South Orange County Detox & Treatment Blog

Socdetox Addiction Treatment Recovery Blog

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Addition and Intuition

Reclaiming Your Gifts in Sobriety

At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, people can achieve sobriety and begin a journey of recovery.  In Detox and Addiction Treatment, we reclaim our gifts of sensitivity and intelligence .  We learn how to honor these gifts, how to allow these gifts to serve us, in self-enhancing ways. An aspect of our sensitivity and our intelligence is known as our intuition. 

Intuition can be defined as “A knowing without knowing.” 

It is said that our intuition can perceive truths, without using conscious reasoning (in other words, intuition involves our “subconscious”). 

Intuition is a way of sensing and knowing something instinctively, on a gut level. 

When we achieve sobriety and begin a journey of recovery, we begin to notice our intuition, we practice honoring it, and we learn how to channel it in self-enhancing ways.

Sensitivity and Intelligence

They say that people with addiction are gifted with heightened levels of sensitivity and intelligence. 

However, when we are feeding our addiction with drugs and alcohol, we often numb our sensitivity, and we often dull our intelligence. 

And, in our substance use, we are even known to misuse the gifts of sensitivity and intelligence, resulting in self-defeating patterns of behavior.  

Misuse of Sensitivity

An example of a way we can misuse our sensitivity in a way that can defeat us: as a result of being highly sensitive, people with addiction often absorb the emotions of those around us, including painful emotions, which can contribute to ongoing substance use to numb those painful emotions. People with addiction often have porous boundaries with others, we have yet to learn how to protect ourselves from taking on the emotions of others.  And, people with addiction often have little experience with handling painful emotions without using substances.  The combination of being highly sensitive, and of being inexperienced with coping with emotions, often leads to substance use.

Misuse of Intelligence

An example of a way that we can misuse our intelligence in a way that can defeat us: as a result of being highly intelligent, people with addiction can rationalize, justify, and intellectualize ongoing substance use (among employing other defense mechanisms).  A high level of intelligence can promote ongoing denial of addiction, and ongoing denial of the underlying issues that lead to our substance use…Denial to a ferocious, sometimes fatal degree.

Perhaps we misuse these gifts in our addiction because we have yet to learn how to honor these gifts? 

Paying Attention to Intuition

There are many ways to describe how paying attention to our intuition can contribute to growth in our awareness and therefore to growth in our recovery.  In this post, I share about how clients access their intuition in a group session during which clients are asked to “draw addiction in the form of a person/character.”

Personifying the Problem

That being said, there is a therapeutic activity that I particularly enjoy doing with clients in group sessions at South Orange County Detox and Treatment.  It is called “personifying the problem.”  (As a side note, “personifying the problem” is a technique from a school of thought known as “Narrative Therapy.”)  As mentioned above, clients are tasked with “drawing their addiction in the form of a person/character.”

Before reading further, consider for yourself:

What would you draw if you were asked to draw addiction in the form of a person/character?

What does your gut say about how to draw addiction in the form of a character?

Over the years that I’ve been doing this activity in group sessions, clients invariably draw characters that share a common theme. 

The common theme of what clients draw to represent addiction could be described by words such as “evil,” “terrifying,” “violent,” “voracious” and “all consuming.” 

To represent addiction, clients invariably draw depictions of demons, monsters, hungry ghosts, and the devil.  Clients invariably use black, gray, and dark red colors for their characters (often with yellow eyes, and menacing facial expressions).  Clients invariably share that their “characters” say harmful, mean, false, angry, blaming, hateful things to them, stoking painful emotions, luring them or provoking them into using substances.

Where do you imagine awareness of the traits of these “characters” originate?

What clients draw to represent their addiction can be said to come directly from their intuition.  While there are other aspects of this activity that are enlightening and/or therapeutic, the aspect of how our intuition senses the destructive nature of addiction is what I am highlighting in this post.  People with addiction have an intuitive understanding of the monstrous power of addiction, evidenced by the characters they draw, describe, and discuss in this group therapy/counseling session.   

