In the past, health insurance coverage of treatment for mental illness was much different than coverage for physical conditions. Mental health care coverage had its own structure when it came to cost-sharing, was much more restrictive, had different pre-authorizations requirements, and even had different caps when it came to annual and lifetime coverage. Needless to say, finding a plan with generous mental health benefits was near impossible.
In 1996, Congress passed the Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA), which prohibited large employer-sponsored group health plans from imposing higher annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health care than on medical or surgical care. While this was a needed step toward coequality, there were still a lot of holes in the act and insurers were able to loop-hole their way out of many of the mandates. States followed the MHPA by passing their own mental health parity laws, some trying to fill in the gaps of the ‘96 act.
Then, in 2008, Congress passed another act, the Mental Health Parityand Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA). This historic stride was motivated by both the public and legislators, encouraging greater acceptance for mental illness. The new act was created to cover the holes left by the previous act and to include application for substance abuse treatment. And, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went further by “mandating coverage rather than requiring parity only if coverage is provided.”
The ACA amended the MHPAEA to apply to individual health insurance coverage (and not just group health plans and group health insurance coverage). The Affordable Care Act even “defined coverage of mental health and substance use treatment as one of the ten essential health benefits.”
Behavioral health treatment, such as psychotherapy and counseling
“Mental and behavioral health inpatient services
“Substance use disorder (commonly known as substance abuse) treatment.”
However, even with all the progress that has been made on this issue, mental health care is still outlandishly unaffordable. Questions must be addressed like,
“Will employers and consumers know their rights and responsibilities under the law?
“Will health plans and insurers follow the law and pay for behavioral health services equal to those routinely covered for other conditions?
“Will federal and state regulators monitor and enforce compliance with the law?
“How will state and federal courts interpret the law as questions about its implementation come before them?”
Unfortunately, “health insurers face little enforcement of federal mental health parity law,” and, “even with insurance parity rules, counseling may count as specialty care.”
As you can see, while the U.S. has made progress toward making access to mental health care more affordable, there are still miles to go. Get involved in your local and state governments. Make MHPAEA compliance a high-priority item to your state’s insurance commissioners.
And, lastly, if you’re worried if you’ll be able to afford our mental health care services, please don’t hesitate to call 385-313-0055. One of our administrative staff members can discuss payment options with you so you can get the care you need.
How do you improve your mental health? The answer depends on the individual. However, there are some good mental health habits everyone can adopt.
Below is a short list of effective ways to improve mental health, tips nearly everyone can follow.
1. Practice Gratitude
More than likely, parents, teachers, friends, and/or religious leaders have told you to be grateful time and again. And while the cry to “have an attitude of gratitude” sounds simplistic, insignificant, and cliche, research can back up the importance of thankfulness. Being thankful has been linked to less anxiety and depression, higher long-term life satisfaction, as well as other psychological benefits.
Start practicing gratitude with small steps. Keep a gratitude journal in which you write down three things you are grateful for each day, write a thank you note, take time to appreciate ordinary moments, and express gratitude to a higher power.
2. Meditate Regularly
Meditation used to be associated only with Buddhist, East Asian monks and New Age hippies. But now research abounds showing the powerful benefits it can have on the mind and today people from all over the globe practice it. Real evidence shows how meditation can actually change the brain and decrease anxiety.
There are many different types of meditative practices based on compassion, mindfulness, transcendentalism, yoga, and Sahaj. But they all have certain common benefits. Figure out what works for you and then stick with it. It doesn’t need to be complicated or take up a lot of your time. You can even learn to meditate when you’re really impatient.
3. Improve Physical Health
Your physical and mental health are closely intertwined. Taking care of yourself physically drastically helps you take care of yourself mentally.
Exercise And Mental Health
Working out increases endorphins and raises levels of serotonin, which helps fight depression, other mental illnesses, and negative thought-processes.
Sleep And Mental Health
Sleep-deprivation causes depression, exhaustion, anxiety, and more. If you feel tired often, feel drowsy while driving or watching TV, need caffeine to get through the day, and don’t feel refreshed after waking up, you are likely sleep deficient. Set a regular time for you to hit the sheets and follow other sleep-happy practices to improve the quantity and quality of your time asleep.
