What gives you hope?

In a hopes of drawing more people into sharing either their battle with addiction, recovery, co-dependency, or struggles even a family member is dealing with or has dealt with in a loved ones addiction, I am changing the venue of the blogs. I can write about the various drugs and their effects all day long. But it is the heart felt words of those who have dealt with various addictions in various degrees that really bring the true strength of hope. And with that, I ask, what gives you hope?

You know those days, when the road seems rougher then most. The days it takes every last bit of strength you have in you to even crawl out of bed. When the light that was shinning pretty bright is now flickering. What gives you the hope, the strength, and the power you need to pull thorough and stay on the road of recovery?

It is different for all. Some it may be the smile of their child’s eyes for others it may be the good book, and others may only need to reflect on the yesterdays and achieve all the strength and hope they need to face the day in a positive light. What is it that gives you that extra boost to make you face life head on and continue to take those steps forward?


If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

Self Pity?

No one is above not feeling self-pity from time to time. Often times are expectations of what we feel our life should be and what in reality it is varies leaving us to question “why me?” leading to wallowing in self-pity. Recovery is no different. We have set expectations about how our life should be, where it should be leading to, and expectations that are not always met. It’s funny how some think that just by going to a rehab should change everyone’s outlook on them and their past behaviors –as all should be forgotten and put into the past, no questions asked, no forgiveness needed because, after all they were an addict and not in their right mind. However, when reality hits that it doesn’t work that way, self pity rears its ugly head.

When the world doesn't measure up to our expectations, it's often our expectations that need adjusting, not the world. Start making those adjustments by comparing your life today with the way it used to be, developing gratitude for your recovery. Extend this exercise in gratitude by counting the good things in your life, becoming thankful that the world does not conform to our expectations but exceeds them. If you continue working the Twelve Steps, further cultivating gratitude and acceptance, what can be expected in the future is more growth, more happiness, and more peace of mind. Acceptance of our lives, just for today, frees us from our self-pity.


If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

Patience is a Vertue

During your recovery process, you may find yourself short in patience with yourself and others. You may expect things to happen more quickly then they are and find yourself frustrated by the process at times. These are normal emotions to have however, your response to these emotions are crucial to your sobriety. Pre-recovery, when faced with strong emotions, the first thing one did was to drown them in their drug of choice. What the recovery process is trying to teach you is healthy ways to deal or cope with the strong feelings you will have along the way and throughout your life in general.

It is important for you to learn to have patience with all things but even more so with yourself. You have to keep the faith and the courage to follow through, accepting your imperfections and setting plans to fix the ones that hold you back. Each day is anew, new challenges, and new gains. You have heard the saying “change doesn’t happen overnight” and in recovery, change can be ever going. The best changes start with a single thought and then active support and forward movement from then on, one-step at a time, one day at a time.


If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

Giving yourself permission to have fun

Recovery is hard work, but one must not lose focus on having fun sometimes too. In fact, you can actually have more fun now in recovery than you could when you were actively using. Through working on your recovery, you have opened up your real self, a new zest on life, a spiritual awakening. There is reason to smile more and frown less and its okay. No, it is better than okay. You have the right to smile, the right to feel joy and you need to give yourself permission to feel these things, enjoy them, and have fun.

You have earned the right to feel your new awakening and all the good it has to offer as long as it does not threaten your abstinence. Go out for dinner with your friends, enjoy a movie, and enjoy gatherings or any of the other numerous activities that life presents to us daily.

You have gained the tools for recovery so you can expect to have more fun. Use the inventory, the amend steps, and clear away any emotional debris that can be standing in the way of your pure enjoyment of your recovery. Tell yourself “I will let myself enjoy life and have fun.”


If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

Do You Have a Relapse Prevention Plan?

