Top 5 Rehab Myths Debunked

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Mike Wilson

Here are five myths about drug rehab debunked:

“Relapse rates are as high as success rates.”
Research has shown that recovering addicts who take full advantage of the rehabilitation services provided have a 70% success rate. This number is increased if they follow it up with support groups when they leave.

“Drug rehabilitation centers are only successful because they provide a physical safeguard against relapse.”
Drug rehabilitation centers do provide a physical safeguard, which many addicts are afraid to leave, but they also instill the value of sobriety in their patients through programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, providing them with a social safeguard for when they do leave.

“They will make me go through straight withdrawal and give me nothing to overcome it.”
On the contrary, many drug rehabilitation centers mimic a hospital setting and make comfort a priority. Alcohol withdrawal can kill you. Physicians go to every length to make sure you’re safe by providing anti-seizure medication. Heroin addicts are given methadone. All measures are taken to ensure that the patient is comfortable throughout the process. If the opposite was true, many addicts would avoid them.

“I’ll be kicked out for someone more desperate than I am.”
Drug rehabilitation centers follow a strict program. When you arrive, you begin your detox, and you stay there for a set amount of time. No circumstance keeps an addict from receiving the proper care that they need. In fact, many heroin addicts use methadone while they wait for a bed to open up.

“The physicians there look down on me.”
Actually many physicians in such facilities are recovering addicts and alcoholics who want nothing more than to help. In fact, many staff members are affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, programs that support reaching out over pointing fingers.

About Mike Wilson

Mike Wilson is the Owner of New Horizon Recovery, a leading alcohol and drug rehab center in Southern California. New Horizon Recovery is a peaceful sanctuary for healing and provides both inpatient and outpatient alcohol drug rehab treatment. Mike makes it his priority to make his patients as safe as comfortable as possible, establishing relationships with everyone to create a tightknit community for successful rehabilitation.

Know More: Teenage Prescription Drug Abuse

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Mike Wilson

There is a reason why people have to take prescription drugs under the supervision and direction of their doctors. If these drugs are not used properly or as intended, they could be dangerous. Many parents will be surprised to learn that teenage prescription drug abuse is quite prevalent and this type of abuse is as dangerous as abusing illicit drugs. Abusing prescription drugs can result in short- as well as long-term health problems.

Teens and Prescription Drug Abuse
According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), about 2,000 teens in the U.S. abuse prescription drugs. A survey conducted by Monitoring the Future found that prescription drugs along with over-the-counter drugs are commonly abused by students in the 12th grade. And, past experiences and surveys suggest that teenagers who abuse prescription drugs are more likely to use other illicit drugs.

How Do Teens Get Prescription Drugs?
Teens, who abuse prescription medications, often get them from their family members and friends. This often occurs without the knowledge of the person using the prescription drug. A survey conducted by Monitoring the Future in 2012 reports that nearly 50 percent of high school seniors surveyed claimed that they could get opoid drugs very easily. This should show you that if teenagers want, they will be able to lay their hands on prescription drugs fairly easily.

Reasons for Prescription Drug Abuse Amongst Teens
Some may want to use the drugs to get high, others to reduce physical pain. There are still others, who believe that prescription drugs will help them perform better at school. It has been found that teenage boys and girls abuse certain types of prescription drugs for varying reasons. For instance, most teenage boys abuse prescription drugs to get high, while teenager girls use them to lose weight or remain alert.

About Mike Wilson

Mike Wilson is the Owner of New Horizon Recovery, a leading alcohol and drug rehab center in Southern California. New Horizon Recovery is a peaceful sanctuary for healing and provides both inpatient and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment. Mike makes it his priority to make his patients as safe as comfortable as possible, establishing relationships with everyone to create a tightknit community for successful rehabilitation.

When It Comes to Support, Nothing Compares to Family!

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Mike Wilson

No matter where you go or what you do, your family will always be there. They are the ones who know you better than anyone else. Even if you have had disagreements in the past, the ties that bind you as family can never be truly broken.

Individuals recovering from addiction often have to rediscover themselves. After being lost in a world of haze and smoking mirrors, you can lose sight of the person you once were. Connecting with family and loved ones is the best way to start back on the path to finding out who you really are. Your strength and resiliency are influenced by those who helped nurture you from the beginning.

