10 Signs of Addiction
Addiction is a multifaceted disease and depending on the substance and frequency of abuse; addiction treats every individual differently. While symptoms and treatment of addiction vary from one person to another, what remains similar are the signs that someone is suffering from addiction.
Below are the most common signs of drug addiction. The signs do not appear with every drug addiction, but they appear frequently enough to represent a warning sign that something is amiss.
1. Mood Swings
People who are addicted to drugs are prone to mood swings depending on whether or not they’re under drug influence. The mood swings can be as a result of a psychiatric disorder affiliated with addiction or on the substance abused.
2. Being evasive or secretive
Addicts will go to great lengths to hide their addiction. This includes keeping secrets, acting in unusual manners, or avoiding clear answers to your queries.
3. Change in physical appearance
Addiction will have a significant and noticeable impact on the victim’s body. For example, unexplained weight loss, irritated skin, strange smelling on clothing, development of unusual sores on the body or even strange smelling on clothing.
4. Apathy or complacency
While this isn’t common, it’s a noticeable characteristic. An individual who is normally quite active can lose interest all of a sudden. They will no longer seem to be interested in hobbies, skills, and talents that they typically enjoy.
5. Erratic behaviors
These can be the most noticeable signs of addiction. These responses are entirely not typical of the individual. For example, excessive giddiness out of someone who is typically serious. The behaviors can become dangerous situations.
6. Mental instability
Addiction can trigger a psychological imbalance. This is seen when the victim starts acting compulsively, lose their ability to focus, perform actions driven by paranoia or hear voices which are not real.
7. Neglecting your responsibilities
The user starts having issues at work, school or with his household responsibilities because of the addiction. Addiction makes serious and negative impacts to the victim’s day-to-day activates.
8. Memory loss
Substance abuse often leads to blackouts from a heavy usage in a small period of time. The more blackouts a victim gets the more long time memory loss that victim suffer. Illicit drugs have direct impacts on the functioning of a human brain which leads to memory loss.
9. Changes in possessions
Addiction causes a victim to lose sight of everything else. The victim may start selling personal items for cash or be in possession of improvised drug apparatuses. Some of them even start stealing to feed their next high.
10. Lying frequently
Individuals struggling with addiction will flat out lie to you to protect themselves to admitting their addiction.
Tips for Overcoming Addiction
Addiction is very complex and overcoming it may be quite challenging. It is important to understand that fighting addiction requires effort, attention, and time. With a little planning, motivation, and a lot of determination, you have a good chance to beat addiction. Whether you want to quit gambling, smoking, stop drinking, telling lies or sex, here are tips for overcoming addictions.
Know why you do it
What is the purpose of your behavior? Is it to help you deal with stress and depression or just for leisure? You must be able to answer yourself that question. It may not be easy to admit that you have a harmful habit, but you cannot change what you do not acknowledge. Be real to yourself.
Make two different lists
Get a pen and paper and write down two different lists; one which includes all the negative effects of your addiction and another one for the positive changes you want in your life. This will help you resolve to change as soon as possible.
Predict your weak points
A weak point may be your reaction to a particular condition or particular time of the day. Recognize the specific times that you are more prone to indulge in your habit and do something that is contrastive with the addiction you are trying to overcome.
Change your lifestyle
You need to change the things you do for fun, the places you visit frequently, and the people you hang out with. If you are addicted to a computer, you can remove it from the house. If you are trying to quit smoking, you can stop carrying money. You can as well remove all the alcoholic beverages from the cabinets of your house if you are trying to stop drinking. Having no access is the best way to conquer addiction.
Seek support
You may need to seek advice from a healthcare professional or walk into a rehabilitative program. Many people are battling with addictions and consequently, there are many institutions that serve as support systems that can help you stay motivated, provide tips for success, and encourage you every time you fail.
You need to accountable to someone who will give you some support tell you the truth when you are kidding yourself. You can as well get your family and friends involved in your efforts to overcome addiction.
Celebrate your achievement
You have to motivate yourself to keep moving. When you realize you are making progress, no matter how little, give yourself credit.
