Tag Archive for: rehabilitation

The Danger of Isolation in Recovery

Why Supported Recovery Is Important

Support groups, recovery staff, sponsors, and mentors help those in recovery to stay accountable, to feel a sense of community, and to know that they are not alone if times get tough. A support network and limited isolation, including the presence of family members at meetings and appointments, helps to create a strong foundation. Also, when family and loved ones attend meetings with someone in recovery, they can better understand addiction and how they can help.

At Fresh Start of California, we understand the importance of 24/7 support and care when you are building your foundation for sobriety. Our Orange County detox and rehabilitation professionals are here to work with you to create the ideal environment for recovery from addiction.

When you are ready to start fresh, and need a team to cheer you on, contact the recovery specialists at Fresh Start of California. Call us now.

The Dangers of Recovering Alone

The biggest danger of isolation in recovery is the increased risk of relapse. Isolation increases and amplifies feelings of:

  • Boredom
  • Depression
  • Guilt
  • Restlessness
  • Frustration

All of these emotional states may contribute to the desire to pick up where you left off. Adversely, if you have a support network that you trust, you have someone to call when these feelings creep in. Isolation breeds the negative emotions associated with social rejection and social disconnection. It is like the old saying, “Misery loves company.” Once you are in a cycle of feeling socially distanced and disconnected, that feeling of being alone and the thoughts that go with it will grow.

Humans are social creatures by nature therefore we need social interaction that offers coping mechanisms, encouragement, and opportunities for a healthy lifestyle. Disconnection specifically can increase stress, anxiety, low self-esteem, insomnia, and depression. The importance of having a solid support group, even if it is just a small circle of people, is immense.

Interactions with others keep our energy and ideas in motion. Support from mentors, sponsors, and trusted recovery teams keeps thoughts fresh and prevents the mind from growing stagnant resulting in ideation of using. Interactions are a source of new perspective while isolation depletes perspective and decreases fresh thinking. Isolation allows the inner voice, often the voice of the addiction, to be heard and unchallenged.

Without connection and interaction, we are more apt to act on self-harming thoughts and possibly, return to the habits that we used to cope with before: namely using a substance to not feel our emotions. A support network of loved ones and professionals in addiction is crucial in finding strength, confidence, and happiness in a new life of sobriety.

Find Support at Fresh Start of California

The evidence is clear. Isolation during recovery and while you build your foundations of sobriety is a dangerous path to choose. Your success and happiness moving out of addiction count on your choices to create the best environment for change that is possible. This is one filled with supportive friends and family and a caring and knowledgeable team of detox and recovery specialists. At Fresh Start of California, you have access to professionals in a multitude of treatment modalities, and support from those who understand what you are going through.

Don’t walk the path of recovery alone. Contact the Orange County detox and rehab specialists at Fresh Start of California today.

Why Do People Go to Recovery Centers Far from Home?

Distance and Recovery May Go Hand in Hand

At Fresh Start of California, we understand that detox and rehabilitation require clear intent, persistence, and an environment that supports recovery. The distance created in going to a recovery center far from home sometimes allows recovering addicts to have a better chance at success. When you are ready to start a new life, there are many things to consider in choosing a recovery center. A center far from home may be the best choice and the best chance in recovery.

The Orange County detox and rehabilitation specialists at Fresh Start of California are here to provide you with the support and professional help you need to recover from your addiction. If you need help in fighting your addiction, we are here for you.

Contact Fresh Start of California today.

How Distance Offers Strength in Recovery

The Benefits of going to a detox and rehabilitation center far from home include:

  1. Removal and distance from a harmful environment. The rituals of addiction often involve the process of obtaining the drug, the environment in which one uses it, and the using itself. Distance cuts the superficial ties to the visual and environmental cues that are part of addiction.
  2. Privacy during treatment. Regardless of living in a small town or a big city, word can travel fast when it is negativity-based. Unfortunately, because not all intentions are good, words can cut deeply when someone is fresh to recovery. Distance provides anonymity and privacy so that it creates an environment of healing rather than gossip or sabotage.
  3. Less access to escape and exit. Being miles from home makes it difficult to have an easy escape when you want to give up. Distance forms a “buffer zone” between sticking with recovery and running from sobriety.
  4. Get away from toxic friends or family. Distance can remove access to potential threats to your sobriety including family or friends. Toxic relationships can fuel addiction or can be the link that ties an addict to their substance of choice. A change in setting allows you to see the relationships you have with more clarity and gives you the chance to break free from toxic connections.
  5. Peace, quiet, and time alone. Recovery is hard work, so you will need to be able to focus, reflect, and heal. This work requires zero distractions and less chance of being thrown off course. Distance provides the environment for the hard work of recovery.
  6. New perspective. The travel to get to distant recovery centers offers new scenery in which to fight and a new perspective in which to thrive. Distance, in the form of going to an out-of-town recovery center, allows addicts to see beyond the negativity and hopelessness that exists in addiction.