Recovery can be a lonely road to travel. Having family members who know you and understand what you are going through can make the journey a little easier. It’s true they cannot walk the path for you, but the support they provide can give you the strength and motivation to get through your darkest moments.

Your family is your foundation. Parents and grandparents lay the groundwork, while siblings and extended family add the nuances that have went into molding the person you grew to be. As you matured and began to follow your new path, you gained new depth through friends and acquaintances. During the recovery process, revisiting the connection to family may be just what you need to find the pieces of yourself you have misplaced along the way.

No one can compare to your family. They are an integral part of who you are and play a key role in the recovery process. When you begin to feel lost, home and family are where security begins and confusion ends.

About Mike Wilson

Alcohol During Summer Vacations: Stick to Your Limit

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Mike Wilson

If you’ve had problems with alcohol in the past, you know how difficult the holidays can be. The focus is on fun and celebration, but how can you celebrate if you can’t drink. To be honest, that’s the wrong way to look at the situation.

Everyone deserves the right to have fun. The choice becomes how can a person have fun and still remain true to themselves and their needs? The answers are simple to understand but slightly more difficult to put into action.

The keys to celebrating and sticking to a pre-determined limit of alcohol are few.

Be true to yourself.
Be truthful with yourself as to how much alcohol you need, compared to how much you want. Don’t worry about whether or not its cool to only drink two beers. If that is your limit, stick to it. Others don’t live your life, they shouldn’t be allowed to influence how much you drink or anything else for that matter. It’s your decision.

Understand your limits.
Understanding your limits is simple. Your past history with alcohol should tell you just how much you can consume before you begin to lose yourself. The amount of alcohol you should choose as a stopping point should be far short of what it takes to send you over the edge. For example, if eight beers is what it takes to make you feel your “buzz”, stop with two.

Love yourself enough to stop.
Loving yourself can be the hardest part of the whole process. Once you begin to love yourself, you begin to see your true worth. Respect that and when it comes to drinking, remind yourself of that value. Placing limits on the alcohol you consume shows your resilience and gives you back your self-confidence and personal power.

About Mike Wilson

Help Yourself Get Over Addiction: Meditate

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Mike Wilson

Suffering from drug and alcohol addiction can be mentally frustrating. It can be hard facing the day to day stressors that go along with maintaining a family, home and career. One thing you need to remember is that through all of the difficulties we learn lessons about life as well as ourselves.

Much of what we perceive as being difficult can be assessed, a plan figured out and then subsequently solved. The entire process takes place in our mind. We look at a situation and instead of being overwhelmed begin to slowly take control of the situation. We all are capable of it, but how can we accomplish it? Meditation!

Drug and alcohol addiction affects our thinking processes. It makes us want to act on impulse. With meditation, we act by using control. People often set aside 10 or 15 minutes every few hours to meditate. They clear their mind of thoughts and ramblings and begin to re-center themselves. This new mental clarity eliminates impulsive urges and helps them to focus on the tasks at hand.

Meditation can be as simple as taking a few seconds to sit quietly, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. There is no set rule of thumb everyone must follow. Each person has their own way of meditating. Some people may enjoy listening to soft music and let their body and mind relax to the sounds being played.

Meditation is an effective tool for individuals experiencing drug and alcohol addiction. It allows them to regain control of their mind and thought patterns in the hope of eliminating the thoughts that cause harm and replacing them with positive ones that allow them to move forward during the healing process.

About Mike Wilson

Getting Over Breakups: 10 Ways to Do It Without Alcohol

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Mike Wilson

You used to cherish your mate, but now that’s all come to an end. The very thought of your relationship, and you feel sad, angry, maybe even full of rage. You need to feel better and you feel like all you need are a few cocktails and the pain will go away.

Unfortunately, maybe you’ve played that scene before and no matter how much you may want to hideaway or have a drink to numb the pain, there is always a new day tomorrow. You will be feeling more down in the dumps than you were the day before if you decide to drink to deal with a breakup. There are much better ways that you can deal with a breakup that would be much better than alcohol.

