How You Can Prevent Going Back to Your Old Ways of Drinking and Drugging.

Relapse is a cardinal feature of addiction, and one of the most painful.

Most people who struggle with addiction will have one or more relapses - the return to drug use after a drug-free period - during their ongoing attempts to recover. This can be extremely frustrating for patients and for families, as they have already experienced great pain.

What leads to relapse?

Multiple - and often interactive - factors can increase the likelihood of relapse. These are some of the commonly cited precursors:

* drug-related "reminder" cues (sights, sounds, smells, drug thoughts or drug dreams) tightly linked 

   to use of the preferred drug(s) can trigger craving and drug seeking

* negative mood states or stress

* positive mood states or celebrations

* sampling the drug itself, even in very small amounts

The motivation to seek a drug, once triggered, can feel overwhelming and sometimes leads to very poor decision making: the user will pursue the drug, despite potentially disastrous future negative consequences (and many past negative consequences).

Individuals have different brain circuitry

Brain-imaging is helping us to understand the paradox of the decision to pursue a drug reward despite such consequences. For example, very recent imaging research shows that visual drug cues as short as 33 milliseconds can activate the ancient reward ("go") circuitry, and that this process does not require conscious processing - it can begin outside awareness.

By the time the motivation does reach awareness, and is recognized and labeled, the reward circuit has a strong head start. This head start means the frontal brain regions may be less effective. This area of the brain is responsible for weighing the consequences of a decision and for helping to "stop" or inhibit the impulses toward drug reward.

Imaging research also shows that some individuals have less effective "stop" circuitry. For these people, the job of managing the powerful impulses toward drug reward may be even more difficult.

 

When it comes to the vulnerability to relapse, and to addiction itself, we are not all created equal. We differ both in our brain response to drug rewards and in our ability to manage the powerful impulses toward drug reward.

Hope through research

Relapse is a long-term vulnerability, but intensive ongoing research is targeting the problem. The tools of brain imaging and genetics promise to help us understand our vulnerabilities - and our strengths - to help us realize more effective relapse prevention.

Relapse prevent is a major feature of our program so if you or someone you love is in the grips of ANY addiction, call us for immediate HELP and begin the admission process into the your recovery.

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS IN THE GRIPS OF AN ADDICTION CALL US TODAY FOR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE, PHONE 07 560 66315

Web: www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au

Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

ABOUT COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE (WINNER Best Not-for-Profit 2014)

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency for Australasia and New Zealand. Call us on 07 5606 6315 if you want to speak to an Addiction Specialist.

Our Founder, Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first of its kind in Australia as registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association that focuses on wellness using coaching principles of peak performance. She is currently completing her PhD on Recovery Coaching and is the first registered Recovery Coach in Australia.

We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all. Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained Taoist Monk, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Are You In An Abusive Relationship?

Are you in an abusive relationship? 

An alcoholic or addictive relationship may be marred by abuse. This symptom list may raise ones awareness of the problem. 

There are many signs of an abusive relationship. The primary sign is fear of your partner. Other signs include a partner who belittles you or tries to control you, and feelings of self-loathing, numbness, helplessness, and desperation. 

To determine whether or not you’re in an abusive relationship, answer the questions in the table below. The more questions to which you answer “yes,” the more likely your relationship is abusive. 

Signs of an Abusive Relationship 

Your Inner Feelings and Thoughts 

Do you : 

• fear your partner a large percentage of the time? 
• avoid certain topics out of fear of angering your partner? 
• feel that you can’t do anything right for your partner? 
• ever think you deserve to be physically hurt or mistreated? 
• sometimes wonder if you are the one who is crazy? 
• feel afraid that your partner may try to hurt or kill you? 
• feel afraid that your partner will try to take your children away? 
• feel emotionally numb or helpless? 
• think that domestic violence seems normal to you? 

Your Partner’s Violent or Threatening Behaviour 

Has your partner ever: 

• had a bad and unpredictable temper? 
• hurt you, or threatened to hurt or kill you? 
• threatened to take your children away, especially if you try to leave? 
• threatened to commit suicide, especially as a way of keeping you from leaving? 
• forced you to have sex when you didn’t want to? 
• destroyed your belongings or household objects? 

Your Partner’s Controlling Behaviour 

Does your partner: 

• try to keep you from seeing your friends or family? 
• make you embarrassed to invite friends or family over to your house? 
• limit your access to money, the telephone, or the car? 
• act excessively jealous and possessive? 
• try to stop you from going where you want to go or doing what you want to do? 
• check up on you, including where you’ve been or who you’ve been with? 

Your Partner’s Belittlement of You 

Does your partner: 

• verbally abuse you? 
• humiliate or criticise you in front of others? 
• often ignore you or put down your opinions or contributions? 
• blame you for their own violent behavior? 
• objectify and disrespect those of your gender? 
• see you as property or a sex object, rather than as a person? 

IF YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP, CALL US TODAY FOR IMMEDIATE ASSISTANCE. PHONE 07 560 66315

 

Web: www.coachingwithsubstance.org.au

 

Email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

ABOUT COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE (WINNER Best Not-for-Profit 2014)

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency for Australasia and New Zealand. Call us on 07 5606 6315 if you want to speak to an Addiction Specialist.

