The Importance of Nutritional Therapy for Addiction Recovery

Recovery from addiction requires your body to heal from months or years of self-abuse. This includes learning about and paying attention to nutrition, because the foods you consume affect your body, and they also can affect your mental health. Restoring your physical and mental well-being requires not only learning new coping skills that don’t include turning to drugs or alcohol, but also getting adequate hydration and nutrition. Nutritional therapy is a method of obtaining counseling and nutrition education from a registered dietitian as part of your treatment plan for long-term addiction recovery.

Nutritional Deficiencies Caused by Addiction

When drugs or alcohol is the most important thing in your life, there’s a good chance you aren’t consuming the nutrients you need. Addiction can lead to malnutrition, because it’s not uncommon for addicts to go days without eating. When active alcoholics or addicts do eat, they usually grab something fast and easy that may have very little nutritional value.

Good Nutrition in Addiction Recovery

Nutritional needs can vary from one individual to another. Factors that need to be considered include the substance of choice along with the impact of any co-occurring conditions such as eating disorders or diabetes. An important aspect of recovery from addiction is learning to begin to practice new habits of self-care. Good nutrition is part of an overall healthy lifestyle that can help lead to good mental health. As part of your recovery, you need to be sure to eat healthy meals and snacks and avoid relying on fast foods or high-calorie foods with low nutritional value. Your diet should include nutrient-dense foods such as:

  • Vegetables
  • Fruits
  • Low-fat dairy products
  • Whole grains
  • Protein from lean meats, fish, poultry, nuts or legumes

Nutritional therapy is an important part of the healing process in addiction recovery. A registered dietitian can give you expert guidance regarding changes you may need to make to your diet in order to help your body heal and to reduce the risk of cravings triggered by poor nutrition.

If you or a loved one are struggling with addiction to drugs or alcohol, please call us at 1-888-597-6257 or submit the form below to learn more about our addiction treatment programs in Los Angeles.

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Source:

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/how-nutritional-therapy-is-helping-people-overcome-alcohol-addiction

Trauma Therapy Program

Structured / Transitional / Sober Living

Are you struggling with trauma or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Trauma can be an excruciating experience. If you’re in such a situation, seek a trauma therapy program to treat the condition. When you experience trauma, you may not know how to process it or start your healing journey. Although many people feel overwhelmed by such situations, the good news is that help is readily available in a Oak Forest Recovery rehab center. The relationship between trauma and addiction isn’t a typical connection we think about. However, it’s very likely for these two conditions to coincide in the same person. What is trauma? How do traumatic events relate to substance abuse and addiction?

Common Causes of Trauma

While many people can experience trauma, the events they consider to be traumatic can be different. A trauma could include an accident, sexual or physical abuse, or a devastating natural disaster. When a person experiences an extremely stressful event of this type, the negative feelings associated with the event can linger for years to come. Thus, the trauma can impact all areas of their life.

Trauma is a mental health condition that can result from experiencing excessive physical, emotional, or psychological stress. The stressing factor can be a single, repetitive, or ongoing event. An intensive single event trauma occurs when a one-time event becomes so devastating that your brain is unable to recover. Such circumstances include rape, horrible car accidents, robbery, mugging, natural disasters, and acts of terrorism. With professional help, a person’s traumatized mind can reconcile the sense of self with the trauma. Failure to seek prompt medical intervention interferes with your life since your brain will be stuck in the past due to the troubling traumatic memories. The trauma therapy program can help you understand your trauma, the connection between your present life and the traumatic event, and your inability to manage it. 

Insight Into Trauma and Addiction

Trauma and addiction often occur together in the same individual. There are three main factors relating to the ways that these two problems overlap.

Addiction can Lead to Trauma

In some cases, a person may already be struggling with addiction. The circumstances of their addiction can put them into situations where trauma may be more likely. For example, a person under the influence of addictive substances may be more likely to experience an abusive situation.

Previous Trauma Can Increase Risk of Addiction

In other cases, a traumatic event may occur first. The individual may have a hard time coping with the negative emotions that result from this trauma. As a direct consequence of trying to deal with the effects and feelings of the event, an individual may begin to abuse addictive substances.

Trauma Can Influence Addiction Recovery

Trauma also affects how a person responds to the treatment process. For the most part, rehab centers recognize that co-occurring disorder treatment is complicated. Most facilities place importance on treating both conditions as their separate entities. Each problem requires its treatment plan to cover all concerns associated with it adequately.

