Why is Anger an Obstacle in Recovery ?

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Why is Anger an Obstacle in Recovery ?

25 August, 2021Articles, News

A person in recovery may face any number of challenges to their recovery process. Some of these challenges are external, we have problems with our family, friends and in our careers. Our financial situation may change, or our health may fail us. Other problems are a bit harder to pin down. We may struggle with flawed thinking, our attitudes and behavioural patterns may hold us back, and our emotions may control us despite our best efforts. A dragon many addicts and alcoholics must face in recovery is their own anger.

What is anger?
Anger is an emotional state brought on when a person feels offended or threatened. The same way humans express anger and rage at perceived danger, is present in many animals, this suggests that anger is part of a survival mechanic, rather than just a state of being. It is part of the “fight or flight” response. The body and brain are flooded with adrenaline, epinephrine and norepinephrine. This increases blood flow to the muscles and allows you to react faster and fight harder. This type of response is crucial when living in a situation where you must outrun predators and fight for your life, but you’re not running from a grizzly bear, you are not fighting off hungry scavengers, a taxi just cut you off on the way to work. Despite the reality of the situation, the brain and body still react as if your life is on the line.

Anger and the recovery process
Anger is very often an emotion used to cover up other emotions. This is the main reason why -in the recovery process, anger is particularly damaging. It is a superb defence mechanism. When a person is sad, or fearful or feels ashamed, it is so easy to just cover all those unpleasant feelings in a layer of anger. It is a way of protecting the ideas we had about ourselves and the things we went through. It helps us shift blame and fuels denial about the part we play in the situations we find ourselves in. Simply put, when angry it is near impossible to be vulnerable. Anger tells us that we are always right. That we don’t need to change and that these people (counsellors, sponsors, friends and family) who are telling us that we need to change are wrong. Recovery demands vulnerability. To fully solve our problems, we need to confront them head on. Being able to accept criticism, have our illusions about ourselves and the world around us shattered takes a great amount of courage.

What do we do about our anger
The initial feeling of anger is not actually the problem we have to solve. We often cannot control how our brains and bodies decide to react in the moment. There are however areas where we do have control. How am I going to react to this situation or person which is making me angry? And, how long am I going to be angry about this situation or at this person? The first often comes with time, practice and self-examination. It is almost as if you are trying to get in front of your thoughts before they run away with you. Studies have shown that meditation techniques are quiet effective in facilitating this type of adjustment in thinking patterns. In extreme cases anger management therapy and support groups may be necessary. When we are talking about the second choice we have, how long am I going to be angry, this often takes the form of a conscious decision to work through our feelings. When we hold on to resentment it is not an active process we are participating in. It is an underlying and unconscious pain, and whether we are aware of this pain or not, it could affect our judgments and our interactions with other people. In the 12 steps, we are asked to do a searching and fearless moral inventory, this is often where we are made aware of our resentments and just how deeply they have affected us. We are then asked to share this. It is in the sharing of our pain and anger that we can finally start to forgive, accept and let it go.

If you or a loved one needs assistance with an addiction – know that help is readily available. The road to recovery is not always an easy one but getting yourself or your loved one the best possible care from the team at Crossroads Recovery Centre, provides you with a map to sober, healthy living. No matter how bad things seem, there is hope and it’s only a phone call away. If you or anyone close to you needs help with an addiction to sexgamblingsubstancesalcohol or food, please contact us for a free assessment.

www.crossroadsrecovery.co.za

074 89 51043 JHB

012 450 5033 PTA

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Stories of Recovery

  • The encouragement, love and support from the team at Crossroads allowed me to eventually see that I was worth something - that my life could be turned around and that I could accomplish the things that had long been a forgotten dream.
    Oliver VG
    Read more
  • On the last day of my stint at Crossroads I could only express gratitude towards all who works there. A wise councillor once commented on my question when one is ready for rehab by explaining that when one is ready for rehab, rehab is ready for you.
    Johan B
    Read more
  • I was lost and my soul was broken until I ended up at Crossroads and was introduced to the Twelve Steps. With the help of their excellent staff and amazing support I have recently been clean for 18 months, I could not have done it without them!
    Carla S
    Read more
  • "Just for today I am more than three years in recovery. I have Cross Roads to thank for this wonderful gift. Cross Roads helped me to set a firm foundation in my recovery on which I can continue to build."
    Angelique J
    Read more
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What is a 12 Step Programme ?

