The Thankful Addict

To those who have been in the trenches of addiction, recovery frequently provides opportunities to be thankful. Recovery gave them their life back. Though it was certainly earned, the work and efforts put forth in the recovery process, resulting in an improved quality of life, is something to be grateful for. Many recovering addicts are even feel thankful for the addiction they endured, as it made them stronger and gave them a better life than they ever had before they ever took the first drink or drug.

Recovery requires work and personal insight. The gift of recovery, and the personal traits it equips its receivers with, is something very few people ever get to experience. Those in recovery strive for constant improvement in knowledge of themselves, improvement in relationships, and strive to find a meaning and purpose to life. They take pride in helping others, and try to improve the lives of everyone they meet. This is certainly something to be thankful for. Many float through life without ever taking a good look in the mirror. The continued self-awareness, desire for self-improvement and perseverance those in recovery have is a trait that’s shared by few.

Although they may not be aware of this, those in active addiction have much to be thankful for as well. They are actively involved with a very deadly disease, and remain alive. They are also blessed with the reality that, if they wish, they never have to use again. The qualities of those in recovery mentioned above are attainable starting right now. It isn’t easy to achieve, but a life of recovery is worth it.

Though recovery is obtainable, it can’t be done alone. Getting help at a reputable addiction treatment facility like ours is the first step to a better life. If a better life, a sober life and all that comes with it, is something you are interested in, Harmony Foundation can help you achieve it. Recovery is just a phone call away.

The Importance of Exercise in Addiction Recovery

When a person exercises they experience positive physical, mental, and emotional results. Exercising is a key component to a healthy lifestyle. For this reason, exercising in recovery from drug or alcohol addiction is generally encouraged. The simple things like a well balanced diet and exercise can go a long way in helping one stay sober. It helps in early recovery by speeding up the process of getting healthy. It also helps with long term recovery by maintaining one’s overall health and establishing healthy relationships and routines through exercising or going to the gym.

A recent study has found that exercise reduces the risk of relapse during early recovery. Interestingly, there was correlation between exercise and relapse rate or urges, but no correlation between the actual length of the workout and relapse rates. Simply put, being involved in physical fitness, on any level, was enough to reduce the cravings and help prevent relapse. Even a 20-minute workout can go a long way. The study also found that even during active addiction, exercising resulted in the addicts not needing as much of their drug of choice to be satisfied.

Exercise, like drugs and alcohol, activate the brain’s reward system. Runners have often referred to the rewarding feeling they obtain while running as “runner’s high”. The “feel good” chemicals that exercise brings on can show a person that there are other ways of becoming elated besides using drugs. 

It may seem like a simple task, but exercising can ripple into other aspects of recovery as well. Many who start exercising, even in small amounts, will start to incorporate other healthy aspects into their lives naturally. They may be more inclined to eat healthy to hold onto feeling well or dress nicer because their overall confidence has improved. Exercising can start small, and snowball into a very healthy lifestyle.

Exercise is a key component to our men’s residential treatment program, women’s rehab and our young adult addiction treatment program. This, coupled with our nutritional program, helps clients get physically healthy along with the spiritual and mental health that comes with getting sober.

A Click Away: Drugs on The Deep Web

The Internet is involved in nearly every aspect of American’s lives these days. Banking, communication, research, and navigation are all done primarily on the Internet. With the popularity of the World Wide Web growing, it was only a matter of time before it started to leak into the world of drug addiction.

Buying prescription drugs on the Internet is hardly a new thing. Individuals have bought painkillers and other drugs from shady pharmacies online for years. After several crackdowns on online pharmacies, dealers have needed to find new means of getting substances to addicts online.

The vast majority of the illegal drug trading online today is done on what is known as the Deep Web. This is the portion of the Internet that is not discoverable by search engines. The Surface web refers to  the Internet that the majority of people use. Search engines index the Surface web, and these websites are discoverable using search engines like Google or Bing. The Deep Web has been estimated to be 4,000-5,000 times larger than the Surface Web. It is here where addicts meet a dealer and order their drug of choice. Chinese criminals seem to be at the forefront, or at least heavily involved with the illegal Internet drug trade, using bit coins as currency to facilitate the trading, and operate from both Mainland China and Hong Kong.

While in active addiction, addicts became masterminds in the art of procuring their drugs of choice. It used to be that the best way to get someone clean was to keep them contained - in a lockdown facility to prevent them from drug seeking behavior. Addicts are told to stay away from people, places and things related to their addiction.

Since drugs are accessible everywhere now, including the web, recovery has to be all encompassing. It may have been an addict’s thought that changing locations and “starting fresh” would be sufficient to beat addiction. Running away from addiction is no longer an option. Availability and therefore temptation is stronger than ever, and addicts need to have the tools necessary to face these temptations.

The recovery program at Harmony Foundation provides the tools to combat these inevitable temptations - including group and individual counseling, 12 step support meetings, aftercare, alumni support and highly credentialed addiction therapists to help addicts sobriety have staying power, even when faced with explicit opportunities to fall prey to temptations.