Our Founder, Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first of its kind in Australia as registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association that focuses on wellness using coaching principles of peak performance. She is currently completing her PhD on Recovery Coaching and is the first registered Recovery Coach in Australia.

We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all. Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained Taoist Monk, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Addiction Treatment Crisis in Australia

Australia is well known for being a world leader in the health field with high clinical standards in medicine, psychiatry and related disciplines, but has it thrown the baby out with the bathwater when it comes to treating addiction?

“Jane”*: 43, married, two kids, binge drinker – diagnosed bipolar, detoxed at a psychiatric ward, where street drugs were freely available and the contacts she made there then began to supply her with amphetamines when she was discharged. She also became addicted to Valium on release as the hospital’s psychiatrist continued to prescribe her Valium as an outpatient doctor. On entering a private Program she required a lengthy detox from benzodiazepines. This also made the recovery job and Jane's journey much more difficult.

Addiction treatment services in Australia are delivered predominantly in outpatient or psychiatric settings, which are not usually based on abstinence principles, and the use of prescribed medications to suppress the symptoms of addiction or substitute the drug is fairly widespread. Numerous case studies of previous treatment episodes in Australian clinics provided by clients point anecdotally to:   

• Wilful over prescribing of addictive drugs,
• General lack of residential options which are not uncomfortable/clinical/psychiatric settings
• Ease of availability of illicit drugs within residential clinics/psychiatric    hospitals
• A lack of anonymity due to town centre location of clinics
• A general unease with being labelled a ‘psychiatric case’.

For many years private and publicly funded Australian drug and alcohol treatment services have promoted the harm minimisation model of drug treatment perhaps more aggressively than any other Western country. This model of addiction treatment seeks to direct resources at ‘still active’ addicts rather than place emphasis on abstinence. Whilst this is a sensible model to prevent the spread of blood borne viruses (HIV, Hepatitis C) and other social harms, there now seems to be a growing public concern over policies which seem to enable addicts to remain in their addiction rather than helping them towards long term recovery. This could be viewed as ENABLING by this failing system.

Research findings by ASAM & NIDA*over the last 5 years show us that addiction is a chronic neurological disease affecting the reward pathways in the brain and the transmission of the pleasure/reward chemical dopamine. This condition is genetically inherited in up to 60% of cases. Sufferers of this disease often feel ill before they even start using drugs and consequently they will seek external sources of dopamine (drugs, alcohol, sex) which act as ‘re-enforcers’ to top up the reward chemical in their brain.

Once the process of using substances begins (in someone with the disease) their brain is effectively ‘hijacked’. This is why addicts display seriously impaired reasoning with regard to drug use, whereas ordinary people do not. It is also why addicts cannot take any drugs or alcohol at all if they are to have any chance of recovery. Because addiction is a chronic disease it cannot be cured. It relies on daily treatment and therefore the ideal of treatment and recovery is abstinence from any chemicals which boost the reward system. This is now a scientific fact which is established beyond doubt.

Australians suffering from this disease are now effectively voting with their feet and opting out of this system.  Australian outpatient treatment models are often not intensive enough to make these changes, and many do not even place abstinence as a desired goal. As a result many Australians now fund their own treatment and are choosing  a less medicalised, more holistic model offered by the highly regarded private Universal Recovery Program available to many people across the globe from the comfort of your home or office. Available in USA, Australia, UK, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, and South Africa. 

Inpatient addiction specific treatment centres like qualified addiction specialists and HOLISTIC emotional, mental, and spiritual techniques which take account of the chronically relapsing condition and place an emphasis on long term RECOVERY and  training rather than continuing drug dependence.

The Universal Program also makes a priority of including The FAMILY in the treatment process, because the whole family is affected, and often traumatised by their loved one's ADDICTION. Change has to be incorporated into the whole system.

Hopefully our governments in Australia will soon wake up to the failing current system, and begin to accept Addiction for what it is A DISEASE and not a disgrace, therefore affording addicted individuals the same respect and assistance as those with cancer and diabetes. 

If you or someone you love in in the grips of addiction call Coaching with Substance today and let us help you 07 5606 6315 or email info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

ABOUT COACHING WITH SUBSTANCE (WINNER Best Not-for-Profit 2014)

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency for Australasia and New Zealand. Call us on 07 5606 6315 if you want to speak to an Addiction Specialist.

Our Founder, Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first of its kind in Australia as registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association that focuses on wellness using coaching principles of peak performance. She is currently completing her PhD on Recovery Coaching and is the first registered Recovery Coach in Australia.

We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all. Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained Taoist Monk, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.

Addiction as a Spiritual Crisis

Addiction: A Spiritual Crisis: The Thirst for Wholeness and Addiction

At one time or another, most of us feel some degree of emptiness, loneliness, inadequacy, idealism, or spiritual longing. We recognise the discontent, the desire to escape pain, and the tendency to seek answers in activities, substances, or relationships. This sense of restlessness and the spiritual longing is familiar to many of us. 

