Taking Inventory of the Relationships in Your Life Personal ResourcesBy PromisesMay 21, 2015You may be familiar with a Boy Scout rule that encourages cleaning up after yourself: “Leave the campground better than you found it.” This isn’t always easy in practice, especially for those whose behaviors in the throes of addiction left chaos and damage in their wake. To begin anew, taking inventory can be an enlightening…
Enjoying Life Without Drinking Alcohol AbuseBy PromisesMay 4, 2015Getting sober doesn’t mean living a life that is always dreary and somber. Some of the best days of your life are still ahead, but it may not seem like a lot of fun at first. You may feel nostalgic when you think of some of the parties you’ve attended and the wild excitement of…
What Is a Recovery Coach and Do I Need One? RecoveryBy PromisesMarch 29, 2015As the song goes, “We all need somebody to lean on.” This is especially true when it comes to recovery. You cannot go it alone. Beating addiction is one of the most important things you will ever do for yourself and your family in your lifetime. But once you place yourself on the path of…
Beginning a Journey of Recovery From Codependency RecoveryBy PromisesFebruary 8, 2015When you’re in a relationship with an active addict, you live in a world filled with unpredictability, hurt, fear and sadness. At times it may seem like the addict is ruining your life, yet you can’t seem to leave or to stop hoping things will get better. You may believe with all your heart that…
Stay Out of Your Loved One’s Recovery RecoveryBy PromisesJanuary 31, 2015When you love an addict or alcoholic, you have probably watched him or her deteriorate in front of your eyes into a shell of a person. He went downhill, slowly at first, and then more rapidly until he gradually became a shadow of his former self. As you witnessed what drugs or alcohol did to…
Self-Centeredness vs. Self-Care in Addiction Recovery RecoveryBy PromisesJanuary 20, 2015In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, it states that alcoholism is a disease of self-centeredness. This can also be said of addiction to any substance or any unhealthy behavior, such as gambling or sex addiction. While you were actively addicted, your need to drink or drug trumped any other need or it definitely came…
Why and How to Detach With Love Family ResourcesBy PromisesDecember 12, 2014When you love an alcoholic or addict, you probably experience a lot of unpredictability and pain in your life, including both extreme highs and extreme lows. You get caught up in frequent drama and are obsessed with trying to change situations you can’t control and you may spend time, money and energy trying to fix…
Learning to Trust Your Adult Child in Recovery RecoveryBy PromisesDecember 2, 2014By Heather Rolland, LCSW Can you imagine applying to become a parent as if it were a competitive job? Imagine the job description: physical care, emotional care, financial support … and then all the potential contingencies. Navigating the first 18 or so years is hard enough, but for some parents, the next few steps—the letting…
Retraining the Brain in Recovery RecoveryBy PromisesNovember 11, 2014Much of the new research into addiction talks about how drugs change the brain. What does this mean? We know that whatever those changes are, they make a person dependent on the drug, but how does it work? It turns out that our brains have an amazing degree of plasticity, which means the brain can…
Overcoming Common Rehab Fears Addiction TreatmentBy PromisesNovember 7, 2014No one, it seems, wants to go to rehab. It is a necessity for many addicts, but not a choice that is easy to make. And it isn’t easy to follow through with that choice and go. One of the most important factors holding many people back from going to rehab is fear. Not all…
