Recover with a Furry Friend: It’s National Adopt a Pet Day!

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April 30th, 2020 is National Adopt a Pet Day

Transitioning from a treatment facility to living on your own can be difficult and scary but having a pet with you can make you feel less alone. Adopting a dog, cat or other pet is beneficial in recovery and can teach skills that you will carry with you into your life of sobriety. National Adopt a Pet Day is a day to recognize the vast availability of pets that are in desperate need of a home. These pets are in shelters, adoption and foster homes, and they are waiting to give you the love and affection that can help you through your darkest days. Many pet stores and animal supply stores host events for the April 30th events and display animals that are ready to find a home.

Fresh Start of California’s recovery experts know how intimidating it can be to leave a group treatment facility and branch out on your own. Our Orange County addiction specialists can help you take steps toward sobriety while offering the resources you need when you are ready to face the world with a renewed spirit.

Contact our team to discuss how our Orange County rehabilitation center can be the place where you find hope and start a new life.

5 Ways that Adopting a Pet Can Help Your Recovery

If you are unsure about how a pet can help you in your recovery, now is the time to dig a little deeper. The joy of coming home to a happy pet who can’t wait to give you his or her undivided attention is a great motivator to keep moving forward. What do pets have to offer?

Here are 5 benefits to adopting a rescue pet while transitioning from recovery to sober life:

  1. Unconditional love. Pets are there for you no matter what. They do not judge you; they do not criticize; they do not hold grudges. Pets want your attention and love and are happy to receive it. They show unconditional love and are eager to please, which helps create a lasting bond. Because they are incapable of enabling, you don’t have to worry about their unconditional love becoming a crutch or a risk of relapse.
  2. Encourage healthy behavior. Pets encourage us to get out of bed and get moving. Whether it is just too feed them, change a litter box, or get outside for a walk, pets help us establish a routine and to get exercise. Dogs need walks and so do dog owners!
  3. Stress relief. Petting a furry friend, playing fetch, playing with a pet toy and other interactive activities with your pet can relieve stress. These activities help to lower stress levels while increasing feel-good chemicals in the brain.
  4. Teach us about ourselves. Pets make great mirrors of emotion. They can sense if we are stressed, fearful, excited, sad, happy or in love. They also will react without a filter, so if you scare your pet with your behavior, they will let you know it. Adversely, if you show your pet love and affection, they will return it tenfold.
  5. Teach responsibility. Pets teach us personal, committal, financial and relational responsibility. They teach us how to clean up after someone, how to remember to feed (eat) daily meals and how to stay healthy. Your pet’s well-being is a reflection of your commitment to mental and physical health.

Adopt and Discover the Love of a Pet

The importance of adopting over walking into a pet store or going to a breeder and buying a pet is the chance for a new life. Pets that are rescued or surrendered are a lot like the brave souls in recovery. They are lost and feel out of control. Some may feel that they were given up on. Adopting a pet, on National Adopt a Pet Day or any other day, gives these loving animals the chance to feel loved, feel wanted and thrive in their new home. You deserve love, you deserve hope, you deserve a second chance.

Call Fresh Start of California today. Our team of Orange County addiction and recovery specialists are ready to be there for you.

Increase Your Knowledge: Its Alcohol Awareness Month

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Knowledge is Power in the Fight Against Alcoholism

Alcohol is a factor in more than half of American homicides, suicides, and traffic accidents. It is a key factor in many domestic, relational, and financial problems including crimes against family members or spouses. It is often the reason for job loss, financial loss, property loss, and destroyed relationships.

Alcohol awareness month provides a platform for education, addiction treatment and recognition of recovery for all who recognize it. One way to combat alcoholism and to highlight the detrimental effects of drinking is to spread knowledge. Fresh Start of California is your source for Orange County addiction and recovery, and we are happy to help our community increase their knowledge of the truth about alcohol.

Reach out to the team at Fresh Start of California and take the first step in recovery.

Alcohol’s Effects: What Is Your Drink Doing to You?

Alcohol is often considered the social lubricant, “helping” drinkers get comfortable in social situations, open up to friends and loved ones, and be more apt to have fun. But, in reality, it inhibits the gut feelings and instincts that protect us from danger and keep us from saying things that may be left unsaid.

It is the cause of many negative reactions to its poison including:

  • Mood changes
  • Impaired vision
  • Impaired speech
  • Loss of balance
  • Loss of coordination
  • Loss of inhibition
  • Impaired reaction to danger

These are all signs of acute alcohol or being drunk. We are often affected by alcohol to a point of self-endangerment before we even feel the “positive” effects of social ease.

Alcohol Use Disorder: Signs and Effects of Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol use disorder is characterized by increased tolerance for alcohol, physical dependence, loss of control and loss of limitation of the consumption of alcohol. Many alcoholics or those who suffer from alcohol abuse disorder are thought to be genetically predisposed to the disease, while also being influenced by their physical and psychological environment as well as social cues and pressures. A person’s risk of alcoholism increases by 3-4 times if a parent is an alcoholic.

Alcoholism can involve binge drinking on occasion, drinking moderate amounts daily or a combination of the two.

Chronic alcohol abuse can cause numerous physical ailments that include: 

  • Liver damage
  • High blood pressure
  • Heart failure
  • Stomach ulcers
  • Impotence
  • Fetal alcohol syndrome
  • Cancer of the larynx, esophagus, liver, breast, or pancreas

Not only does chronic alcohol abuse cause disease and physical changes, but it also greatly affects the function of the brain and changes the brain’s chemistry.

Treatment is Available: The Time to Change Is Now

No matter how long a person has been addicted to alcohol or has abused alcohol in his or her life, there is always a reason to get help. Treatment and recovery can repair families, can mend and reestablish relationships and can provide a new life. There are many options when it comes to addiction recovery and healing from the conditions that caused alcohol abuse in the first place.

Treatment for alcoholism and other addictions may include:

  • Inpatient or medically assisted detox
  • Inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation
  • Short term residential treatment
  • Outpatient counseling
  • Group and individual therapy
  • 12-step programs
  • Medication to help remain sober after recovery
  • Support groups
  • Sponsorship and one-on-one mentoring

You Are Not Alone

If you are ready to make a change, reach out to our Orange County rehabilitation and addiction specialists are Fresh Start of California. We are here to help you every step of the way. It is our goal to help our patients find a new way to live without the chains and shackles of addiction and alcoholism.

Contact Fresh Start of California today.