Addiction is a disease of the brain. Your brain is the control center of your body, affecting your thoughts, feelings, decisions and actions. Addiction to drugs or alcohol is hard because it changes the signals in your brain, which makes it difficult to feel okay without using the drugs. When you first take drugs you feel a high or a rush from the substance. But over time, the high is not as strong and you must take more and more of the drug to keep from feeling bad. This is what happens when you become addicted. Many people who are addicted want to quit and they think they can do it on their own.
You may have recently suffered the loss of a loved one, a family member or friend while you’re going through recovery. You used to handle the stress from everyday life events by using drugs or alcohol. But now, you’re sober. If you are finding it difficult to resist temptations, or you’ve found that this is the hardest time you’ve experienced in trying not to relapse, let us assure you, you are not alone. Losing someone close to you is one of the most difficult parts of the human experience. It is no different for you or anyone else. It hurts… A lot! You probably don’t know where to turn next, but you know you have to stay sober throughout the pain and grieving process, so what can you do?
Understanding that the grieving process is an important part of recovery is a good start. While a person recovers from an addiction, intense changes are taking place in the mind and body. Changes are taking place within and all around the individual who is attempting to resolve their body’s physical and mental addiction. Grieving is a natural part of this process and simply accepting this fact is going to be inherently beneficial for you. The addiction likely caused trauma in your personal life, as with members of your family and other loved ones. Many of these problems are not addressed until a patient begins their recovery.
Losing a loved one while in recovery from addiction can bring back cravings for drugs & alcohol. Have a relapse prevention plan in place.
When a major loss occurs in addition to these normal changes in the psyche, it can be one of the most difficult emotional battles in a person’s entire life.
The loss of a loved one can be one of the most difficult times in a person’s life. This loss could be from a sudden death, an illness such as a continued, unregulated addiction or even the loss of a relationship with someone you deeply cared about. When someone accidentally or purposefully leaves your life it can be devastating for even the strongest amongst us. These emotions can be overwhelming and life itself can seem unbearable during this most difficult time. These harrowing parts in your recovery can really challenge your resolve to stay sober.
Understanding the inevitable processing of grief and sorrow as a normal part of life, will help you over time and throughout your recovery.
Grief can manifest itself as one of the major contributing factors in a relapse. Losing a loved one through death or other unfortunate circumstances can create a high risk situation, even for someone who has been clean and sober for years. Using simple techniques to process difficult emotions and set backs can help you avoid a potential relapse.
The first and most important step to consider when faced with a stressful, painful situation is to ask for help. Call on the support of your close friends and family members. Even if they are grieving themselves, simply having the presence of someone who cares about you can give you a lot of strength.
Secondly, being honest with your emotions is essential to process the pain you may be feeling after the loss of a loved one. Your old response was to turn to drugs or alcohol to numb the pain. By now, you must realize that is not a healthy or productive choice anymore. You need to process your real emotions in a way that will help you grow and become stronger in your life. Cry if you feel like crying, it is okay to cry. Express your emotions in a safe manner, hopefully with the help of your family, friends or a support group. If you’re angry, let it out and let the world know you are angry. Just be careful to not express any anger you may have in a way that would be harmful to others. Try to keep it constructive with a goal of ultimate healing in mind.
Loss is never easy to process, especially when you are in recovery from an alcohol or drug addiction.
Speaking of support groups, attending meetings on a regular basis will help you process your complex range of emotions in a more productive manner. Whether you return to outpatient meetings at a rehab clinic, or attend regular Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, this will help you let out your grief in a positive, productive manner. You will likely meet other people who have gone through similar situations before. This will help you feel supported and not alone in your sorrow.
None of these techniques are meant to completely cure or take away the sadness that comes with losing a loved one or member of your family. They will however help you process the emotions you experience through the grieving process without the use of alcohol or drugs. These techniques can be added to your go-to relapse prevention plan, in case the urge to use becomes too much to bear. The first step, (as it was before you entered recovery) is to ask for help. At 10 Acre Ranch, we can help you overcome your addiction and help you deal with recurring issues with addiction through a social model approach to treatment. Please let us know if we can help you.
