Category: Addiction Education

Empowering Your Partner With Couples Addiction Recovery

a couple having deep conversation during sunset

Struggling with addiction is hard enough. Add in being in a relationship with someone who is also struggling with addiction, and it’s even more challenging. Addiction complicates even the best of relationships. It’s hard to know what problems are tied to your addiction and what problems are just the relationship itself. If your partner has no interest in getting sober, you might be facing the end of your relationship. But, if you both realize that you have a problem with drugs and alcohol, you might wonder if there’s a way forward for you together. The short answer is yes. You can get sober and support each other through couples’ addiction recovery empowerment. At 10 Acre Ranch, we understand your wanting to find your way to sobriety together, and we have programs in place to help you get on the road to recovery as partners.

What Is Couples Addiction Recovery Empowerment?

Addiction recovery is challenging and complex work. Completing this work within a relationship adds another layer. Couples addiction recovery empowerment enables you both to recognize the work that each of you must do to recover as individuals so that you can continue in your relationship. Instead of going to different treatment centers, you can attend treatment at the same facility. With individualized treatment plans, you will each progress through treatment at your own pace. However, you will also have the opportunity to go to therapy together to examine how your addictions have affected your relationship. Doing this in a safe and therapeutic setting offers you the chance to heal as individuals and as a couple.

Why Is Couples Addiction Recovery Empowerment Important?

Being in a romantic relationship can present challenges. Struggling with addiction and being in a relationship is a recipe for disaster. Seeking treatment together can enable you to heal yourselves and build a solid foundation for your future in recovery. Couples addiction recovery empowerment allows you to experience rehab similarly by being in the same treatment center while you empower your partner to heal themselves at their own individual pace. At 10 Acre Ranch, we understand how meaningful your relationship is to you, but we also know how important you work through your individual addictions. While there may be overlap in your treatment plans, there will also be room for individual needs.

You will likely both start by detoxing, and you may do this separately. Detox is not a pleasant experience. It may not serve your relationship or your recovery to go through detox together. However, you will likely reunite after detox as you both begin to do the work of building a life and a stronger relationship in recovery. We know you’re in this together, and we’re here to empower you and your relationship with treatment plans that prepare you to move forward as a sober couple. Instead of sharing your addiction, you can begin to share your recovery as a part of your relationship. Researchers have found that couples who participated in treatment and therapy together have a greater chance of remaining abstinent from using drugs. Additionally, couples who work together in recovery often have stronger and more satisfying relationships with each other and with their children. Finding your way out of addiction is a positive move for you and everyone you love.

Get Help Today With Addiction at 10 Acre Ranch

We’ve been providing Southern California with expert and caring addiction treatment for over twenty-five years. At 10 Acre Ranch, our mission is to rebuild lives, restore families, and improve communities. As one of the leading rehab facilities in California, we provide a welcoming environment for you to begin your recovery. We know how hard it is to break the destructive cycle of isolation that so often occurs in addiction. With a tailored treatment plan, we’ll partner with you to heal you holistically. Contact us today and let us help you with your addiction!

The Truth About Meth Addiction Recovery

The sad truth about methamphetamine is that it is a highly addictive drug that is difficult to recover from. Meth is so addictive because it produces a euphoric feeling, increased energy, and alertness. However, it also speeds up the body’s systems and changes how the brain functions. Chronic meth use can cause permanent damage to both the body and the brain. It is these changes to the brain that make meth addiction recovery so complex. Complex doesn’t have to mean impossible, though; people do recover from meth addiction. At 10 Acre Ranch, we understand how hard it is to recover from meth addiction, but we also know how to set you up for success to do just that.

Steps to Be Taken to Pursue Meth Addiction Recovery

The first step in recovering from any addiction is to admit that you have a problem. If you don’t think you are addicted to meth, it doesn’t matter if your parents, partner, or friends think you are. Accepting that you have an addiction and wanting help are the cornerstones of meth addiction recovery. You have to want it.