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What is a 12 Step Programme ?

28 August, 2020Articles, News

Bill Wilson (Bill W) and Dr Robert Holbrook Smith (Dr Bob) are the founding members of Alcoholics Anonymous; this fellowship came into being in 1935. Both were alcoholics and both found a new way to live through the programme they founded, this has become known as the 12 step programme.

A twelve-step programme outlines specific actions to be taken for recovery from an addiction, or compulsive behaviours or indeed other behavioural problems. Alcoholics Anonymous were the first to introduce the idea as a way of overcoming alcoholism. As a result there are over 200 different types of 12 step fellowships/organisations that offer recovery from addictions, compulsions, and other behavioural related problems; these include Over Eaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Co – dependents Anonymous.

The 12 Steps:

  1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
  2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
  3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
  4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
  5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
  6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
  7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
  8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
  9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
  10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
  11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
  12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

The 12 Steps were first published in the book ; Alcoholics Anonymous: The story of how more than One Hundred Men have recovered from alcoholism in 1939. The book described how alcohol affected the individual in three ways, spiritually, mentally and physically. It describes a physical allergy – when the alcoholic has the first drink the body reacts with craving and wants more alcohol. You are unable to stop.

The mental obsession sees the alcoholic persisting with the same behaviour expecting a different result, trapped in the delusion, unable to see their truth. The book spoke of the “Spiritual Malady” based in self-centredness. Through working through the steps, the self-centredness is replaced with a willingness to be more self-less.

There are four elements that make a 12 Step programme unique in its approach to dealing with any addiction or negative behaviour. Members of these fellowships are encouraged to attend meetings, have a sponsor, connect with a Higher Power and to be of Service.

At meetings individuals are able to share their experience, relate and identify with others who are in recovery. A sponsor is someone with experience in the programme and is able to guide others using their experience. The programme has no religious affiliations. Instead it suggests that people have a personal connection with a Higher Power, which means that those with no religious beliefs are able to find something that will work for them. Individuals are encouraged to be of service as this helps to combat the self-centredness.

Members of 12 Step Fellowships are encouraged to practice the spiritual principal of anonymity and respect other members confidentiality. This ensures a space free of judgement and fear. Members are able to express themselves without fear and therefore find deeper connections with others in the programme.

The 12 Step model is a proven method used to bring about change. The majority of treatment centres have adopted the 12 Steps as a foundation of their treatment models. Unlike other models it offers specific action to bring about change. Practical and Simple.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-step_program

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Stories of Recovery

  • The encouragement, love and support from the team at Crossroads allowed me to eventually see that I was worth something - that my life could be turned around and that I could accomplish the things that had long been a forgotten dream.
    Oliver VG
    Read more
  • On the last day of my stint at Crossroads I could only express gratitude towards all who works there. A wise councillor once commented on my question when one is ready for rehab by explaining that when one is ready for rehab, rehab is ready for you.
    Johan B
    Read more
  • I was lost and my soul was broken until I ended up at Crossroads and was introduced to the Twelve Steps. With the help of their excellent staff and amazing support I have recently been clean for 18 months, I could not have done it without them!
    Carla S
    Read more
  • "Just for today I am more than three years in recovery. I have Cross Roads to thank for this wonderful gift. Cross Roads helped me to set a firm foundation in my recovery on which I can continue to build."
    Angelique J
    Read more
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Meditation and Addiction

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Meditation and Addiction

10 June, 2020Articles, News

Step 11, of the 12 step programme encourages us to meditate, but what does it mean to meditate and what changes take place in our brains when we engage in meditation? How can meditation assist us as addicts?

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses various techniques in order to achieve focused attention and awareness, with the aim of achieving mental clarity, emotional calmness and general stability. One purpose of meditation is to observe ones own mind.

