Tag Archive for: recovery

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.

5 Ways to Prevent Relapse

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Avoiding Temptation After Rehabilitation

It is a huge accomplishment to complete a treatment program and it’s a chance at a new life. After successfully graduating from rehabilitation for drug or alcohol abuse and addiction, it is a time of celebration and a time to put to use all of the tools you were provided for recovery. Now is the time to prepare for any situations that can threaten your sobriety and to create a plan of action moving forward. 

The team of drug and alcohol rehabilitation specialists at Orange County’s Fresh Start of California provides tips and words of advice for preventing relapse and staying in recovery. Knowing what to look out for, what to avoid, and how to protect your sobriety will help you keep from giving in to temptation and relapse. 

If you are living with drug or alcohol abuse or addiction and you want to get help, contact the team at Fresh Start of California today. 

5 Ways to Prevent Drug or Alcohol Relapse

Consider this the fight for your future; completing detox and rehabilitation is the beginning of your new life and preventing relapse is the key to continue moving forward. Protect your sobriety and recovery with the arsenal of tools you were provided in rehabilitation along with the tips listed below.

5 ways to prevent relapse and protect your sobriety are: 

  1. Change your environment. You cannot stay well in the same environment that you were sick. If this means moving, changing friend groups, leaving behind toxic familial ties or family living in addiction, it is a sacrifice worth taking. Consider your sobriety as something that is worth any changes necessary- because it is. You must leave behind the environment that fed your addiction and embrace an environment that feeds a healthy, sober life. 
  2. Create a schedule. Employ the comfort and stability that a routine provides and create a manageable schedule. Schedule time to eat, to exercise (even gentle exercises and walks), attend meetings, work, and sleep. Keep your schedule simple and add things as your confidence and energy grows. Include things that will help you clear your mind such as meditation, journaling, art, music, or other mindful practices.  
  3. Eat a healthy diet. Feeling good, physically and mentally, can help you stay strong and prevent feeling lethargic, prevent avoidable mood and energy swings, and avoid nutrient imbalances that may lead to depression. Also, taking the time to mindfully choose your meals and cook them will connect you with what you are putting into your body in a whole new way. 
  4. Avoid becoming complacent. Drug and alcohol addiction recovery is a grand task that deserves recognition and attention. Treat this accomplishment as it deserves by remembering the struggle and the strength it took to make it through to the other side. Continue to attend meetings and work the program that you subscribe to because choosing not to actively work your recovery is a risk that may lead to relapse. 
  5. Build a network of support. The value of people you can depend on when you are in need is immense. A support group or several, and a few friends or mentors who you can call day or night can get you through the toughest of times. Addiction is often a disease of isolation, therefore, in contrast, recovery is about connection. Enlist the trusted help and support of a sponsor, mentor, friends, and family so that you always have someone to call. 

Protect Sobriety as if Your Life Depended On It: It Does!

If you are worried about facing the rest of the recovery path alone, you are in luck. The specialists at Fresh Start of California have the resources and tools to help you and our team can point you in the direction of support. Knowledge is power. Keep the ways to prevent relapse listed above in mind and place them in your virtual toolbox for when you feel tempted. Call your sponsor, do something meaningful and rewarding, be sure to eat healthy meals and get outside for some fresh air. The things that can prevent relapse are the things that will make you feel most alive while sober. 

If you have completed rehab but are feeling anxious about maintaining sobriety, contact our team. We can help you make it through to a new day. Call our Orange County drug and alcohol detox and rehabilitation facility today.