Over the many years of treating addiction and co-dependency I have heard many people talk about a non-specific hunger for something that seems to be missing in their lives. They describe a gnawing emptiness within that is never filled. This insistent stirring from within is so intense that it can, at times, be painful. It seems to originate at one’s very core, and for some of us, it feels even stronger than our sexual drive or our hunger for food.

I was aware of it as a child, and I tried somehow to fill it by spending hours and hours playing pinball machines and snooker, watching television and listening to music on my transistor radio, or participating in sports. I struggled with it as a teenager, I felt it as a young adult when I looked at a particularly magnificent painting, read an eloquent poem, or watched an exquisite dance. And it manifested during a multitude of other restive moments. The pit of my stomach felt empty, my heart hurt, and my entire being aspired toward something I could not identify. 

As I grew, the ache in my soul increasingly permeated all aspects of my life. I felt monumentally homesick for something undefined, for an unnamed entity, place, or experience. Nothing I did seemed to alleviate the yearning within me.

There are, I am sure, some fortunate people who feel this longing but do not act upon it in painful ways. However, many people identify the spiritual yearning as a persistent voice in their lives, one they often confuse with their everyday aspirations. At first, they identify it as the desire to excel on the playing field, to develop their intellect, to get into the right university, or to meet the man or woman of their dreams. Perhaps they feel an overwhelming craving for a certain model of car, for a new outfit, or for sexual contact.

This fundamental appetite might manifest in the abuse of food, alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs. Some people feel a general dissatisfaction in their marriage and find themselves longing for something more: a new house, a baby, a significant change in their partner’s behaviour, or a completely different relationship. They feel discontented, as though something is lacking. Perhaps more money would bring happiness, or a better social position, or a new job.

I loved my wife and kids, was satisfied with my business, and felt reasonably good about my accomplishments. But something was missing. I found myself thinking about moving to another state or country and even trying another line of business. I soon began to gamble too much, as well as abuse various mood altering drugs. After a while, I realised that none of those things would help my feelings of emptiness, and in fact, they had begun to cause more problems than they would solve. I felt stuck.”

The irony is, no external activities or substances satisfy the initial craving or the feelings of emptiness. Many people attain the object of their desire, and the incessant ache remains. One person may win the lotto or player-of-the-year award for football, another earn an advanced degree from a prestigious university. Someone else might capture the heart of a perfect mate, make enough money, and live in the style he or she has always wished for. 

Yet, even in the midst of the bounty that is meant to bring satisfaction and fulfilment, the yearning persists, perhaps even magnified by the achievements, which only remind us of the emptiness within. Many recovering addicts and alcoholics report that once the physical craving for the drug or behaviour is eliminated, a deeper craving still remains.

As a culture, we do not have many sanctioned frame-works in which to deeply experience and satisfy the yearning for wholeness. As a result, people of all ages distort and misdirect this immensely strong impulse into addictions of all kinds, and co-dependency, not only addictions involving the use of chemicals (alcohol & drugs), but also eating disorders, sexual and love addictions, and addictions to power, money, relationships, gambling, and countless other addictive activities.

What is this free-floating yearning? I believe that Jung was right. This intense and at times painful craving is deep thirst for our own wholeness, our spiritual identity, our divine source, or God.

This place of wholeness we seek is our spiritual core, an essential component of our nature.

Development of a relationship with this inner source is a common, and necessary, aspect of human existence. I believe that this thirst for wholeness is the main driving force in the ever increasing rates of addiction in our society. 

Unless this factor is addressed in recovery and addiction treatment, the individual is always going to remain at high risk of relapse or in danger of switching addictions. Simply stopping our addictive behaviours or replacing them with legal substitute drugs is not enough and doesn’t work.

For any assistance for you or a loved one struggling with addiction, contact Coaching with Substance on 07 5606 6315 or email: info@coachingwithsubstance.org.au

We are Australia's leading award winning addiction treatment and rehab consultants for gambling, drugs, alcohol, sex, eating and internet addiction, along with eating behavioural disorders and co-dependency for Australasia and New Zealand.

Maria Pau is a 4x No. 1 best-selling author on the subjects of addiction and co-dependency and spiritual wellness. She is the Program Director of Coaching with Substance, the first of its kind in Australia as registered public benevolent institution, charity and not-for profit association that focuses on wellness using coaching principles of peak performance. We run a cutting edge holistic addiction treatment program and outpatient rehabilitation consultancy firm that ensures you are released from the shackles of addiction once and for all.

Primary care at CWS is personalised to treat each individual using programs that integrate mind, body and soul. CWS programs are enhanced by highly effective group coaching and therapeutic processes as well as individual coaching, spiritual insights, therapy and extensive aftercare assistance.

All clients are thoroughly assessed by a highly trained and experienced recovery coach, registered provisional psychologist, ordained Monk, mental health officer and certified naturopaths (including Ayurveda and Acupuncturist). Clients may also be referred for psychometric testing and assessment, if needed. International clients welcome.

We welcome enquiries from all English speaking people from Asia, Europe, Africa, India and South America.