Blog - Live Rehab

Addiction Radio EP009 Intentional Living

February 9, 2019 By Nick Leave a Comment

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Do you live life fully?

Have you ever felt like you were just going from moment?

Perhaps travelling between events or situations without even really knowing why?

Are your feelings about things unclear?

Even if you’re in a great state right now with your recovery and sobriety, there is a lot to consider when it comes to living within intention.

Living with intention is interconnected with every single activity in your life. This means that it plays a role both in your active recovery but also played a role in your addiction (consciously or subconsciously).

You need to be making incredibly intentional decisions in your life in order to drive the kind of change and impact you want to see.

In this months podcast episode of Addiction Radio, we’ll talk in detail about what is intentional living, how you can apply it to your life and the power that it has for recovery.

To your recovery!

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January Sobriety Success Update

January 14, 2019 By Nick Leave a Comment

It’s been a busy few weeks here at Live Rehab and we’ve got some exciting news to share!

Supporting your recovery and sobriety goals are our number one focus – every day!

The community keeps growing and we’re incredibly humble to be helping so many of you with your goals. This year we’re really amping up all aspects of Sobriety Success to deliver you an amazing option for home-based recovery.

Here’s what we’ve been working on…

New Addiction and Recovery Courses

Over the last few months we’ve been working hard to bring you more courses and options to learn exactly how to 10x your recovery. Here’s newest courses we’ve launched:

Spirituality & Recovery
- Let’s talk about spirituality! You’re probably wondering if you have to be a spiritual person to listen to this; the short answer is no! We’ll talk about how to find what feels right for you and how to be more in tune with yourself.
Navigating Your Mental Health
- Navigating your mental health is a course designed to help you understand and practice self-care. It’s somewhat fundamental during sobriety and recovery – yet often overlooked.
Managing Professional Relationships
- You spend so much time at work and school – it has to be a major consideration in your road to recovery. Join us for this course to understand how you should treat professional relationships so you don’t ruin your career.
Fit & Fab for Recovery
- Why is fitness so important during recovery and how can you be fit during such a difficult time in your life? We’ve broken it down for you in this course. What are you waiting for? Get started right now!
Raising Drug and Alcohol Free Kids
- You will learn evidence-based parenting techniques and find comfort in knowing that what you’ve learned will benefit your family throughout their entire lives. With every lecture you will gain a deeper understanding of the bio-psycho-social model and how you can implement this model into your every day life as a parent.

Masterminds

One thing we’ve consistently heard in our feedback from you is that you really enjoy the Masterminds and their format so we’re going to continuing to run monthly webinars on a variety of topics. Just let us know what you want to learn about recovery and we’ll do our best to get something going for you!

Expanding Sobriety and Recovery Achievements

We’re working behind the scenes to increase the achievements you can earn and share with the community for the effort you’re putting into recovery. Achievement badges are a great way to make the journey of sobriety engaging and rewarding (although sobriety is it’s own reward isn’t it?)

Continued Expansion and Growth

Over the coming year we’re going to be continuing to grow the benefits of the Sobriety Success platform. There are going to be so many product enhancements, new courses and updates to share so make sure you keep your eyes peeled!

If you aren’t a Sobriety Success member yet, what’s holding you back?

Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to help you on your journey.

Addiction Radio EP008 Spirituality

January 6, 2019 By Nick Leave a Comment

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But I’m not spiritual…

And, I’m DEFINITELY not religious…

It’s a phrase we hear all the time from people who are dealing with addiction. You see, most people check out programs they’ve heard about before that have been around a long time. These programs tout a specific approach to recovery that basically forces you to be religious.

Which brings us to the problem…

Not everyone considers themselves religous. In fact, according to a study printed in The Guardian, almost 50% of people in the UK consider themselves non-believers.

So, what does that mean for people who need help with their sobriety and recovery?

It’s a solid question and you’ll be relieved to know that there IS an answer…

Listen to the podcast to hear our take on the subject.