Diet And Mental Health
What you put into your body impacts the chemistry of your body. Eat nutritious meals and drink plenty of water. Choose foods with lean proteins and healthy fats (fish, nuts, avocado, etc.) and stay away from refined sugars that spike your blood sugar levels.
Drugs And Mental Health
Avoid alcohol and drugs. It is impossible to achieve a healthy mental state while your mind and body are impaired by addictive substances. If you are struggling with addiction, recognize the hope and power in getting help right away.
4. Seek Medical Help
Consult a medical doctor if you fear you are suffering from an illness related to your mental and emotional health. General physicians offer depression screenings and mental health consultations. After assessing your specific needs, they can refer to you to other clinicians, specialists, and/or therapists accordingly. Psychiatrists can provide you with holistic supplements and psychiatric medications to help you overcome trauma, addiction, anxiety, depression, and other psychological illnesses.
Taking antidepressants and other medication to become mentally healthy has carried a negative stigma in the past. However, that is changing, and today people are rightfully more outspoken and unashamed for choosing to get help. Celebrities are coming out, stating how they are unafraid to take medication to take care of their mental health. Truthful and positive comparison are made from mental to physical health: we don’t look down on a person with type 1 diabetes for taking medicine to increase insulin, so why should we look down on a person with depression for taking medicine to increase serotonin?
5. Counsel with a Therapist
More than 59 million Americans seek care from a mental health care provider every year. And approximately 80 percent of people who go to mental health counseling reap benefits according to a 2006 study. Speaking with a mental health therapist can not only improve your life but also actually save it.
While counseling can help individuals overcome mental health problems, it can also fortify good mental health habits you’ve already established. In other words, “The benefits of therapy extend far beyond periods of crisis,” said Ryan Howes, Ph.D., a California-based psychologist. Therapy provides personal empowerment, wellness, development of skills, hope, professional insight, and even prevention of future mental illnesses.
6. Lean on Your Support System
Did you know social connection is vital to staying mentally healthy? Investing in social relationships with friends and family is one big way you can invest in your mental health. And spending time with a best friend can dramatically increase your sense of self-worth and happiness as well as decrease levels of stress hormones.
Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, you need social connection. Friendships — and social interaction in general — serve important cognitive, emotional, social, and mental purposes. Even if you lead a busy life, be sure to take time to call up your sister, write a letter to your neighbor, go to dinner with your friends, or watch a movie with your partner. Sometimes just getting out, going to the store, and making small talk with the cashier can increase levels of oxytocin, improving your mental health. Develop and lean on you support system.
Make your mental health a priority. Become resilient and develop habits that will help you steer through life’s ordinary moments and crises. Don’t dismiss your mental well-being. Take action today to improve your life. If necessary, seek professional treatment and support. Follow these and other ways to improve mental health by making gradual changes to your lifestyle. The payoff will be well worth your investment. Take hope, practice self-compassion, and strengthen your mental wellness.
I recently read a brilliant BuzzFeed article called, “15 Things Therapists Actually Want You To Know.” I immediately connected with it and decided to republish it here to help clients and readers.
Please note, everything below comes from the article and was not written by me.
Therapy can be mysterious and intimidating, especially if you don’t know what to expect. So BuzzFeed Health spoke with three psychologists who all have extensive experience with psychotherapy: Stephanie Smith, Ph.D., clinical psychologist in Colorado; Ryan Howes, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and professor at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology; and Lynn Bufka, Ph.D., associate executive director of Practice Research and Policy at the American Psychological Association. Here’s what they wish people knew about therapy:
1. It’s not really a therapist’s job to give you advice.
They’re not here to tell you if you should call off your marriage or quit your job. “The real job of therapy is to get to know yourself better and change the way you’re thinking, the way you’re behaving, or the way you’re understanding the world,” says Smith. “The process of therapy is not to give good give advice.”
Sure, they might tell you about strategies to cope with a mental illness like depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder, but when it comes to your personal life decisions, they’re more of a facilitator. “Do you really want to come to therapy to give your power away to someone else or do you want to learn to have that power on your own?” says Howes.
