Saving Your Child: 6 Steps to Confronting Addiction to Drugs and Alcohol

There’s no denying it. The signs are all there. Your child is addicted to drugs or alcohol. As a parent, it's scary discovering your child is addicted. In fact, there’s probably nothing scarier as a parent.

Now, it’s time to act to help your child—and your family. Addiction impacts the whole family—not just the child.

The question is what are you going to do about it? How are you going to get your child and family back on track?

Follow these steps to confronting addiction to drugs and alcohol.

Stop and Take A Deep Breath

The first thing you need to do is stop and take a deep breath. You need to prepare yourself before intervening in your child’s life.

You also need to take time to prepare yourself for the critical conversations ahead and for laying the foundations for more positive outcomes.

Next, if you have a spouse, talk with them. You need to come together on a common stance on drugs and alcohol before talking with your child.

Even if you disagree, you need to come to together on the stance you’ll take. What is important is that you are on the same team, working towards the same goal.

Communication will be key for you child’s recovery.

Tips on Helping Your Child

Talking about addiction with your child won't be easy. Neither will helping him or her through recovery. Below are some tips to help both your child and you through this difficult period:

Educate yourself — Educating yourself on the recovery process is critical. Many misconceptions surround this disease. Educating yourself helps you understand how and why your child got addicted. Doing this will prepare you for what’s to come.

Stop enabling your child — There's a fine line between helping your child and enabling him or her. Enabling makes it easy for your child to continue using drugs or alcohol. Check out these signs to determine if you’re enabling your child’s addiction.

Focus on treatment — You child's poor decision-making is what got him or her in trouble. Don't dwell on those troubles. Instead, encourage your child to recognize his or her potential and take positive actions. Also, encourage them to enter rehab, and listen to their needs and goals.

Create a bond of trust — You might be experiencing many challenging emotions once you find out your child is addicted. Negative emotions can create an atmosphere of distrust and dishonesty. Instead, prepare yourself for positive interactions and productive conversations.

Expect anger but remain calm — Your conversation with your child will not be comfortable. Prepare yourself to hear things that will shock you. He or she might even accuse you of distrust or worse. You might even discover things about yourself that will be hard to accept. Stay calm. If the conversation gets heated, end it and start again.

Set reasonable goals — Have a desired outcome in mind when first talking with your child, but keep expectations low. Don’t expect them to admit use and pledge to stop doing what they’re doing. Instead, take a one step at a time approach by setting a small, but realistic goal.

Discovering your child is addicted to drugs or alcohol is scary. In fact, it’s probably the scariest thing you’ll face as a parent.

Now, it’s time to act. The tips discussed above can help you sort things out and decide on the next steps. More importantly, they’ll help you put your child and your family back on track.

If you are still unsure of how to approach your child or need additional guidance, contact me today and I’ll be more than glad to help you on this difficult journey.

from
https://www.theliferecoverycoach.com/single-post/2018/07/27/Saving-Your-Child-6-Steps-to-Confronting-Addiction-to-Drugs-and-Alcohol

How to Choose the Right Recovery Coach to Conquer Addiction

Choosing a recovery coach is a critical decision. In fact, it's among the most critical decisions you’ll make on your journey to clean and meaningful life.

What does a Recovery Coach do?

Recovery coaches help make the process easier and boost your chances of staying in recovery beyond one year. For many, it’s the difference between recovering and not recovering.

They understand what addiction is and how it affects people. Coaches have the skill and experience to help you navigate the addiction treatment world and engage in recovery in a motivated way.

Plus, recovery coaches can walk you through hard-hitting cravings, reduce relapses by spotting the signs before a relapse occurs and accompany you to treatment- and recovery-related activities.

The Role of a Recovery Coach

Let’s be clear. Recovery coaches aren’t therapists. Nor are they sponsors or peers. They’re trained professionals with the tools and know how to help transition from addiction to recovery.

Often, coaches use a model similar to harm reduction and motivational therapy. This approach encourages positive actions designed to help you achieve a successful recovery.

But choosing a recovery coach is a challenge. There’s no “one size fits all” approach. Instead, you want a recovery coach that fits your specific needs.

7 Questions to Find the Right Recovery Coach for You

Below are seven questions you can use to help choose the right recovery coach for you. Asking them when interviewing potential recovery coaches can help you choose the right one:

Why aren’t treatment providers enough?What do you consider recovery?What skills do you bring to the job?What experience do you have with a person in recovery?What experience do you have working with addicts in crisis?How would you handle a situation that didn't go as planned?How would you deal with a client breaking the rules?

Shifting Your Thinking to Break Barriers

One of the keys to a successful coaching experience is helping you to remove the personal, social, and environmental barriers to success.