Is Our Facility Your Orange County Rehabilitation Center?

If you are seeking detox and rehabilitation options in Orange County, Fresh Start of California may be the place for you. Our detox and rehabilitation doctors, nurses, counselors, and mentors can work with you to create your ideal rehabilitation support program so that you can heal, grow, and be successful in recovery. Wherever you go, creating distance from your past self will be an integral part of your rehabilitation and recovery.

Give yourself the gift of a new perspective. Call Fresh Start of California today.

Gratitude and Sobriety Go Hand in Hand

Highs and Lows: Learning Gratitude

It is said that those who have survived addiction know about the lowest of the lows so much more than those who have not battled addiction. With that propensity of feeling such strong emotion, which often is one of the reasons for addiction, comes the ability to feel strong gratitude. The strength that it takes to survive addiction, to find the conviction to stick to recovery, and to live in sobriety, gives us the strength to see life for what it is. This process, and the process of taking inventory, help us to remember the gratitude in sobriety.

At Fresh Start of California, we give you the tools to start fresh in a life of sobriety. One of these tools is learning how to practice gratitude. Our Orange County detox and recovery specialists are here to offer you support, tools, and a holistic approach to recovery.

Contact our team today if you need drug or alcohol rehabilitation in Orange County. We are here to answer your call 24/7.

Humility and Gratitude in Recovery

A huge part of recovery and sobriety is humility- the act of humility and the understanding of humility. Humility, or being humble, goes along with the knowledge that we are not the center of the universe. Truly understanding that we are not entitled and that we are capable of having a negative (or positive) effect on others, is understanding that we are human.

Through this understanding we find gratefulness. All things positive in our lives are worth being grateful for. This is true especially in sobriety because we often are coming from a place of complete destitution, or complete surrender, and as sobriety fills the holes in life, it brings with it reasons for thankfulness. Sobriety gives us everything we have, from stability and “normalcy” to the things we own, new relationships, and employment.

Gratitude can help us get through hard times in sobriety. It can change our attitude and behavior, improving our outlook on the present and the future. We can even practice gratitude for surviving our time in addiction and for the chance to live in sobriety. Practicing gratitude for what we have allows more positivity to come our way. Gratitude for what you have releases the unhappiness the comes from focusing on what we don’t have and releases resentment for what you have but don’t want.

Creating an Attitude of Gratitude

Living in sobriety and gratitude can take practice. There are several ways to cultivate gratitude in your heart and life. Use our tips below to get started.

  • Start your day by thinking of 3 things to be grateful for before you get out of bed.
  • Keep a gratitude journal and try to fill one page at the end of each day with positive thoughts and things you are grateful for.
  • Send thank-you letters via snail-mail or email to friends, family, or associates.
  • Look around when you are in nature and say a mental “thank you” for the beautiful things you see.
  • Practice speaking about things, experiences, or events that you are excited and grateful for rather than sharing negativity.
  • Give compliments freely and happily, tell someone you love their shirt, tell someone they did a good job.
  • If you enjoy spending time practicing self-care, remember to do so with mindfulness and gratitude, even if it is just giving thanks for the hot water in your shower, or the taste of toothpaste.

Find a New Life with Fresh Start of California

Fresh Start of California offers residential and outpatient detox and rehabilitation for our patients. We understand that everyone has unique needs and individual treatments that will best provide the framework for recovery. Let us walk with you into your new life, into a mindset of gratitude in sobriety. We are here for you.

Contact Fresh Start of California for detox and rehabilitation treatment in Orange County.

Why Anger Management and Rehab Go Hand in Hand

Childhood Experience and Anger Management

Anger management issues are often closely connected to substance abuse, especially when an addict was exposed to anger, violence, and trauma as a child. Children of violent adults frequently become angry adults themselves and may be predisposed to abuse drugs or alcohol. Experiencing or witnessing violence and trauma at a young age can cause developmental delays, issues with emotional maturity, and personality changes. If substance abuse is combined with anger and emotional management issues, it is clear that during recovery, these issues will need to be addressed.