“I would never trust a therapist who hadn’t been to therapy,” says Howes. And according to these experts, most psychologists do see their own therapists — maybe not all the time, but at least at some point in their careers. Most graduate psychology programs even require that candidates participate in therapy, says Smith.
That’s typically the job of a psychiatrist or a primary care provider — not a psychologist or social worker, says Bufka. However, your therapist can coordinate with another provider to help you start or end a medication, if that’s something you’re interested in..
4. You don’t have to be diagnosed with a mental illness to go to therapy
One common misconception: “That you have to be ‘crazy’ to go to therapy,” says Howes. “There are a lot of reasons why people go to therapy that have nothing to do with disorders. And when people do go because they have a disorder, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. You’re going to get help and speak to an expert just like you would seeking help for any other medical condition.”
It’s usually this in between area — when you’re struggling but not completely debilitated — that people hesitate to go to therapy because they feel like they don’t need it. “But if you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed or not able to function as you’d like to, that’s a sign you do need to talk to somebody,” says Bufka.
5. Your therapist isn’t talking about you with their friends at the bar.
“Rule number one is confidentiality,” says Howes. “I would quickly lose my license if I talked about my clients with my friends or family.” However, they may discuss certain cases or broader themes with a small group of trusted colleagues. “We have groups that meet every other week or monthly to discuss difficult cases and get feedback from peers,” says Smith. “We talk about cases, but it’s a stripped-down version with no identifying information.”
6. And they probably aren’t Googling you.
“My understanding is that it is an overstepping of bounds and almost a breach of confidentiality in some ways to Google a client without their permission,” says Smith.
Plus, they’d rather talk about things as you bring them up, not force you to explain That Picture they saw on Facebook over the weekend. “I don’t Google my clients because I’m of the philosophy that I want everything to happen in the room,” says Howes.
7. Your therapist probably won’t acknowledge you in public unless you do first
Don’t worry about running into them at a restaurant and hearing “Hey, glad to see you out and about!” while you’re on a date. The general consensus is that therapists won’t acknowledge you in public unless the client initiates it, and even then, they won’t acknowledge that they are your therapist unless you do first, says Bufka.
So feel free to say hi and introduce them as your therapist/yoga teacher/neighbor, or ignore them entirely. It’s your call, and it’s something you can talk to them about ahead of time if you’re worried about it.
8. Just going to therapy won’t necessarily help — you have to participate
Therapy isn’t like going to your primary care doctor for a sinus infection and leaving with antibiotics. It takes collaboration — not just passively sitting back and waiting for results. “It’s pretty disappointing for clients when they think that’s the way it works,” says Howes. “They want the therapist to ask them a bunch of questions and it’s like a treasure hunt.”
But if a client is prepared and willing to talk about what brought them in and what they’d like to work on, it can make the whole process more collaborative and efficient.
9. Therapy doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment
“Sometimes I think people hesitate to embark on therapy because they feel like ‘If I go once I’m going to be sucked in for 10 years, three times a week,’ and it feels like this huge decision,” says Smith. But the length and frequency of therapy is very individual. It can be a one-time deal, a few months of sessions, or longer depending on what you’re going through and what you’re looking to accomplish.
It’s perfectly reasonable to ask questions about a therapist’s approach in the first session or two, says Bufka. Things like: What would treatment look like? How long are we going to be working together? How will I know when we’re finished?
10. The right “fit” is the most important factor when it comes to finding a therapist.
“You could be seeing the best, most qualified therapist in the whole world, but if the fit isn’t good, its not going to be as effective,” says Smith. “What research tells us is that of all the different variables in therapy — types of treatment, education of the provider, length of treatment, all that stuff — one of the biggest factors in therapy success is fit.”
What does that look like? Feeling heard, understood, and respected. “The experience of therapy itself isn’t always going to be fun or enjoyable,” says Bufka. “But in the context of that, you should feel safe, accepted, and heard, and at times challenged.”
11. And stopping therapy doesn’t mean you can never go back
“As a therapist, what I’m hoping is that by the end they feel like they’ve improved their functioning, whether in their relationships or their job or as a student,” says Bufka. “That they’re feeling like they’re contributing to whatever is of value of them and not distressed by the symptoms they were experiencing.”
