Who Is That Stranger? Learning How to Accept the New and Sober You Staying SoberBy Promises AustinDecember 10, 2012Do you avoid looking in the mirror lately? Maybe this is a practice you’ve adopted only recently, since you’ve come home from rehab. Being clean and sober is one thing, but having to peer at that stranger looking back at you from the mirror is quite something else. You may be rather unprepared for the…
Repairing Relationships after Addiction RecoveryBy Promises AustinNovember 28, 2012Addiction can be devastating to every aspect of your life. Your addiction may have damaged your career, your education, or even your physical health. More importantly though, your addiction may have broken many of your relationships, interaction you may be depending on now to help you in your sobriety. Depending on how long you were…
Rehab Treatment is Beneficial to Everyone Involved Addiction TreatmentBy Promises AustinNovember 25, 2012Rehab treatment programs are valuable tools for overcoming addiction to drugs and/or alcohol. They provide the opportunity to finally break free and start over to the person caught in a desperate cycle of substance abuse. Rehab treatment also offers hope and renewal for all of the people immediately surrounding the abuser as well, because addiction…
Conquering Obstacles in Recovery RecoveryBy Promises AustinNovember 23, 2012“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” – Benjamin Franklin, American statesman, scientist, philosopher, printer, writer and inventor (1706-1790) When we’re traveling along a road and come upon a roadblock, what do we do? It may be that we failed to exercise sufficient planning to learn whether or not there was any construction going on along…
Promises Austin Hires A New Clinical Director Promises NewsBy Promises AustinNovember 6, 2012Welcome Abi Williams, Ph.D., LCSW, CSAT, CMAT Adding Dimension and Depth to Clinical Care at Promises Austin We first got to know Abi Williams in 1998 when she conducted research for her doctoral thesis at Right Step’s flagship center in Houston. Since then, she has spent many years providing high quality care at other prominent…
Lighten Up: Look At Recovery With a Dash of Humor RecoveryBy Promises AustinNovember 2, 2012If you’re among the millions of Americans who have already completed treatment for substance abuse and are now in the early stages of recovery, you may also be familiar with the kind of anxiousness and downright fear that often accompanies the first few months of sobriety. Such feelings may take the form of dread at…
Feel Yourself Slipping? Tips to Help You Get It Together Again Relapse PreventionBy Promises AustinOctober 31, 2012When you worry that you’re in danger of falling into relapse or make some serious mistakes that could land you in trouble, it’s time to do something proactive to get yourself back firmly in step with recovery principles. The reality is that fear of relapse is quite common, especially among the newly sober individuals just…
Environmental Factors That Can Increase Risk for Alcohol Abuse Alcohol AbuseBy Promises AustinOctober 24, 2012Though alcohol addiction is a behavioral illness, many experts agree that environmental factors figure largely in how a person thinks about and interacts with alcohol. Environmental factors such as product availability, social attitude and advertising can all play a part in whether or not a person will abuse alcohol. Socio-economic factors may also contribute, but…
Substance Abuse Very Different in Women vs. Men Drug Addiction InfoBy Promises AustinOctober 22, 2012Substance abuse is not a respecter of persons. Addiction affects both men and women alike; however, each sex may use for very different reasons. More often than men, women use alcohol or drugs as a coping mechanism for dealing with anxiety and depression. They are also up to three times as likely to suffer from…
Low Grade Depression DepressionBy Promises AustinOctober 18, 2012Most parents are familiar with the term low grade fever. A child who has a slight temperature, not high enough to arouse alarm and yet, not quite normal is described as running a low grade temperature. Dysthymia is a term used by psychologists to describe something similar in terms of mood function. Dysthymia describes a…
