by Fiona Stockard | Dec 19, 2014 | Addiction Articles, Recovery
Why What You Eat in Early-Sobriety Matters
If we go by the saying “you are what you eat,” then, in active addiction, most of us weren’t anything too hot. Hey, that analogy works on a metaphorical and a literal level!
All jokes aside, I ate very badly when I was drinking and drugging. A healthy diet was pretty low on my list of essential things. It took a backseat to getting money, getting drugs, getting booze, getting high, getting more money, getting more drugs…I think you get the idea.
So, when I was in rehab and the nutritionist started talking about eating healthy, I zoned out. Eating right wasn’t important to me. Guess what? I paid the price!
I ate bad and I felt bad. I ate high fat foods and gained weight. This last point, gaining weight, is especially important when we consider recovery from eating disorders and other harmful behaviors.
To help women avoid my mistakes, I’ve put together a list of some foods to eat in early-sobriety. I also jotted down some foods to avoid. Bon appetit!
Learn the benefits of practicing yoga in recovery!
Do Eat Veggies
There’s no downside to eating your vegetables! They’re packed full of vitamins, nutrients, and minerals. They’re pretty yummy (except for Brussels sprouts, I never could get into those!). They give us sustained and healthy energy.
Years of destroying ourselves with drugs and booze takes a toll. Eating veggies is a good way to begin to heal our bodies. Besides, if we eat good, we feel good. It’s that simple.
Don’t Eat Fast Food
I’m as guilt as anyone of living on the Taco Bell and Wendy’s diet. There were years, literally years, where I ate nothing but fast food. Guess what? Those years stank!
Fast food is processed food packed with salt, sugar, fat, preservatives, and chemicals. While none of those, with the exception of chemicals, are harmful in moderation, they’re toxic in large doses.
Consider that a Big Mac has ten grams of saturated fat, 960 milligrams of sodium, and nine grams of sugar. That’s not too healthy!
Do Eat High Protein Foods
The only upside of fast food is how much protein it contains. A Big Mac has twenty-four grams of protein. The crappy stuff in it far outweighs the good, but that’s a decent amount of protein.
Protein is made up of amino acids, which are essential for our bodies’ health and regeneration. Want to know the fastest way to start feeling better after a binge? Eat a grilled chicken breast.
Don’t believe me? Try it out. After all, there’s a reason body builders go crazy for protein.
How do we move from early-sobriety to long-term recovery?
Don’t Eat High Fat Foods
This one is linked with avoiding fast food. Stay away from foods that are loaded with fat! They taste delicious, I know, but they do nothing good for our bodies or mood.
Fat is a tricky food group. Monounsaturated fat and fatty acids are actually very healthy. Saturated and trans fats, on the other hand, are dangerous for a few different reasons.
First, they clog the arteries and lead to heart disease. Second, they lead to obesity, which brings with it a host of health concerns. Finally, eating saturated fats contributes to the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.
Do Eat Fiber Rich Foods
Fiber is great. It fills us up and keeps us regular. It promotes stomach, colon, and bowel health. There’s not really a downside to eating fiber. So go get some!
Do Drink Water
Last, but certainly not least, we need to drink lots of water in early-sobriety. Water keeps us hydrated and is essential for all of our body’s functions. After all, we’re made up of around 55% water. Seems kind of important to keep drinking it!
What’s the link between shame and addiction?
by A Women in Sobriety | Dec 9, 2014 | Addiction Articles, Recovery
Do I Say Addict or Alcoholic?
It’s the oldest question around! Do I identify myself as an addict or an alcoholic?
I’ve been asking myself this since I was first introduced to the rooms of twelve-step recovery. That was back in the dark ages of the mid 2000’s. My family thought I needed help and sent me to an IOP program. The IOP, in turn, sent me to rooms of Narcotics Anonymous.
So, I went to a few NA meetings. I was thoroughly confused by what I heard there. I did learn a few important things, though. I learned I probably do have a problem with drugs and alcohol. I learned I used drugs to fill a void.
I also learned to call myself an addict. The one thing I didn’t learn was how to stop drugging and drinking. Spoiler alert, I didn’t learn how to stop because I didn’t want to.
