Having gone through alcohol or drug rehabilitation is a major undertaking. Congratulations. Now you might be wondering several things. Where do I go from here? What do I do with my new life? What are the best strategies for staying clean and sober? The information in this article answers all of these important questions. It comes mostly from the experts: people, like you, who were once in a treatment center and have been in recovery for many years. Additional information has also been contributed from professionals that have helped recovering alcoholics/addicts after the alcohol or drug rehabilitation process.

Taking Action—The Process

* Create a plan for after you leave. Work with your therapist, counselor or the treatment center you attended to assist you in developing an after care treatment plan. These are designed to give you a strategy for staying clean. It’s a plan that will keep you on track in the recovery process. Lay person and professional experts in recovery know that an outlined plan detailing the things you can do to stay sober is valuable. Here are some of the most common, and maybe not so common, steps/actions/objectives that can be part of your plan towards a goal of staying healthy, sober and free from addiction.

* Continue with therapy. Follow up sessions with a trusted counselor or professional helps to address those issues or problems that are new for you. Life after addiction comes with new or confusing situations you will be faced with. For example, there was a man that after having been in a drug induced state for years did not know how to order his eggs at a restaurant. He would say, “I just let them throw the eggs on the plate, anything to get some food in my belly. I never paid attention to or cared how they were cooked”. When you are confronted with something you don’t know how to handle, frustration and desire to turn to what you know best (getting high) may become overwhelming. There is no problem too small or large that a trained professional can’t help you with. It’s better to seek their advice and look for solutions than to return to abusing drugs or alcohol.

* Keep your body healthy. This part of the after care plan should involve listing ways you can keep your body functioning at optimum levels. Some steps may include:

* Nutrition and eating right are essential. There have been studies recently showing that the right intake of calories, vitamins and nutrients, staves off the craving for drugs and alcohol. When your body feels good, the chances are you can better fight the cravings for addictive substances.

* Drink lots of water. Water hydrates the body and maintains your body temperature. Proper hydration allows for smoother waste elimination, and keeps the body emotionally balanced. Experts that work in the crisis industry (rape crisis centers, nurses in emergency or triage, etc.) have long known the power of water in regulating a person’s mood. It has a calming effect. An added bonus among many, water keeps your skin from drying out too.

* Exercise. Find an exercise routine and stick with it. If you like the gym or workout centers get a membership Take evening walks in your neighborhood after dinner. Use stairs wherever you go instead of elevators. Remember to find exercises that will bring your heart rate up (aerobic) and those that include warm-up, stretching and free-weights.

* Keep your teeth clean. One of the first things to not only put on your plan but to arrange is a dental exam. Drug use and alcohol abuse damage teeth and gums severely over time. Studies have shown that excessive plaque and tartar on the teeth carries through to our blood stream and creates a plaque build up in the arteries. This means potential heart problems and cardiovascular disease. Also, clean teeth means you will smile more and that alone will better your social life.

* Make social activities part of your plan. When you’re developing your after care plan, be sure to include activities that make you happy. Socializing will decrease depression and keep you from feeling isolated. On this note, make sure to not include former drinkers or drug using “buddies”. Chances are very high that if you begin associating with your former partying partners (that are still using) you will quickly begin abusing the substance again. Find people that have been in recovery for a long time or others that have never had a substance abuse problem. Seek new friends, return to favorite hobbies, whatever it takes to get you out and busy.

* Find your spiritual path. Whatever spirituality means to you, discover or re-discover what it is that gives you strength through the hard times. Returning to a spiritual place that made you feel connected, worthy or special will help.

* Find the creativity within. Do you draw, paint, dance or read? Bring the creative you back to life. Creativity gives a sense of self-worth and accomplishment. This is important for anyone recovering from an addiction. By the way, start your creative processes with your treatment plan. Give thought to the social activities you like. Outline some ideas to eat foods that will not only nourish you but make you feel good, alive and energetic. There are many healthy foods that can give this feeling. Bring your creativity to your plan and make it uniquely yours.

When preparing your after care plan, make sure it’s what you want. There is nothing worse than having a plan that fits someone else’s needs or expectations. Often in alcohol or drug treatment and detox centers we hear quite a bit about what we should do. Our days are planned with activities, counseling, meal times and social events. We become accustomed to what others think we should do to remain sober. Family and friends offer advice, your counselor or therapist may suggest items for your plan but in the end, the treatment plan belongs to you. It needs to be tailored with the purpose of achieving your goal. Your goal is to remain sober and clean. If the plan is one you want and can live with, the chances are you will respect it, follow through with the steps/objectives and stay sober for many years to come.

