very useful websites for recovery skills

[abiogenesis]

Hi Guys,

I want to post a link of a very nice website which provides the whole picture of the addiction. (the disease model, post-acute withdrawel, recovery and relapse prevention skills i.e..). I benefited from this cannabis rehab site alot in early days of my recovery. It gave me quite some perspective of what i was really going through.

The link is;

http://www.addictionsandrecovery.org/index.html

Reading people's experiences definitely something very useful. But reading the literature about the science of addiction is also very very useful. There are thousands of experts working on this area for many many years and may be over millions of people. I think, we should make benefit of the findings of this whole culture.

I will try to post some links and articles time to time and I hope some people will benefit from these.

All the best to everyone,

[abiogenesis]

Here I attach a pdf of a book which is written by 4 experts of the area. They introduce the Cognitive Behavioural Thearapy approach for the addiction recovery. It's a little old dated (1993) but still has lots of very useful information. To my very basic knowledge, cognitive therapy suppose that our every behavioral/emotional act (like going for a smoke) is always based on an underlying thought process (we may or may not be aware of the process). And what it propose is "we should change/recode the underlying thought process to change the behavior". So, it gives the main effort to recode/change the underlying thoughts instead of trying to change the behavior.

Recoding the brain really seems to the path to the success in my opinion. There shouldn't be any holes in our brains which will lead us to relapse. Because addiction is something too powerful that it will take root even from the unconcious thoughts which we are not aware of. And i believe that reading is the only way to recode our brains. Reading the same materials again and again, until it settles completely in our neurons. (and never completely settles actually, so it should be a continuing process). Recovering from addiction is really something requiring a continous study on ourselves. Because the core of the addiction is our brain and restructuring it is the only way to success.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but i'm just really very dissappointed by the success rates for recovering addicts. So, we must be the "chosen ones" to achieve complete recovery. Which means putting an ordinary effort will never give us what we want. I now realize that, staying sober is the hardest part but building a new life over it is the real challenge. Otherwise, if nothing changes in our lives, the reasons that put us on the lap of addiction can do the same again.

But it's also very exiting to be able to create a new life. We will be free and we can give any direction that we want to our lives. And when the cognitive abilities and the brain chemistry recovers, the feeling of being alive is worth everything. The clarity of the mind, the connection of the feelings to real world, looking to the future with hope are things that i never imagined that i would have again. But here they are and i wish everyone to have these again.

And what i also realize is my view of life is better than my oldself(nonaddicted oldself). Back then, i used to be very obsessive and anxious about very simple things. But after living through the hell of the addiction, now i don't mind anything in life. Whatever i live, feel, can be positive or negative, but it does not matter because i can "feel" and "live" now. I can live in the moment after so many years because i have the freedom to live it.

I was just going to attach a file but it happened to be a long post Please be very hopeful about the weed-free life. We can do it and we must do it to have our lives back. But we should put all our effort to achieve this. Best wishes to everyone..

PS: I see that the file is not attached because it's too big (20 mb). Is there a way to post this file to rehab group BFB? Thanks,

[Cannabis Rehab Admin]

Hi Abiogenesis

I think there are limits on the size of the files you can attach, if you pm me the link I will see what I can do.

Take care

[Cannabis Rehab Admin]

I tried changing the file size limit for this type of file but so far have not had any luck. I will post the link abiogenesis sent me for now and see what we can do to up the limit.

http://www.2shared.com/document/jQCm...Substance.html

Take care

[abiogenesis]

I didn't think of this way but yeah, people can just go through the link and download the file. I hope some people get benefit of it.

All the best,

[Shirlyn]

Thank you for sharing that link.

[abiogenesis]

Another useful website: http://www.hbo.com/addiction/underst...addiction.html

[abiogenesis]

A useful article which explains how the nerve pathways in our brains are altered due to prolonged abuse of the substance and how the addictive impulses are generated. It emphasizes very well the neorological part of the addiction and the recovery.

http://www.medical-online.com/addict.htm

All the best,

[abiogenesis]

A report released by the national institute of drug abuse (NIDA). As it comes from the most reputed health institute of USA, it covers all the essential facts about the science of addiction.

http://drugabuse.gov/scienceofaddict...faddiction.pdf

Regards,

[abiogenesis]

A website containing many useful articles and videos. It mainly highlights alcoholism but the neurology behind every addiction is characterized by the same mechanisms. The studies on addiction is now so advanced that the scientists pinpoint the circuit that switchs on when the addiction develops, the nerve cells and the brain area that trigger relapses. So, just click on and read it

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/sa/a/blnida041129.htm

[abiogenesis]

A website from university of Utah. It emphasize the genetics of addiction, mechanisms by which drugs affect our brain and how drugs alter the brain reward pathways. It gives a brief outline about the neurology behind the addiction. Language can be a little scientific at some parts but you will get the main points.

