choice house blog

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) outlines four stages of recovery for patients with addictive behavioral disorders who also have subsequent substance misuse issues. These include: Withdrawal Early Abstinence Protracted Abstinence Adjustment/Resolution These stages are in no way an exact representation of every patient’s psychological and physical experience undergone in addiction recovery.…

The process of transitioning from being an addiction recovery patient in rehab to living an independent, sober lifestyle needs to begin long before you are discharged. Planning can avoid potential pitfalls and unnecessary triggers and is an integral step to the addiction recovery process. You can not afford to let the “pink cloud” bliss and…

Gratitude is one of the essential pillars of the addiction recovery process. From Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) to Smart Recovery, gratitude remains a universally recommended practice in the addiction treatment community and an important phase of all 12-Step programs. Being thankful may seem like a simple and unimportant piece to the addiction recovery puzzle – a…

As the final weeks of your inpatient addiction treatment program begin to wind down, preparation and planning for the next transitional phase of your recovery — re-entering society — will need to ramp up. Logistical decisions like where you are going to live after being discharged from rehab are of vital importance to maintaining long-term…

More often than not, diagnosed cases of substance misuse and addictive disorders are accompanied by co-occurring mental health disorders. According to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAHMSA), an early 1990s study showed that 50 to 75 percent of addiction recovery patients had been diagnosed with some form of a…

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) has become the de facto treatment program for addiction recovery in America. The nonprofit, volunteer organization’s peer-based meeting groups and 12-step program are universally accepted in the addiction recovery community as effective methods for achieving initial sobriety as well as maintaining long term abstinence from substance abuse.  There are no hard statistics…

Mixing socialization with the imbibing of some form of mind-altering substances is a common practice among Americans to help alleviate social anxiety and supposedly elevate the overall mood and public discourse of a social interaction. A variety of illicit drugs are also utilized for a similar purpose, but alcohol is the most popular and legal…

When a loved one – be it a significant other, a family member, or even just a friend – is in trouble, the natural reaction is to lend a helping hand and provide some form of assistance. At the very least, the desire to help generally persists even when given no opportunity to tangibly provide…

Individuals with addictive behavioral disorders who are still actively misusing illicit substances often spend a large amount of time and effort deceiving others, as well as themselves. Lies about finding ways to obtain illicit substances or hiding their substance misuse from employers or loved ones can consume a large portion of their daily routines. Although…