Intuitive Awareness of Addiction

Bringing this intuitive awareness of addiction to light, through drawing addiction in the form of a character, can be key in seeking treatment for addiction.  As we listen to our intuition, we learn how our intuition can guide us away from negative influences, and towards positive influences. 

So, for now, consider what your intuition is telling you.  

What is Your Intuition Trying To Tell You Today?

Your intuition could just save your life and point you in a positive direction. 

It could be telling you that today is the time to get treatment, to call South Orange County Detox and Treatment and reach out for help. 

Your intuition most likely senses that you deserve better in this life. 

At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, we intuitively know that you deserve better in this life.

Paying attention to your intuition could become your saving grace. 

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Choosing Sobriety 

Choosing Sobriety 

While in the midst of addiction, the perception of the relationships we create or destroy is often very skewed. It is very difficult for an addict or alcoholic to accept blame for their wrong doings. We often hurt the ones we love and care for most as we become selfish and self-centered and disregard any personal responsibility for our own actions. Many of the relationships we create while in addiction are on the basis of our false self.

How can somebody get to know anyone that is not truly themselves?

When we are brave enough to ask for help and seek sobriety, we have made the first step towards improving our relationships. After the initial detox phase of recovery, we begin to develop clarity of mind, something many of us have not experienced in years. 

We begin to look at and understand ourselves in a way that is impossible to while we are using or drinking. There is nothing more freeing than being able to wake from a restful night’s sleep and not feel enslaved by our addiction. This clarity of mind allows us to repair the relationships that need mending and lose the ones that may not have been in our best interest.

Once we begin our journey in sobriety, we learn about the importance of mind, body, and spirit. For myself, taking care of my body physically improves my mental state. Whether it is through physical exercise, my love for surfing, meditation, or simply just eating healthy, I am able to strengthen the relationship between all three.

It is easy to take sobriety for granted, especially when we become complacent, however, it may be the last chance one has at a new beginning. Using any drug today has become a game of Russian roulette with the amount of fentanyl pouring in to our communities. Take the opportunity of sobriety to create a new version of yourself; a new self that is honest, trustworthy, and dependable. A new version of yourself that you truly love and that others can fall in love with.

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Managing My Anxiety in Sobriety

Managing My Anxiety in Sobriety

“I’m learning to find balance and not play into my thoughts, whether good or bad”

For as long as I can remember, I always felt different than others. As a child the belt to my pants always had to be secured in the last and tightest hole. My shoelace bows had to be directly proportionate to each other. Studying for tests would send me into such a panic that I would memorize chapters word for word so that I knew I would do well. Feeling different began to feel normal for me once I began to understand the way my brain worked. As I reflect on my life, I am now able to see that anxiety and OCD have always been a part of me. The anxiety and depression from my OCD are what eventually led me down the rabbit’s hole.

I still struggle with dual diagnosis issues in sobriety, but it is how I have learned to cope with them that makes life more enjoyable. Surfing was my cure. I could paddle out into the ocean at any time and all of life’s baggage would be set at shore. After a back injury, my motivation to surf became less and less. Today it is almost nonexistent. Like the obsession of using while in active addiction, is the obsession of many things for myself in sobriety. If I find myself obsessive over negative thoughts, I often can feel myself begin to spiral out of control. It is in these critical moments that I am learning to redirect, as hard as it can be at the time. I tend to do very well if I am obsessive towards something positive in my life. I’m learning to find balance and not completely play into my thoughts, whether good or bad, productive, or nonproductive. It can be disheartening knowing that I must maintain my mental health at all times as the stress can be a big enough trigger to start feeling hopeless in my sobriety. Today, I have good days and I have bad days. I still am in search for my calling, but I try to live in gratitude and help others who may be struggling along the way.