The team at Fresh Start of California understands that your addiction is not the only thing that we can help with. We know that many substance abusers suffered childhood trauma and will need help with anger management, counseling, and other services during rehab. Let our Orange County addiction and recovery experts work with you at Fresh Start of California.

Call Fresh Start of California to start the road to recovery today.

The Start of Addiction: When Did Your Emotional Growth Stop?

It makes sense that many people who are battling addiction and anger began their addiction at a young age when the skills of adult anger management and emotional stability were not yet fully formed. Developmental disruptions are often based upon the age of the start of substance use. If a person were to begin using at age 12, for example, emotional understanding and how they handle anger would be based upon an age 12 understanding. The tools a person uses may only be accessible to the age at which they started using because memory, comprehension, and retention of tools once a substance is involved can be impaired.

Rehabilitation, recovery, and moving forward may involve anger management, life skills, and learning how to function past adolescent behavior in these cases. This is the first example where anger management and rehab go hand in hand. It is crucial for addicts who were exposed to childhood trauma and those who began their addiction at a young age to learn how to handle anger and other adult emotions.

Anger as Reaction: The Effects of Substances on How We Handle Life

Many substances cause reactions that differ from the way react when sober. Drugs and alcohol can trigger anger or alcohol can exaggerate strong emotions including anger. Although some drink or use to smooth their emotional response, thus self-medicating, it often has the opposite effect. In these cases, it creates a cycle of strong emotion-drinking or using-anger or strong emotion-using or drinking more, etc.

Not only do substances change our reactions, but they also diminish impulse control. They make the abuser care less about what their actions will cause, the consequences of their actions or words, and about the damage that their anger does. Unfortunately, people who struggle with anger management are more prone to substance abuse.

Anger Management Provides Tools for Recovery

Anger management in rehab provides the tools that recovering addicts need to move forward and interact in healthy ways. These classes can help recovery patients learn to recognize triggers and cope with them. They also teach people in recovery to take responsibility for their actions and repair relationships destroyed during addiction.

What can you expect in anger management?

  • You may talk about past experiences.
  • You will identify personal triggers.
  • You can learn healthy ways to manage anger.
  • You will share feelings.
  • You will learn to problem solve and learn productive anger management skills.
  • You will learn about passive-aggressive behavior and how to avoid it.
  • You will learn the difference between anger as an emotion and chronic anger as a personality trait.

Most of all, in anger management you will be given the tool to help prevent anger as a trigger for relapse. Preventing addictive behavior and substance abuse is a key component in relearning how to handle emotions.

The Truth of Anger Management and Rehab

People tend to turn to drugs or alcohol to cope with their feelings and avoid the discomfort of the unknown. This is especially true of negative emotions like sadness, pain, and anger. Unfortunately, the negative emotions and memories attached to them are only temporarily displaced by the substance. These will continue to build and grow in the shadows of addiction until they are faced with sobriety. Anger management as a supplement to rehabilitation is critical in moving forward and being able to work through the traumas of the past.

Anger management and rehab truly go hand in hand. At Fresh Start of California, we understand the importance of having an all-encompassing rehabilitation program. Let our Orange County addiction specialists help you find a program that works for you.

Contact Fresh Start of California to discuss treatment today.

What Is the Difference Between Inpatient Rehab and Outpatient Rehab?

Orange County Rehabilitation and Detox Solutions at Fresh Start of California

There are numerous options for detox and rehabilitation from drugs and alcohol, including both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. Inpatient rehab describes a live-in rehab program that offers 24/7 supervision and guidance while outpatient rehab allows patients to go home or to another location while still providing guidance and therapy. There are advantages and disadvantages to each option. At Fresh Start of California, you can count on professional and knowledgeable counselors, physicians and staff to help you through your recovery. We believe in the many benefits of inpatient rehabilitation, where we can work with you to create an individual program that will best suit your needs.

Your sobriety is our priority and we have the tools you need to reach a better tomorrow. For the best in Orange County drug and alcohol addiction recovery, contact the team at Fresh Start of California today.

Call our addiction specialists today.

What Is Outpatient Rehab?

Outpatient rehab is a rehabilitation program that allows patients to come and go, therefore providing treatment while they can still maintain employment and outside life. It is often less expensive than inpatient rehab and requires less commitment. Outpatient rehab is an option for patients who have completed inpatient rehab but need further counseling, therapy, meetings, and psychological treatment.

Outpatient Rehab often offers the benefits of:

  • Maintaining a “normal” outside routine
  • Treatment lasting 90 days to 1 year
  • Live at home and maintain a connection with family and loved ones
  • Affordable and flexible
  • Access to additional outside meetings and therapy

What Is Inpatient Rehab?

