, and the soul is being rejuvenated. Art therapy is a way to move beyond traditional talking or packets and put that experience into different forms.

Though an art piece might be static, the process of making art is not. Art therapy might seem to symbolic to be realistic to some. However, there is importance in the symbology. For example, building up a sculpture with clay to represent pain, resentment, or trauma, then smashing that sculpture down into a blob is a transformative experience. Feelings, thoughts, emotions, judgments, pain, trauma, are all intangible. We feel them in many different ways as they manifest in our lives, but we can not simply grab anger by the handful, throw it across the room and pronounce it gone. With art therapy, the intangible becomes tangible, malleable, and useful.

Treatment for drug and alcohol addiction is full of talking, processing, analyzing, and reflecting, all of which are important tools and methods. Art therapy is an opportunity to engage in a different kind of processing which doesn’t require as much brain power as it does soul power. Using two different sides of the brain during treatment is important to helping the brain grow strong and find more balance.

An art therapist and specified art therapy groups are not required to do art therapy. You can bring art therapy home with you through very simple routines:

• Use coloring books

• Buy art supplies and create a designated time to just create

• Create gifts for people with crafting rather than buy new things

• Lookup art therapy activities online, which can include a narration

Art therapy is becoming a more relied upon model of treatment for addiction recovery. We employ alternative and holistic treatment methods as part of our integrative approach to healing addiction in mind, body, and spirit. Enlightened Solutions believes that there is an answer to addiction. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE

Using 12 Step Meetings For Recovery

Before there was a solution to the problem of alcoholism, there was no answer. People who had an uncontrollable relationship with alcohol were sent to hospitals and psychiatric wards. Doctors warned patients that their brains and livers would be damaged for good with one more drink or drug, yet patients did not listen. Around the country small groups were finding religious relief through simply programs of action that were helping them stay sober. The message of one such group found a man named Bill who had a spiritual experience. After discussing his experience, strength, and hope with a fellow struggling alcoholic, Bill and his new friend Bob, had an idea. That idea became Alcoholics Anonymous, the original 12 step program. Since the release of the primary text for the recovery group, The Big Book Of Alcoholics Anonymous, in 1939, millions of people have found a spiritual solution to alcoholism, all over the world.

Many people find sobriety through the rooms of AA or similar twelve step programs like Narcotics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, and Heroin Anonymous. For others, recovery programs are an essential supplement to their ongoing treatment and therapy. During treatment, you will likely be taken to multiple meetings of different kinds a week. In the meetings you can find a sponsor. Sponsors are meant to take a newcomer, someone with less than thirty days, through the twelve steps. After completing the twelve steps, you will then be in a position to sponsor someone else through the twelve steps.

Creating A Recovery Program Outside Of Treatment

When you graduate treatment you will either move to sober living or move on your own, which might include moving back home. Finding a new routine of twelve step meetings is easy to do with a few simple steps:

• Research meetings online. All you have to do is do an internet search of “12 step meetings in ____” to find an online schedule

• You can search for AA central in your area and call for a list of meetings nearby

• Ask your AA central volunteer if they have ride shares in case you don’t have a way of getting to a meeting

• Introduce yourself at a meeting and ask for phone numbers. New friends in recovery can take you to meetings, introduce you to new meetings, and support your recovery

• Find a home meeting which you commit to attending every week

• Get a new sponsor and work the twelve steps with them, call them every day, and check in with your daily inventory

• Volunteer to a commitment at a meeting like being a secretary, a treasurer, or literature person

The spiritual solution of the twelve steps has worked for millions of people around the world. Enlightened Solutions adopts the twelve step philosophy as part of our integrative programs of treatment. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

Trigger Warning: Developing An Understanding Of Your Triggers

The word “trigger” and the use of the phrase “trigger warning” has become more prominent in mainstream culture today as society becomes increasingly aware of trauma and mental health. Trauma can be associated with any kind of traumatic event which feels out of someone’s control. Addiction, alcoholism, depression, anxiety, personality disorders, mood disorders, psychiatric disorders- almost all mental health conditions end up being rooted in the experience of some kind of trauma in someone’s life. Trigger warnings are used to let a mass audience know that a particularly difficult subject is going to be discussed openly. Commonly, topics like rape, sexual abuse, violence, drug and alcohol use are triggers for those who are recovering. Talk of suicide, loss, and violence can be triggering too. There are many shared triggers. Each individual has their own set of triggers as well. Developing an understanding of your triggers is part of developing a relapse prevention plan. Relapse prevention is the set of tools, actions, and practices to prevent yourself from reacting to any kind of situation with default behaviors- primarily engaging in the harmful use of drugs and alcohol. Triggers are not uncontrollable and you are not left weak or victimized in their wake. The first step to overcoming triggers and learning how to manage them is understanding them.