If you find yourself asking this question, either for yourself, a family member, loved one, neighbor or coworker just understand that a relapse is a very normal part of recovery. If you have been through a successful addiction treatment program, experienced a period of sobriety and fell into a relapse, please know you are not alone. Relapses are not uncommon and it does not mean you are a failure. Hope is always an option and there are many resources that can help you. How you react to your situation after experiencing a relapse is critical in your overall road to recovery. In this crucial time, forgiveness is an important factor to express to yourself or your loved one. Learn to forgive yourself or your family member for the recent relapse into substance use. This is a better, more productive attitude to have that in the long run will help you or your loved one keep striving to maintain their sobriety.
“Treatment of chronic diseases involves changing deeply rooted behaviors, and relapse doesn’t mean treatment has failed.”–National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
It is estimated that 40-60 percent of people who maintain sobriety through rehab, treatment and recovery will relapse into heavy use, while 70-90 percent will relapse and use again at least once. In the medical field, a relapse used to be treated as an uncommon thing but that has largely changed due to the advances in behavioral science and addiction therapy. Sadly, many addicts are stigmatized by society as hopeless drug fiends or treated with the perception that they are a bad person for their substance use. Many of us here in the addiction treatment industry are advocating a different perspective. With addiction being a curable disease, you could compare it to the relapse rates of people with other medical problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure or asthma. The rate of relapse into these common medical diseases is close to the same as for people with a substance abuse disorder. Treating this as a medical condition will help ease the stigma associated with drug and alcohol abuse.
As we have seen the overdose epidemic explode in the United States, it is important for us to begin treating this as a serious medical condition, not a criminal activity reserved only for the ‘bad people’ in society. As you are reading this now, most of us know someone dearly who has struggled with some form of substance abuse. While we look to help those closest to us, deep down inside we know there is still a good person underneath the surface of their drug or alcohol addiction.
It is estimated that nearly 72,000 people in the United States died from a drug overdose in 2017. That’s close to 200 people each and every day. – Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Finding the right coping mechanisms and staying the course in recovery is the key to overcoming an addiction.
Warning: Your Drug Tolerance Levels Will Change
It is extremely important to note here that many who relapse will overdose their first time because they think they can do as much of the drug as they had been doing before they went through detox and a period of sobriety. Simply put, your body cannot handle as large an amount of the drug, even though they had built up a tolerance over their period of substance abuse. Your tolerance has changed through recovery and you might not be able to handle the “usual dose” as you have in the past and immediately die. We cannot stress this enough, so please keep this in mind throughout your post-recovery stage as most people do not plan to have a relapse.
Ultimately, it is up to the individual in recovery to actively want to change things in their life to help them maintain their newfound sobriety. This is a difficult path to navigate and there are many things you can do to help you avoid the temptation to relapse into substance use.
Tips on how to overcome a relapse and not give up on your addiction recovery
Specific Risks to Avoid During Your Process of Recovery:
Avoid drug-related ‘triggers’: Many in recovery can be tempted to relapse if they are around old hangouts where they used to purchase or consume drugs or alcohol. Even the sight of drug paraphernalia or a drink can be too much to handle for some. Also known as drug-related cues, these thoughts can come from a variety of places, depending on your individual situation. Most treatment programs will help you identify your potential triggers and help you formulate a plan to avoid them.
Be extra cautious during the first 90 days: Most relapses occur during this crucial period of recovery. Your addiction doesn’t simply stop once your detox is completed. For many, addiction can shape your thoughts and behaviors for the rest of your life. The good news is the longer you stay sober, the easier it will be for you to avoid a return to your past substance abuse.