There are many different forms of meditation : mindfulness meditation, body scan meditation, breath awareness, guided meditation, visualization, loving kindness meditations, Mantra meditation, Kundalini yoga, Zen meditation, Transcendental meditation….there are hundreds of different types of meditations from a variety of cultures and religions around the world. There is no “best type” of meditation, what works for you may not work for someone else and what works for you today, may not work for you on another day. If you are new to meditation, then it is best to try a few different types and learn what works best for you.

What actually happens in our brains and bodies when we meditate ?

Associate Researcher in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital, Sara Lazar, has spent time researching the impact of regular meditation on our brains. One of her studies involving brain scans taken pre and post an 8 week course in meditation, showed an increase in the size of the hippocampus. The hippocampus plays a role in learning as well in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory. People who have experienced trauma or who are prone to depression have smaller hippocampi – studies showed that there was a correlation between regular meditation and an increase in the size of the hippocampus in these people. It was not the only part of the brain which demonstrated changes – the amygdala which is associated with how we experience stress, fear and anger also showed changes after 8 weeks of mindfulness training. When subjects were shown images containing emotional content -there was a decrease in the activity of the amygdala. Subjects for this study had MRI’s before an 8 week mindfulness course and after the course. A “relaxed” amygdala is successfully able to counteract an anxiety response by engaging the parasympathetic nervous system thereby slowing down our heart rates, deepening and slowing our breathing. When the amygdala is overactive, it releases cortisol and adrenaline into the bloodstream. These are stress hormones which provide us with necessary energy in times of danger but have damaging effects on the body in the long term if they are too often available in the body.

Other studies show differences in the temporoparietal junction, where people who meditate frequently and consistently are better able to see things from multiple points of view which is an important aspect when it comes to showing empathy and compassion. Meditators have also demonstrated higher levels of alpha waves which reduces feelings of negativity which also helps to combat against depression.

Increasingly, we are able to verify, scientifically, brain changes in subjects who employ meditation techniques. The effectiveness of meditation, in long-term changes in both behaviour and the brain, is influenced by how often one meditates and how long the sessions are. By retraining your mind through mindfulness practice, you create new neural networks. You can retrain your brain.

Meditation and Relapse Prevention.

In 2018, researchers looked at using mindfulness meditation in the treatment of substance use disorders and the prevention of future relapses. Mindfulness is the concept of being present in our own lives and is characterised by “a non-judgemental, non-reactive, present-centred attention and metacognitive awareness of cognition”. With relapse rates being as high as 60 % within the first year of intervention (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing, and 12-step programmes ), therapists began to look towards mindfulness-based interventions (MBI’s) and Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP). Addiction wreaks havoc on our neurocognitive capacities. Chronic drug and alcohol use disrupts and usurps some normal brain circuitry. One of those is the reward processes in our brains. Mindfulness training can increase our natural reward responsiveness – such as our enjoyment of food. This in turn can reduce cravings. There is also no doubt that there is a link between stress and substance use disorders. Meditation teaches us to self-regulate stress and our own stress reactions. There is definitely preliminary evidence for the efficacy of mindfulness based interventions in the area of relapse prevention although more rigorous research designs with longer follow-up periods are required.

Meditation alone, will not be sufficient. There is little doubt that further research needs to be done in this field but there is now, thanks to technology, clear evidence that regular, consistent engagement with meditation can have a positive effect on our brains and can be a highly beneficial tool in our arsenal against the disease of addiction.

Sources :

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233302118_Meditation_as_a_Coping_Intervention_for_Treatment_of_Addiction

https://www.dovepress.com/mindfulness-meditation-in-the-treatment-of-substance-use-disorders-and-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-SAR

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/your-brain-as-laboratory-the-science-of-meditation/

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/za/blog/the-wise-open-mind/201004/mindfulness-meditation-addiction

Sara Lazar – How Meditation Changes the Brain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOIwtTmpc-I

The Scientific Power of Meditation : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw71zanwMnY

