“They tell me I needed to write a letter. I’m in rehab and my therapist said one of my assignments is writing a goodbye letter to drugs and alcohol. They told me it was an important step in my sobriety. So here I am, writing that letter. Although, when I think about it, I have no idea what to say.   When I was told by my therapist (she may be a counselor, I don’t really know) that this was the next thing I had to do while in treatment, I understood but I asked some questions. ‘How is the letter supposed to sound?’ was one of them. She told me that I should just write it from the heart. [...]

Most people think treatment for addiction and co-occurring disorders is a single experience. A person is in active addiction and either comes to terms with the fact that they need help or are confronted by family or loved ones and asked to get help. Then they go to treatment or rehab. However, addiction is a chronic illness, meaning that best recovery outcomes come from a long-term continuum of care. Therefore, detox and traditional 28-day treatment episodes are simply the first step in what should be a long-term continuum of care that addresses not just addiction, but all areas of a patient’s life so that they learn and apply the skillset to find success in long-term recovery and achieve a high [...]

Summertime is many people’s favorite season. School is out, the weather is nice, and vacations are plentiful. It’s a time to enjoy company with family and friends, take trips to the beach, and be outside. For many people, summer is also a time where responsibilities lessen, freedom increases, and drinking and drugging occurs frequently. However, for individuals in active addiction or early recovery, summer can present a time of caution or danger.   Therefore, how can someone that is seeking to overcome addiction or living in early recovery enjoy the summertime while guarding against the potential for relapse or the increase in risky behavior that often can be prevalent during this time of year? Sobriety is not meant to be [...]

When people think of individuals struggling with addiction or substance use disorder, the overwhelming thought is to think of a young adult. Addiction is often thought of as a disease that impacts a younger population- teenagers experimenting with drugs and alcohol, college aged young adults on their own for the first time at a university, or the 21-to-35 aged adults still going out and partying. While addiction does impact the younger adult population more so than other age groups, there is a segment of the population that has seen skyrocketing rates of substance use disorder over the last several years: Seniors and the older adult population.   Addiction affects up to 17% of the older population, meaning individuals over the [...]

For years in both addiction treatment and the recovery community, there was a theory that an individual needed to hit ‘rock bottom’ in addiction in order to find recovery from addiction or alcoholism. The idea of “rock bottom” in addiction is that an individual has no further down to go in their active addiction or alcoholism. “Rock Bottom” is the inflection point in active alcoholism or addiction, where someone gets so bad that they are forced to change their life and find recovery. The terms “rock bottom” often sounds bad, although when speaking to someone living life in recovery, they may often say that their “rock bottom” was the best thing that ever happened to them, because they ran out [...]

It’s almost Christmas time, a time each year when we get together with family, friends, and loved ones and celebrate the holiday season. We spend time with each other and give each other gifts. We give gifts to demonstrate our love; we give gifts to make our loved ones happy; and we give gifts because it makes us feel good to give happiness to others. Today we will discuss the gift of Sobriety.   But what about those individuals stuck in the destructive cycle of addiction this holiday season? We certainly know how hard the holiday season can be for those in active addiction. For them, the Christmas season doesn’t seem so merry and bright. No doubt, with years of [...]

The month of November and the winter holiday season typically brings much talk about gratitude and thankfulness. As Thanksgiving approaches, we begin to take stock of our lives and the things for which we are thankful for. We hear talk of gratitude, read about thankfulness, and we begin to get swept up in the holiday season.   It begins to resonate that, even though everyone goes through struggles and faces trials and tribulations throughout the year, we actually have much to be thankful for and be grateful about. We think about our families and our friends. We recognize that we are surrounded by people that love us and care about us. We think of the gratitude we have for the [...]

September 2021 is National Recovery Month! National Recovery Month, celebrated annually each September, is a national observance and a national celebration to educate Americans that treatment can help those suffering from addiction find recovery and live healthy and rewarding lives.   The purpose of National Recovery Month is to celebrate recovery from addiction, to bring awareness that recovery is possible, to highlight hopeful and uplifting stories of Americans living in recovery, and to break the stigma so often still associated with addiction and mental illness. National Recovery Month celebrates the millions of Americans that have found recovery from addiction, alcoholism, substance use disorders, and co-occurring disorders, and reinforces the message that behavioral health issues like addiction and mental illness is [...]

Caroline Farrell, LSW, is the Community Outreach Specialist for Innovo Detox. A licensed social worker and a person in long-term recovery, Caroline Farrell is a 200-hour certified yoga instructor who has completed training for yoga in trauma and addiction.   Yoga is used as a healing tool to decrease anxiety, depression, fatigue, insomnia, and physical pain (amongst other ailments and mental health issues) and has been proven to help strengthen an individual’s physical and mental well-being, improve cognitive functioning, and reduce stress. Caroline has seen the benefits of practicing yoga on both a personal level and a professional level. Personally, she has utilized it to help her in her personal recovery journey. Professionally, she has witnessed yoga benefit numerous patients [...]

Just as addiction does not discriminate and impacts all types of people, so addiction treatment must not be a one-size-fits-all model. While there is an ideal continuum of care that starts with the most intensive and supported care and ends with the least amount of treatment and support over a long period of time, to truly help and support suffering from addiction, there needs to be a personalized continuum that specifically supports that individual’s clinical needs, community and social needs, basic life needs, education and career, and overall situation. Here are the different levels of treatment and recovery support in an addiction treatment continuum of care.   DETOX Detox is often the first step for an individual in their treatment [...]