Talk to as many friends and family members as possible for support. You don’t have to discuss the relationship breakup. It is just for reminder sake that you are loved and people care about you.
You can go out to an Open mic poetry at a coffeehouse. Listening to other people express their emotions will distract you from how you are feeling. Then, you can have a drink of Mocha Latte or your favorite coffee.
Go to the beach, every morning for a walk or run and get some fresh, clean ocean air.
Create a bucket list because there’s probably something that you want to experience that you haven’t yet.
Start a new hobby that you always wanted, like learning a foreign language. Then participate in meetings to have conversations on random topics other than love and emotions.
Strengthen your spiritual faith
Ice cream and a favorite movie with popcorn tub, great idea!
Go for a beauty or image makeover
Spring cleaning to clear out the old and bring in the new.
Go to see your one of your favorite artists in concert, but don’t go out and get that drink!

About Mike Wilson3

Mike Wilson is the Owner of New Horizon Recovery, a leading alcohol and drug rehab center in Southern California. New Horizon Recovery is a peaceful sanctuary for healing and provides both inpatient and outpatient drug rehab treatment. Mike makes it his priority to make his patients as safe as comfortable as possible, establishing relationships with everyone to create a tightknit community for successful rehabilitation and making New Horizon Recovery one of the leading drug and alcohol rehabs in the area.

Excess Alcohol Consumption Can Lead to Infertility

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Mike Wilson

Alcohol though commonly consumed is a teratogenic substance. Teratogenic substances are those which are known to cause mutations and abnormalities in the human body. It is a commonly known fact that women who are expecting are asked by physicians to control or completely cease their alcohol consumption, however a recent study shows that alcohol also has an impact on fertility in both men and women alike. There is an even greater need for older couples who are expecting to conceive and those with fertility related problems to refrain from alcohol.

It was earlier believed that only the consumption of large amounts of alcohol was detrimental to conceiving. However, doctors now claim that even moderate consumption of alcohol can reduce the chances of conception. A study shows that the consumption of just a single glass of wine can reduce the probability of conception of a couple by up to 50%.

In women alcohol affects the menstrual cycle which is crucial for the production of eggs by the ovaries. Alcohol consumed by women who are already pregnant can prove fatal to the pregnancy causing fetal deformities and spontaneous miscarriages.

Earlier it was believed that drinking alcohol had a greater impact on women’s fertility than men. However studies now show that alcohol has an impact on the male physiology as well and affects hormone production in men which is required for conceiving. Excess alcohol consumption over a prolonged period of time is known to cause impotence in men. It can increase toxic levels in vulnerable sperm producing cells. Alcohol is also linked to an increased estrogen level in men and is a contributor to prostate cancer.

Alcohol does not just affect the hormone levels but also affects the body’s ability to absorb antioxidants, zinc and selenium which are necessary for reproductive functions.

About Mike Wilson3

Mike Wilson is the Owner of New Horizon Recovery, a leading alcohol and drug rehab center in Southern California. New Horizon Recovery is a peaceful sanctuary for healing and provides both inpatient and outpatient drug rehab treatment. Mike makes it his priority to make his patients as safe as comfortable as possible, establishing relationships with everyone to create a tightknit community for successful rehabilitation and making New Horizon Recovery one of the leading drug and alcohol rehabs in the area.

Hallucinations and Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Mike Wilson

One of the most difficult and stressful situations you can find yourself in is if you are suffering from alcoholism. The first step toward getting treatment is of course admitting that you have a problem. Once you have taken that big step, you can seek treatment so that you can get better. However, you should be aware of certain symptoms you may experience. These include alcohol withdrawal and hallucinations.

Some of the most common alcohol withdrawal symptoms include anxiety, irritability and shakiness. If you are experiencing withdrawal when you quit drinking, you can literally shake and feel jumpy, nervous and annoyed. Snapping at your loved ones is quite common, and you may also experience bouts of depression, nausea and vomiting and a feeling of fatigue.

In some instances, alcohol withdrawal symptoms can be very severe and require hospitalization. Some of these symptoms include irregular heartbeat, fever, confusion and even seizures. Anyone who is experiencing alcohol withdrawal, even when they are not experiencing such severe issues, should visit their doctor.

