transitional living 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 »

How Outpatient Treatment Helps The Chronic Relapser

How Outpatient Treatment Helps The Chronic Relapser Treatment facility professionals will usually discuss with patients and their families, the need for outpatient treatment. You may have heard the terms extended treatment or sober living after completing the initial detox portion of a program. The reason for this is results. It has been shown that completing a full continuum of care helps patients remain clean after treatment. Outpatient treatment is especially helpful for people who have been to many treatment centers for addiction and have repeatedly relapsed. There is benefit for everyone to participate in an extended care treatment program. It may however, be particularly helpful for young adults and 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 »

Recovery After Relapse

Recovery After Relapse There are many points of view on a relapse. One school of thought says that relapse may be part of the recovery process. It has also been stated that relapse occurs only when the commitment to being clean and sober is weaker than the desire to use again. Yet others claim that relapse is a symptom of a brain disease called addiction that occurs in some drug users, but not others. Regardless of your perspective, for people suffering from drug addiction, relapse is an event with potentially catastrophic consequences. Even if one were only clean and sober for a short while, that probably enough to be aware more »

Why Choose A Sober Living Facility?

Why Choose A Sober Living Facility? While many may be familiar with the detox and initial stage of the recovery treatment process. A phase which sees people receiving extensive psychotherapy and counseling, participating in group activities and learning important life skills that help form a foundation for achieving lasting recovery, sober living is often less discussed. A more thorough approach to treatment such as aftercare, sober living, and transitional living may be less familiar to those who have not personally been through the recovery process. Furthermore, it is important to understand how outpatient programs, sober living and transitional living programs may be of benefit in helping people further their success more »

How Loneliness Can Threaten Sobriety

How Loneliness Can Threaten Sobriety The belief that people need other people is a universally accepted concept. It has become a gold standard in recovery programs: Don’t get too lonely. Non-alcoholic members of the psychiatric profession tend to equate loneliness with boredom. If there is any one thing that must be included in the alcoholic’s life before he can once again become a whole man it is worthwhile activity. This may be Twelfth Step work, vocation, avocation, or anything else. Such activity must be present in order to fulfill his or her existence and eliminate loneliness. We must also consider the loneliness brought about because the newcomer lives alone. But more »