Once you decide to get sober, the next step is finding a treatment center. Do some research and make sure that the facility you choose has expertise with meth addiction. Not all addictions are the same, and you want to know that those helping you are experienced with helping people break free from your drug of choice. Researchers have found that behavioral therapies are the most effective treatments for meth addiction recovery. You’ll want a treatment program that employs experienced, professional staff that relies on evidence-based strategies for treating your addiction. Researchers have also found that a combination of interventions is most effective. Interventions might include behavioral therapy, family education, individual counseling, peer support recovery groups, drug testing, and more.

Meth addiction recovery isn’t just about taking away the meth; it’s also about adding new activities and new tools. Your life has likely become all about finding and using meth. Once you remove the drug use, you’ll find that you have a great deal of free time. Boredom is the enemy of the addict, especially in early recovery. Therefore, you’ll want to find things to do. Perhaps there is a hobby you had before you found meth or one you’ve always wanted to try. Maybe it’s time to find a part-time or full-time job. It may just be reconnecting with the family and friends that you lost while using. Whatever it is, look for things that keep you engaged with life without meth.

Treatment for your addiction doesn’t necessarily end when you leave rehab. Attending peer support recovery groups is not only a way to continue doing the work of recovery. It is also another way to help keep yourself occupied. When your rehab treatment is complete, attending aftercare enables you to test out the skills you will have learned in rehab. The early days of recovery can be incredibly challenging, and you may feel more vulnerable when you first leave rehab. Aftercare allows you to have an additional layer of support while you are in the early days.

Benefits of Going to 10 Acre Ranch for Rehab

At 10 Acre Ranch, we’ve been providing Southern California with expert addiction treatment for nearly three decades. Our mission is to rebuild lives, restore families, and improve communities. We are one of the leading rehab facilities in California and offer a wide range of programs that will meet your needs. We are experts in helping people safely detox and stop using meth. We provide a warm and welcoming environment where we integrate the treatment to heal the whole person. We are committed to helping you break free from active addiction and build a life in recovery. Contact us today and let us help you with your addiction!

How Is Addiction a Disease?

Views on drug and alcohol addiction have changed over time. While it was originally thought that addiction was a moral failing, much research has been done to disprove that theory. Later many thought it was purely a biological disease, but that view was also not complete. Today, many addiction experts view addiction through a biopsychosocial model that encompasses the biological, psychological, and social factors that lead to addiction. Using this model has allowed for new approaches for understanding and treating addiction. At 10 Acre Ranch, we understand that addiction cannot be viewed in a tunnel and we are here to help you break free from your addiction in a holistic way.

The Science Behind Addiction

The biopsychosocial model of addiction recognizes that your addiction doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes into account the potential genetic factors behind addiction and adds psychological and social factors. Social factors include things like the environment in which you were raised, the social norms, and your relationships. For example, if you were raised in an environment where using drugs was normalized as a way to cope, you will likely view using drugs in that way. Likewise, if your social circle relies on drug use as a way of socializing, you will see it in that way. Psychological factors include any co-occurring mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression. It can also include a history of trauma and any resulting PTSD. Biological factors focus on the genetic component of addiction and brain changes that occur from things like trauma. Having relatives with a history of addiction or other mental health disorders increases your risk for the same. It is the coming together of these three areas that create the possibility of addiction. Understanding these factors helps with the successful treatment of addiction.

How Does One Become an Addict?

While no one truly knows why one person becomes an addict and another does not, there is enough research available to draw some conclusions. Being genetically predisposed to addiction puts you at a greater risk of becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol. However, it’s not a guarantee. Some individuals grow up around addicted family members and never use drugs and alcohol. Others begin using at an early age and never look back. Additionally, a genetic link is not a requirement. There are many who find themselves facing addiction who have no history of addiction within their family tree. The road to addiction can be viewed as a perfect storm between the different risk factors and the use of drugs and alcohol. If you never picked up a drug or a drink, it would not matter if you had all of the risk factors for addiction.

What Is the Best Way to Get Help With Addiction?

