5 Tools for Your Recovery Toolbox

In any recovery endeavour, be it medical, psychological, physical, electrical or mechanical, there is always a specific set of tools that will be required to execute the job.
This principle also applies in Recovery from Substance Use Disorder. Let us consider five essential tools that are essential for this process.

1. Books/Educational Materials

To fully recover from or be in recovery for any chronic disease requires following certain dos and don’ts. There is a lot of literature on various pathways to recovery from Substance Use Disorder. You can learn about triggers, coping skills, relapse prevention, finding a recovery community or treatment centre. You can also read about very compelling stories about people in recovery to help encourage you to start, continue and sustain your recovery.
If you are reading this material then you are already on the right path, stay on it. Well done! Apart from this blog, I personally recommend ‘The Recovery Book’, it has a lot of useful information.

2. Relapse Prevention Plan

Everyone in recovery needs to have a relapse prevention plan. It is very important to anticipate your triggers and plan ahead with strategies and coping techniques to deal with the cravings which may arise from getting triggered.
If you do not know your triggers or have a relapse prevention plan, you may just be traveling the road of recovery blind. Sit with a trained professional and get yourself a relapse prevention plan now. The sooner you do it, the better it will be.

3. Eating Plan

Many people in early recovery are tempted to eat whenever they start having cravings. Some people end up getting addicted to sweets and fizzy drinks. It is therefore very essential to have a good eating plan which will ensure you have a good three balanced meals a day to help your body and brain get the best nutrients to aid in the recovery process.
Avoid eating late at night, from experience and research, I will recommend not eating after 6pm and also avoid snacking. This will help you avoid accumulating excessive body fat and thus maintain a healthy body and brain. Check out Dr. Eric Berg on YouTube, he is an expert on healthy eating and also has a wide range of topics to help maintain a healthy body and mind.

4. Exercise Plan

Some of the devastation that drugs do to the body include premature aging. Exercise helps to strengthen the muscles, get rid of old cells and improve the general outlook of the physical body. I have learned from research that it is important to engage in 30 minutes of intense exercise (any activity that gets the heart pumping like jogging, brisk walking, or working out on the treadmill), for at least five times a week.
If that is too much, I have also learned about the 2 minute rule which says that, if you cannot work out 30 minutes a day, do at least 2 minutes of physical activity every morning. It could include stretches, squats, planks, press ups, yoga, anything to get the body moving. It will also help to keep the body in shape and from aging prematurely.

5. Sleep Plan

Sleep for at least 8 hours a day; lack of proper sleep leads to stress, which could be a trigger for relapse. That’s exactly what we want to avoid. Also try to sleep and wake at about the same time every day, this helps the body maintain a good balance, which enhances a better sense of wellbeing.

Bonus: Discipline

Remember, anything can be achieved with discipline. There is bound to be times when you will not feel like doing any of it but remember, that is just human nature. To become a better version of yourself, you need to keep working hard despite inconveniences or discomfort.

Try these out and let me know how it goes. Enjoy the new you!

The Beauty of Relapse – 3 Points to Consider

Whenever beauty is mentioned, we think about pleasant things, places and experiences, women. People do not refer to anything unpleasant or undesirable as beautiful, at least as far as I know.
Concerning the word ‘Relapse’, What do we think of when it is mentioned? Let me know in the comments.

What does it even mean in this context?

Relapse in relation to substance use disorder simply means that, an individual who had stopped drinking or using drugs for a period has returned to a total state of using, which has started to affect every area of their life and thus is causing them not to function optimally.

So, you would be wondering, what could possibly be beautiful about relapse? It depends on what you choose to see. The Beautiful or the not so pleasant side?
Let’s look at some of the beauty in it.

1. The Individual is Willing to Make a Change

For someone to be said to have relapsed, the person must have been abstinent for a period. That is good news! It means that, the individual thought carefully about his/her life and realized that it was not going in the right direction and therefore, made the decision to get into treatment.

This fact is a good foundation to build on. Now the individual has experienced ‘life in active drug use’ and ‘life in active abstinence’, and has the ability to assess both situations. This assessment when objectively done sometimes with the help of a professional or a loved one, will highlight the benefits of ‘life in active abstinence’, (examples are improved health and well being and others which may differ for each person), which will eventually serve as motivation for someone to go back into treatment.

2. It is Not as Disappointing as it sounds

Yes, exactly, it is actually very kind of common in all chronic diseases.
If you are not new to my blog, you would know by now that substance use disorder is a chronic disease.
As a matter of fact, the statistics on relapse for substance use disorders are not as gloomy in comparison to other chronic diseases like Asthma and Hypertension. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), percentage of clients who relapse for substance use disorder ranges from 40% – 60%, for Asthma and Hypertension, relapse is likely to occur in 50% – 70% of patients.
Relapse in persons with substance use disorders should be seen as a need to offer another round of treatment, just like it is done in other chronic diseases and not seen as a failure in treatment.