Finding the Best Rehab Center

If you have a loved one who is experiencing the harmful effects of trauma or addiction, it’s understandable to be overwhelmed, anxious, or frightened. Trauma and addiction can be isolating issues that can seem to shut you off from the rest of the world. Your loved one is likely experiencing a great deal of stress as well. Try to be sure they are aware of your love and concern on a regular basis.

Oak Forest Recovery is an addiction treatment facility that serves the Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, California. Oak Forest Recovery features many unique programs designed to target the complexities surrounding a dual-diagnosis. Their young adult rehab programs excel at getting to the heart of the issue for long-term success.

Don’t let trauma and addiction ruin your chances of living a full life. Call Oak Forest Recovery Center today at 1-888-597-6257 to learn about our facility and the services we offer. Find lasting recovery today.

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Addiction Recovery For Young Women

Drug abuse and addiction affect millions of young women every year. For this reason, The Oak Forest Recovery offers life-changing drug addiction and mental health treatment that promotes lasting change. With the support of our dually credentialed, substance abuse and mental health Master’s level clinical team, women can regain control of their lives and gain the confidence needed to succeed in sobriety. Addiction is a problem impacting millions of women of all ages and ethnicities in the United States. Unfortunately, many women put off treatment because of guilt and shame, cultural expectations, or family reasons.

Women and men respond to addiction (and treatment) in different ways. When women become mentally and physically dependent on a substance, they show earlier signs, face more severe symptoms, and deal with mental health complications more often than male counterparts. Designed to meet the unique emotional, psychological, medical, and social needs of participants, our Oak Forest Recovery rehab programs help adult women get their lives back on track.

Why young women face unique challenges

Studies indicate that women:

  • Progress from substance use to substance abuse more quickly than men, even when they are using less.
  • Struggle more with relapse than male clients.
  • Recover differently than their male counterparts.

While addiction to alcohol and other drugs is an equal opportunity disease, young women are affected differently than young men. Generally speaking, young women progress faster in addiction than young men, face different barriers in getting help, and recover differently.

The following is a list of common challenges young adults face, and how our program addresses each area.

Addressing Brain Development: The brain is still developing well into a young adult’s 20’s-and with late bloomers, beyond. Oak Forest Recovery Center clinicians are trained in brain development of young adults and their propensity for risky behavior and lack of reason.

Overcome the Consequences: Our clinicians will provide age-appropriate therapy that helps them understand their risk-taking behaviors with drugs and alcohol have dangerous, life-threatening consequences. Therapists teach them how to overcome the consequences of bad decisions of the past and look forward to the future.

Understand the Brain and Body: Young adults learn best through sensory experiences, action and visual engagement. We offer a wide range of therapeutic activities in purposeful spaces which are designed for the psychological and physical well-being of our young adult patients in recovery.

Succinct Teachings: Clinical content created for the Young Adult’s Program with handheld technology and the pace of information delivery, we work within the young adult’s attention span. Now they can focus on the work of recovery and learn the tools and skills necessary for continued sobriety without social intimidation or distraction.

Overcoming Anger and Shame: From day one in treatment, our clinicians are trained to establish trust and rapport with our patients. Our therapists are skilled at allowing young adults to feel comfortable in group therapy so they can identify and discuss their feelings without fear of appearing weak or ashamed. We counsel young adults to dig deep to identify their feelings and learn to react appropriately to those feelings in recovery. Issues with anger and shame frequently prevent recovery, our clinicians are trained to teach anger management skills and give young adults the tools to combat feelings of shame.

Understanding Trauma: Our therapists are trained in the types and patterns of trauma that a young adult battling substance use disorder might have experienced.

Treating Trauma: Our clinicians are highly skilled in integrating evidence-based practices combining time-tested and research-supported techniques from several scientific and psychological disciplines to meet the individual needs of our patients.

Recover Life: Our therapies enable a young adult to address his or her past and help the individual face their future with positivity and confidence.

Life-Long Relationships: Our Young Adult’s Program provides what frequently lacks in society for a young adult with substance use disorder: a sense of belonging. Young adults have a need to be a part of a group or fellowship. By bringing young adults together in an age-specific environment to address their specific physiological and psychological needs, they become part of an important group.

Friends Supporting Friends: We give patients the opportunity to feel they belong to a supportive community with a common goal of tackling addiction and beginning a life of meaningful and sustaining recovery.

Oak Forest Recovery Women’s Rehab Program

Social and community support is vital to a young adult’s success in recovery from substance addiction. Experience proves that building a strong support foundation now will help each individual launch into sustainable, long-term recovery. If you are a young person 18 to 30 years old who is struggling to find meaning in life beyond addiction, call 1-888-597-6257 to speak with an Oak Forest Recovery specialist.

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