That’s imperative for recovery.

Coaches also help you shift your thinking away from limited either-or choices to other options and opportunities. Some personal skills and traits to look for in a personal recovery coach include:

Accepts your situationIs aware there are several pathways to recoverAllows you to choose your most appropriate pathNudges you toward self-empowermentHelps you stay in the present and focus on the futureIs highly action- and solutions-orientedIs collaborative, not authoritativeHelps you build responsibility and accountability for your recoveryHelps you become your own rescuerTeaches you to question faulty thinking and patterns of relapse

These are just some of the essential qualities recovery coaches should have. Above all, recovery coaches need to view you as a whole person with viable options for recovery.

Finding a recovery coach that fits your needs and has the skills and qualities mentioned above is easier said than done.

You need to do your homework to find the right coach.

But the effort Is worth it.

He or she can help make your recovery easier and boost your chances of extending it well beyond your first year.

from
https://www.theliferecoverycoach.com/single-post/2018/07/13/How-to-Choose-the-Right-Recovery-Coach-to-Conquer-Addiction

Opiod Addiction and the Role You Can Play

When you naturally have a healing aura, you attract a lot of damaged and broken people, and having them in your life could drain your energy.

It's important to be reminded that it's not your job to heal or fix everyone you encounter.

You cannot ride around with an empty tank and you must take care of yourself as well.

With this being said, we still have a responsibility individually and collectively to the alcoholic and addict that still suffer to make sure they get the best possible help they can to recover from this seemingly hopeless state of mind, body, and spirit.

Many have been left to the wayside and at this point we had but two alternatives, one was to go on to the bitter end blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could and the other to accept spiritual help. (Alcoholics Anonymous pg. 25)

According to David Courtwright, a history professor at the University of North Florida, there were 313,000 people addicted to morphine and smoked opium in the United States in the late 19th century. In the United States today about 3 million people are afflicted with opioid use disorder. Although some experts say that data which is based on government surveys underestimate the number of pain patients who are addicted to their prescription pills and that number could be as high as 5 million.

If the medical community is largely responsible for this pernicious epidemic, is it because they didn't fully understand the risks of what they were truly dealing with?

When did they realize the drugs they were prescribing were getting people hooked and eventually killing them?

If they knew about this and did nothing shouldn't someone be held responsible?

As I see the problem today, the monies that are coming into the states are being fought over by law enforcement (Narcan), medical researchers, politicians, treatment centers, and Doctors. Yes, it certainly is necessary for Law Enforcement to carry Narcan and save people once they're overdosing and to study the field of addiction and how the drugs affect the brain but let not forget about the alcoholic and addict that is suffering and dying as well.

I recently spoke with a Law enforcement officer in Minneapolis who told me he's getting grief for bringing overdosed people back to life. Some said this was their decision to get high and they should be responsible for their actions and consequences attached.

I told him its very similar to a lifeguard not going into the water to save a drowning person!!!

from
https://www.theliferecoverycoach.com/single-post/2018/06/20/Opiod-Addiction-and-the-Role-You-Can-Play

The Opioid Epidemic and what's about to change!

If you were to ask any fifth or sixth grader the effects of smoking cigarettes they would all raise their hands and tell you smoking kills. Because tobacco companies have been made to add the surgeon generals warning to all packaging, the awareness of the dangers of smoking is undeniable. If you ask a fifth or sixth grader the effects of Opioids, they are unaware because no one is making the pharmaceutical companies put warnings on the packaging. There has been no awareness or prevention model to educate and bring the truth to the public that these pharmaceuticals cause addiction and death.

Why not?

These pernicious drugs are crippling our neighborhoods like a category 5 hurricane and ravaging our youth. We’re losing 175 people a day from overdoses; the time has come for reformation and change.

What can we do?

We need to create a prevention and awareness model as well as a solution for the addicted. Many cannot afford treatment and do not know what prevention model will be effective. For early prevention it is extremely important to create role-playing as well as continually educating our youth. Role-playing allows them to play out situations in a safe environment that may occur in real life situations in the future. This prepares kids with the cognitive recall to make the right choices in circumstances, which would otherwise catch them off-guard. This role-playing model resonates with kids, focuses them and empowers them with the skills and tools needed to make better decisions. Every decision and choice leads to a consequence, good or bad, and our goal is to create healthy choices and the ability to make them through healthy living and education.

March For Recovery will be coming to a city near you soon. Our goal is to raise awareness about the Opioid Epidemic, the destruction it’s causing and the start of holding big pharmaceutical companies accountable. It’s the responsible thing to do. It is also our intention to raise money in an effort to help those unable to afford treatment.

from
https://www.theliferecoverycoach.com/single-post/2018/04/08/Changing-Coming-soon