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Releasing My Need To Control

Releasing My Need To Control in Sobriety

My desire to control people, places, and things is a character defect that I have in my active addiction and in sobriety. When I’m drinking, I feel the need to control my finances and time so that I can drink whenever and wherever I choose. I also tried to control the people around me in a false attempt to claim to be sober.

In sobriety, I still have the strong urge to control others and my surroundings. I try to manage all aspects of my life, often to a fault of risking my sobriety. I struggle with future tripping and the desire to force plans for the days, weeks, and months ahead. My obsession to find a job is one main way that I impose control. Other ways include trying to get tasks done quickly. I also feel the need to go out to run errands, etc. on my schedule, not on anyone else’s.

As I become more aware of this character defect, I’m working to release that desire for control and give more aspects of my life over to the care of God. I see it being an ongoing issue and believe that I will need to pray about it often. I will make saying the third step prayer at least once daily as a reminder of who is really in control. Thy will be done.

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Changing My Passivity in Recovery

Changing My Passivity In Recovery

Passivity has definitely been an issue in my recovery. The Big Book of AA says, “If we don’t change our passive attitude with ourselves and toward our problems then nothing will change”.  My recovery has been in-line with that statement over and over again. With my current relapse, my passivity towards my recovery let the thought come into my head that it would be ok and different to use once or twice. Now, I find myself back at square one, having to figure out where I was passive in my recovery that led to my distorted thinking and to my relapse.  Passivity is something I’m going to need to bring my awareness, if I want to stay clean. Working on my passivity will allow me to be my most authentic self and will put my true recovery-self in charge.

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Passivity and Relapse

Passivity and Drug Relapse

This word of the week really hits home for me. I’m coming back from a relapse that was fully caused from my passivity in my recovery, life, & relationship. At first, I was all about my recovery, but then money, work and success got to my head. I was frustrated with my living conditions, and I never talked to anyone about it. I started putting things in front of my recovery, not knowing that it was just arming a time bomb that was bound to go off. My passivity in acknowledging my thoughts and feelings, and in my communication blew up in my face. Now, I’ve lost something very dear to me.  I’ve lost the trust of someone special to me while almost dragging her down with me.  I’m vigorously trying to give it my all and put my recovery first, so I can eventually repair the life I was living, the life that I spent many years dreaming of having. We’ve been talking a lot about the addict self, and it really sickens me how one negative thought can lead me to throw everything I’ve worked for down the drain. I’m trying to fix my head and my heart because avoiding these problems will only make my things worse. I know now that I need to stay active and focused on my recovery. I need to express my negative feelings immediately when they pop up because it is not worth throwing away everything for just that one use.

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Emotional Sobriety- Staying True at Heart

Staying True at Heart

Emotional Sobriety is often overlooked in recovery. It is often mistaken that removing the substance of choice from the equation and everything goes back to normal. This could not be farther from the truth.  Gaining emotional sobriety is an absolutely vital step in the process of recovery. This is where we start to achieve real growth emotionally, and even spiritually, by working through all the defense mechanisms, character defects, and for me especially the co-dependency.

For me, finding my true self again has been a struggle, a dark shadow of shame has consumed my life for years due to the chaos and destruction my active addiction caused. But over the course of the past year, I have really dived deep into my emotional sobriety. Salina has guided me through this heavy process, and has been teaching me how to achieve a balanced, healthy emotional self that I can hold onto for the years to come. The biggest thing I have learned through this process is to stay differentiated, and not conform to my surroundings to appease others. My co-dependency has clouded my judgment and hindered my ability to stay true to myself and my values. I tend to focus more on how I can help others and make sure that there’s peace and in turn I deeply hurt myself in the process, by not allowing myself to express my true feelings. Through emotional sobriety I’m gaining new insights into how I can keep a balanced perspective, express my true emotions, and most of all not adjust my communication based on what I think the response will be. For years my gifts of motivating, and helping others has been ineffective when I regulate everyone else's emotions.

