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Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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6 Tips for Recovery After Rehab

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Going through the process of rehab is a big step in an addicts life, but not a lot of people think about the process recovering addicts go through once they leave rehab. The first few months out of rehab are perhaps some of the most difficult because you are free to make your own decisions once again and temptation can easily creep back into your life. There are many ways to avoid relapse after rehab. Here are six tips to continue recovery after leaving rehab.

Create a plan of action

So you’ve been released from your six month long recovery treatment. Now what? Boredom and lack of direction might be one of the worst things you can have when you’ve just left rehab. It’s necessary to create a plan laying out your objectives for your future. By creating a plan, you’ll be organized and will have a set schedule to follow to keep you busy and on track.

Continue therapy sessions

Even though you’ve left the treatment center, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your treatment process is over with. Remember that you still have the option of visiting with a counselor as often as necessary for as long as you need. This allows you the freedom to go about living your life once again but keeps you in check with a counselor still to slowly ease you back into the real world.

Exercise regularly

Exercise is extremely important during the healing process and continues to be critical after rehab. Not only does regular exercise help you stay fit and active, in turn boosting your confidence, but in addition it releases endorphins which lift your mood and keep you thinking positively. Whether you have a gym membership, go for regular runs outside or even do an activity such as yoga, exercise will help you feeling great and will keep you healthy.

Eat healthfully

Going along with exercise, healthy eating can improve your overall health and the way you feel about yourself. Making sure you get the proper vitamins and minerals into your diet have even been linked to curbing cravings for drugs or alcohol. Living a healthy lifestyle after rehab can be the beginning of a new chapter in your life to keep you clean and feeling better than ever before.

Make new friends

Chances are, many of the friends you had before rehab aren’t the type of people you should be spending time with post rehab. This is a great opportunity for a fresh start and time to meet new people with no connection to your past. Building relationships is essential for happiness and feeling complete, so this is definitely an important tip to follow through with. The more relationships you have, the more support you have if you’re ever feeling weak.

Rediscover your spirituality

If during your addiction you lost touch with your spirituality, post rehab is a great time to rediscover it. Faith in a higher power or guidance through a spiritual being can be enough to get you through the days and believe that you can succeed in your efforts to be clean.

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Lisa Trank is a freelance writer who is very familiar with addiction. After a family member admitted to addiction and visited rehab for treatment, Lisa learned a generous amount from this experience. She follows the rehab advisor in an effort to research the best treatments for various addictions and suggests anyone else facing an addiction do the same.





An update on the old bad renter neighbors

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Do you remember how happy I was the day my old renter neighbors moved out? Yes, I was relieved! That was last March (2010).

Well … I haven’t seen them since they moved out, but I strongly suspected that they were hanging out at a house down the street – a side street that I can see directly from my front door. You see, when these bad renter neighbors lived next door they’d go down to that house several times a day and sometimes in the middle of the night cars and people from that house would park in our shared driveway and visit our neighbors house … or more often go in and out of our neighbors house all night. I strongly suspect that illegal activities were going on in both my neighbors house and the house down the street.

Anyway … The gang of people living in the house down the street apparently just got evicted. There were eviction signs up in the windows a week or two ago and from the looks of things a lot of people moved out. I think the house is going to be renovated by the owner. I’m sure the people living close to that house are relieved as there was so much “car” activity etc going on at all hours and shady people in an otherwise very good neighborhood they’ve got to be happy that that group of people are gone. I also heard that our former bad renter neighbors wife might have gone to a rehabilitation center for drug addicts as well. I always felt sorry for her little girl and baby because she always looked so out of it … hopefully the rumor is true and she is getting some help!

Now .. if only the people that bought the house next door would finally finish there very very slow renovations and move in … it’s been over a year of pounding and thumping next door – but no neighbors … it’s about time they at least moved in.

No sign of our awful renter neighbors leaving any time soon

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I haven’t written about my awful renter neighbors for a while …

It doesn’t look like they’ll be leaving anytime soon, much to my dismay. Well .. unless they’re having trouble paying the rent again, that is. Hey, I can hope!

I am worried about them though! We’ve heard from friends of ours that used to live in the same apartment building as our renter neighbors (a few apartment buildings over the last several years) that they often don’t pay the rent or their bills and they have a history of drug abuse.

I’m pretty sure the stories about them using illegal drugs are true as they often look out of it when we see them on the street, especially lately! They also look older than the ages they told us they were when they moved in in September. They’d told us they were 31 or 32 but man, they look like they’re 10 or more years older, especially lately!

Every time we talk with the guy next door his eyes are slits and red rimmed and he seems confused or out of it. My husband and I don’t talk to the woman next door very often, but when we do she’s pretty much the same.

I feel bad for their kids. They have three of them – all girls and the youngest is about 2 years old. I’ve actually never even see the 2 year old, but my husband just saw her for the first time this week. It can’t be a good environment for them moving every few months because of unpaid bills and or rent and with parents that stay up all night possibly doing drugs. The best thing they can do for themselves and their kids is to perhaps check into a good drug rehab.

Anyway … if they manage to keep paying the rent they’ll be our neighbors until August, but I have a feeling that they’ll either get kicked out or move out before that. Remember how they were stealing my internet bandwidth in November because they must have had their cable canceled? Well, They are on a satellite TV and internet system now (Bell) and I’d bet $100 but that that will be cut off soon.