You have escaped the confinement of addiction and you know it’s not a place you ever want to return to. It still takes commitment and hard work as you continue to recover. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to know you don’t want to return to the life of an addict. It’s not even sufficient just to voice your concern. Just as you have spent time making a life plan, you need to spend time making a relapse prevention plan. This is something you need to commit to paper instead of formulating it in your mind and expecting that you will be able to remember what you decided. It is a plan that you will want to be able to read and study and adapt as you feel changes are needed.

If you have not already identified the thoughts, feelings, behaviors and situations that triggered your drug use, that will be your first step. You can’t know what to avoid unless these things have been identified. You need to be brutally honest with yourself here. If there are aspects you can’t define on your own, get help. A sponsor, a family member, friend, or a medical professional might be able to help guide you through this process.

After that is done, you will need to determine coping skills that you will be able to use to keep you from falling prey to addictive behaviors again. Ideally, for each thought, feeling, behavior, and situation you identified, there should be a coping skill in place.

Lastly you will need to develop specific strategies and monitoring techniques to ensure the application of the coping skills you came up with. The final step will be to implement the plan. All the planning in the world won’t work unless it is used.

If you have used a relapse prevention plan, take the time to let us know how it worked for you. Doing this will not only help you, it may be the key to saving someone else from a relapse. If you know someone who is locked in a world of drugs, let them know that A Better Tomorrow can get them on the road to recovery. It only takes one phone call to initiate help.


If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

More Ideas to Shore up Your Recovery

We’ve already touched on Journaling, but there are other forms of writing that can be just as helpful. Try your hand at poetry. Not the flowery kind, unless you feel moved in that direction. Try putting your feelings and thoughts about your addiction into a poem. It doesn’t have to be professional, you’re shooting for therapeutic. Don’t discount this idea; it might be easier than you think.

Write a farewell letter to your addiction. Tell it how and why you fell into its grasp. Explain how you felt when you were in its deepest pit of despair. Give it all the gory details you suffered at its hand. Let it know how much you lost of yourself and your life while you were tied to it. Tell it how you are faring now, without its devastating and debilitating effects holding you down. Let it know that you never want to see it or think about it again.

Set some goals for yourself. They could be short term or long term or a combination of the two. Write them down on a piece of paper that you can carry with you. Take it out and read it frequently, evaluating any progress you might have made towards reaching the goals.

Try writing a list of things you are grateful for. Head the list with the fact that you are free of your addiction and go from there. When you think you have completed this list, hang it where you will see it every day. I’m betting as the day’s progress you will find a lot more that you will want to add to that gratitude list.
If you are feeling like you could conquer the world, go to blogger.com and start a free blog of your own about your progress in recovery. If you have found another way to keep yourself moving forward, share it with us.

Your successes might be just what someone else needs to get them on the right path. If you or someone you know has a problem with drugs or alcohol A Better Tomorrow is there to help you get on the road to recovery. All you have to do is make the call.

If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

Recovery is a Blank Slate

You have escaped the power of drugs and now you are able to contemplate the rest of your life. Recovery is the rest of your life and it’s a blank slate right now. You are in control of your destiny, creating a life of recovery and you are responsible for all of it. It’s up to you to decide how you will fill that blank slate. You are creating your own success and as they say, the ball is in your court now.

Addiction is a disease and you cannot underestimate its power. At the same time, you don’t need to live in fear of it. Make a zero tolerance pact with yourself concerning a relapse. Don’t allow yourself to even think about where you have been. Sure there are some who suffer a relapse, but it doesn’t have to mean you will. If you have to think about drugs, think only of the down side. We all have the possibility of another relapse in us, the better question is, are we capable of another recovery?

Don’t forget to take care of your spiritual self. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics anonymous twelve step programs saw the need for a spiritual connection to a higher power. If you don’t have a relationship with God, consider giving it a try. If you have a relationship with God, work on making it better.

Spend time with your family. There is a bond there that you will not experience any where else. If the ties were damaged, work hard on repairing them. If there is any possibility that you can mend these fences it will only serve to make the rest of your life better.