Everyone’s path into addiction is a little bit different and the same is true of the road out. How your road out of addiction is paved will depend on the drugs you’ve used, your patterns of use, any co-occurring disorders, and more. At 10 Acre Ranch, we’ve been providing Southern California with expert and caring addiction treatment for over 25 years. We understand addiction and we know how to treat it. Our mission is to rebuild lives, restore families, and improve communities. We are one of the leading rehab facilities in California and offer a wide range of programs that will meet your needs. We provide a warm and welcoming environment where we tailor healing to the whole person. We are committed to helping you break free from active addiction. Contact us today and let us help you with your addiction!

Mixing Cocaine and Alcohol: Don’t Do it

Cocaine and Alcohol Rehabilitation in Riverside

Using either cocaine or drinking alcohol comes with dangers, but mixing cocaine and alcohol can be disastrous. Many stumble on this combination accidentally and find they like the effects. Unfortunately alcohol and cocaine are social substances. Most people don’t see anything wrong with using them in a social setting.

Alcohol is a depressant and slows down the central nervous system. Cocaine, as a stimulant, has the opposite effect. While it can create a euphoric feeling, combining cocaine and alcohol serves to send your body a set of mixed messages that overwhelms it. Your body doesn’t know whether to downshift from the alcohol or upshift from the cocaine. Every part of the body is thrown into chaos, both while using this combination and when you stop. At 10 Acre Ranch, we understand the effects of using cocaine and alcohol, alone or together, and can help you break free of both.

The Dangers of Mixing Cocaine and Alcohol

Drinking alcohol and using cocaine each damage the body in their own way. Drinking alcohol regularly leads to damage to the heart and liver and increases the risk for cancer and many other diseases. Cocaine use is most known for its damaging effects on the heart and brain. Cocaine’s effects on the heart can lead to heart attack and even death from just one use.

Mixing the two drugs heightens the dangers of both and leads to additional hazards. Mixing cocaine and alcohol in the body creates a substance called cocaethylene, a potent cocaine metabolite. Cocaethylene potentiates the direct cardiotoxic and indirect neurotoxic effects of cocaine or alcohol alone. Cocaethylene significantly increases the toxic effects of both substances on the heart and the brain. Mixing cocaine and alcohol can lead to stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, heart attack, and even death.

As if these immediate effects weren’t scary enough, the dangers of mixing cocaine and alcohol can extend long-term. Cocaine antagonizes the learning deficits, psychomotor performance deficits, and driving deficits induced by alcohol. Combining cocaine and alcohol increases the risk to your heart and brain. If mixing the two doesn’t lead to an immediate cardiac event, there can still be long-term effects such as cardiac arrhythmias or heart muscle damage. In addition to the physical effects of mixing cocaine and alcohol, there can also be psychological effects. Researchers have found that combining these two drugs can increase the tendency toward violent thoughts and behaviors. While mixing these two substances may lead to a pleasurable effect in the very short-term, the health dangers far outweigh any of these effects. Additionally, long-term use of these drugs leads to tolerance which may lead to needing more of each to get the same effect. As you use more, the dangers increase.

What You Should Do if You Think You Have a Drug or Alcohol Problem

If your alcohol and drug use have you wondering if you have a problem, you may have a problem. At 10 Acre Ranch, we understand how difficult it can be to come to terms with a drug and alcohol problem. We’ve been providing Southern California with expert addiction treatment for nearly three decades. Our mission is to rebuild lives, restore families, and improve communities. We are one of the leading rehab facilities in California and offer a wide range of programs that will meet your needs. We are experts in helping people safely detox from drugs and do the work to stop using drugs. We provide a warm and welcoming environment where we integrate the treatment to heal the whole person. We are committed to helping you break free from active addiction. Contact us today and let us help you with your addiction!

What Is a Rehab Facility?

You’ve heard people talking about going to rehab, but what is a rehab facility? A rehab facility is a treatment facility offering medical and psychiatric treatment focused on addiction. Rehab facilities will typically provide a range of programs from detox to residential treatment to outpatient treatment. All of the programs and services offered are aimed at helping you to get and stay sober. At 10 Acre Ranch, we have programs for adults and teens seeking help with their addiction.