Addiction Radio EP007 Mental Health

November 24, 2018 By Nick 1 Comment

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What is it about mental health and addiction that go together so frequently? It’s a question we wanted to dive into during this months podcast episode. Upfront, we’d like to just say that they don’t have to go together and they are definitely not always linked in ways you might think. However, we do frequently hear from people who ask about this very subject.

Mental health is an important subject to consider when talking about addiction.

Do you have a mental issue that is perhaps the cause of your addiction?

Did your addiction potentially cause a mental health issue for you?

What came first? The Chicken or the egg theory.

There’s this thing in the addiction community called the chicken or the egg theory. We talk about this when we talk about co-occurring disorders. A co-occuring disorder is when someone is diagnosed with a mental health disorder as well as a substance use disorder. The reason we call it the chicken or the egg theory is because many times we don’t know what came first.

Co-occurring disorders – why you have to treat both at the same time

If you were already struggling with a mental health disorder then it’s important that you treat that at the same time as your addiction.. You’re going to need the help of a mental health professional.

Here’s why you must treat both at the same time.

You can go into recovery from a substance use disorder by simply not drinking or taking any mind altering substances. That’s great if that happens and for some, that’s all that’s needed to live a productive healthy life. But for others, there’s much more to it than that.

Unsure? Take the 30 day test

Oftentimes, in the beginning of sobriety, people go through the honeymoon phase. This means that after detox they feel quite well, ambitious, and energetic. But then once real life starts to set back in, mental health symptoms may start to appear and triggers or post acute withdrawal syndrome start and start to become super strong. This is one of the main reasons for relapse. But if you’re armed with the knowledge of what to expect you can prevent this.

So, the 30 day test is this. If you stop your behavior or substance use for 30 days and you don’t have any major mental health struggles then you’re likely okay to just keep on doing what you’re doing and continuing to take care of your mental health by doing things from home. However, if after 30 day of abstaining from your addiction you still have mental health struggles such as anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, and so on then it’s important that you make an appointment with a mental health professional.

Those symptoms will not go away on their own.

You need to take action and take charge so that you can also obtain a life free from your addiction.

How to find a mental health professional in your area and what to expect.

So now that we’ve talked about how important it is to tackle your mental health at the same time as your addiction let’s talk about how to go about finding a mental health professional.

There are many ways you can talk to a professional. The first thing you’ll want to do it decide what kind of professional you need.

Some people start with counseling. Counseling is a good way to get professional help if you’re struggling with things are that are currently going on. Let’s say you’re dealing with the death of a loved one, having a hard time being a parent, or maybe you are having problems in your marriage. A counselor is there to counsel, to give professional advice.

Some of you may prefer a therapist. A therapist will provide you with therapy. There are different types of therapy that therapists can offer but in the grand scheme of things, a therapist will be able to treat psychological problems through therapy. So for example, if you are dealing with past trauma, severe anxiety, depression, etc. you may need therapy. Now therapists do not prescribe medication, they are skilled in a specific niche such as psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy, etc. You just need to do some research to find out what type of therapy may be best for you.

Then there are psychiatrists. Psychiatrists treat mental health disorders through the use of medication. They are the ones who will prescribe anxiety medication, anti depressants and so on. In order for a psychiatrist to prescribe medication though, you do need to have a mental health diagnosis.

If you’re unsure about what you need, many behavioral health centers offer what is called a mental health intake. A mental health intake is done by a mental health professional and it’s where you go in and sit down with someone for an a hour or two and they’ll ask you questions and then give their professional advice on what they think you may need.

Taking care of your mental health (self-care, etc.)

Taking care of your mental health should always be a priority for everyone. You should think of this on the same lines of how taking care of your physical health is important.

So there are things you can do proactively and in your everyday life to make sure your mental health is where it needs to be.

Self-care looks different for everyone and what you do depends on what your mind, body and soul need in certain situations or periods in your life. A solid self care plan has been shown to reduce anxiety, depression and can lift your overall mood and ability to cope with day to day situations.

Stop Drinking Alcohol – 6 Steps to Take Right Now

October 27, 2018 By Nick Leave a Comment

Stop.