Kicking addiction can be very tough, but it can be done.
Resisting Your temptations
Temptations are part and parcel of our lives. None of us is a stranger to temptations. The difference is how every one of us responds to such live threatening challenges. In the life we are living today, it is much hard to live a life that is void of temptations. However, temptations differ based on situations, circumstances or environment you are in. Temptations only become sins only when you enter into it.
How do you resist temptations?
Avoiding dangerous and provocative situations
Needless to say, it is important to avoid challenging situations. If you have to avoid being tempted to do something, you must try as much as possible to keep off from situations, environment, or circumstances that can lead you to sins. For instance, it is dangerous for unmarried couples, of opposite sex, to stay together in one room. Though it is not a sin, they might be tempted to sin, making love and such. We are all human beings with feelings. If you are trying to stop taking alcohol, you must avoid going to clubs, bars or restaurant where alcohol is sold. Again, you must avoid flirting with other people if you do not want cheat on your partner.
Right company
The company that we have matters a lot. It can lead us to do evil without knowing. For instance, if you never want take drugs, you have to avoid the company of drug peddlers and users. Though you will try to be hard at the start of it all, the truth is that you will be tempted to taste and slowly by slowly you become a peddler. Therefore, you must choose your company wisely. Be in a group that will not lead you to temptations of doing what to do what you do not want at all.
Be occupied
When we are idle, we get ourselves doing things that we later come to regret. Therefore, if possible, ensure you are busy doing constructive things. A busy mind will not have room for crazy thinking.
Think and meditate on long-term consequences of your gratification.
When you want something, first try to think about the immediate or long-term consequences. For example, if you tempted to fall in love with a second partner, you need to think about the long-term repercussions. You will hurt you long term partner when he /she comes to know about it. You will damage the trust your partner has for you, and you may even lose the relationship for that temporary affair.
The Power of Having An Accountability Partner
The idea of being held accountable by someone else so as to achieve your goals is not a new concept as most people who are truly successful always engage the services of an accountability partner. Such a partner takes the role of a mentor and a trusted confidant whom you can trust to provide guidance and the motivation required to forge ahead. They do not set goals for you but serves to assist you in achieving them.
To help you keep motivated and committed to your plans, it is recommended that you seek out a partner whose sole purpose is to keep you on the right path and provide you with support and wisdom you require along the journey. It can be a friend, relative or a co-worker. Find a person who can resonate with and whom you can learn from.
The partner will help you when you are failing to reach your potential. They will tell you when you are resting too much and when you are lying to yourself. They will call you out and help you remain on your toes. They will act as test groups, sounding boards and gatekeepers that will keep asking you exactly where you stand with your goals.
Another benefit of having an accountability partner is that you become motivated towards achieving your goals. Willpower is an essential tool towards success. Unfortunately, it becomes fatigued, and once it does, it can no longer be reliable. A partner who is invested in you can help you raise your spirits and make the right choices to help you keep on course.
The person should also be able to confide their goals in you. Accountability should always be a reciprocal process. Even when it’s for different targets, you should offer similar benefits as they are providing to you. Learn about their goals, and be their accountability partner. These partners are an important resource in your path to improvement, and should, therefore, be treated with high levels of gratitude.
The partners are good for idea sharing, brainstorming and promoting creativity. They will come with different experiences, ideas and perspectives that will assist you in overcoming your challenges and obstacles. Being able to be creative and brainstorm with another person committed to helping you solve your problems is the greatest benefit you will from your partner.
The bottom line is that if you are always struggling with succeeding in certain areas of your life, consider getting an accountability partner who can help you solve problems and overcome challenges.
5 Tips for Eating Healthier
Eating healthy during recovery from drug addiction is an important strategy since addiction like any other disease is best fought if you are fit physically, mentally and emotionally. These 5 Tips for Eating Healthier eating can help you get started on this life-changing journey.
Eating a balanced diet is important during recovery. Your body requires proteins, vitamins, sugar, minerals and other food supplements to get back in shape.
