How Common Is Substance Abuse During Pregnancy? Pregnancy can be a beautiful time in a woman’s life. But there are often factors that make the experience difficult. Economic situation, health concerns, relational instability, and other circumstances can cause significant pressure. These stressors may cause a woman to turn to substance abuse to relieve the pain—even if she is or becomes pregnant. Substance abuse during pregnancy is more common than you might think. According to a...

Overcoming Your Fear Of Returning To Work It’s natural to feel fear or anxiety when returning to work after coming out of addiction. You may be concerned about whether you can get your previous job back. You might also feel fear or stress about keeping your job if you relapse. While these worries are understandable and should be addressed, fear is often the biggest enemy to growth. And fear about returning to work is no...

What’s So Important About Sleep? We spend about 33% of our lives sleeping. This time spent with our eyes closed, whether we’re aware of it or not, is for recharging, healing, and even memory recovery. Therefore, it’s easy to understand why poor quality or lack of sleep affects many areas of our lives. And for those struggling with substance abuse or addiction, sleep can often make or break your recovery journey. While it’s true that...

Benefits Of Sober Traveling For many of us, a long-overdue vacation is sorely needed. We all need a time of rest and relaxation away from everyday stresses and pressures. But for those recovering from addiction or substance abuse, it may feel daunting to try to balance the dynamics of vacation while still maintaining your sobriety. But when you feel prepared and have a plan, a vacation can be a positive part on your recovery. Traveling...

Sharing And Stigma Recovery from substance abuse and addiction can be a long and beautiful journey that you want to share with the world. There is, however, stigma surrounding addiction. A stigma is a cultural perception can create an environment of shame, fear, and silence. This is often why people in recovery often keep their stories and experiences to themselves. It can be difficult to overcome the feeling of stigma, whether it is substance abuse...

How Important Is The Heart For The Body? The heart is one of the most central and important organs of the body. So, of course, alcohol and substance abuse affect the heart, too. Your heart health can influence the way your mind and body function. When these certain neurological and biochemical changes take place in a person’s body as a result of being exposed to prolonged alcohol and substance abuse, it results in chronic disease....

Defining Substance Abuse And Addiction Did you know that there’s a difference between drug abuse and drug addiction? Many people don’t! The main difference between abuse and addiction is that abuse describes the abuse or misuse of substances, whereas addiction describes an uncontrollable use of substances. These key differences often reflect the different motivations of the individual. Studies show that demographic (e.g. age, gender, location, income) differences may cause abuse and addiction to express in...

Understanding Meth Withdrawal and Detox For many people, the fear of withdrawal is one of the main reasons they don’t get help for meth addiction. Although difficult, the detox and treatment process should not be feared. It is ultimately the path to freedom and living a whole life again. Therefore, knowing what to expect can help people suffering from meth addiction take the first step toward recovery. What Is Meth? Methamphetamine is known by many...

Understanding the Link Between Trauma and Addiction What Is Trauma? Trauma occurs when a person experiences a level of stress that they’re unable to process. And whether the experience occurs in childhood, teenage years, or adulthood, trauma eventually expresses itself in the body. At first, a person dealing with a traumatic event may feel a lot of different emotions. Extreme negative feelings may be the first to kick in—anger, fear, sadness, guilt, embarrassment, or even...