Find help in a structured environment: Rates of relapse are much lower for people who participate in some sort of organized support group after their drug or alcohol detox. Relapse prevention or twelve-step programs like Alcoholic’s Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) are great at helping people maintain their sobriety and offer personal help when you feel the urge to use again.
Start creating healthy lifestyle habits: Studies have shown that even a mild amount of exercise can help reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms for recovering addicts. Eating healthy foods and thinking healthy thoughts are important to developing and rebuilding the self-confidence necessary to maintain your sobriety. Controlling your emotions and developing healthy coping mechanisms to deal with difficult situations can greatly increase your success in recovery and sober living.
If you do relapse, don’t be afraid to ask for help (again): When a relapse occurs, know that there are a multitude of resources willing and able to help you break the cycle of your addiction. Sometimes treatment needs to be tried several times before the patient is fully recovered. Remember, relapse is completely normal and nothing to be ashamed about. Your family and loved ones will be happy you were honest and asked for help. Repeated attempts will work eventually and it will help you develop the desire for a healthy, sober lifestyle.
In the New Year, a lot of people are investing in resolutions to lose weight, exercise more often, quit smoking and go to the gym on a regular basis. While it’s always a good idea to pay more attention to your physical health to prevent chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease, why not take the same approach to take care of your mental health, too?
All too often, individuals with behavioral health issues like anxiety and depression wait until they start to experience the physical symptoms of those conditions before seeking help. But, with the right self-care, you can reduce your risk of developing some conditions. And for those starting a new sober lifestyle, taking a holistic approach to total body wellness can also protect your sobriety since you’ll be less tempted to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol.
While there are a lot of factors that contribute to behavioral health issues and some are out of your control (like genetics), you can make a few lifestyle adjustments that can help you feel better and more in control of your emotions.
3 Strategies to Actively Support Your Mental Health
(1) Spend time with nature.
Have you ever had a rough day and spent some time outdoors and wondered why it made you feel so much better? How the great outdoors boosts our mood isn’t entirely clear, though it is well documented. In a study conducted by Stanford researchers, people who walked for 90 minutes in a quiet area outside showed decreased activity in a region of the brain associated with a key factor in depression.
(2) Be aware of how you are dealing with stress.
Chronic exposure to stress can actually change your brain chemistry making you more susceptible to common behavioral health issues like anxiety and depression. While you can’t completely avoid stressful situations, you do have a choice in how you react. Talk to your addiction recovery team about developing a list of stress-relieving activities that might work best for you including mindful meditation, yoga and talk therapy.
(3) Surround yourself with positive people!
There are specific things you can do to protect your mental health and you might be surprised to learn that simply being around those with a positive and grateful outlook can also do wonders for your mental health too.
If you’re starting the New Year with a few resolutions, consider adding a few that are designed to help support your overall health – mentally, physically and spiritually.
Get Help at 10 Acre Ranch
At 10 Acre Ranch, we know that behavioral health and substance use disorders often create a vicious cycle, as the symptoms of one disorder can exacerbate the symptoms of the other. Fortunately, there are ways to treat both disorders, regardless of which came first. At 10 Acre Ranch, our highly-trained staff works with male clients to create a personalized treatment plan that addresses mental health and substance use disorders to reduce symptoms and to increase the likelihood of long-term recovery. To learn more, call today: (877) 228-4679.
Getting sober (and staying sober) takes a lot of grit, determination and courage. Finding a lifetime of sobriety also requires a fair bit of planning to avoid falling back into the destructive patterns of behavior that you worked hard to leave behind.
To reduce your risk of relapse, it’s especially important to plan ahead during the holiday season. With New Year’s Eve right around the corner, take a few minutes today to make some sober plans for the big night.
If this is your first time to ring in the new year without drugs and alcohol, here are a few ways to celebrate and have fun without getting a hangover the next day!
(1) Plan your own camping or fishing trip with some buddies.
