Mantras For Addiction Recovery

While the word mantra originated as a Hindu “sacred utterance,” people use mantras every day to guide their efforts at home, at work, and at school. The popular culture definition of mantra has evolved to mean repetitive slogan, personal truth, or structured thought. Adopting one or more mantras as part of your addiction recovery experience is a focused way to achieve your objectives and remain motivated. Words have a powerful way of changing behaviors, thought patterns, and emotions over time. Consider mantras a tool in your toolbox: useful for chanting when you are tempted to use or for achieving focused calm during meditation.

Mantras for Drug & Alcohol Treatment

I am a worthwhile, deserving person. By undervaluing themselves, addicts spiral into a dangerous pattern of self-deprecation and low self-esteem. Use this mantra as a reminder that you are lovable, valuable, and deserving of wellness and joy.

I am in control of my life. At first, these words may seem hollow. After all, most addicts feel as if their lives are spinning out of control with drugs and alcohol in the driver’s seat. Use this mantra to take a stand. Addiction does not control you; you are in control of your destiny and you have a supportive rehabilitation team ready to help.

I am not alone. Feelings of isolation can quickly give way to destructive behaviors. When you are in the grip of loneliness, remind yourself of this truth and call on your community of family, friends, and counselors to help you avoid making a negative choice.

I am making progress. While your steps may seem small, you are moving in the right direction when you seek addiction treatment. Live in the moment, celebrating small triumphs and reminding yourself that each forward step takes you further from the bondage of addiction and toward the freedom of sobriety.

I will not give in to my drug or alcohol craving today. While it is important to acknowledge that sobriety is a lifelong effort, getting through today is the most important thing on your agenda. Chant this mantra when you are feeling tempted to drink or use drugs. Meditate on it when you are in the middle of a stressful situation. Resisting substance use today fuels you to take another stand tomorrow.

Oak Forest Recovery Addiction Treatment Program

At Oak Forest Recovery, our comprehensive, clinically driven program meets young adults where they are and helps them rehabilitate their body, mind, and spirit. To learn more holistic techniques for making behavioral change and achieving long-term sobriety, call 1-888-597-6257 or email info@oakforestrecovery.com. Our 24/7 support team provides the tools you need to walk away from addiction. Begin your recovery journey today!

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The Advantages Of Sober Living After Treatment

For many recovering addicts, and particularly for young people, the transition back home from a treatment facility can be a very challenging time. Experts note that most relapses occur within the first 90 days of the recovery period, with the home environment being especially difficult for a variety of reasons. For some young adults, the stresses and dynamics of the home environment can be a root cause of substance abuse and addictive behavior. For others, feelings of having failed or disappointed loved ones can send the recovering patient back into the cycle of addiction.

To help ease this sometimes-difficult transition, addiction counselors may recommend sober living houses. These specialized facilities offer many advantages to recovering addicts whose personal situations may make returning home challenging.

Sober Living Houses: Benefits for Recovering Addicts

While some patients find it challenging to make an abrupt return from a treatment facility back into the home environment, addiction experts unanimously agree that recovering individuals need structured environments to reinforce the skills, lessons and strategies learned during the intensive counseling period. Study after study has shown that recovering addicts are at much greater risk of relapsing when they lack a stable, substance-free living environment during the critical months following treatment.

Sober living houses provide just this type of environment. Many responsible, well-run halfway houses require residents to adhere to sobriety contracts, which may include screenings and tests to make sure agreed-upon terms and conditions are being honored. To help residents meet their obligations, onsite support services are readily available. They are also highly structured: demanding that residents be employed, enrolled in school or volunteering while participating in ongoing group therapy programs.

When combined, these features help boost the recovering addict’s chances of making it through the critical first months without a relapse. At Oak Forest Recovery Center, we employ a multimodal treatment strategy built on a clinically dynamic treatment model, taking advantage of every available advantage to promote the health and recovery of our patients. If you or someone you love is suffering from addiction, we have the skills, resources and experience to help. To learn more, please contact our team by phone or confidential email today.

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What Needs To Be Understood About Drug Abuse And Addiction

If effective, sustained recovery from drug abuse is to be achieved, it will help the addicted young adult and their parents to develop a better understanding of the nature of addiction, including clearing up some persistent misconceptions. Many parents inquiring about the services of a young adult rehab in California may initially imagine their child to be lacking in the moral principles or willpower that they presume to be necessary to achieve a change in behavior.