All the best,

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/addiction/drugs/

[abiogenesis]

By the way, I opened this thread to post useful information for people but you're very welcome to discuss the points under this thread. I believe learning about addiction is the essential part of recovery. It's a proces every individual experiences in his own way but the neurology behind is common for all people and it's very well studied by the scientists. Making use of this huge information will make you less alone in this battle.

Regards,

[abiogenesis]

The latest scientific advances in understanding and treating addiction, plus animated illustrations of the brain and the mechanism of drugs in the body.

http://www.thirteen.org/closetohome/science/index.html

[abiogenesis]

Articles written by an addiction specialist. He writes in plain and simple English not with fancy medical words.

http://www.anonymousone.com/stone2.htm

[abiogenesis]

it's not us, it's a neurological relapsing disorder: get ready for the challenge!

The link below is a scientific article explaining the disease of addiction as a "chronical relapsing disorder". That was one of the first articles that i read when i started to understand the real problem. It wasn't just a pattern of behavior that i couldn't get rid of; it was a very severe neurological disease that i was encountering and just the will power would never give me what i wanted. I had to be disciplined, i had to learn about the disease, i had to learn about my own case, i had to study myself to identify the green/yellow/red signs, i had to learn not to trust my own thought process, i had to restructure my brain and neurological codings.. and it's always an ongoing process, i'm sober over 6 months but i never take it as granted, i know that there is a sick circuit in my brain that will use every opportunity in life to make me smoke again, but i'm learning more and more about it, i'm developing my coping strategies, i'm growing stronger over it, i'm not letting it to control me, i'm trying to avoid high risk situations i.e i.e i.e..

What i'm trying to say is.. being addicted is the worst thing that an human being encounters. It's a severe chronical disease that will never go away. So, putting an ordinary effort would do nothing in the long term. We should take it very very seriously. I see many people (including myself) staying sober for days, weeks, months but then most of us are relapsing. Because we don't know really what we're encountering, we are disregarding the power of the addiction. We have a tendency to compare the severity of our situation in parallel to severity of the withdrawals. But that's not true, withdrawals may go away after a few months but the underlying neurological disorder will be with you through out whole your life. You should be very clear on this point: addiction is a chronical disease and you can ever never smoke again, no matter what! But we want our lives back, so we should get ready for the battle. Overcoming our addiction should be top 1 priority in our lives. Forget about all the other problems in life because there is no bigger problem than addiction. It consumes every bit of our lives, minds, emotions; it consumes us as humanbeings and leave a vegetable behind trying to do photosynthesis. Because it reduces the function of the most complex organism in the known universe, our brains, to one and only mission: seek and use the drug! We wasted so many years in the past to addiction, but we want our futures. And there is a way to do it. It's not easy, it's not a war that will be over in one week, but it's possible. And if there's a hope in saving our lives, that's enough for our motivation. And here, it's a great rehab group that we can use for this purpose. We can help eachother, we can share our feelings and thoughts with great intimacy and sincerity. No one will judge us, conversely people will understand us. they will have empathy and sympathy for us. Because we're all the victims of the same disease. I'm using the word 'victim' with great honesty because i didn't choose to be an addict, i personally know no one addicted to weed, but here i am and i'm not blaming myself for this. I know my disease, i know it costed alot, but i also know that i can beat it, i can grow stronger over it and not let it control/consume my life.

People in CannabisRehab.org helped me alot when i was drowning in my own addiction, and i thank all of them who supported me during my hardest times. And here i am, as a completely different person from the guy who was desperately addicted, who lost his every hope in life, who lost his all career and cognitive abilities. I'm building a new life for myself as this new person and willing to help people with all my hearth who are ready for the challenge. CannabisRehab.org is a great source of information, knowledge, experience and please make use of it, you don't need to be alone in this, it's hard to talk about our addiction in the real world but in this virtual world there will be always someone assisting you through this battle.

In summary, get ready for the battle folks and we will support you with every bit of our experience! Post your thoughts, your feelings, your story, and let's try to share the burden and try to reach the light together.

All the best,

http://www.duke.edu/~asf11/articles/...%20matters.pdf