Of course, life happens and things change, and just because you felt better for years doesn’t mean you won’t necessarily need help again in the future. “It doesn’t mean that you’ll never need a booster session, just like you see a primary care provider,” says Bufka.
12. If you’re worried that something might be inappropriate — like hugging them or asking about their personal life — just talk about it
Not every therapist will be open to hugging their clients, but if you really feel compelled to, don’t be embarrassed to bring it up. “The client should feel free to say anything or ask anything,” says Howes. “Ask it if it’s on your mind and then let the therapist decide whether or not they’re going to answer that. Try not to filter yourself or censor yourself.”
13. They don’t have all the answers.
“Sometimes people think therapists have a special ability to see inside you but we really don’t,” says Bufka. “We have a particular training and understanding of how humans are, how humans behave, how emotions work, and we’re able to use that to understand the specific situation someone is in. We don’t have these magical skills that we’re instantly going to read into you — it’s a process.”
Between juggling several clients every day and helping patients through particularly traumatic events, it can be an incredibly daunting profession. “Obviously it can be hard to hear difficult stories hour after hour, day after day and then still have enough energy for your own family at night,” says Smith. “That can be a challenge, but it’s certainly manageable.”
“We’re professional secret keepers,” says Howes. “That takes a toll after a while. It’s really important for us to have our own confidants and our own people we can talk to about things.”
15. But chances are, they also find what they do incredibly rewarding
“When therapy works, and it does, you’re going to walk out of there with a new understanding and new ways of doing things. You own it. It’s yours. It goes with you for the rest of your life,” says Bufka.
“I just love people,” says Smith. “I love to get to know people, and it’s really as simple as that. I find people endlessly interesting.”
“Whenever I’m able to see someone’s growth process taking place, I’m delighted,” says Howes. “And I spend much more time laughing than I ever thought I would.”
Always consult with your doctor about your personal health and wellness. BuzzFeed posts are for informational purposes only and are no substitute for medical diagnosis, treatment, or professional medical advice.
Mindfulness is gaining momentum. Some might even call it psychology’s latest and hottest trend. While it has been around for years, especially in Eastern cultures, just recently are Westerners speedily picking it up with an enthusiastic readiness.
If you’re a bit late to the conversation, you might wonder what is mindfulness and how do you practice mindfulness. I’ll get to that soon. But, first, let me show you some interesting facts/news about the benefits of this meditative practice.
Mindfulness in the News
NPR recently published an article illuminating the public on how mindfulness can actually beat painkillers (yes, opioids) when it comes to chronic lower-back pain. Nancy Shute, the author of the piece, explained how meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy can help patients suffering back pain more than other medical treatments. Her news on the subject was backed up by the JAMA medical journal and an extensive research study performed by the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.
But that’s barely scratching the surface. Fox News also just released a story on how mindfulness meditation can provide opioid-free pain relief backed by the Journal of Neuroscience and a study by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. Additionally, the same news network published an article not too long ago about how mindfulness can improve your teen’s memory and has a history of pushing out like-stories in recent months. Furthermore, CNN’s Anderson Cooper gave a 60 Minutes special on mindfulness roughly a year ago.
So what’s all the buzz about?
Definition of Mindfulness
Psychology Today defines mindfulness:
“a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.”
Mindfulness is a form of meditation that is simple yet profound. It has been shown to improve lives and reduce stress. Mindfulness awakens you to gratitude for what is and helps you recognize happiness already in your life. Mindfulness is for everyone.
Lastly, feel free to search for free mindfulness audios online to guide you as you start your meditations and begin healing you life—and your pain—today.
Last week Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker signed legislation that was a landmark decision in response to the nation-wide opioid overdose and addiction crisis. He not only implemented important change and compromise but also began to change the conversation surrounding the topic of opioid prescribing and its consequences.
Here is what you need to know about the legislation.
Help for Patients Treated for Overdose
The state’s new legislation requires hospital patients who are treated for overdose in emergency rooms to receive abuse evaluation within 24 hours and to be given options for treatment they can pursue once they are discharged.