3. An Opportunity to Try Something New

Substance use disorder is a very complex disease. It does not only affect an individual’s physical body, or brain. It affects the individual emotionally, mentally, socially, spiritually and in many other ways that can not be imagined.

This is generally so because, the reasons why people may start using substances may be borne from a need to satisfy certain physical, mental, emotional, social, spiritual needs.
These factors, in addition to the fact that, every individual has unique needs and therefore needs very specifically tailored treatment means that, an initial treatment plan may become inadequate or redundant when initial needs with which the individual entered treatment changes.

Instead of looking at relapse as a failure of the individual or the treatment program, it should be seen as an opportunity to try out new techniques and coping skills to address current needs.

After a storm there may be flooding, there may also be a beautiful rainbow. The storm of a relapse is no different!

5 Ways to Become Your Cure Pill

‘Madam, if you say Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a disease, can’t you give me a pill to take away all these cravings and make me better so that I can be cured from it?’
Many people I have encountered in my practice in Ghana have asked this question.
This is a very genuine question because if there is medication for treating and curing other diseases, why can we not provide same for those suffering from SUDs.
In other countries like the United States, Europe and some African countries, there are pills for treating Substance Use Disorders. These pills are given to reduce or stop cravings so that patients can go to work and perform their daily functions. This is referred to as Medication Assisted Therapy (MAT). They are mostly combined with Psychotherapy (counselling) for better treatment outcomes.
This therapy is mostly used for Opioid, Alcohol and Nicotine use disorder. However, medication is available for Cocaine Use disorders as well in some places.
In Ghana, we do not have these medications for treatment (except for alcohol and Nicotine in some health facilities). However, most treatment facilities do have psychotherapy available for clients to help manage cravings and live normal lives as well.
The difference here though is that, some clients find having to go through therapy without medication a very daunting task, especially at facilities that do not provide access to detoxification.
The point which must be emphasized here is that, medication does not guarantee that a client will not relapse; SUD is a very complicated disease which is surely going to be properly managed if the client is not able to follow coping skills that will help him/her work out his own recovery. Medication without, ‘working out’ one’s own recovery almost certainly leads to relapse.
So, what can you do to work out your own recovery in the absence of pills and do for yourself what the pill could have done for you?

1. Find a good Treatment Program

The first step to becoming the pill is to pick out a treatment program that can get you started in the right direction. This should be a program with highly trained staff who can help you understand the disease you are suffering from. What a pill does is to treat a particular disease for which it was made. Knowing your disease, how it came about, what is happening in your brain and body will make you aware of what to do and what not to do so as to have the best treatment outcomes. This will also help you understand some of the reasons why certain rules that are put in place at the treatment program are necessary.
Contact me for a list of good programs available in Ghana if you need one.

2. Commit to the Treatment Program

The pill does a job. To become the pill, you have a job to do. You have to be consistent in meeting with your counsellor, speaking truthfully about your drug use history, which will allow for a proper assessment to be done so as to help write up a good treatment plan for you.
Then the next job is to follow the treatment plan to the letter; nothing should be ignored or seen as irrelevant. The counselor cannot do for you what you are told to do. Doing it yourself is how you work it out; look at it as ‘swallowing the bitter pill’, that is how you get results.

3. See the Rules of Recovery as a New Way of Life

Some of the rules you will hear in treatment are; avoid triggers (people, places and things that may directly or indirectly lead to using drugs again), practice coping skills to deal with cravings and other unhealthy emotions, share your experiences, learn from others in recovery.
These so-called rules are not just noise, they actually work and should be practiced all the days of your life if you want to remain abstinent. Take charge of your life and improve your general wellbeing.

4. Join a Community of People in Recovery

One of the usefulness of the pill is to help maintain retention in treatment. The aim of the recovery community is to find support and growth from a group of people going through the same disease. This community of people will not only serve as your support in treatment but also throughout your whole journey of recovery.

5. Read, Read, Read

This is very important! Your counsellor will definitely not know everything there is to know about Substance Use Disorders. New information is coming out everyday that you can learn about. New ways of coping with cravings are coming up every day. Read books, articles like this one, journals and research on SUDs. Knowledge is not just power; it is incredible power. Look for it, empower yourself, improve your life.
Do you not go looking for relationship tips in books and online to improve your love life? Do the same for all other aspects of your life!

4 Reasons Why You Should Tell Someone About Your Recovery Journey

Most of us want the people closest to us to know about any new journey that we decide to embark on. We may even invite them to come along with us.
Why do we do this? Tell me about your reasons in the comments.