Pay Attention When You Feel Stimulated By Something

You might not yet recognize what feeling “triggered” is like. If you are in recovery from drugs and alcohol, it’s a very simply situation. Feeling triggered is any moment when your immediate reaction is: I want to use. I want to get high. During the early recovery months that can happen a hundred times a day from no hot water in the shower to hearing an especially mean comment. Drugs and alcohol become the habitual behavioral default for coping with difficult and uncomfortable situations. Keep a journal for a week to notice each time you feel inspired to drink or use. At the end of each day, look at the triggers and see if there is a common theme.

Start Looking For The Theme

Noticing the different situations which are triggering, you’ll notice commonalities between them. This is the situation of the trigger, or situational trigger. It might be something like feeling out of control, fear of being abandoned, not having your needs met, being bullied, perceiving someone’s judgments as negative. You might find you make a jerk reaction assumption about all of these moments. As someone in the beginning phases of recovery, and as any human beginning to do this work, that is exactly what you are supposed to do. Overtime, you’ll learn to pause, reflect, then choose how you want to respond. You will not feel triggered by everything forever, that is a promise of recovery. It gets better.

Transformative healing can take place during a few months of recovery. Enlightened Solutions provides recovery for mind, body, and spirit with our integrative partial care programs for men and women. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

Women Are More At Risk For Addiction Than They Have Been In Decades

The Washington Post reports that new studies are emphasizing the problematic relationship of women and alcohol. One study the article cites compiled 68 varying alcohol-use studies from around the world in which researchers from Australia discovered a “gender convergence”. Data revealed that the gender gap between males, females, and their relationship with drinking is closing. In the early 20th century, men who were born were “more than twice as likely as women to drink and three times as likely to have an alcohol problem.” By the end of the century, that difference was practically non-existent.

Women in Culture

What is causing this closure? George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, explains that women are living in a different culture than they were 100 years ago. “Instead of being at home,” Koob describes, “they’re in society, and drinking is part of business and social gatherings.” Another problem is that underage drinking in men has declined. Women are continuing to drink underage at a steady pace. Additionally, Koob expresses, women report experiencing depression and anxiety twice as often as men. Depression and anxiety are two of the most highly co-occurring or “comorbid” problems with addiction. Often, women, and men alike, will turn to drugs and alcohol to cope with the symptoms of depression, anxiety, or other mental health disorders. Koob points out a final fact which is emphasized in The Big Book Of Alcoholics Anonymous.

The primary text for the free recovery support group and founding group for the world wide twelve step program, was written for men, by men. A singular chapter addresses women, and that is only to the wives of alcoholic men. Quite quickly, the founders discovered that women were equally perilous alcoholics as their male counterparts. The authors write that there are no specifics like length of time drinking alcoholically or just how much one drinks to determine the effect of alcoholism. “To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have. This is particularly true of women.” The authors then dedicate two more important sentences to female alcoholism, not daring to call it any more or any less than what males experience. “Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years. Certain drinkers, who would be greatly insulted if called alcoholics, are astonished at their inability to stop.”


Enlightened Solutions understands the shame and guilt which can come from developing alcoholism. We have a solution. Our partial care programs fuse together clinical treatment, alternative and holistic healing modalities, and 12 step philosophy to create a dual diagnosis curriculum for mind, body, and spirit. For more information, call 844-234-LIVE.

Taking Yoga From Treatment To Life

Yoga is a scientifically proven treatment method for addiction and mental health recovery. Physical, spiritual, and psychological benefits can come from just 5-20 minutes of yoga a day.

Remove Judgment

Remember that you aren’t a yoga professional and your practice is in its youth. When you go do to your practices at home, don’t expect to be perfect! Approach yourself with the same non-judgment your teachers in treatment would have encouraged you to use. You’re doing yoga to help your body and your mind- not to impress anyone, including yourself.

Use Intention Setting For Each Practice

Routine is good and healthy which is why you’re bringing yoga home. Doing the same thing every day can get repetitive and boring, inspiring you to leave the mat behind instead of stick to your practice. Make each practice unique by setting a different intention. Intentions are the energy you put into your practice so you can focus.

Allow Yourself To Be Guided

Until you get your sequences down it will be helpful to have a guide. Thankfully, the internet is full of yoga teachers, gurus, and lovers who are happy to show you their favorite yoga sequences. Have a neck ache or a back problem? You can look up yoga sequences for almost every kind of benefit you need.

Modify, Modify, Modify

The simplest mistake people make in their at home yoga poses is trying to force themselves into positions their body is not prepared to be in. Modifying a pose helps your body ease into the position rather than crash into it. Modification isn’t about success or failure but about protection. Yoga is meant to help the body heal, not hurt itself.

Don’t Skip Savasana

Savasana, also called corpse pose, is the resting pose at the end of the yoga practice where you can finally rest and let the energy of the practice flow through your body. Savasana is a time for meditation and reflection as well as rest. Doing yoga at home can inspire you to skip this critical resting period and carry on with your day. Complete your practice in its entirety and don’t skip your chance to breathe deeply and rest.

Enlightened Solutions fuses the proven healing power of holistic and alternative treatments with evidence based clinical treatments to provide a transformative program for mind, body, and spirit. If you are in need of treatment for a mental health or substance use disorder, call us today at 844-234-LIVE.