Hence ensure all your meals contains:
Proteins
Proteins contain elements required to repair damaged tissues and help the growth of new tissues thus you should increase your protein intake. This is a necessity for recovering addicts since substance abuse can damage important body tissues including brain tissues. Thus increase your intake of poultry, seafood, beans, lean meat, nuts and seeds among others. It is common to constantly feel hungry during recovery as your body is making adjustments. Proteins take longer to get digested in your body; hence can help you stay full for a long time and avoid overeating.
Vegetables
As a general rule, always ensure that half your plate contains vegetables either raw or slightly cooked. Vegetables contain numerous vitamins, nutrients and photo nutrients that your body requires for full recovery. One thing that you will experience while recovering is constant cravings which can be fought by eating vegetables, and the best part is you can at as much as you wan without adding calories since they are low in calories.
Fruits
Like vegetables, fruits help your recovery process by supplying your body with fiber, natural sugar and minerals that can help reduce the chances of getting life-threatening ailments associated with drug addiction. Other than improving your digestive system, fiber contained in fruits can help prevent some diseases like diabetes and cancer. Avocados are known to contain fats that help the repair of cell membranes. These are the cells that determine your mood, thus increasing avocado intake can help to stabilize your mood during recovery.
Drink lots of water
The last thing you need during recovery is a dehydrated body which is it common for a recovering addict, thus increase water intake to keep your body hydrated. Water can help improve how you feel particularly when feeling depressed, stressed or anxious which are common during recovery. Thus, take at least 8 glasses of water or more especially if you are exercising. Complement water intake with tea, fruit juice, soft drinks and milk but not alcohol since it can lead to further addiction or relapse. Other than helping you avoid overeating by filling up your stomach, water can also help in repairing damaged skin tissues to keep you a young and youthful look.
Eat regularly
Never skip meals during recovery. Skipping meals can cause you some cravings which can lead to relapse or addiction to something different. Aim to take three meals in a day and take a snack or two during the meals. The snack can be a fruit or quality dark chocolates. Keep in mind that although chocolate can improve your mood and make you feel better, they are also rich in calories thus eat in moderation. Breakfast is the most important meal and you should take it at all costs. Ensure that your breakfast contains fiber, whole grain, bread potatoes pasta and anything that can give you energetic for the rest of the day. Caffeine is quite addictive, thus unless you really need it avoid drinking coffee during recovery.
Remember drug addiction is a disease and not a sign of weakness, thus fight it by trying these tips.
How Exercise can help you Beat Addiction
When exercise is incorporated into addiction recovery, it makes the process easier. How does it do this? Exercising helps you to overcome emotional and physical withdrawal symptoms, thus enabling your body to kick the habit that much faster. Exercise does not have to be difficult; any physical activity that makes you feel rejuvenated is fine. Are you wondering how exercise can help you beat addiction?
Gives you a positive attitude
During exercise, the body releases feel-good hormones known as endorphins that help you to keep a positive attitude. People who maintain a positive attitude throughout the recovery process overcome addiction a lot faster. During your addiction phase, you may have been using your drug of choice as a means of escape, to get away from a stress-filled life. As you recover, you will learn to overcome feelings of depression and stress through exercise.
Requires commitment
Commitment to exercise is important as it fills your time with a new activity. This leaves little to no time for you to obsess over your addiction. Physical training gives your life purpose because it gives you a new goal on which to focus. When you start planning and organizing your time around exercising, your attention will shift to healthier things. Additionally, when your time is spent working out, the chances of having a relapse decrease.
New friends
Most addicts tend to hang out with their old, addicted friends. However, when you start exercising, you will meet like-minded people. Working out with others will help in keeping you motivated. Once you start challenging each other, the sky will be the limit. As an addict, you need to be held accountable for the goals that you set, and your new friends will do that for you.
Heals your body and brain
Studies show that exercises can heal your body and mind. During addiction recovery, exercising is important as it helps the body to conquer the destruction that it has recently encountered. When done correctly, exercise can help with diabetes, the immune system, depression, and the vascular system. Moreover, exercises burn unwanted fat that the body stores during an addiction phase.