Do any of you have undesirable neighbors? Ones that concern you or ones that make you concerned for their kids?

Doctors, drugs and pregnancy

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At the end of August I had an appointment with my pain doctor, but I had to cancel it because I had the flu at the time. I then had to wait two weeks for my rescheduled appointment.

Of course this has thrown my prescriptions all off. When I missed my appointment I was almost due for a new prescription of my pain meds. She doesn’t like to write out prescriptions when medicines aren’t due. I don’t mind that as I used to work in a pain clinic for close to 10 years and I know that people in chronic pain can abuse their drugs and overuse them.

So, when I was due for my meds I had to call my pharmacy who then placed a call to the doctor to get the refill.

Now since my appointments are out of whack I just had to do that again. I’ve only got a few days worth of pain meds left.

I hate having to call the pharmacy to get refills. They are slow, don’t always call the doctor and the whole experience of having to ask a third party for my pain meds kind of makes me feel like a drug abuser.

To top that off, during my last appointment with my pain doctor in mid September we were talking about what would happen if I became pregnant. You guys know we’re trying to get pregnant right? Well that’s not always the best thing when you are on pain meds. None of the meds I’m on will hurt a baby, but the doctor did talk to me about the fact that if I’ve been taking pain meds while pregnant our baby would probably have to go through a mini drug rehab when it’s born.

I’m hoping that’s not the case if I do get pregnant. Many women with Crohn’s end up going into remission when they get pregnant and often feel their best while pregnant. I’m hoping I’m one of those women as I’d be able to get off my pain meds and have a truly healthy baby if that were the case.

Whatever happens if I do get pregnant I think I’ll try to get off the pain meds that I’m on even if I’m still having pain symptoms from the Crohn’s disease. Keep your fingers crossed that the non narcotic pain medication that I got two weeks ago works for me as I’ll be able to start getting off the heavy duty pain meds if it works!

How to find a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program that’s right for you

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My husband and I both work in a local city hospital. I’m an ER nurse and he’s been a hospital porter and is now an OR Recovery room attendant. Having worked in the field of health care for many years we’ve both seen some fantastic advances in medicine as well as some of the worst illnesses and cases of human suffering that you could imagine.

Working in the ER I care for patients with a variety of ailments. I try to care for each person as well as I can. Unfortunately the hospital is ill equipped to help people suffering from long term addictions. We can help so many people, but unless a person has come in with an overdose of drugs or dangerously high alcohol levels there isn’t much we can do for those that come in repeatedly due to their addictions.

When someone comes into the ER who has drank too much alcohol or who’s taken too many drugs we do everything we can medically to help them, but we can’t really help them with their ongoing addiction. Once these patients are stable we often end up sending them to a rehab facility if there is an opening available, or if they do not have a safe place to stay we will send them to a shelter. These are just temporary solutions and there are far too many people suffering with addictions so a placement for new patients is often hard to find.

That’s one reason why I appreciate places such as 1800nodrugs.com. This website is a non-profit portal that specializes in assisting those who are in need of addiction treatment, or health care workers who are trying to find a placement for their patients find long or short term drug rehabilitation programs.

You can visit the site or call 1800nodrugs at any time of day as they are open and ready to assist those in need 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The service is 100% free.

The staff at 1800nodrugs specialize in assisting drug addicts, chronic relapse victims, alcoholics and their families find the right type of addiction treatment or rehab program. They aim to find a program that suits the needs of each individual person as what works for one might not work for another.

They have information about the thousands of alcohol rehabilitation and drug treatment facilities across the country. I think this is great because while there might be treatment programs in your general area they might not suit your needs. Contacting 1800nodrugs will allow you to find out about other types of treatment programs which might be more suitable. Certainly if a person is willing to try rehabilitation they should go to a facility that would give them the best chance of success.

The website itself is easy to navigate. The number to call is of course within the domain name, and splashed across the top of every page of the site.

The left hand side of the page contains links to other sections of the site. You can learn more about addiction, alcoholism, relapse prevention, drug rehab, drug trends, alcohol rehab, types of addiction assessment, prescription drug addiction and duel diagnosis by clicking on the links in the left column.

The right hand side of the main page contains links to an online drug assessment form. It’s a short form that I believe will allow you and the staff at 1800nodrugs to discuss treatment plans and options via email if you do not have the ability to talk to the staff by phone or if you just wanted to inquire about drug or alcohol rehabilitation. You’ll also find links to information about international inquiries as well as a link to a section entitled “Get Financing” which will take you to a page that contains a simple form that can be filled out by those who need financial assistance for drug or alcohol treatment.

The main page of the site also has a number of links that will help a person suffering from addiction or their loved one either find a treatment program or learn how to support someone suffering from addiction. The article titles are What is the Best Drug rehab program?, How to break the drug addiction cycle and begin recovery, How to find a drug rehab center, and How to support alcohol recovery. The articles are all very well written and I’m sure you’ll find some helpful information if you were to read one or two of the articles.

If you or a loved one is suffering from drug, prescription drug or alcohol addiction give 1800nodrugs a call. It’s absolutely free and a simple phone call could be the first step to recovery and a long and healthy life.

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