Furthermore, Dr. Berger says that “The bottom line is that the more undifferentiated we are, the more difficult it will be to achieve emotional sobriety. In other words, emotional sobriety requires us to have a sense of ourselves”. And that is exactly what emotional sobriety has taught me, to have a sense of myself, to be aware of my emotions, and more importantly what to do with them. My goal is to live in the moment, be able to express my feelings in a healthy manner. The more I find myself, the more I love myself, and ultimately the higher chance of long term sobriety I will have.

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Addiction and Intuition

They say that people that struggle with addiction are gifted with heightened levels of sensitivity and intelligence. 

However, when we are feeding our addiction with drugs and alcohol, we often numb our sensitivity, and we often dull our intelligence. 

And, in our substance use, we are even known to misuse the gifts of sensitivity and intelligence, resulting in self-defeating patterns of behavior.  

An example of a way we can misuse our sensitivity in a way that can defeat us: as a result of being highly sensitive, people with addiction often absorb the emotions of those around us, including painful emotions, which can contribute to ongoing substance use to numb those painful emotions.   People with addiction often have porous boundaries with others, we have yet to learn how to protect ourselves from taking on the emotions of others.  And people with addiction often have little experience with handling painful emotions without using substances.  The combination of being highly sensitive, and of being inexperienced with coping with emotions, often leads to substance use.

An example of a way that we can misuse our intelligence in a way that can defeat us: as a result of being highly intelligent, people with addiction can rationalize, justify, and intellectualize ongoing substance use (among employing other defense mechanisms). A high level of intelligence can promote ongoing denial of addiction, and ongoing denial of the underlying issues that lead to our substance use…Denial to a ferocious, sometimes fatal degree.

Perhaps we misuse these gifts in our addiction because we have yet to learn how to honor these gifts? 

At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, people can achieve sobriety and begin a journey of recovery.  In treatment, we reclaim our gifts of sensitivity and intelligence.  We learn how to honor these gifts, how to allow these gifts to serve us, in self-enhancing ways.

An aspect of our sensitivity and our intelligence is known as our intuition.  Intuition can be defined as “a knowing without knowing.”  It is said that our intuition can perceive truths, without using conscious reasoning (in other words, intuition involves our “subconscious”). 

Intuition is a way of sensing and knowing something instinctively, on a gut level.  When we achieve sobriety and begin a journey of recovery, we begin to notice our intuition, we practice honoring it, and we learn how to channel it in self-enhancing ways.

There are many ways to describe how paying attention to our intuition can contribute to growth in our awareness and therefore to growth in our recovery.  In this post, I share about how clients access their intuition in a group session during which clients are asked to “draw addiction in the form of a person/character.”

That being said, there is a therapeutic activity that I particularly enjoy doing with clients in group sessions at South Orange County Detox and Treatment.  It is called “personifying the problem.”  (As a side note, “personifying the problem” is a technique from a school of thought known as “Narrative Therapy.”)  As mentioned above, clients are tasked with “drawing their addiction in the form of a person/character.”

Before reading further, consider for yourself: what would you draw if you were asked to draw addiction in the form of a person/character?

What does your gut say about how to draw addiction in the form of a character?

Over the years that I’ve been doing this activity in group sessions, clients invariably draw characters that share a common theme. 

What do you imagine the common theme to be?

The common theme of what clients draw to represent addiction could be described by words such as “evil,” “terrifying,” “violent,” “voracious” and “all consuming.” 

To represent addiction, clients invariably draw depictions of demons, monsters, hungry ghosts, and the devil.  Clients invariably use black, gray, and dark red colors for their characters (often with yellow eyes and menacing facial expressions).  Clients invariably share that their “characters” say harmful, mean, false, angry, blaming, hateful things to them, stoking painful emotions, luring them or provoking them into using substances.

Where do you imagine awareness of the traits of these “characters” originate?

What clients draw to represent their addiction can be said to come directly from their intuition.  While there are other aspects of this activity that are enlightening and/or therapeutic, the aspect of how our intuition senses the destructive nature of addiction is what I am highlighting in this post.  People with addiction have an intuitive understanding of the monstrous power of addiction, evidenced by the characters they draw, describe, and discuss in this group therapy/counseling session.   

