Some recovered individuals wonder if smoking pot after completing drug or alcohol addiction treatment will lead to relapse. For many, pot is considered a “soft” drug, and it’s easy to rationalize away marijuana use—especially if it was not your drug of choice to begin with. However, even a single use of marijuana can lead to [...]

After experiencing release from alcoholism during inpatient addiction recovery programs, one of the most common questions newly sober people ask is, “Will one drink cause an alcoholism relapse?” No one wants to forfeit their newfound sobriety for a life ruled once again by addiction, of course. However, when we find power over alcohol addiction, it’s [...]

After graduating a drug or alcohol addiction treatment program, many formerly dependent individuals find themselves relapsing back into drug or alcohol use—many within the first year of treatment. In the wake of relapse, it’s easy to feel like a personal failure—or to simply believe that solutions that bring sobriety to others will not work for [...]

When alcohol or drug addiction relapse occurs, people often own it as a form of personal failure. In fact, drug or alcohol addiction relapse only demonstrates that underlying issues have not been properly treated during your inpatient alcohol rehab stay. However, once you have healed from the psychological and physical causes of your addiction, certain [...]

After a drug or alcohol addiction relapse, it’s easy to feel as if you’ve failed yourself and those around you. However, relapse does not indicate your future success in eliminating drug or alcohol addiction from your life. It simply indicates that you need addiction treatment that identifies and fully resolves the psychological and physiological reasons [...]

Underneath the physical addiction that comes with prolonged alcohol use often lies emotional or psychological pain that has led us to seek out alcohol as a solution to–or as an escape from–our problems. For many, emotional trauma that they experienced at the hands of others represents unresolved pain that leads them to seek out the [...]

One dangerous potential complication from chronic drug or alcohol abuse is dehydration—the loss of too much water from the body. Many people erroneously discount the dangers of drug and alcohol related dehydration, due to the fact that when sober, we naturally drink water when feel extreme thirst. However, this natural process of hydration gives us [...]

In the wake of severe, repeated or life-threatening trauma—such as abuse, rape, war or disasters—survivors can develop a condition known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder experience indelible psychic scars from their traumatic experiences, leading to hyperarousal, debilitating fear, and reexperience of the trauma long after the traumatic incident has [...]

For those with chronic PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), traumatic experiences do not end when life-threatening situations are resolved. Because of the severe trauma to the brain and body, sufferers of PTSD find that traumatic memories disrupt their daily lives on an ongoing basis. Those suffering from PTSD tend to experience health risks, immense levels [...]

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder which can manifest after an individual witnesses or survives a life-threatening event. The overwhelming psychological trauma involved leads to difficulties in memory processing, allowing the experience to resurface as if it were recurring in the present. The trauma symptoms in survivors of PTSD range from flashbacks [...]