If you or someone you love has a problem with drugs or alcohol, rest assured that there is help out there. A Better Tomorrow is just waiting to hear from you. They are ready to help get you on the road to recovery. You deserve a better life so make the call.

If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

Take Responsibility and Let Time Heal the Rest

You have kicked your addiction and you are ready to get on with the rest of your life. You are to be commended for your achievements. You have made mistakes in the past, and hurt others by making the decisions that you made. If you were like most addicts you probably lied to a multitude of people. You may have taken money or other items that could be sold to support your habit. Undoubtedly there were harsh words spoken and maybe a few bridges burnt along the way.

As part of your recovery and getting on with your life, you need to acknowledge the wrongs you have done, and the people you have hurt. You need to realize that just because you have gotten your act together, doesn’t mean others are willing to forgive and/or forget. Life will not be the same as it was before you became addicted to drugs, at least not in the beginning. They say that time heals all wounds and I believe this is mostly true. Eventually, when people realize that you are accepting responsibility for your actions, they will be able to set aside the hard feelings they harbored, and accept you back into their lives.

Trust is a big issue for most people. You violated that trust, probably more than once. It was not lost in a day, and it will not be earned back in a day either. It took time for you to heal and reach this point in your recovery and you have to allow others time to heal also. It is not something you can rush and it will take an on going effort on your part to see it through. Don’t lose heart in the uphill struggle. One by one, you will regain the trust and friendship of most of those individuals that you have harmed. You may not win them all back, and that is a reality that you need to accept. You do the best you can and knowing that it was your best, you’ll be able to deal with any problems.

If you found another way to deal with the problem of being a recovering addict, let us hear from you. Your experiences may be just what someone needs to help them. If you or someone you know is addicted to drugs and are ready to get started on the road to recovery, contact A Better Tomorrow. They are waiting to hear from you, all you have to do is make the call.

If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow

Life After Death

The life of an addict can be broken down into three phases. The first phase would be life before drugs. The second phase could be considered death. The third phase, and hopefully the last for you, is life after death.

Phase one covers all of the time from your birth to the point in time where drugs became your obsession. Relationships with family and friends were built. Your school years came and most likely went according to schedule. You had a variety of jobs and maybe even embarked on a career. You surely formed serious relationships, maybe even got married and had children. All of these relationships and events could be categorized from the pits to the best, or somewhere in between. No matter how you would rate each of them, they were real.

Phase two began as phase one started to fade. Drugs became more important than anything or anyone in your life. It was definitely the end of life as you knew it. There was trust that is no more. You began alienating yourself from people, family, friends and co-workers because no one could understand what you were going through. The truth is, they did understand what you were going through, they just couldn’t see a reason why. They wanted what was best for you and you only wanted the release you found in drugs. The paths were not compatible. Separation was inevitable. Addiction is a lonely place, a death in almost every sense of the word.

Life after death is hopefully your final phase. You have kicked the habit and are working hard to stay away from the temptation of drugs. You are most likely trying to mend all the broken fences of relationships with family and friends. You are heading towards being an acceptable part of society again. If you haven’t started working yet, you will. No one is about to tell you that any of this is easy, but you can do it. You will have to work long and hard to earn back the trust you threw away. Your life will go in the direction you want, you are totally in charge of your destiny.

If you have found a way that worked well for you, please share it with us so others may benefit from your trials. If you or someone you know has a problem with addiction we want you to be assured that there is help available. A Better Tomorrow is the answer and they are waiting to hear from you.


If you need help, are struggling with an addiction, or know of someone who is, please contact A Better Tomorrow Treatment Center today. We are here to help.
http://www.abttc.net/
Phone: 800.971.1586
Fax: 800.401.8464
24 Hour Addiction HelpLine
Tel. (800) 396-9389 (7 days 24 hours)
e-mail: info@24houraddictionhelp.com
http://www.24houraddictionhelp.org/

Feel free to follow us on Facebook and Twitter too!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ABTomorrow
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ABTomorrow