Smokers may have their own individual reasons to want to quit smoking because they may be affected by the harmful effects of smoking or may want to live longer or maybe doing so on their doctors recommendations. Cigarettes be they light, lower-tar or regular have more than four thousand chemicals of which at least forty may cause the smoker to contract cancer. The nicotine in the cigarette is the reason why people crave the next light.

Adverse Affects Of Smoking Should Be Reason Enough To Stop Smoking

Smoking impacts the smoker’s health in adverse ways and could cause many harmful effects such as wrinkling of the skin, unattractive tobacco-stained hands, yellowish, brownish tobacco stained teeth as well as possible impotence and also be at greater risk of suffering from diabetes. The case for quitting smoking is strong and using stop smoking aids does a viable option that a serious smoker should consider when want to quit this unhealthy practice.

The first thing that a person who tries to quit smoking will notice is withdrawal symptoms. By getting to soothe such withdrawal symptoms and controlling the physical desire for nicotine, the smoker will regain the power of focusing on emotions and habits that are healthy when he or she is successful in giving up the habit.
The smoker can make use of many stop smoking aids including patches that offer a continuous nicotine dose that helps sustain the smoker during withdrawal symptoms, and also calms the physical craving that is experienced when one quits smoking. Taking a single stop smoking aid such as a patch every day will offer protection from nicotine craving which will help the brain become used to existing with less nicotine, and one may then gradually reduce the strength of patches to get rid of the dependence completely.

Other stop smoking aids include nicotine gum, lozenges, nasal sprays as well as inhalers that allow the smoker to actively control their nicotine dosage. However, one should not raise ones expectations too high and instead be realistic about assessing whether a particular stop smoking aid is right or not in their particular instance.

Being sensible and not falling for wild claims about the benefits of various stop smoking aids is advisable, especially as there are no magic or wonder cures available. Stop smoking aids are helpful in assisting the smoker and cannot do more and should be taken with a strong desire to quit smoking. It is also necessary to persevere and not give up even if one does not succeed at first. Evaluating ones needs and keeping up a sustained effort to quit smoking with the help of stop smoking aids should eventually get the desired results.

Employers in the last decade found it hard to rely on drug testing to ensure that they are hiring employees that are free from banned substances. However, the adoption of more stringent rules and restrictions at drug test sites and laboratories have made it harder for drug users to cheat. The variation of drug testing programs also allow choices and more certainty about the test results.

Urinalysis has been the most common and often used drug testing method. However, this is also the easiest to trick and cheat. Diluting urines with water or other colorless fluid is enough to make the drug traces virtually undetectable. To reinforce security on this kind of testing, most companies and drug testing laboratories prefer on-site specimen collection. A drug test technician either visits the site to collect and test samples from workers or candidates for testing visit the laboratories where their urines are collected and tested immediately. Candidates are not allowed to leave the testing room until the test is finished. This ensures that the urine samples collected are not tampered or diluted. However, on-site collection is awkward especially for women because the candidates are actually supervised while collecting their samples. The testing of oral fluid or saliva is also implemented but not popular. Though oral fluid can be collected easily and are not susceptible to alteration, results based on this test are still suspicious. This is because drug traces in saliva can be undetectable after a day. Hence, if a user stops taking drugs a day or two before the test, he may be given a negative mark and pass the test.

Newer technology in drug tests now allow for hair testing. In the present, this is regarded as the most foolproof drug test. Drug residue from drug use, whether ingested or injected, remains inside the hair cuticle. Even if the user bleached, colored, or cut his hair, the residue would still be present and can be detected. This is also very popular since the collection of samples is not difficult and possible without embarrassing the tester and the candidate. Candidates do not need to worry about ruined hairstyles since the snips are done in inconspicuous places and are not noticeable. The latter kind of drug testing are also more cost-efficient for employers. Though the fees for the test is pricier than urinalysis, the company saves more because hair testing can effectively weed out drug abusers from the company’s ranks. This is because a drug-dependent employee cost a company as much as $10,000 in terms of unproductivity, absences, and benefits. They are usually the perpetrators of office theft. Plus, the employees would be deterred from using drugs because they know that is cheat-proof. All in all, investing in drug and hair testing are worthy expenses for the employer.