The truth is that drug addiction is a complicated disease, recovery depending on so much more than a strong will or sound intentions. Even those who desire to stop using can find the process extremely difficult, due to the changes that drugs cause in the brain that simply increase the likelihood of further compulsive drug abuse.

Scientific breakthroughs over the years have given us a much-improved understanding of the effects that drugs have on the brain, making it easier for us to devise effective treatments based on a well-informed, evidence-based clinical approach. This is crucial, given just how damaging drug abuse and addiction are for both individuals and society as a whole – encompassing family disintegration, academic failure, loss of employment, child abuse, domestic violence…to name a few things that may occur.

It is vital that parents and young adults like to realize the true nature of addiction as a chronic, often lapsing brain disease. Although the affected person may initially take drugs voluntarily, the brain changes that this causes over time adversely impacts on that person’s self-control, making it harder and harder for them to resist what may become very intense drug-taking impulses.

There is no single factor that dictates a young adult’s likelihood of becoming addicted to drugs, although individual biology, age or stage of development and social environment can all have an effect on the level of risk. But when a person does begin to use drugs, certain chemicals can tap into the communication system of their brain and cause disruption to their nerve cells’ sending, receiving and processing of information.

The good news is that in common with such other chronic, relapsing diseases like diabetes, heart disease or asthma, drug addiction can be successfully managed. Through the right combination of addiction treatment medications and behavioral therapy, or another treatment approach appropriately tailored to the young adult’s drug abuse patterns and any co-occurring problems, that person can achieve a sustainable return to a happy, healthy and productive life.

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Oak Forest Recovery, One Of The Leading Addiction Rehab Centers In Los Angeles, California

It can be an immense source of worry if there is a young adult in your life who is struggling with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health issues. In such a circumstance, you may have started looking up addiction rehab centers in Southern California, in the hope of finding one that uses research-supported clinical methodologies as part of a program with a strong record for ensuring long-term patient recovery.

Oak Forest Recovery is just such a program. Its committed team combines evidence-based practices with adventure therapy, resulting in a treatment modality that is as profoundly effective as it is distinctively engaging. The clinical care delivered by Oak Forest Recovery prizes respect, dignity and compassion, and seeks to empower clients to discover their innate goodness, talents and self-worth. The result is genuinely sustainable, positive change.

The program also distinguishes itself from other addiction rehab centers in California by way of its unique location in Agoura Hills & Westlake Village, CA. The program is staffed by leaders and managers with proven backgrounds and expertise in the integration of adventure therapy, substance abuse and mental health treatment into successful and cutting-edge recovery programs.

Oak Recovery Center provides separate gender-specific treatment programs for young men and women, and blends such elements as adventure therapy, experiential therapy, clinical care, 12-step programming and social skills development. The program also marks itself out from alternative addiction rehab centers in California through its exclusive focus on young adults, making it the only program of its kind in the United States.

The gender separate nature of the programs is in recognition of the unique ways men and women experience addiction, with the social reinforcers of substance abuse, the disorders accompanying addiction, the biological factors of dependence and triggers for relapse all differing between the genders. These differences are all factored into a truly tailored recovery process addressing men and women’s specific social, biological, emotional and spiritual needs.

The program, on a beautiful campus, enables clients to step away from the usual everyday distractions and reflect inwardly. From individual, group and adventure-based therapy to goal setting, family work and boundary setting, the Oak Forest Recovery program incorporates all of the elements required for long-lasting recovery, and a life lived to the full, free from the hugely damaging consequences of alcohol and drug abuse.

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Pandemic blamed for Oregon’s 40% increase in drug overdose deaths

oregon-pandemic-overdose-spike

Oregon saw a nearly 40% increase in overdose deaths this year, a jump that’s similar to the trend nationwide.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention blames the increase on COVID-19. It said the pandemic has hit people already struggling with substance abuse disorders hard.

CDC figures show Oregon reported 580 deaths from drug overdoses between June 2019 to May 2020 . For the whole country, there were more than 81,000 deaths. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Medford, and it is the highest number of overdose deaths in a one-year span the country has ever seen.

“Many people who are using substances, they may be hanging by a thread as is,” said Dr. Tom Jeanne, deputy health officer with the Oregon Health Authority. “Throw in a pandemic and all the disruptions, access to housing, access to health care and mental health services, stress from losing jobs and social isolation, all of those things just compound the already significant stressors that many of these people are facing.