Bringing this intuitive awareness of addiction to light, through drawing addiction in the form of a character, can be key in seeking treatment for addiction.  As we listen to our intuition, we learn how our intuition can guide us away from negative influences, and towards positive influences. 

So, for now, consider what your intuition is telling you.  Your intuition could just save your life and point you in a positive direction.  It could be telling you that today is the time to get treatment, to call South Orange County Detox and Treatment and reach out for help.  Your intuition is likely even senses that you deserve better in this life. 

At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, we intuitively know that you deserve better in this life.

Paying attention to your intuition could become your saving grace. 

What is your intuition trying to tell you today?

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Rebuilding Trust in Addiction Treatment

When thinking about trust in regards to someone struggling with drug addiction, you might think about the damage and chaos created by the addict’s behaviors. Thoughts such as “I don’t trust to leave my wallet around her” or “I don’t believe he will do what he says he will do”. If you are an addict, or know someone struggling with addiction, then you’re familiar with the lies, deception, and broken promises within addiction that shatters trust in relationships.  But, do we think about the broken trust an addict may have experienced themselves?

At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, clients are encouraged to share the situations that they have experienced that may have created a lack of trust. Often, lack of trust arises from abuse, disloyalty, manipulation and fear. Learning to gain trust with healthy people in an addict’s life is an important part of recovery. Rebuilding trust in Addiction Treatment requires a person to have courage to be honest about the pain they have experienced, a willingness to explore feelings this has generated and vulnerability to begin to trust again. Once trust is rebuilt with the client and healthy people in their lives, relationships begin to strengthen. This is an integral part of the healing process in building a solid foundation that will support the addict in their journey towards a new way of living in sobriety.

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These Walls Fence Me In

Communication. It’s the first thing we really learn in life. The funny thing is once we grow up, learn our words, and really start talking, the harder it becomes to know what to say. As babies we were easy. One cry meant we were hungry; another we were tired. It's only as adults that we become difficult. We start to hide our feelings and put up walls. It can get to the point where we never really know how anyone thinks or feels, even ourselves. Without meaning to, we can become masters of disguise with only surface level relationships -- void of true connection or intimacy. I think this is something all humans tend to experience, addict or not. In addition to overcoming this obstacle, being an addict doesn’t lend itself well to the making of friends – maybe because life and mortality are in our faces all the time. Maybe because in staring down death every day, we’re forced to know that life, every minute, is borrowed time. And each person we let ourselves care about is just one more loss somewhere down the line. For this reason, I know some addicts who just don’t bother making friends at all – I was one of those people for a long time. As I got older and slipped deeper and deeper in my addiction, the more I distanced myself from loved ones. The only new connections I really made were drug connections. Since I usually had ulterior motives, I assumed everyone else did as well – so I kept people at a distance, not really trusting anyone.  

A brain study revealed that when placed in an MRI, our reward center lights up when another person sits in the room. Neurons fire when we talk to someone or think about someone – and they go haywire when we hold someone's hand. Our brains and bodies are programmed to seek each other out and connect.  In prison, the worst possible punishment (arguably equivalent to death) is solitary confinement. Human connection is such a basic need that even innocent prisoners would rather interact with rapists and murderers than be alone. In fact, the brain is so ill-adapted to isolation that it drives people mad. Prisoners in solitary confinement become anxious, angry, prone to hallucinations and wild mood swings, and unable to control their impulses.  If so many activists and psychologists consider solitary confinement torture, then why do so many of us self-isolate and convince ourselves it’s “because we prefer being alone?”  Why do we often run for the hills when we feel the slightest connection? Why do we feel compelled to fight what we're hard-wired to do? Maybe it's because when we find someone or something to hold onto, that feeling becomes like air and we're terrified we're going to lose it. And trust me – you can get pretty good at being alone.  But, most things are better when they're shared with someone else.  We’re supposed to feel. We’re supposed to love. And hate. And grieve.  And break. And be destroyed. And then build ourselves again. That’s life – that’s the entire point of being alive.  We can’t avoid it or extinguish it. At some point, we have to make a decision. 