Alcoholic hallucinations can also occur when you are trying to stop drinking. Within the first 12 to 48 hours after stopping your alcohol habit, you can expect to experience visual, auditory or even tactile hallucinations. You will very likely not even realize that they are not real, which is very common when going through alcohol withdrawal.

About Mike Wilson

You Just Need To Take The First Step!

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Mike Wilson

If you have a loved one that is suffering from an alcohol addiction it might seem like there is nothing you can do to help. The truth is, being a supportive and nurturing friend may be the best way to open up a dialogue about the problem. Forced interventions and even direct conversation about the addiction have a tendency to make the addict defensive and even combative. Instead of the direct approach, try a soft handed one. If you really want to see your loved one free from this addiction, you must convince him to be serious about taking the first step to take back control of his life.

It is important to talk to him when he is not drinking, when his mind is clear, because a drunk mind is far less rational than a sober one. This is doubly true if there is abusive behavior when he is drinking. Start by trying to determine why he is drinking in the first place. Is it to relieve stress? To escape reality? Because it makes the pain go away? Then show him that the alcohol doesn’t actually do any of these things over the long term – it is a temporary fix to a larger problem. You must convince him that there are better, more productive ways to handle these things and that alcohol is actually making things much worse.

The key is that the addict has to want to change. If there isn’t a desire to change, no amount of counseling will help. Once the program has started, the road to recovery I a long and slow process. There are often periods of relapse. The best thing you can do for your loved one is to stay in his corner. You are his coach, his rock, his place for emotional security. Be strong for him and always encourage him to do better. Understand that overcoming addiction happens one day at a time and each day is a small victory.

Its tough being cured from alcohol addiction. There is always that threat of falling back into the easy way out. It is of the utmost importance to treat each day like a new opportunity to beat back this monstrous addiction and show your loved one that he is stronger than it, that he is worth more as a fighter, and that you love him.

About Mike Wilson

Mike Wilson is the Owner of New Horizon Recovery, a leading alcohol and drug rehab center in Southern California. New Horizon Recovery is a peaceful sanctuary for healing and provides both inpatient and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment. Mike makes it his priority to make his patients as safe as comfortable as possible, establishing relationships with everyone to create a tightknit community for successful rehabilitation.

Does Addiction Refer to Just Alcohol and Drugs?

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Mike Wilson

For those suffering from a drug and alcohol abuse problem breaking free can be difficult. Millions of people in our country suffer from substance related abuse. For these people life is difficult, the life of their family, friends and loved ones are equally affected by this social illness. To understand what these individuals are suffering it is not merely enough to give a tag to their infliction, it is also important to have an insight into their lifestyle condition. To fully understand the extent of an addiction or its implications we must understand what is a drug and an addiction and how it affects those stricken by it.

A drug is a substance which when ingested into the body can have a psychological and physiological effect. Drugs need not always be addictive and many are recreational however almost all drugs have a detrimental effect on the human body and mind. Besides the health and mental implication of illegal drugs, these substances can also be addictive.

An addiction is when a person is dependent on a narcotic or substance for his daily existence. For many drug addicts if they were not to get a substance or narcotic for a prolonged period of time the side effects would be unbearable and excruciating. People can be addicted to a state of delirium which is pleasurable or stimulating and can be either a drug or activity. An addiction has serious negative effects on a person’s state of well being, personal relationships and drive to succeed.

Addiction is basically of two kinds, a substance dependency and a behavioral addiction. Both of them are equally harmful. A substance addiction refers to the condition of those who are addicted to narcotics and alcohol, nicotine, opiates etc. A behavioral addiction refers to an addiction to certain activities such as gambling or sex. Behavioral addictions can be just as traumatic for an addict as a substance addiction. Behavioral addictions like a gambling addiction for example, can be devastating to an addict. He faces financial ruin, familial disdain, social ostracizing and emotional destruction.

Addiction need not always be a condition caused due to Alcohol, narcotics or nicotine; it can also be a harmful dependency on an activity that can cause personal ruin. We are an addiction treatment center that operates like a social model community specializing in drug and behavioral addiction and offer Rehab-therapy in a safe and comfortable environment.