Staying sober around people who are using and abusing drugs and alcohol is difficult for most – especially those on a new journey towards sobriety. One way to protect your sobriety is to simply remove yourself from a dangerous situation. If you do want to avoid the bar scene, create your own sober environment instead. If you’re into the great outdoors, invite a few friends for a quick weekend trip.
(2) Focus on your health.
Drinking to excess wreaks havoc on your body – altering your brain chemistry while making you exhausted and irritable the next day. Why not do the opposite and use this day to improve your mental and physical health. Meditate, cook healthy meals, go for a long run and get to bed early. When you wake up the next day energized (instead of reaching for the Advil) you’ll be glad you did.
(3) Attend a support group meeting.
If you’re anxious about celebrating New Year’s Eve sober for the first time, know that you are not alone. Talk to your addiction recovery team for recommendations about the best group therapy options in your area. You’ll likely feel more confident after talking to others in recovery and enjoy having peer-to-peer support.
Relapse Prevention at 10 Acre Ranch
As part of a comprehensive approach to outpatient addiction recovery, clients at 10 Acre Ranch Recovery learn important life skills including relapse prevention strategies including anger management, handling social pressures, handling high-risk situations and long-term sobriety planning. Whether you are seeking help for you or a loved one, our all-inclusive residential facility is affordable and offers one of the industry’s highest recovery success rates. Contact an admissions advisor by phone at (877) 228.4679.
“Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.” – John F. Kennedy
Sometimes life is punctuated by stressful events. Family members get sick. A major financial curve-ball is thrown your way. The basement floods – again.
But, while you may not always be able to prescribe what happens to you, you do have the power to control how you react. That’s why developing emotional resilience is an important life skill to cultivate.
So what exactly what does it mean to become more resilient? It’s not about being tough, turning a blind eye or acting like everything is just okay. It’s actually much more courageous, honest and powerful than that. Emotional resilience is about being strong enough to acknowledge those challenges and uncomfortable emotions. And, knowing how to react.
JFK summed up resilience very well. Life isn’t about focusing on the roadblocks you might encounter. It’s about understanding that you are empowered to solve those challenges – while learning and growing from those experiences.
Learning emotional resilience is important. And, it is especially important for those starting a life of sobriety. By learning how to draw from your inner strength, you can avoid turning to drugs or alcohol as a way to cope.
Here are strategies you can use to build a reservoir of emotional resilience:
(1) Understand that you are not alone. Life happens. To everyone.
The good and the well – not so good. So, the next time you get a speeding ticket on the way home from work, don’t beat yourself up. While it may seem frustrating in the moment, you can lessen the initial “sting” but reminding yourself that other people have gone through similar situations.
(2) Ask family and friends how they might handle the situation.
The next time you face adversity, take a proactive approach and talk to someone about it. Focus on the possible solutions, not the problem. You’ll feel more empowered and you just might learn how they have dealt with a similar situation in the past.
(3) Acknowledge. Learn. And move on.
Try reframing the situation as a learning opportunity. If you’ve had a particularly tough day, take a few moments to think about how you can personally grow from the experience.
Benefits of an Individual Therapy Approach
10 Acre Ranch drug rehab is a social treatment model that emphasizes therapeutic group activities like anger management, cognitive therapy, and 12-step programming. Living in a supportive community prevents clients from becoming alienated during recovery, and teaches them interpersonal skills that are helpful during and after rehabilitation. To learn more about our addiction rehab program and life skills training, call (877) 228-4679.
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10 Acre Ranch
Accessibility Statement
10acreranch.org
April 26, 2024
Compliance status
We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience,
regardless of circumstance and ability.
To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level.
These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible
to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.
This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific
disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.
Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML,
adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.
If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email
Screen-reader and keyboard navigation
Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with
screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive
a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements,
alongside console screenshots of code examples:
Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website.
In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels;
descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups),
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for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology.
To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on
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These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
Disability profiles supported in our website
Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.
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Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.
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We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).
Notes, comments, and feedback
Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to