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Stories of Recovery

  • The encouragement, love and support from the team at Crossroads allowed me to eventually see that I was worth something - that my life could be turned around and that I could accomplish the things that had long been a forgotten dream.
    Oliver VG
    Read more
  • On the last day of my stint at Crossroads I could only express gratitude towards all who works there. A wise councillor once commented on my question when one is ready for rehab by explaining that when one is ready for rehab, rehab is ready for you.
    Johan B
    Read more
  • I was lost and my soul was broken until I ended up at Crossroads and was introduced to the Twelve Steps. With the help of their excellent staff and amazing support I have recently been clean for 18 months, I could not have done it without them!
    Carla S
    Read more
  • "Just for today I am more than three years in recovery. I have Cross Roads to thank for this wonderful gift. Cross Roads helped me to set a firm foundation in my recovery on which I can continue to build."
    Angelique J
    Read more
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Character Defects and Addiction

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Home / Posts tagged "#Spiritual Principles"

Character Defects and Addiction

15 May, 2020Articles, News

What are character defects?

Character defects are generally known as flaws, shortcomings or deficiencies that are found within a person who suffers from addiction. Although there is much debate around the fact that addicts and alcoholics choose to use drugs or alcohol, the main issue here is, the defects of character are what makes an addict or alcoholic continue to abuse their preferred substance. Character defects are usually the source of a person acting irresponsibly and in that process, creating suffering for themselves and others. A list of defects can include dishonesty, selfishness, self-centeredness, inconsideration and many more. Character defects can apply to any person, not just to addicts and alcoholics. No human is perfect.

What is the reasoning behind an addict acting out on defects of character?

There are many reasons that an addict or alcoholic may act out on their defects of character. Someone who is drunk may get emotionally or physically aggressive while drinking or an addict may lie or manipulate in order to enable their addiction. Many addicts and alcoholics act out on defects because of their own fears and insecurities and this leads to an endless trail of destruction and chaos. Most defects are acted on, in order to meet the persons needs. This can be explained by Carl Rogers’ 19 propositions where the needs of an individual shape their behaviour in order to satisfy those needs. This is true of addicts and alcoholics in active addiction.

What happens if the behaviour continues?

When an addict or alcoholic continues acting out on their defects of character, it usually leaves a trail of consequences and results in them feeling isolated, alone, and afraid. These consequences may include- financial, strained relationships, lost friendships, jails, institutions etc., etc.. Character defects are usually developed through experiences with others, which also forms part of Carl Rogers’ theory of the 19 propositions. We develop our character through experiences with others and the world around us. Our character is usually based on our goals and values. In active addiction we frequently lose sight of those goals and values. How do we change all of this?

Removing our shortcomings

Once the addict or alcoholic has asked for help, they then enter into a treatment programme or programme of recovery. It is stated in the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, that we first need to complete a moral inventory of ourselves in order to identify our defects of character. Only then are we able to honestly look at ourselves and identify our part in a situation. When we take responsibility for this, we are able to see where we have been wrong. This happens in step 4 and 5 of the 12 steps of AA. In step 6, we become willing for our higher power to remove our defects of character. In creating the awareness around our defects of character in the previous steps, we try now to look at how to replace them with spiritual principles instead so that when we act out on our defects, we chose to do more good than harm and work on improving ourselves on a daily basis.

Dominique Le Claire Rossouw

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Stories of Recovery

  • The encouragement, love and support from the team at Crossroads allowed me to eventually see that I was worth something - that my life could be turned around and that I could accomplish the things that had long been a forgotten dream.
    Oliver VG
    Read more
  • On the last day of my stint at Crossroads I could only express gratitude towards all who works there. A wise councillor once commented on my question when one is ready for rehab by explaining that when one is ready for rehab, rehab is ready for you.
    Johan B
    Read more
  • I was lost and my soul was broken until I ended up at Crossroads and was introduced to the Twelve Steps. With the help of their excellent staff and amazing support I have recently been clean for 18 months, I could not have done it without them!
    Carla S
    Read more
  • "Just for today I am more than three years in recovery. I have Cross Roads to thank for this wonderful gift. Cross Roads helped me to set a firm foundation in my recovery on which I can continue to build."
    Angelique J
    Read more
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