Limit on Prescribed Supply
The other important component to the law Baker signed into place is the limit on prescribed supply of opioids. Writers of the prescriptions will only be able to prescribe a 7-day supply of the drugs at a time to patients. The benefit of this restriction is that patients won’t end up needing to store opioids for very great lengths of time because the chances of them having “left-over” drugs will decrease.
In other words and as Raymond Tamasi—president and CEO of Gosnold on Cape Cod, a full service addiction program offering inpatient, rehabilitation, residential, partial, intensive outpatient, and outpatient treatment—said, “It gets us away from the situation where a patient goes in for a tooth extraction and ends up with a month’s worth of Vicodin.”
New Training Initiatives
The final parts of the groundbreaking legislation are about education. Provisions in the law include new training initiatives for people with jobs in both law enforcement and healthcare. Additionally, the law mandates that drug prevention policies be adopted into local school districts and that assesses be performed on the risk for substance abuse among students.
Going Forward
While Governor Baker’s legislative act is a watershed movement, the solution to the unfortunate opioid crisis will need to be continually broadened. Individuals suffering from opioid overdose and addiction will need community support in order to be able to have lasting recovery.
Gosnold On Cape Code is continuing to take steps forward in this regard as it is working with police departments and other law enforcement agencies, helping them shift their approach to tackling this issue. One effort presently being made is that recovery specialists are meeting with addicts and their families in their homes, approaching them about options for treatment. Furthermore, the addiction treatment organization has already placed addiction specialists in two hospitals’ emergency rooms, hoping to set a precedent for all hospitals state-wide.
To learn more about this monumental step in combating our nation’s opioid crisis, watch a video and read a news report on Mass.Gov.
Whether or not a person could benefit from mental health counseling can depend on a variety of things. Sometimes a person needs help from a mental health therapist because he or she is struggling with a major mental health disorder. Other times, a person may seek counseling because he or she is trying to overcome an addiction. Still, others may need therapy because they are seeking healing from emotional or physical trauma.
But whether or not you fit into any of these situations, you experience stress at least to some degree. Everyone does. And couldn’t we all agree that everyone could benefit from managing their stress better? So whether or not you are presently seeking help from a mental health counselor, below is one major key to reducing stress and living a more peaceful life, a key we all can use.
Learn how to detach
Detachment is often thought of as a negative thing, and in many scenarios it is. However, there some pearls to be gathered from the teachings of detachment or non-attachment within Buddhism.
One of the four noble truths of Buddhism is that life is dukka, which some translate to meaning life is stressful or full of suffering. And, a core concept believed by Buddhists is that attachment to ideals is what causes stress and/or suffering more often than not. It isn’t hard to see the truth in this belief because a look at our own lives shows us how, when our ideals are not met or are in danger of not being met, stress is accumulated.
Think about it: it would be ideal to always be on time to everything. But with a little life experience, we know that never being tardy to anything is just not possible. We are all human, and some time or another we each inevitably find ourselves creating or stumbling into situations that make us late. Whenever the ideal of promptness is in danger of not being met or has not been met, we feel stress.
So, a key to finding relief from stress is to detach from these ideals, meaning to learn how to be okay with whatever life brings you.
Does this mean we shouldn’t have ideals and strive for them? Should we not strive to be on time? No, instead, detaching means to mindfully notice you are attached to an ideal and then to loosen that attachment so you can make room in your mind for gratefulness for the present moment.
For example, if something happens in your life that causes you to be late (whether you had control over it or not), instead of reacting to the stress this causes by becoming upset, learn how to notice what happened, notice the stress, then accept the imperfectness of the situation. Next, see if you can live more fully in the present by looking around for blessings that are around you right now. If your spouse or child was the cause of your lateness, look at him or her in the present moment of being late and see what you can be grateful for. Maybe your daughter spilled milk on the carpet. Can you still allow yourself to feel grateful for this imperfect moment and imperfect person?
As you begin to practice this mindfulness, you will start to see stress less and less as a negative thing and instead as a helpful warning sign to you. Then, you will develop a more positive relationship with stress and be able to use it to your advantage rather than letting it crush you into discouragement, anxiety, anger and/or depression. When stress occurs, you will realize it is telling you that perhaps you are too attached to an ideal.
