Holistic Recovery Archives | Oceanside Malibu

The Recovery Journey

The Recovery Journey Sobriety gives us the ability and skills to deal with the “normal” issues we face in life: loss of loved ones, loss of relationships, empty nesting, career changes, physical impairment, and grieving. Recovery is a process not an event. Life is a continuum of ever-deepening circles. Put those two ideas together and we begin to understand what growing old sober might look like. In life, discovery often precedes recovery. You wake up one morning and realize, “Oh, that’s what that’s all about. We live life forward and understand it backwards. Recovery goes through stages, even as life does. In the beginning, we have an early awareness and more »

Ketamine to Treat Depression?

Ketamine to Treat Depression? There’s a new drug called Esketamine for treatment-resistant depression. This is a type of depression where people basically do not respond to any of the conventional treatments. In the United States alone, there’s just over sixteen million people with depression. That’s just over 6 percent of the entire population of the country, and a third of those people do not respond to any of the treatments offered to them. These individuals are classified as having treatment resistant depression and it’s one of the most horrible things to comprehend. To know that you are depressed, you have a diagnosis of depression, but your psychiatrist just turns around more »

Why A Relationship May Be Difficult For An Addict

Why A Relationship May Be Difficult For An Addict An addiction is a relationship. When someone is addicted to a substance and/or a behavior, that person is in a relationship with their substance or behavior of choice, the same as if they were involved with a person. Further, the relationship with the object of their addiction is the most important relationship in his/her life. He or she will do anything to protect that relationship and keep it alive, i.e. deny it, lie about it, cover it up, minimize it, blame others, etc. When a person with an addiction enters into a significant relationship, he or she is not entering more »

The Importance Of Addressing Your Core Issues

The Importance Of Addressing Your Core Issues The average approach to substance abuse treatment for the past several decades has been a crash course on the 12 steps. There is no doubt that the 12 steps provided a much needed solution to issues related to alcoholism, however AA’s stated intention was not to discount or deny the importance of treating core issues as an adjunct to the 12 steps. Moreover, Alcoholics Anonymous was to be forever non-professional, with the stated primary purpose “ to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.” The vast majority of the treatment industry has been teaching the 12 steps as the primary more »

What Is Emotional Abuse?

What is emotional abuse? Are you a victim of someone’s mind games? Nobody enjoys being played, but predators enjoy playing people. They enjoy the game of cat-and-mouse and seek pleasure from reeling in their next vulnerable victim. More often than not, people who are prone to being taken advantage of by potential abusers overlook their innocent facades. In fact, they often make excuses for them, even when they’re being poorly mistreated by toxic behavior. Why would this be? Those whom tend to emotionally abuse people aren’t always obvious. They may be male or female. They can disguise themselves by being charming but he minimization of your needs is paramount. more »

Remaining Active In Recovery

Remaining Active In Recovery The people you surround yourself with may influence your recovery or hasten a relapse. The people that surround you are a reflection of yourself. When you leave treatment, you are no longer the person you once were, but are instead a brand new version of yourself. If you go back and hang out with the friends or family members that got you into trouble in the first place, you are setting yourself up for failure. A person’s environment is an important factor to maintaining recovery. Your living space can be another contributing factor for relapse. Most former active addicts lived in an area that had easy more »