Fast forward a few years and I was introduced to the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. I was in a residential treatment center and they took us to AA meetings every night. When I raised my hand to share and said “My name’s Fiona and I’m an addict,” well, let’s just say I caught an earful.
I was told I was disrupting the meeting. I was told to call myself an alcoholic. I was told to respect the house I was in.
Respect the House You’re In
Since that fateful meeting, I’ve heard this slogan repeated a lot. Respect the house you’re in. What exactly does it mean though?
Well, it means exactly what it sounds like! I should identify myself according to the fellowship I’m attending. If I’m in NA, I call myself an addict. If I’m in AA, I call myself an alcoholic. If I’m in CA, I call myself a cocaine addict. If I’m in EDA I say I’m recovering from an eating disorder.
It’s pretty simple actually! See, I suffer from a disease of complication. I can take the simplest concept and twist it up in my head to be something completely different. Part of sobriety, for me, is to keep thing simple. In fact, one of my favorite recovery sayings is Keep it Simple!
But I Never Had a Problem with Alcohol!
I hear this all the time in meetings. I hear women refuse to identify themselves as alcoholics because they never drank. I hear women refuse to identify themselves as addicts because they never did drugs.
While that makes sense in theory, in practice it’s quite different. Being an addict or alcohol has nothing to do with what substance we did or didn’t use. It has to do with our thinking.
In both AA and NA literature, the disease is called “a disease of thinking and relationships.” See, I’m an addict and alcoholic because I have a mental obsession with drugging and drinking. I’m an addict and alcoholic because I’m unable to form true partnerships with other people.
Until I have a spiritual awakening. Once that happens, my thinking returns to (mostly) normal. I’m able to be selfless instead of selfish. Thank God for that!
What If Say Alcoholic/Addict?
I’ve heard this one a lot, too. I’ll be sitting in a meeting and someone says, “My name’s So and So and I’m an addict and alcoholic.”
There’s nothing really wrong with this. I still feel like we, as women in recovery, should respect the house we’re in, though. It seems disrespectful, in my opinion, to add an unnecessary qualifier.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments!
by Fiona Stockard | Nov 17, 2014 | Addiction Articles, Recovery
Can We Use Facebook to Get Sober?
Recently, The Atlantic published an essay about one woman watching her friends fall into, and recover from, heroin addiction. While their sheer volume often drowns these stories out, this particular one was interesting.
What made this essay different from the other 10,000 we see everyday? Well, it looked at addiction and recovery through the lens of Facebook!
I use Facebook pretty much all day. I’m always peeking in to see if I was tagged in anything and what my friends are up to. Add Instagram, Twitter, etc. to the mix and it becomes plain to see that we’re surrounded 24/7 by social media!
But what if we could use Facebook, and all the others, to spread a message of hope and recovery? I mean, you’re probably reading this article right now because you saw it on social media!
So, how can we, as women in recovery, use social media for more than a five-minute distraction?
Social Media and Active Addiction
It’s funny how accurate The Atlantic’s essay was. They talk about how friends and family of addicts can gauge someone’s addiction through their activity on social media.
That is 100% my story! I can’t tell you how many times I deactivated my Facebook when I was getting high. My Myspace and LiveJournal (I’m dating myself, I know!) fell out of use when I was drinking. Concerned comments would pile up and give me even more guilt.
There’s the other side, too. I remember posting countless pictures of friends and myself playing beer pong or at a party with our white girl wasted faces.
Classic teenager and young adult move, right? Except, for me, these “fun” pictures were less a chronicle of youthful mistakes and more snapshots of my active addiction.
Facebook and Sobriety
And then I started trying to get sober. Suddenly, Facebook became less terrifying. Rather than hiding from concerned friends’ messages, I could post how great life was! Of course, relapse would send me running from the computer.
The Atlantic’s article touches upon this very idea. The author writes about seeing her addict friends post things like “Today is ninety days!!” I’m pretty sure I made that exact same post…more than once!
This is where Facebook, and the rest of the social media family, can become useful, and even indispensible, to sobriety.
Imagine if you lived in a small town and didn’t have access to around the clock meetings. Imagine it’s two a.m., you can’t sleep, and all you can think of is drinking. What’s a girl to do?