Definition of Rehab

If we look at the definition of the word rehab, it means to restore to health or normal life. So, how do we define what a rehab facility is? Well, rehab is a place where you can participate in treatment to restore yourself to health. By the time many of us decide to get clean, we’ve lost sight of who we are and where we were headed before the addiction took over. After years of using, you probably haven’t paid a lot of attention to your health. Many longtime drug and alcohol users suffer from malnutrition and other health conditions. Others may have been using drugs and alcohol to self-medicate anxiety, depression, or trauma. Wherever your health stands, you will find the care and support you need to get back on track while working on getting sober.

Addiction is a physical, mental, and spiritual disease. Rehab offers us a safe and supported environment to address all three. Most, if not all, rehab facilities start with detox. You have to let your body rid itself of the drugs before you can begin to do the rest of the work. Once you’ve detoxed, you’ll move on to the treatment level that is right for you. You might choose residential, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, or traditional outpatient. Whatever program you select, you can expect to attend individual therapy, group programs or therapy, and more. Rehab’s goal is to help you learn how to live without depending on substances. In rehab, you’ll discover that feelings are to be felt rather than numbed. You’ll also learn strategies for coping with life’s curveballs without returning to using.

Who Should Go to Rehab?

Rehab offers an opportunity to focus on getting free of drugs and alcohol in a safe and supported environment. If you’ve tried before to quit using in the past and have not been able to do so, you may find more success at rehab. Removing yourself from your everyday daily life and adding professional support can be the missing ingredients to get you on the path to a sober life. Even if you haven’t tried to quit before, you might find rehab is the key to your success. Rehab can offer additional support for co-occurring disorders such as anxiety or depression. Additionally, rehab can introduce you to various recovery programs at one time and create a treatment plan that extends beyond the early days of sobriety. At 10 Acre Ranch, we can support your sobriety from detox through to life beyond rehab.

Benefits of Going to 10 Acre Ranch for Rehab

At 10 Acre Ranch, we’ve been providing Southern California with expert and caring addiction treatment for over 25 years. Our mission to rebuild lives, restore families, and improve communities. We are one of the leading rehab facilities in California and offer a wide range of programs that will meet your needs. We provide a warm and welcoming environment where we tailor healing to the whole person. We are committed to helping you break free from active addiction. Contact us today and let us help you or your loved one with addiction!

Substance Abuse in the Workplace: How an Effective HR Policy Can Help Employees who are Struggling With Addiction.

substance-abuse-in-the-workplace-how-effective-Human-Resources-policy-can-help-employees-with-addiction

An effective Human Resources strategy on drug and alcohol abuse must confront the fact that one in ten Americans are currently struggling with addiction. As such, the odds are that one in ten of your employees could be struggling with one form of substance abuse or another co-occurring mental health issue. Substance abuse in the workplace is common today and many organizations are working hard to reduce the negative stigma surrounding alcohol and drug abuse. This stigma, where people tend to see a person as ‘just an addict’ instead of seeing them as another human being is causing a great harm to our society. This negative stigma often discourages people from seeking help with their addiction or substance abuse problem, endangering themselves, coworkers, family members and their loved ones.

As an employer, you are in a unique position to help address the drug crisis in America.

With the drug overdose epidemic reaching record proportions in the United States, employers can find themselves in a pivotal role to help address the epidemic at a key stage in an addicts’ recovery journey.

“An estimated 23.5 million Americans are currently addicted to alcohol and/ or other drugs and need treatment and other supportive services. Unfortunately, only one in 10 of them (2.6 million) receives the treatment they need.”

– Open Society Foundations

addiction-treatment-programs-for-employers-SoCal-Los-Angeles-Riverside-Irvine-California-area-drug-rehab — Helping an employee who is struggling with an addiction to drugs or alcohol could save their life.