“The COVID crisis also interrupted ways people with substance use disorder can get help, such as mental health services, 12-step programs and ambulatory visits.”

The Oregon Health Authority is reporting a 63%t spike in drug overdose deaths during the second quarter of 2020. The deaths appear to have peaked in May and then returned to near-monthly averages in June and July. Death figures for more recent months have yet to be updated, but early data indicates a worrisome increase in November.

While most Oregon deaths from overdoses involve opioids, troubling contributors include methamphetamines and the synthetic opioid, fentanyl.

The state said it is taking several steps to try to reduce overdose deaths. For example, the state is distributing the overdose prevention drug naloxone. It’s using real-time overdose surveillance data to mount immediate responses to sudden increases in deaths. And it’s providing methadone to patients through opioid treatment providers and it’s using people who’ve recovered from drug addiction to mentor those currently using drugs.

People using opioids on a regular basis are also being advised to reach out to treatment programs, hotlines, and mental health services.

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Five overdose calls, including two deadly cases, hit Oxnard police in 10-hour stretch

Oxnard authorities responded to five overdose calls — including two fatal incidents — during a 10-hour stretch starting Tuesday afternoon.

The cluster of cases prompted the Oxnard Police Department to issue a news release that included resources for people struggling with opioid addiction.

The spate of calls started around 3:35 p.m. Tuesday when police and emergency medical personnel responded to a suspected heroin overdose in the parking lot of a business in the 2300 block of North Rose Avenue, south of the junction with Highway 101, the department reported. A 40-year-old man died at the scene after crews attempted life-saving measures.

The next two patients were revived with the use of naloxone, a nasal spray sometimes called by the brand name Narcan, which can reverse opioid overdoses. Patrol officers with many local law enforcement agencies now routinely carry and administer the spray.

Shortly after 7 p.m., a  29-year-old man described as unconscious and not breathing at Rose Avenue and Highway 101 was revived by emergency medical crews using naloxone. Less than an hour later, a bystander successfully administered naloxone to a 49-year-old woman reported as unconscious and not breathing at Ninth and B streets, authorities said.

More local news:Vagabond Inn in Oxnard officially purchased for homeless housing under Project Homekey

At around 11:26 p.m., officers responded to the 1200 block of South Victoria Avenue, south of Wooley Road, where a man was reportedly not breathing inside a business restroom. The 36-year-old man died at the scene despite live-saving efforts by medical crews.

Two hours later, police officers administered two doses of naloxone and started CPR on a 29-year-old man, successfully reviving him. He had reportedly stopped breathing in a business parking lot in the 1900 block of North Rose, north of Gonzales Road.

In 2019, 149 people died of drug overdoses in Ventura County, authorities have reported.

Oxnard police have recently increased seizures of heroin and fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, the department noted. Addiction to prescription pain relievers has caused a sharp increase in use of heroin and fentanyl use in Ventura County because heroin is cheaper and more widely available than prescription pills, authorities said.

Heroin is often laced with fentanyl, which is about 50 times stronger and can be lethal in very small doses. An amount of fentanyl equivalent to about three grains of salt could provide a fatal dose, according to police.

“Very few people can say they do not know somebody who is not affected by the epidemic,” officials said in a statement, noting that opioid addiction can touch people from all walks of life. Naloxone kits are available for family members or others who live with a person struggling with opioid addiction from Ventura County Behavioral Health.

Authorities urge residents to explore resources available from Ventura County Behavioral Health at www.venturacountyresponds.org.

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Drug Overdose Deaths in 2020 on Track to Break Record

Drug Overdose Deaths in 2020

The Deadliest Year In the History of U.S. Drug Use

While over 300,000 Americans and counting have died from COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, another public-health disaster is taking more lives than ever before: drug overdoses.

Overdose deaths in 2019 were significantly higher than 2018, jumping from 67,367 deaths in 2018 to 70,630 overdose deaths in 2019, marking a nearly 5 percent increase, according to a new report issued Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If that’s not grim enough, a separate health alert published by the CDC this week reports a “concerning acceleration” in overdose deaths for 2020, which provisional data show is on track to be the deadliest year for U.S. drug overdose deaths in recorded history. Complete data for 2020 is not expected to be available until some time next year.