Then, after loosening our grips on our ideals, we can leave ourselves open to be present to what is. In other words, we can be more accepting of less-than-ideal people, situations, and scenarios.* And when we accept life and people are not perfect and that is okay, we find we too are okay.
*Note: this doesn’t mean allowing abuse or unhealthy behaviors to continue. Such scenarios should always be stopped, and healing and recovery should always be sought.
When you think of couples counseling, your mind may automatically imagine stereotypes of people and relationships with “major issues.” Because of this, you might be afraid to even wonder if you and your partner may be in need of couples counseling. You might be quick to say, “We aren’t those kind of people in need of that kind of help.”
But the truth is couples counseling isn’t what the stereotypes make it out to be. Just because two people seek a couples therapist, doesn’t mean they’re headed for divorce or a life of unhappiness. On the contrary, when a couple seeks professional help, this often indicates they care enough about their relationship to try to save it and make the most of it, which is a very good sign. And the helpful tools a therapist can give them will help them live a happy life together.
So, what are the signs a couple needs to see a couples counselor or marriage therapist? Read these three 3 serious signs you need couples counseling below to decide if you and your partner should seek help.
1. Communication is failing
If you and your partner have stopped talking and are giving each other the silent treatment, that is a sign you need help. Or, if the both of you do talk, but your conversation always ends up being negative or you always fight about the same issues, you probably want to seriously consider getting a therapist onboard. Another communication fail is when one or both partners are afraid to talk about certain issues. Negative communication manifests when people feel judged, insecure, shamed, or unheard. Often it can be more about how something is said rather than what is actually said—tone tremendously affects communication for better or for worse. You have to be careful because negative communication can quickly become verbal or emotional abuse if not kept in check. A therapist can act as an objective third-party facilitator. He or she can offer you new ways to communicate and help you both understand more clearly what the two of you are talking about. A counselor can help uncover what is really causing negative communication and give you tools to solve underlying issues. He or she will help you understand what each other’s needs are, and teach you to speak in a more healthy way.
2. Sex is rare, robotic, or withheld as punishment.
Sex can literally be a way to measure an individual’s or a couple’s emotional health. It is never okay to withhold sex as a sort of punishment to the other partner. Nor is it ever okay to use sex as a tool to get your way, e.g., “I’ll only have sex with you if you do x, y, or z.” If sex is consistently handled this way in your relationship, get help. If you are never or rarely intimate with each other, then that too is a sign there are other underlying problems. And, if a couple is having sex but it is mostly done coldly, dispassionately, or even robotically, then this also is a sign that it may be time to seek a counselor. A sex therapist and couples counselor will help you restore intimacy and rebalance instability. He or she will help you figure out what the cause is for a lack of intimacy and help you modify thinking and behavior as individuals and as a couple.
3. Infidelity is present.
There are many ways a couple can be unfaithful to one another. Infidelity can literally be having an affair with another person or merely fantasizing about having one. Whether cheating has already occurred or it is being planned, this is a sign your marriage is struggling and could use the support of a qualified therapist. It is possible for a marriage or other relationship to survive after one partner has been unfaithful. However, if staying together isn’t the best option, the counselor can help both people move on and accept that splitting up is the healthiest and best choice for everyone. Another way, not often thought of, for a couple to be unfaithful is through finances. If one partner is withholding information about or access to finances, this is a red flag and a reason to seek professional help. It’s no secret that money problems are a cause of divorce. Get help early on before things get out of hand. If things are already out of hand, still get help. There are other signs that indicate a couple should seek counseling. But these 3 above are some of the most common and most important ones to look out for. If you’re unsure if you should see a therapist, but you think you may want to, there is no harm in calling up a couples counselor to see what he or she thinks.
If you have made the decision to stop using, then there are 7 important things you need to know about withdrawal. Being aware of these aspects will make it easier for you to take on this worthwhile change.
1. There are 2 stages of withdrawal.
What most people don’t realize is that on the road to recovery there are 2 stages of withdrawal: acute stage and post acute stage. The acute state is when a person experiences physical symptoms, and depending on the person and the drug(s) these symptoms can be quite varied.
The post acute stage, also known as post acute withdrawal syndrome or PAWS, is when a person experiences emotional and psychological symptoms. In PAWS, people tend to have more similar symptoms to one another than in the first stage of withdrawal.
