Alcohol and opiate withdrawal symptoms can be extremely difficult, but vitamins may help people with substance use disorders by possibly easing withdrawal symptoms. Treatment methods range from quitting cold turkey to hospitalization. Sometimes medications can be prescribed to ease withdrawal symptoms (Opioids Withdrawal: How Bad Is It? Symptoms, Treatment). However, one concern for people trying to get clean is becoming dependent on another substance. It is always important to check with your doctor when considering alternative treatment so they can review your medical history and specific situation. For the scope of this post, I will cover the use of vitamins B and C for alcohol and opiate withdrawal symptoms.

Going to substance abuse treatment benefits addicts and makes your life so much better. I know that it did for me. It was a life-changing experience that improved nearly every aspect of life I can think of. Addiction controls how one thinks, feels, and behaves. That makes it nearly impossible to stop using without professional help. It is often recommended that people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol attend an inpatient addiction treatment facility. Making the leap from addiction to recovery isn’t easy, but it brings with it many significant benefits that are hard to overlook. Consider these 10 ways that substance abuse treatment benefits your life.

How do you know if you are an alcoholic? What makes a person an alcoholic? Perhaps you're wondering because the start of a new year often brings reflection on the past as well as hope for the future. It can prompt a person to make resolutions to be healthier, and that may be motivation to look at whether he or she is an alcoholic. Addiction to alcohol, or alcoholism, is not a one-size-fits-all disease. There isn’t a blood test for it, it doesn’t consist of a specific number of drinks per day, nor can someone decide that you are an alcoholic for you. Whether or not you are an alcoholic depends on a number of conditions, the biggest being the effect that alcohol has on your life.

Anyone can help stop the stigma of substance abuse. A major obstacle to addiction recovery, stigma, is a set of negative beliefs that a group or society holds about a topic or group of people. Stigma results in prejudice, avoidance, rejection, and discrimination against people who have a socially undesirable trait such as drug abuse or addiction. In my own recovery process, I felt the stigma of substance abuse and it kept me from seeking help for many years. 

“I just want to be normal. I don’t know what it’s like,” cried a tear-soaked heroin addict during a tough-love intervention. Her cry came after about 15 minutes of being yelled at, belittled, and degraded in front of 1000 viewers, all in the name of tough love. My heart broke into pieces for her because I’ve been that woman. I wanted to reach through my screen, hug her and tell her how precious she is. Tough love for addicts doesn't work.

I have a mental illness and an addiction. I honestly didn’t care if I lived or died, during my decade long drug and alcohol addiction. Which is why I tried and failed at sobriety so many times. My addictions co-occurred with a mental illness called bipolar disorder. A depressive stage of bipolar, even sober, can leave me hopeless. I'd lose interest in all the things that mattered to me before. It didn’t matter to me if I got sober. There were no consequences strong enough to make me want to stop because I didn’t care if I ever saw tomorrow. I didn’t make plans for my future because I really didn’t want one. It was a slow suicide.

Forgiveness in my addiction recovery is important for my emotional and spiritual health. Addiction recovery takes much more than just going through the treatment process to become whole again, but it did provide me with the tools necessary to live a life that is free of alcohol. When I completed treatment four-and-a-half years ago, I had to put those tools to work and still have to remain vigilant to keep my recovery alive and successful. In treatment, I learned about addiction, triggers, relapse prevention, and the need for honesty, acceptance, and gratitude. However, there was another key element that has furthered my addiction recovery progress even more – forgiveness.

Safe injection sites are becoming more popular across the world (Heroin Abuse, Heroin Overdose). But only two exist in North America, both in Vancouver, British Columbia. So what are safe injections sites and what benefits and concerns do they bring?

Addiction recovery 12-step programs have many benefits and are widely popular. However, 12-step programs also attract a lot of criticism, and there are other addiction programs available for those who find fault with 12-Step programs. For me, the benefits of 12-step addiction programs far outweigh any drawbacks.

Substance use withdrawal from alcohol, opiates and benzodiazepines is unpleasant and can be dangerous or even fatal, as I wrote about in my last post, Dehumanizing Addicts: A Stigma Leading To Deaths. But different substances produce different kinds of withdrawals and dangers. Here is an overview of withdrawal symptoms for alcohol, opiates, and benzodiazepines (a future post will address more substances).