It took me close on ten years to figure out the difference between the two. One is a fight, the other is freedom. I’ve often heard people saying that it’s a constant fight to stay clean. In my opinion that is abstinence, if you are […]
Pushing Through
It’s not always rainbows and sunshine in early recovery. Gone is the myth, just because I've stopped using everything will be okay now. On the contrary, because you've stopped using or acting out on your addiction you will start to see the REAL wreckage of your past. All those feelings that […]
New Relationships
Through our using we came to believe falsely that we were self-sufficient; that we didn’t need anyone else, we couldn’t stand anyone else as long as we had our drugs. Through this thinking, our interpersonal skills and abilities to communicate with others were put on […]
Social Media Linked to Substance Abuse
Plenty of research has demonstrated that the addictive quality of social media is very real. And according to a new study, heavy social media use may also contribute to a different type of addiction. Psychologists at the University of Albany found that not only is […]
Integrity
Recovery happens in secret. For many years I put up a front when I got out of treatment. Everything was fine and I was now in recovery. How did I know that it wasn't real ? I was not the same person when I was alone […]
Life on Life’s Terms
As we all know life throws out some curve balls. Nothing is to be expected except the unexpected. People pass away, friends leave, plans change. The only constant is that life has its own terms and conditions. I can't control the way other people are, […]
Personal Time
Our primary goal at Cherrywood House is to steer clients and families through their chaos and pain, to a place of freedom, reconciliation and joy. Our team and our program is specifically geared towards 'relentless but sensitive therapy'. We believe that we have to dis-empower […]
How To Help A Drug Addict
The goal of an intervention is to get the chemically dependent individual to accept the need for help now. Three key facets need to be considered as a means of creating as successful an intervention as possible: Dynamic Factors: The abuse of loved ones, the […]
Self Discipline
Coming out of an addiction and into a new normal happens in phases. We do not simply put the chemicals down and then find ourselves as a central figure in our perception of what normal really looks like. We come out of the fog of […]
Social Disease
Coming from an emotionally honest, loving and stable background, my 12 years of intravenous heroin addiction with over 6-years in 27 different prisons, confused everyone. Visits from and interviews with Doctors, Psychiatrists, Social Workers, Probation Officers, Addiction Counsellors and even clergy, left me convinced that […]