2. Withdrawal means you are getting better.
Contrary to how it feels, if you are experiencing withdrawal, that means you are getting better. Even though the symptoms of withdrawal will leave you feeling close to miserable, you will be able to take hope and keep going if you realize the negative way you are feeling is actually a good sign and won’t last forever.
Post acute withdrawal takes place because your brain is starting to return back to normalcy. The chemistry in your brain is fluctuating as it is trying to find a new equilibrium, but this means your brain is improving and recovering.
3. PAWS usually last for 2 years.
Although you might not like to think about how long this stage of withdrawal will last, it is important for you to remember. In this case, ignorance really isn’t bliss because, as you are working toward recovery, you don’t want to be caught off guard or surprised to learn this stage will last longer than a few weeks or months. Such a surprise could cause disappointment, and you’ll be tempted to use again.
It’s going to take a lot of work, and it’ll be a challenge. But knowing this alone will make you more prepared for and less disappointed about the withdrawal episodes when they come, which will make you less likely to relapse. You are strong. You are up for the challenge. After you’ve experienced the symptoms of PAWS for a while, you’ll gain confidence, realizing you really can do this.
4. Each episode of withdrawal lasts only a few days.
This is another facet about PAWS that is vitally important if you are going to hang on and get through your recovery. As you experience an episode of withdrawal, you can take hope knowing it won’t last forever. Each episode lasts only a few days. Yes, the episodes come on suddenly and unexpectedly, but they leave just as quickly, too.
As you continue on your journey toward recovery, you will find the time between episodes gets longer and longer. Remember this. It will give you hope and something to look forward to. Still, don’t be surprised when the episodes do come—because they will—and realize the symptoms can be just as intense and last the same amount of days no matter how far into recovery you are. Again, it is important to be prepared for the reality of recovery, but take hope knowing each episode does have an end date.
5. There are common symptoms of PAWS.
To prepare for the second stage of withdrawal in your recovery, it is good to know what symptoms to expect. Symptoms include trouble sleeping, inconsistent energy and ability to concentrate, lack of enthusiasm, moodiness, ranges of emotions, irritability, tiredness, and anxiety.
Symptoms can change by the minute and the hour. And, like mentioned before, they can come out of the blue. You won’t see any obvious triggers for most of the symptoms. You may just wake up one day, after having a good stretch of zero withdrawal episodes, simply feeling tired and anxious, not knowing why. Remember, however, this is normal, and no matter how lousy you feel, this means you are on the road to recovery.
6. PAWS can lead to relapse.
I cannot repeat enough how important it is to be aware of the brutality of withdrawal. If you do not go into this challenge with eyes wide open, the suddenness of episodes and symptoms will blindside you, and you’ll be tempted to use for temporary relief.
However, each time you relapse, you undo the progress your brain has been making. Abstinence is crucial. By not relapsing you will be less disappointed and feel more optimistic—increasing your chances for success. Remember, if you know what to expect, you’ll be able to complete your recovery.
7. Withdrawal means taking care of yourself.
As you experience withdrawal while on your brave road toward recovery, wholeness, and healing, you will have to take care of you. You are brave and strong for taking on such a worthwhile challenge, but you aren’t superhuman. Be patient. Realize you can only take your recovery one day at a time. If you overextend yourself, you’ll end up more exhausted than you would have already been; and the temptation to relapse grows when you’re exhausted.
Don’t resent your symptoms. Don’t resent your episodes. Don’t resent withdrawal. These are signs of recovery, and, although they are uncomfortable, they really are good signs. Focus on your good days. You will have them. You have many of them, in fact! Let yourself enjoy your good days.
Give yourself breaks. You are enough and what you are doing is enough. Tell yourself this often. It’s okay to say no to things, and to take it easy these next 2 years because PAWS takes energy and brings tiredness. Don’t be too hard on yourself. And don’t focus too much on your symptoms, either. Focus on your recovery. Be good to yourself—something you never did as an addict. Take care of you. Give yourself permission to say, “It’s okay,” when you have little enthusiasm or energy. Relax as much as possible, and know you are doing a good thing.