Creates structure
Having an exercise schedule brings structure into your life. The structure is very important to people who are dealing with addiction problems. When a recovering addict is idle or bored, his or her life often descends into chaos. Creating a structure will help you to stay away from addiction because you have something to look forward to doing.
How to Remove Things That Trigger Your Addiction
Even with the psychological and physical disorders that have plagued the mankind for a very long time, addiction has still managed to beat them all and stay at the top. To make the matter worse, many treatment centers are using this lapse to exploit the poor and many recovering addicts, but which is the best way out of this deadly disease? Here are some useful facts on how to remove things that trigger your addiction
Early detection
The sooner you start your road to recovery, the relatively easier your work will be. If you suspect that your regular and constant involvement with substances and problem behavior has escalated into something more hideous, such as addiction, try to understand it and find a way in which you can change for better.
In validating your suspicion of addiction, you need to get acquainted with the different signs and symptoms that are associated with the condition. A growing tolerance for substances or behavior is the most telling sign of all. Another sign you have to look out for is the pursuit of engagement to addictive activities even when health, personal and occupational hazards are involved.
Cutting addiction at its heart
Understanding the different causes of addiction gives you a better opportunity of outdoing them. Many experts have maintained that addiction is not a brainchild of drugs and alcohol or problem behavior alone, but a combination of different causes, starting from the availability of the activities to the psychological and environmental factors experienced both in the past and present.
Hypnotherapy is a very effective means that elucidate the different causes deeply hidden in the sub-layer of the conscious mind. What hypnotherapy does is to empower the individual so that they can get to the bottom of the internal conflicts, come up with the resolution and destroy the addictive pattern. As the deep seethed pattern dies, so does the addiction.
Where to get help
Many hypnotherapy clinics are in operation all over the world; some rehabilitation centers even offer courses for hypnotherapy. Search the addiction directory to find a clinic your area. You could also get a hold of hypnotherapy CD programs that has courses for detoxification, formal treatment, and full integration of the self to the fullness of life.
Getting a relevant addiction info helps solve your addiction problem with lesser difficulty. Awareness of your involvement with substances and problem behavior, understanding the underlying causes of your addiction and knowing where to get help are effective tools for you to finally overcome your addiction.
5 Effective ways to Stay Motivated When You Are In a Slump
It is pretty obvious that experiencing slumps is quite upsetting and everyone can experience it at any time. This kind of situation makes you feel unmotivated. If you are in such circumstances, maybe you have struggled to break out of it and you are unable, then you don’t have to worry. There are ways in which you can get motivated in your life.
Below are the effective ways to get motivated:
1. Accept the slump
It is important to accept the tumble. This is the key point that you should note for you to stay motivated. The best thing is to try not to expect much and bear in mind that there are downswings in life. If you accept the fact that you are in a tumble, then you will be able to encourage yourself and stay motivated.
2. Take Action
One you have fully accepted this slump, you will be able to take action because before it happened, you had goals to accomplish. At this point, you can ignore the downswing and move on. Try to accomplish all the goals that you had planned and you will definitely feel motivated. Taking an action will make you feel better.
3. Avoid Over- thinking
When you are in a slump it is obvious that you will think deeply. The best advice is to avoid such excessive negative thoughts in your mind. Thinking too much may even lead to mental health issues such as depression. You can simply try to forget what happened and move on with your present plans.
4. Start Afresh and Reward Yourself
A slump may sometimes affect your capability to work but this doesn’t mean that you will quit. The right thing to do is to start afresh and do away with your current routine that caused the downswing. If you start a new, work hard and then reward yourself for you to stay motivated.
5. Learn from successful people
Achieving a goal is not as simple as it may sound. Many successful people have a long story to tell and you should learn from them. Keep in mind that their success had some downturn. So you are not the only one. Use all of their stories to motivate yourself in your daily activities keeping in mind that you must succeed. Work hard to improve your productivity. Don’t let the tumble win you.
If you really want to motivate yourself, having a positive mind will make you move forward.The aforementioned ways will greatly help you to break out of the tumble and stay motivated.
Read also our post “Important tips to use your mindset and focus, you can do it to achieve goals“, click here.
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