Simple! You can hop on Facebook and instantly connect to millions of other recovering addicts and alcoholics. You can get support, encouragement, and general positive messages no matter the time or location.
That sounds pretty awesome to me!
Let’s Spread a Message of Hope!
Can we all agree, right here and right now, to start a new trend? Let’s switch from liking pictures and status to liking God and our sisters in recovery!
Let’s start using Facebook to spread a message of hope and recovery!
by Sally Rosa | Nov 11, 2014 | Addiction Articles, Recovery
Sober Clothing: Rad or Fad?
I’ve noticed a trend over the last few years of women in recovery rocking some b*dass sober clothing.
In fact, from the humble beginnings of wearing a recovery shirt to a meeting, sober clothing has grown into a booming industry. Don’t believe me? Check out Party Sober Clothing.
Party Sober, and a handful of other recovery clothing lines, are trying to redefine how the general public views sobriety. They’re seeking to change the popular conception of recovery and let the world know we’re not a glum lot.
Is this new trend of sober clothing something rad or simply a fad? Will our alcoholic grandchildren wear sweatshirts that proudly proclaim “Never Hungover,” or will recovery clothing make some waves and fade away? And what about personal anonymity? So many questions!
Recovery Clothing: Trend or Game Changer?
Is recovery clothing here to stay? Well, the answer depends largely on the end goal of sober clothing lines. Are they making shirts that read “I Heart Sober Boys” to make money or is their goal to raise awareness about what recovery is really like?
The longevity of any company, especially those involved in social causes, rests on their overall mission. Think about it – if a company is genuinely interested in bringing about positive change, people are going to respond.
Look at TOMS shoes. For every pair of shoes bought, they donate a pair to those in need. That’s a win-win. That also generates the best kind of advertising – word of mouth from satisfied customers. In short, TOMS is selling more than shoes. They’re selling hope.
So, are recovery clothing lines like Party Sober in it for the money or to help people? Well, the guys behind the brand write, “The Party Sober mission is simple, to glamorize a sober lifestyle opposite of what mainstream media glorifies.”
I can get behind that. Imagine if we saw honest and accurate portrayals of sobriety in the media. We’d see a lot more women walking through the doors of meetings! Speaking of meetings, how does anonymity factor into sober clothing?
Are We Broadcasting too Much?
Ah, the age-old question of anonymity. How do we balance our personal anonymity with our personal style? For that matter, is wearing recovery clothing breaking anonymity at the levels of press, radio, and film?
I think, like most questions of anonymity, this is a personal choice. Personally, I’m okay with wearing a shirt that says “Still Hot When You’re Sober” or “All This & Sober.” That’s me, though. What’s okay for me might not be okay for others.
It’s important to point out that we should be living by spiritual principles before we start wearing recovery clothing. After all, if I’m wearing a “Still Hot When You’re Sober” shirt and acting like a brat, well, I’m not making sobriety look attractive. Remember, this is a program of attraction!
Why Stores Would Never Carry a Sober Clothing Line
One of the largest challenges, maybe even the largest challenge, recovery clothing lines face is getting stores to carry their clothes.
Now, in the age of the internet, when so many of us shop online, this might not seem like a problem. It’s not a problem, if a company’s goal is simply to make money. But if they’re attempting to change how society at large views recovery, it is a problem!
Right now, stores aren’t going to carry recovery clothing because it hasn’t reached that critical mass of cool. I mean, are teenagers lining up to get a sobriety date bracelet? I don’t think so.
If brands like Party Sober continue their good fight to break the stigma of addiction and recovery stores will one day carry their clothes. Unfortunately, we haven’t reached that day yet.
Would You Wear Sober Clothing?
Like I said above, I know what’s okay for me, but I don’t know what’s okay for you. Learning this lesson is one of the greatest gifts sobriety has given me!
So, would you wear sober clothing? Let us know!
by Sally Rosa | Nov 5, 2014 | Addiction Articles, Recovery
You Got it Wrong, Vice
By: David Greenspan
Vice recently published a two-part exposé on the sad state of this country’s for-profit substance abuse treatment centers.