A couple of the most popular reasons are that, we want to have someone to share our experiences with. Also, we want someone to kind of watch our back. Another reason may be that, we want to have someone to share the costs with (for instance, you want to go on a trip but can’t afford it by yourself so you invite a friend and then share costs ). It could also be that you want to cheer them up, that is why you are taking them along on a trip.
On the recovery road, you can equally ‘invite someone to come along with.’ This simply means, you can rely on a spouse or partner, trusted friend, sibling, professional SUD counselor or a support group who will give you all the help and support that you would need like on a literal journey with them.
Why then is it necessary to let tell someone about your recovery journey?

To share your Experiences

Bringing someone on your recovery journey gives you the opportunity to have a good and safe outlet to talk about your struggles, successes, failures, wins, insecurities, flaws, the good and exciting days and any other subject you may wish to discuss.
Substance Use Disorder is a disease that many people do not understand and do not care to learn about, they are satisfied with their understanding of it and use those mostly inaccurate perceptions to judge people who are suffering from the disease.
Whoever you bring along on this journey should be open minded and ready to learn about the nature of what you are going through and be ready to attend recovery engagements with you if necessary. This is the only way that the person can truly understand your unique experiences and be able to listen without judgement so as to give you the support that you need to enjoy the journey.

To watch your back

Sometimes we need trusted friends around us to protect us from getting ourselves into dangerous situations or give us advice about some bad habits we may be engaging in. In the same way, we need friends to come along with us on the recovery journey to ‘warn’ us when we seem to be driving off onto a road which is not going to lead to our destination; roads which may lead to people, places and things which could be a trigger for relapse, turn you around and take you back to where you were before the journey began.

To share the costs

Treatment, which is mostly the beginning of the recovery journey is not free, it could be expensive and therefore you may need support from someone to help take care of the financial costs. Other costs may come in the form of taking time off work to get into treatment; in this case, you will need permission from work, meaning you have to tell your supervisor about your journey so that you do not end up loosing your source of livelihood while trying to get well to become a better employee. Even if you run your own business, you will need someone to take care while you are away. Another cost may be child care. If you have children, you may need your partner’s support to cater for them while you are away or you may need to get another family member or trusted friend to care for them if you are a single parent.

To have fun and cheer them up

When you are in the throes of substance use, you tend to ignore most of your responsibilities and obligations to your family, job and community; that is a symptom of the disease of substance use. This situation tends to bring about a lot of tension between you and everyone around you.
Bringing the very closest ones with you on the recovery journey and allowing them to see the amount of work you put in to become yourself again, will definitely serve as a source of joy which will cheer them up and make them extremely happy, which will in turn make the journey fun and cheerful for you too.

So why not bring someone special on your recovery journey today, it will surely be something worth looking forward to.

Happy New Year Resolutions: 4 Ways to Achieve them

What if you actually did everything you plan to do?

What do you have on that resolution list?
Total abstinence, cutting down on substance use, practicing your coping skills, learning new coping skills, learning something new you have always wanted to?

Whatever it is, I am sure it is something that will change your life for the better. I suppose you were not able to do it in 2021 because of ‘certain reasons beyond your control’. Well that is in that past now, so what are you going to do to bring it into your control in 2022?

1. Set Realistic Goals

Are you sure you can achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself? Or is too big to reach. It is good to be ambitious, but being overly ambitious is one of the reasons why people are not able to achieve most of their set goals. Do not bite more than you can chew and get choked in the process. For instance, a person who had just been in recovery for a few weeks decided that he was healed and wanted his friends to also get healed so he started visiting them in the ghettos and encouraging them to get help. He relapsed in under a week! That was a good goal but was too ambitious for him to achieve because at the level of his recovery, he had not been grounded enough to achieve that goal, so he failed. Do not be in a hurry to do too much, do a proper assessment of your strengths and know what you can do and what you cannot do.

2. Break your goals down into objectives

Start with little things like for instance, if the goal is to learn and master five new coping skills a year, you can start by reading about one of them, then learn about it, then you can practice a couple of times, then you can move to the next one. Do not try to do everything at once, it may be confusing and overwhelming which may frustrate you and eventually cause you to abandon the goal.

3. Set realistic timelines for your goals

Do not be in a hurry to achieve your goals too quickly. Take it a day at a time and little by little, before you realize it, you have achieved it. Do not give up too easily, just keep working at whatever you are doing, keep practicing, you are almost there.

4. Make a promise to yourself

You can make a long list of things you want to do in 2022, that is nothing new, you have probably made such a list before but did not follow through with it. This time, promise yourself that you are going to actually do the things you said and set a ‘Promise Prize’, which you will give to yourself once the goal or goals are achieved. Have a trusted person who cares about you keep the Promise Prize which will be given to you when the goal is achieved. If you are true to yourself, the Promise Prize should be a powerful motivation to keep you going.

Have a fruitful year. I know all your dreams will come true because you will actually work at getting them to become a reality. Do not give up, you can do this!