Some people make it look so easy, connecting with another human being. It’s like no one told them it’s the hardest thing in the world. But now I’m making it my job to move that line, to push each loss as far away as I can. Because just like we need food and water, humans need each other.  I lost both my best friend & my boyfriend to this disease, among countless other friends. Despite the deep pain & grief that accompanies death, not for a moment have I regretted the close relationship we had and letting them in. In fact, I wish I didn’t waste so much time putting up walls and making them work so hard to tear them down. The only thing that haunts me is at night is wondering if they truly knew how much I loved them.  What I'm learning in recovery is that these walls don’t keep other people out, they fence me in. Life is messy. That’s how we’re made and how it’s supposed to be. So, I can either waste my life drawing lines, or live my life crossing them.

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Myths About Addiction Treatment

Addiction is a mid-brain disease effecting millions of individuals and their families. Perhaps you know someone in active addiction; your spouse, child, co-worker, yourself? As an outsider looking at someone suffering from addiction, you may think to yourself, “She needs to hit rock bottom”, or “Why can’t he stop on his own?”. A common myth about addiction is “When people don’t stop using or relapse it means they have not hit rock bottom and need to feel more pain”. This is far from the truth. Negative consequences from addiction may be loss of employment, homelessness, legal issues, problems within the family system or failed relationships. However, hitting rock bottom is not required to enter treatment or seek help. Although a certain amount of pain is necessary to realize you are sick, forcing yourself to continue experiencing pain is punishing yourself for failure to stay sober. Once you realize the pain of drinking or using drugs is more intense than the pain of not drinking or using is the time to seek help. A fallacy about addiction treatment is “I don’t need anyone to help me. I can do this on my own”. Evidenced based research about addiction and recovery find addicts working toward recovery at an addiction treatment center are more likely to maintain long term sobriety if they have a safe support system helping to encourage heathy decisions and provide accountability. Here at South Orange County Detox & Treatment, we provide you with a treatment team of experienced and knowledgeable clinicians, techs and support staff members who assist you in gaining the skills you need to build a positive support system and maintain sobriety one day at a time. Don’t let myths about addiction and treatment block you from receiving the help you need and deserve.

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There's Hope at South Orange County Detox and Treatment

I hear a variety of reasons clients make the decision to come to treatment. Perhaps they were strongly encouraged to enter treatment by their employer or a family member. Or, a client will tell me they are filled with shame, guilt, sadness, or anxiety and no longer want to feel the pain. I listen to a young man recall the trauma he experienced as a child, a mother tearfully describe herself as “a bad mom” and a 25 year old woman tell me this is her seventh time in treatment and she cannot picture her life without drugs/alcohol. Despite their reported challenges, I have hope for their recovery.

To me, hope represents the belief in your abilities, even when feeling at a low place in your life. It is not uncommon for an individual struggling in addiction to feel hopeless. The addict may think to themselves, “I’m too far into my addiction”, or “The withdrawal process is going to be too hard”, or “I’ve tried before and failed”, but I have hope in your recovery. The greatest reward I receive providing individual, group, couples and family therapy at South Orange County Detox and Treatment is witnessing the courage, resilience, and change in each person. The journey of recovery can be painful, intimidating and challenging. I witness a person with intense symptoms of anxiety share their thoughts and feelings during group therapy, I feel hopeful. When a client struggling with depression challenges a negative thought, I feel hopeful. If the client chooses to remain in treatment instead of running to what is comfortable, I feel hopeful.

Do not let a lack of hope deter you from receiving the help and support you need to begin your recovery. At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, we have hope for you.