Before you go any further in this blog you need to know something…

Quitting alcohol on your own, without medical supervision or a plan/program in place can literally kill you. You’ve been warned.

Now…

That being said, we decided to publish these 6 steps for anyone who wants to stop drinking alcohol. These 6 steps are the essential building blocks you need to take.

Obviously the 6 steps don’t cover absolutely everything that you need to consider but they do provide a solid foundation.

Quitting alcohol takes considerable effort and dedication. However, it is obviously a road we feel pretty dang passionate about.

The truth is…

You don’t need traditional rehab.

In fact, relapse rates are incredibly high for rehab.

The costs for traditional rehab are shockingly bad.

Plus, the time commitments are pretty much impossible for most people to be able to work.

Here are 6 fundamental steps you can take right now to stop drinking alcohol without going to rehab:

(oh and before you start any of these steps: DO NOT QUIT COLD TURKEY – IT’S DANGEROUS!)

Step 1 – Start by Tapering Down

The first thing you can do, even if you can’t do some of these other steps for a few months, is to begin tapering down. Figure out how much you are drinking every day and make a log.

After a week or so you should have a good idea of just how much alcohol you are consuming regularly.

Reduce that amount gradually.

Example:

Bill drinks 15-20 beers a day/night. Over the next few weeks, Bill commits to reducing that by 1 every other day or so.

The goal is to get to around 1-2 drinks a day before moving on to the next step.

Step 2 – Create some distance

By now you should be down to 1-2 drinks a day.

Our next step is to get you to only drink 6 days out of 7. You can do this by picking a specific day of the week you don’t drink.

It’s going to take a couple of weeks to get to this point (hey – perhaps even longer but don’t get discouraged).

Once you can do this consistently then you can consider adding in an extra day making it 2 days in a row.

Step 3 – Set a quit date 30 days

Congrats!

You’re now drinking (hopefully) considerably less than you were before and potentially having a day or two a week of sobriety.

What you need to do now is set a quit date 30 days from now.

Over the next 30 days be focused on going 1-2 days per week without drinking and only consuming 1-2 drinks a night.

30 days, with reduced alcohol intake, is enough time to get your body back to a somewhat normal baseline.

However…

If you experience any kind of body shakes, headaches or physical symptoms still at this point then you need a little more time to get your body to baseline.

Keep working on step 2 if you fall into this category.

Step 4 – Make yourself accountable

Find someone you can tell in your life who is important (think a trusted family member for instance) about your quit date.

Studies have shown that making yourself and your recovery accountable by telling someone improves rates of recovery.

It’s something we teach in all our courses too.

Step 5 – Prepare for triggers

This could probably be an entire blog post in itself!

Essentially you need to be thinking about what it is in your life that triggers you to drink in the first place.

Triggers are the “things” that make us want to drink.

Sometimes it’s music.

Other times it’s a location.

Heck, it can even be the people you love the most.

What you need to do is prepare to take your mind off of them;

Go for a walk
Take a shower
Listen to music
Watch a comforting TV show
Cook food
Garden

The important thing to do is find a quick way to get the triggering feeling away.

Sometimes though?

That trigger is you and that is something you’re going to have to learn to work through.

Step 6 – Stop drinking alcohol on the day

You’ve arrived.

Make the day count, stop drinking and celebrate each day as it comes.

We’d encourage you to post your success to the sobriety and recovery communities online if you can.

Each and every day you are sober is a win and worth celebrating.

In our platform Sobriety Success we have a specific area for the community to come together and share their progress.

If you aren’t a member though there are plenty of ways to share your success.

You can always post a photo to Instagram with the hashtag #sobrietysuccess and join in!

At the end of the day there is a lot more to consider with regards to your ongoing sobriety and recovery.

We didn’t even touch on nutrition, exercise, mental health and the social aspects in these steps.

They are important.

These 6 steps are a guide to help you understand the basic fundamentals needed to stop drinking alcohol.

We cover a lot more in our alcohol recovery course so we’d encourage you to check out Sobriety Success if you need more help.

One last time – don’t quit alcohol cold turkey.

Addiction Radio EP009 Intentional Living