Serenity Releases New Year's Resolutions for Recovering Addicts
Marne, Michigan (PRWEB) December 21, 2016 -- New Year’s Eve is often linked to excesses, and the resulting consequences: more binge drinking, more drug-using, more auto-accidents, more deaths from other causes, and even more pedestrian accidents than nearly any other time of year.
With that in mind, Serenity Recovery Center has issued a guide to a safer New Year’s Eve, and a plan for resolutions for the coming New Year.
Resolutions have a notoriously bad rep. As few as 8% of resolutions might actually be kept in the United States each year. Still, those who make resolutions are still more likely, up to ten times more likely, to attain their goals, than those who do not. The most effective resolutions? Those which are specific, realistic and attainable. These, and other pro tips, are part of the free resolution guide available on Serenity Recovery Center’s website.
Recovering addicts have generally had many experiences resolving to quit drugs or alcohol, and then failing in those resolutions. That’s because addiction is not simply a matter of a decision. Addiction, as more accurately defined by the American Society of Addiction Medicine, instead of a simple dictionary, “is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations.”
An understanding of that definition leads to empathetic awareness of why so many addicts “fail” to achieve sobriety by just “deciding to.” The accumulated losses, of trying to quit and feeling powerless under the weight of addiction, may even cause those with substance use disorders to believe they cannot quit.
Like other chronic diseases, such as hypertension and Type II Diabetes (which have similar relapse rates), addiction management involves lifestyle changes and new “tools in your tool belt,” such as how to effectively contain cravings and urges.
So even though an effective New Year’s resolution cannot be as simple as, “never use again,” goal-setting and resolutions can play a helpful role in recovery: naming and achieving milestones on the journey of sobriety.
Sobriety provides plenty of reasons to celebrate: improved health, more workplace success, increased harmony in the family—working as a team, such desires are attainable.
The guide is available for free on Serenity Recovery’s website.
To learn more, or to get help for yourself or a loved one, call 1-855-218-3775 or visit the Serenity Recovery website: http://www.serenityrehab.org.
Derry Hallmark, Serenity Point Rehab, http://www.serenityrehab.org/, +1 616-209-0600, [email protected]
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