The CDC estimates that 81,230 drug overdose deaths occurred from June 2019 to May 2020. The largest overdose spike happened from March to May of this year, which coincides with the beginning of the pandemic when the economy collapsed, lockdowns were imposed and “social distancing” became a new way of life. In addition to unemployment and financial precarity driving up despair, public-health experts have also suggested that isolation during the pandemic has led more people to use drugs alone with no one around to revive them or call 911 if they overdose.

“I’m horrified by the increases across the board,” Dr. Kim Sue, a physician-anthropologist who studies addiction at Yale University’s School of Medicine, told Intelligencer. “Even before the pandemic, the U.S. was going in the wrong direction.”

Illicit fentanyl, an Über-potent opioid manufactured around the world in clandestine labs and used to adulterate heroin, is largely responsible for the soaring death rate, according to the CDC. While illicit fentanyl used to be concentrated in New England, it has rapidly spread across the Midwest and in recent years has made its way to the West Coast. In San Francisco, more people have died this year from overdoses than from COVID-19. In 2019, the city saw 441 overdose deaths compared to 621 so far this year, a 40 percent jump. Across the country, deaths are also steeply rising from stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine, the CDC found, and many deaths involve a combination of different kinds of drugs, not just opioids.

America’s overdose crisis is proving to be a dynamic and ever-changing phenomenon that experts say has played out in three waves. The first wave began in the early 2000s and mainly comprised deaths from opioid pain relievers like oxycodone. After a crackdown on prescription pills, people flocked to a ballooning heroin market as pills became scarce and expensive. The third and much more deadly wave that sent the overdose rate soaring was driven primarily by powerful illicit fentanyl analogues that began to be used in heroin.

Now the U.S. may be entering a fourth wave, or something more like a tsunami. Illicit fentanyl and stimulants such as meth and cocaine now account for the bulk of overdose deaths. From 2012 through 2019, the rate of overdose deaths involving cocaine increased more than three-fold, and stimulants like methamphetamine increased more than six-fold, according to the CDC. Trends in stimulant overdoses are also on track to worsen during 2020. Deaths involving cocaine increased by 26.5 percent from June 2019 to May 2020, while deaths involving stimulants such as meth increased by 34.8 percent during the same period.

President Trump took credit in 2018 for a meager decline in overdose deaths, but they have skyrocketed even as the federal government made $3.4 billion available to states to fund addiction-treatment services and purchase the opioid-overdose-reversal drug, naloxone. A new report by the Government Accountability Office shows why that funding has made little impact: Over $1 billion in federal grant money meant for the opioid crisis has yet to be spent by states. Addiction experts cite burdensome bureaucracy, needless paperwork, and poor use of existing treatment infrastructure as reasons why so much federal money that was earmarked for the overdose crisis remains unused. “Bureaucracy is literally killing people,” Robert Ashford, an addiction researcher who studies recovery, tweeted. The latest pandemic-relief package contains another sizable investment in mental-health and addiction services. Experts also lament that federal grant money specifically intended for the treatment of opioid-use disorders wasn’t available to people who needed treatment for other substance-use disorders — such as stimulant and alcohol addiction.

Yale’s Sue and many of her colleagues believe that America’s “drug war” approach is outdated and that it has caused more harm than it aims to prevent. Focusing on suing Big Pharma, ramping up trafficking busts, and sending people suffering from addiction to drug courts are “myopic” and “misguided” approaches, Sue said. “We have to innovate and pivot quickly, enacting evidence-based harm-reduction strategies to keep people alive,” she added.

There’s a long list of policies and interventions Sue hopes to see in the near future. “I am heartened to see in the CDC report that drug checking, mobile buprenorphine or telemedicine, wrap-around post-overdose care, and diversion from jail or prison, are critical components of a novel and engaged response,” Sue said, adding she’d also like to see supervised consumption sites and much greater access to effective medications that treat addiction.

Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has yet to select a director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a.k.a. the “drug czar,” but whoever takes the job surely faces an uphill climb in their effort to prevent the crisis from getting even worse. If Biden keeps up the trend of hiring from the Obama administration and the Washington drug policy blob, America’s approach to addiction is unlikely to dramatically change anytime soon.

“Why must U.S. drug policy be led by people who continue doing the same thing, putting a square peg in a round hole and expecting improvement?” Sue said.

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