Inpatient rehabilitation for drug and alcohol addiction boasts a higher rate of success than outpatient programs due to the full-submersion nature and removal from outside distractions and environmental risks. It is critical to discuss with your family and understand the level of commitment with inpatient rehabilitation required of patients. Employment, family, housing management and other commitments will need to be considered before entering into an inpatient program.

Inpatient rehab offers the benefits of:

  • The patient is at the facility full time with access to therapy, medical care, and knowledgeable staff
  • 24-hour medical and psychological support and supervision
  • Fewer distractions, removal of access to drugs or alcohol (less risk of relapse while in treatment)
  • 28 day to a 3-month treatment plan
  • Higher success rate than with outpatient rehabilitation programs
  • Comfort and predictability of routine while going through treatment
  • A deeper connection with therapists and medical team

Now Is Your Time to Start Fresh. Call today.

When you have reached the end of your relationship with drugs or alcohol and are ready to take your life back, it’s time to think about rehab. At our Orange County detox and rehab facility, you can count on trusted programs, expert recovery teams, and the inpatient treatment that you need. Fresh Start of California offers treatment styles and individual options that will allow you to find the perfect fit for your recovery needs. We understand that there is more to addiction than the substance. We can help you overcome your addiction while working to find positive alternative coping mechanisms for your future.

Don’t risk waiting until it is too late, contact the Orange County addiction recovery team at Fresh Start of California and take the first step to a thriving new life.

Call now to get the tools you need to fight your addiction.

 

The Difference Between Drug Detox and Rehabilitation in Residential Treatment

The Physical and Psychological Aspects of Addiction Treatment

Treatment of addiction is so much more than ending drug use and breaking the physical dependence. Recovery from addiction entails ridding the body of a physical dependence through detoxification and studying, understanding and treating the psychological addiction and the psychological causes that the addiction stems from. When choosing what program will work best for you, it is important to know the available options and what the difference is between detox and rehabilitation.

Recovery from both physical and psychological addiction is key in successfully moving forward and learning why there is a desire for alcohol or drug use. Knowing the roots of your addiction will help you to better understand your actions and how to protect your sobriety. When seeking out an Orange County drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, it is important to learn about all of the options and what will work best for you.

At Fresh Start of California, detox and rehabilitation are part of the residential treatment available to those in need. Contact our team to learn about our program and what we have to offer.

What is Detox?

The most significant part of a detox is the process of purging the body of physical dependence upon the substance. Living in addiction involves the brain changing to adapt to the chemicals of the substance, in so much as the brain’s chemistry is altered to survive the “poisoning” by the substance. Detox in a residential treatment affords the addict 24-hour medical care and supervision throughout the withdrawal process and removal of toxic chemicals from the body. Medical care through the withdrawal process may include monitoring vitals and health while administering medications prescribed to help lessen the symptoms.

The detox process, symptoms of withdrawal, and length of time of detox will differ based upon what drug, or drugs, you used. Through the detox phase, the body is brought back into homeostasis and the brain’s chemicals are able to restore to their composition without the substance. Essentially, detox is the physical and chemical removal of drugs or alcohol. This process is critical is being able to work through the psychological, emotional and social dependencies which are the focus of rehabilitation.

The Process of Rehab in Residential Treatment

Residential Rehab treatments have several advantages over programs that are out-patient, for the simple fact that those in recovery are living at the facility which allows for constant help. Residential rehabilitation patients have access to multiple forms of therapy, group and individual treatment sessions, and professional counsel 24/7, which increases the rate of success. Without the distractions of the outside world, rehabilitation can dig into the roots of addiction, uncover the triggers to use and release the pain that is held in the grip of the addiction.

The process of rehabilitation differs from detox in that it addresses the issues that cause the addiction psychologically, while detox is purely physical. Rehabilitation gives addicts in recovery the tools they need to overcome the past, work through their present situation, and be able to successfully move into the future. Many rehabilitation processes conquer fears through different therapies and work with patients to create confidence and stability so that it is easier to cope with the outside world.

Moving Forward with Renewed Body and Mind

The combination of detox and rehabilitation in residential treatment is one that will always make for a brighter future. Drug and alcohol addictions are not to be underestimated and you deserve the best options for complete treatment available. Evaluate your circumstances and trust that you are worth moving beyond the detox and getting to the bottom of your addiction. As your Orange County drug and alcohol detox and rehab facility, Fresh Start of California has a program that can work for your individual needs.

Your future is worth the commitment of detox and rehabilitation. Contact Fresh Start of California today.