With only 10 percent of Americans receiving treatment through a drug rehab program, the remaining 90 percent of our nation’s addicts go without treatment. This faces them with an increased potential for a drug overdose and, in some cases, their untimely death.

Addiction and substance abuse in the workplace costs American businesses billions of dollars each year.

The current opioid epidemic alone is estimated to have cost American business $504 billion dollars in 2015, according to the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Workers who are struggling with addiction are also noted to miss an average of 29 days of work, compared with the overall national average of 10.5 days of work missed per year. A huge impact could be made by employers in the current drug abuse crisis, with the implementation of a few valuable, actionable substance use disorder treatment programs.

Any employer should already have a drug-free workplace program on the books, as well as a written substance abuse policy. These policies are a good start, but as an employer there is so much more that can be done. Reducing the likelihood of your employee’s substance use will help your company save money on health care costs and insurance premiums, improve worker productivity and lower the frequency of workplace injuries.

employee-assistance-programs-drug-rehab-workplace-safety-save-lives-money-accident-injury-overdose-death-Los-Angeles-Riverside-CA — An effective HR policy, addressing workplace substance abuse can help you save lives, while maintaining safety and productivity at your workplace.

Addiction is a treatable disease.

Many beneficial and practical solutions to these problems exist and they begin with an understanding that addiction is a treatable disease. Much like diabetes or asthma, addiction is a chronic disease that can be managed, with the right access to treatment and drug rehab programs. Identifying the problem early is also crucial in the success of treatment for a substance use disorder.

Identifying substance abuse through a workplace drug testing program is an easy way to find out if some of your personnel are experiencing problems with addiction. From there, an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can administer help in resolving the drug or alcohol abuse problem. These programs can help focus attention on employees who need help with a drug or alcohol problem. They can offer your employees drug and alcohol detox, intensive outpatient treatment, residential addiction treatment and a host of aftercare services.

An educational program about substance misuse problems can also benefit employees who need help with their addictions. Many people do not seek help for their alcohol, prescription drug or illicit drug problem because they think they will be perceived negatively, especially by their employer.

Employees are more likely to seek help when it is approached as part of an existing employee health and wellness plan. This resource can be recommended to them by their immediate supervisor, or through the company’s human resources department. Fear of losing their job, or being reprimanded for their substance abuse should not be a barrier for anyone seeking help with their addiction. Treating your employee as a person with a treatable, medical illness is the best way an employer can help with the recovery process.

evidence-based-addiction-treatment-Riverside-California-greater-LA-area-SoCal-employee-programs-back-to-work-alcohol-drugs-heroin-meth-cocaine-opioid-rehab — Evidence suggests that someone who enters an employer-sanctioned alcohol or drug rehabilitation program is more likely to succeed at sobriety.

A team of addiction specialists from 10 Acre Ranch can come to your work in the greater Los Angles area to help train your HR staff, and give you the resources necessary to help your employees succeed in recovery.

10 Acre Ranch is located in Riverside, California and we are industry leaders in scientific, evidence-based alcohol and drug abuse treatment. 10 Acre Ranch’s Workplace Substance Abuse Program can help train your supervisors and human resources staff to detect the warning signs of an alcohol, prescription or illicit drug abuse problem in your workplace. We can also help provide tools and resources to help your employees who are in desperate need of help.

Our programs emphasize long-term treatment on a continual basis, that will address the immediate problems of substance use, addiction and mental health. Many people self-medicate their problems and mental health issues with drugs or alcohol. Sometimes the root of the problem lies within an underlying mental health issue, such as childhood trauma, PTSD or other behavioral disorders. The thorough addiction treatment programs at 10 Acre Ranch address these issues, as we feel it is the best way to help an individual achieve a long-lasting sobriety.

Ignoring the potentially life-threatening illness of substance abuse and addiction will only further perpetuate the problems in their lives. This could someday lead to a serious workplace injury or even someone’s unfortunate death. It is in the interest of the safety of all of your employees to address these problems as they arise. Acting expediently when suspicious behavior is noticed could help your employees seek the treatment they need. This is help that could ultimately save their lives.