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Finding Hope at South Orange County Detox and Treatment

I hear a variety of reasons clients make the decision to come to treatment. Perhaps they were strongly encouraged to enter treatment by their employer or a family member. Or, a client will tell me they are filled with shame, guilt, sadness, or anxiety and no longer want to feel the pain. I listen to a young man recall the trauma he experienced as a child, a mother tearfully describe herself as “a bad mom” and a 25 year old woman tell me this is her seventh time in treatment and she cannot picture her life without drugs/alcohol. Despite their reported challenges, I have hope for their recovery.

To me, hope represents the belief in your abilities, even when feeling at a low place in your life. It is not uncommon for an individual struggling in addiction to feel hopeless. The addict may think to themselves, “I’m too far into my addiction”, or “The withdrawal process is going to be too hard”, or “I’ve tried before and failed”, but I have hope in your recovery. The greatest reward I receive providing individual, group, couples and family therapy at South Orange County Detox and Treatment is witnessing the courage, resilience, and change in each person. The journey of recovery can be painful, intimidating and challenging. I witness a person with intense symptoms of anxiety share their thoughts and feelings during group therapy, I feel hopeful. When a client struggling with depression challenges a negative thought, I feel hopeful. If the client chooses to remain in treatment instead of running to what is comfortable, I feel hopeful.

Do not let a lack of hope deter you from receiving the help and support you need to begin your recovery. At South Orange County Detox and Treatment, we have hope for you.

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Healing from Drug Addiction

The healing process in addiction, in my opinion, is the whole point of recovery. After all, in active addiction we beat ourselves to a bloody pulp and destroy everything we touch. So, it's only right that the healing will initiate in Detox, we are clearing our body, mind, and spirit of all the evil, putrescent, and malignant darkness that has accumulated during our drug and alcohol use. Detoxing from Heroin, Fentanyl, Xanax, Alcohol, or any substance for that matter, can be a very uncomfortable process, so it is best to do so in a private, comfortable setting, such as South Orange County Detox and Treatment. This is the detox and treatment center I chose to accomplish the healing that was much overdue in my life. Once I made it through the detox process, the healing started to really take form, Salina Shuler is so gifted at personalizing, and constructively figuring out a treatment plan to best suit each addict differently. Salina is a master at using the Strengths Approach and Gestalt techniques, pulling from my gifts, strengths and values that I otherwise thought damaged beyond repair. Addiction is no joke; this is a life-or-death disease. The ever-growing Fentanyl Opioid Epidemic that is impacting our communities and killing Sons, Brothers, Sisters, Fathers, Mothers, and Friends every day at an alarming rate is a significant reason why I take the healing process so seriously. I believe my story of recovery from the darkest depths of oblivion, is that of which I can spread hope to the still struggling addict.

Maya Angelou once said,

“As soon as healing takes place, go out and heal somebody else”

This is the the basis of 12-Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, to carry the message. I am so grateful today for the pain, and reckless abandon that once ruled my life, because God allowed me to experience agony in my addiction to shape me into the man I am today. Through the healing process of recovery, I was opened up to a whole new side of my inner self I never knew existed. With Salinas help, and South Orange County Detox and Treatment, new avenues of a prosperous life took form, and all I needed was the willingness to strive for a better future and the path was forged. Out of darkness comes enlightenment; from hopeless to hopeful. You do not have to give up, do not throw in the flag, healing from addiction is possible, recovery is doable, the road to a better life is screaming at you to let them in. I will leave you with this

“Pain is a pesky part of being human, I’ve learned it feels like a stab wound to the heart, something I wish we could all do without, in our lives here. Pain is a sudden hurt that can’t be escaped. But then I have also learned that because of pain, I can feel the beauty, tenderness, and freedom of healing. Pain feels like a fast stab wound to the heart. But then healing feels like the wind against your face when you are spreading your wings and flying through the air! We may not have wings growing out of our backs, but healing is the closest thing that will give us that wind against our faces.” ― C. Joy Bell

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Faith Without Works is Dead

Faith without works is dead. That is something I have learned in the rooms of AA. Since I was fifteen, I never really understood the meaning of that until recently. I have always questioned people who had faith in God. I never understood how people found peace and comfort in something they could not touch or see. I could not ever seem to find that connection that so many people talk about. Just recently, it was told to me that God will put as much into me as I put into Him. Up until a few weeks ago, that was nothing. Since I have been reaching out and asking God to guide me, I feel like my life is going the right direction. Things are starting to happen for me today that I never thought possible in the past. I find that my freedom and happiness are tied in directly to how much faith I have that God will take care of me. Finding faith in sobriety is something I will always be grateful for.

