During recovery, you can deal with intense cravings, especially when you are exposed to triggers. Completing treatment can help you develop healthy coping strategies, like mindfulness-based sobriety techniques, to ensure you have the skills necessary to remain clean and sober.
Drug overdoses are the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, as well as a major cause of disability and missed workdays. The economic burden of addiction is substantial because of the serious medical and mental health problems it can cause. Addiction is a chronic, incurable, and progressive disease that can lead to a lower quality of life, shorter life expectancy, and medical problems.
Your liver is responsible for filtering impurities, which includes drugs and alcohol-abusing drugs and alcohol, overwork your liver, as well as other organs. Unfortunately, many times liver damage is irreversible, demonstrating the importance of reaching out for help as early as possible.
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What is Addiction?
Addiction affects more than 10% of Americans ages 12 and older. It is one of the most common mental health diseases in the country. Addiction has no known cause, meaning that anyone has the potential to develop a substance abuse disorder. Certain factors, like having a co-occurring condition or a close family member with an addiction history, can increase your risk of developing a substance abuse disorder. Other risk factors include:
- Experimenting with drugs or alcohol at a young age
- Having a traumatic experience
- A chronic pain condition
- Having close friends who abuse drugs or alcohol
Addiction is not an indication of weak willpower. During addiction, your brain chemistry and pleasure and reward center change. When you use your substance of choice, your brain releases a rush of pleasurable neurotransmitters. When you don’t use it, your brain is unable to release neurotransmitters without the help of your substance of choice. Once your brain connects your substance of choice with pleasure, people, places, and things that remind you of your substance of choice cause intense and powerful cravings.
If you choose to stop using your substance of choice, you can deal with withdrawal symptoms in addition to cravings, making it hard to stop without help. Mindfulness-based sobriety and evidence-based addiction treatment Crystal Lake Il offers can provide you with the skills and tools you need to navigate your recovery.
Addiction Treatment
Substance abuse treatment combines evidence-based and holistic therapies in inpatient or outpatient settings to help you learn how to fully recover from addiction. Treatment centers can offer:
- Short-term inpatient programs
- Long-term residential programs
- Medically supervised detox services
- Partial hospitalization programs
- Intensive outpatient programs
- Medication-assisted therapy
What is Mindfulness-Based Sobriety?
Mindfulness-based sobriety in Northern IL improves your cognition, concentration, and mood. Part of recovery is learning how to identify harmful thoughts or feelings and how to manage them better. Mindfulness helps you gain better insight into the underlying cause of negative thinking patterns and emotions, which empowers you to break the cycle of addiction.
Strategies like meditation and mindfulness exercises improve your ability to manage and control your stress, which helps promote relaxation and positive moods. Mindfulness exercises can be used in combination with evidence-based treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy and dialectic behavioral therapy. Holistic treatments like Yoga also provide low impact workouts that can help reduce pain and improve your balance, posture, and health.
Finding Help Today
Addiction is a deadly disease that can damage your relationships, health, and family life. Nearly half of all people in recovery relapse, which is why finding treatment is the best way to improve results. Treatments like mindfulness-based sobriety techniques can reduce your cravings and provide you with healthy coping strategies. Call us today at 855.786.1978 to learn more about how our programs can help you achieve your recovery goals.
Licensed Physician and Surgeon
Dr. Beth Dunlap, a board-certified addiction medicine and family medicine physician, and is the medical director at Northern Illinois Recovery Center. She is responsible for overseeing all the integrated medical services at both campuses. Beth completed medical school, residency, and fellowship at Northwestern University, where she continues to serve on the faculty as a member of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She has extensive experience in addiction medicine at all levels of care, and her clinical interests include integrated primary care and addiction medicine, harm reduction, and medication-assisted treatment.
© 2023 Northern Illinois Recovery.