Posts Tagged ‘stress’
How to Best Manage Stress in Addiction Recovery
Managing stress in addiction recovery can be one of the keys to relapse prevention. That feeling of “stress” is triggered by the fight-or-flight stress response kicking into gear without thought when triggered by emotions, sounds, sights, touches, smells, and the like. Often stress and substance use disorders go hand-in-hand because the chemicals in the alcohol…
Read MoreTools to Counter Trauma Triggers
Trauma triggers can come out of seemingly nowhere. A sound, sight, touch, smell, danger producing emotions (anger, fear, frustration), a particular voice, the color of light… and wham! Your heart rate accelerates, you have trouble breathing, you feel panicky or find yourself frantic and in your frenzy unable to hold a thought or utter a…
Read MoreLet It Go – Nice Saying, But How?
“Let It Go.” For years I couldn’t relate to this phrase. It seemed so overused, and frankly one that got my blood boiling because it sounded so overly simplistic. Yet, it’s now one of my favorite phrases. In fact on heavy stress days, I’m practically chanting, “Let it go….” So how does it work for…
Read MoreStress – “Is It a Stick or a Snake?”
The Fight-or-Flight Stress Response System Tying back to yesterday’s post, one of the most important discoveries (after the one about why and how addiction is a brain disease) I made was to learn that the family member’s “problem” is rooted in the fight-or-flight stress response system. This system is the one wired into the human species…
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