The videos and article centered around the story of Brandon Jacques, your typical American every-kid, who passed away on April 2nd, 2011 in a California detox.
While Brandon’s is a touching and true story, Vice’s damning depiction of the rehab industry left a lot to be desired. Are there problems with this industry? Absolutely. Do they apply to every treatment center? Not at all. Not even a little bit.
Because Vice’s report took the form of Brandon Jacques’ narrative, I thought I’d write an open letter to them about my own narrative. Treatment saved my life. It’s that simple.
How Rehab Saved My Life
I’ve had a problem with drugs and alcohol since I was twelve years old. Right from the get go, I suffered consequences from my drug use. The first time I smoked weed was on school property. I was caught and suspended.
The following year, I sold Ambien to a kid in my school. He had an allergic reaction and almost died. I was once again caught and suspended. You’d think these events would be a wake up call, right? Nope. I was already caught in the cycle of active addiction.
I was sent to my first intensive outpatient program (IOP for short) pretty soon afterwards. Thus began my illustrious career as a rehab client.
By the time I was eighteen, I’d been to three outpatient programs and two jail cells. Each IOP was a for-profit center located in or around New York City. Throughout all three, I drank and drugged. Is that the rehab’s fault? Absolutely not.
Each IOP program went above and beyond while trying to help me. They offered family services for my parents. Counselors spent long hours arguing with me about my drug use, which, by this time, had turned to full-fledged addiction. Counselors took time from their weekends to bring me to twelve-step meetings.
None of it worked. You know why? Because I wasn’t ready to stop. Because I was a full blown alcoholic and addict who, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, thought everything was fine.
Once I turned eighteen, I entered my first for-profit inpatient rehab. It was one of the many in south Florida. I was out and using six months later. Again, this treatment center went above and beyond for me and my family. To this day, I’m still in contact with counselors, behavioral health professionals, and doctors I met there.
Was it the rehab’s fault I relapsed? Nope. I remember waiting for a bus while being strung out. I was shaking like a leaf, the Florida heat didn’t help one bit. Guess who walks up to me? A behavioral health professional from the rehab. We talked for over an hour. She took me to a meeting and got me into a halfway house.
I was promptly kicked out of the halfway house for getting high. See, that’s what active addicts and alcoholics do. We drink and drug until we’re forced to stop.
The following year, at the ignorant age of nineteen, I entered my second for-profit rehab. By this point, I’d been arrested a handful of times. I’d overdosed more times than I could count. I crashed cars and suffered serious medical consequences as a result of my drug use. I’d burned every bridge I had left. I was done.
This facility, also in south Florida, saved my life. While all the other rehabs went above and beyond, this place was really something. The doctors, counselors, BHP’s, and everyone else working there, were simply amazing. They got me on the right medication. They ran the right groups.
Guess what else happened at that rehab? My insurance ran out. Did they kick me out? Nope. They worked out a payment plan that seemed fair. They continued to treat me. When I had trouble making those payments, they continued to treat me.
See, Vice, there are certainly some shady for-profit rehabs in the U.S. There are certainly places that engage in illegal referrals for kickbacks. There are certainly places that market themselves as “full-service,” despite offering limited treatment options. But not all rehabs are like that. Not even close.
You’re Looking in the Wrong Places, Vice
The Vice exposé focused on luxury California treatment centers and one in Arizona. That’s not really surprising. California has a ton of overpriced and under qualified rehabs. I don’t know about Arizona, but I’d guess they’re the same.
What about south Florida, though? What about Delray Beach, affectionately known as “the recovery capital of the world?”
Now Vice, let me stop you right there. “But David,” they’re saying, “south Florida also has a ton of shady rehabs and halfway houses. Haven’t you read this article?”
I did read it and you’re right, Vice. South Florida has its bad seeds. It has treatment centers, detoxes, and sober living facilities that were founded based on nothing more than greed. It also has a vibrant and one-of-a-kind recovery community.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I work at a for-profit rehab. Does that bias my view about for-profit treatment centers in south Florida and elsewhere? Probably. Does that change the fact that there are plenty of rehabs saving lives left and right? Not one bit.
So, the next time you want to do a report on the treatment industry, Vice, why don’t you try talking to one of them.