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Holding On To Faith

Faith is something that has helped me consistently throughout my life. Especially in my addiction. I have relied on faith multiple times, and I truly believe that because of my faith, I was able to survive a lot of dark times in my life. I remember sitting in a jail cell, completely lost, with a totally sense of abandonment. I had given up on myself, and the world. But for some reason I still had faith that God would get me through this. I kept praying multiple times a day “ God, please give me the strength, courage, and willingness to get through all this”. The best part about this, He did. I truly believe God put me through the toughest times in my life, to allow me to be more grateful for what I have, to make me stronger, and a better person. Through those trying times, I won't lie to you, I sometimes lost my faith, I lost my way, and forgot who I was, but somehow, someway, my faith returned to me, and it gave me the munch needed boost of strength and hope I needed to get to where I am at today. I have not only had faith in God, but also faith in the people I care the most about. I have put my complete faith in them, to help me, and push me to my true potential in life. I have had the most faith in Salina Shuler, and South Orange County Detox and Treatment to get me back to my true self and succeed at life. When I was hopeless, and on the verge of death, I knew in the back of my mind that the only person I had faith in to get me back on track, was Salina. 9 months ago, if you would have told me I’d be clean and sober, going to college, have a car, money in the bank, and relationships restored, I would have thought you were living in a fantasy, but it's all true. The faith I put in God, Salina Shuler, and South Orange County Detox and Treatment has truly paid off, because I know for a fact I could not have come as far as I have on my own. I honestly believe today that without faith, I would be dead. So, anybody reading this blog, I urge you to have faith, we do recover, and there is help out there, just hold on, and put your faith in God, in someone you trust, in something, just hold onto that faith.

[socdetoxblog]

Growth, An Essence of Change

Growth is an essence of change, in my opinion. At least, when the change is positive. For me, a lot of growth has happened in my life over the past 8 months. If you would have told me 8 months ago, I’d be sober, going to school to become an addiction counselor, money in the bank, and back on good terms with my family and friends, I would have said no way. And that's not to say it hasn't been easy. Looking back on all the growth that's happened I think back on all the times I fought the opportunity to change my perspective or take direction because it was out of my comfort zone. It was uncomfortable, humbling, and mentally exhausting at times, but that's when the most growth was happening, when I was breaking out of my false self, and shaping back into my true self. I’ve had to set my ego aside, take direction, put my trust in others, and allow God to work in my life. The amount of growth that has happened in my life recently has helped me completely change my outlook on life. I used to wake up and be so depressed, so alone that I honestly did not care about anything, I hated the world, myself, and everyone around me. One day I had finally had enough and reached out to Salina and South Orange County Detox and Treatment because I knew that was the only way I was going to live another week. Since then, I am truly grateful to be alive, I wake up happy, thanking God every day for the blessings he has shown me, I am more than happy to be of service to people, and going to school for addiction counseling has given me a sense of purpose again in my life. The growth that has happened in my life has allowed me to let go of the things I don't need and gain new tools that I do need to be successful in recovery. It has allowed me to get back to a place of serenity, gratitude and love. Also, seeing the growth that has happened in others has been absolutely inspiring. I look forward to more growth happening in my life as well. I know at times I will fight it, and not see in the moment that growth is taking place, it will be uncomfortable, and sometimes confusing, but from experience I know now that as long as I give it a chance, growth will never stop happening in my life, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically.