Real Recovery Talk

5 Min or Less Original Song by Ben B! Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk Original song with a message for today! Everyone experiences pain. Whether it be addiction, trauma, mental health, or the like. These are just a few examples. My question to you is, what are you gonna do with that pain? Are you going to turn it into a strength? Are you gonna let it fuel your eternal fire to have a better life? Are you able to turn your liabilities into assets? I encourage you to use your pain to grow. I encourage you to use your pain to help others. I encourage you to share your successes!

Here we are with Real Recovery Talk! Do you know someone who is considering going to a treatment facility for up to 30 days? Today, I'm going to talk about how you most likely won't be cured by going to treatment for 30 days. There are a few people who have been successful after just 30 days; however, they are few and far between. The first day of treatment consists of detox, which generally ranges from day one to day seven. Detox can vary from one to fourteen days, depending on the individual and specific variables. Variables that can affect the length of detox are the types of drugs you are using, how long you are using drugs, the vehicle of use of drugs. For example, are you using drugs IV, orally? Similar variables apply to alcohol, with some additional factors such as drinking alone or with others. A detox facility is a safe place where you can get meals, medical attention, and be in a safe environment when you detox. During this time, your body will start to repair the damage inflicted by drugs and alcohol. From this point, you can now transfer to a residential facility where you will be day and night for treatment. You may have a behavioral technician keeping tabs on you every 15 minutes when you join the residential treatment program. This part of the team makes sure everyone is safe and comfortable. They also ensure that you are getting to your programs, meetings, and medical appointments on time. This period is known as a "drying out period." Therapy is still minimal, as you are usually not yet ready to start treatment. At this stage, you're detoxed and are moving toward creating a support group, getting to know your peers, and your therapist. Next, you'll need to figure out your personal triggers. What are your triggers? Are there specific environments in which your triggers are set off? Have you developed tools in your toolbox to deal with these triggers and to keep your calm in anxious situations? Have you considered your role or your family dynamics when dealing with triggers and healing from addiction? Listen in to find out why the first thirty days of recovery only scratch the surface. Understand why recovery is a process in which each individual needs to move through at their own pace. Learn why you'll need to continue healing and be consistent to work through previous trauma and have a successful recovery. Check out my new website where you can download any episode right from my site along with other useful information for those in recovery. Look for our new daily shows, which are five minutes or under! Listen in for yourself or for a friend. You can also find our new short episodes on our Facebook page. Share this podcast with a friend and leave us a review! Show Notes: [05:48] What the first seven days of treatment will most likely be for an addict in recovery. [06:05] Variables which affect the length and severity of detox. [09:28] The next phase of your healing: moving to a residential facility. [12:24] You may have spent multiple years becoming an addict, you will most likely spend months if not years to recover to the point of not falling back to your addiction. [14:41] Have you identified your triggers? If so, what are coping skills you are using to calm your reaction to your triggers? [16:48] An example of what shouldn't happen when you come in for recovery. [19:42] We work with clients for three to four months on a continual basis to continue their recovery process. Links and Resources: Real Recovery Live Chat Real Recovery Talk on the Web Real Recovery Talk on YouTube Leave Real Recovery Talk a review on iTunes Rock Recovery Center Real Recovery Talk on Facebook Ideas for a show? Email us tom@realrecoverytalk.com and ben@realrecoverytalk.com

5 Min or Less Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk Just want to say thank you! Tom and I just wanted to take a moment to thank everybody for allowing us to be a part of their recovery. In this segment we discussed a few phone calls that we received in the past weeks from clients who are doing exceptionally well. They reported getting their families back, buying a house, attaining a career, and most importantly finding internal peace. Not to mention all the medallions we hear about being picked up. Getting to be a part of the journey of others obtaining sobriety is one of the gifts of doing what we do. There is nothing better than seeing others hit milestones and landmarks. We are GRATEFUL!!!

5 Min or Less Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk When we only have very little sober time, we should hang with people that have more sober time than us! When we have a few years sober, we should hang with people that have very little sober time! The idea behind this is when we are young and sobriety we need to be surrounded by wisdom. Often times people with wisdom have multiple years sobriety. As we mature in our sobriety we need to hang with people that need our wisdom, we are called to help them as we were helped when we were young in sobriety. When we have multiple years of sobriety, we too need to hang with people that have the same amount of time as us, if not more. We always want to be able to talk about our situations with other people and get advice and wisdom from others!

5 Min or Less Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk I love you man! In this excerpt, I discuss the importance of brotherly love in recovery. It is not weak to tell another man you love him. Many of us were raised to think that we have to be big, strong, tough and brutal. When we recover we find that we have to be inspirational leaders and caring protectors. That is what defines a man!!!

5 Min or Less No need for a romantic relationship at this time! Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes \Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk There is a reason why people suggest to not get into a relationship when establishing a foundation of sobriety. When we get sober we need to focus on nothing but ourselves. Getting into a relationship means that we are taking away from ourselves and putting it into another person. This could be for many reasons, but the most likely reason is because that other person makes us feel good. When we are with this other person we feel good, when we have sex with this person we feel good, when we are on the phone with this person we feel good, when we are texting with this person we feel good. All in all, this person being in our lives make us feel good. It is easy for us to not focus on ourselves and to focus on the relationship. The question is, what do we do if and when this relationship goes astray. I see a lot of times people meet their "soulmate" in detox and think that they are meant for one another. This can't be further from the truth. Do yourself a favor don't get into any relationships until you know the time is right and the people around you know the time is right. This

Here we are with Real Recovery Talk! Have you or someone you loved relapsed back into drug and alcohol addiction? Today, I'm going to talk about five different types of mindsets, which can lead to relapse. If you notice yourself or your loved one in one of these mindsets, make sure to reach out and get support and help - avoid the relapse cycle! The first mindset to watch out for is complacency. We hear about this all the time in rehab. Complacency is the thought process that leads us to believe we don't need to do much else to move forward. During the early stages of rehab, we get many of the things back that we lost, and then we can become complacent because we are now "OK." Many people will stop going to meetings as regularly as they used to. Sometimes we even see our sponsors less, or we don't return their calls. Whatever the case, stay diligent in your treatment and follow through with your responsibilities to have a successful rehab. One solution is to challenge yourself in an activity you enjoy, experience a new experience, and allow yourself to move forward in different areas of your life. The second mistake you can make is overconfidence. Don't take your sobriety lightly. The "I've got this" mentality is when you feel you don't need to go to meetings, volunteer, and see your mentor. Many of these people will be very defensive when their overconfidence is questioned. They feel that there is nothing that can come in between them and their sobriety. The third mindset which can trap you is hanging out with old friends, people, places, and things. To get sober, you must develop a sober support network of others around you who are solemn and involve themselves in dry activities. The fourth way to fall back into addiction is comparing yourself to others. I see this with people who are new to recovery. When you set the bar too high, especially in the beginning, you'll see people comparing themselves to others who have been sober for a long time. As a result, they view their recovery activities as holding them back from getting what they want out of life. A fifth mindset to avoid: Listen in to find out why you want to follow through with your recovery, be persistent, and have a positive attitude, which is essential to your recovery. Slow, consistent progress is critical to recovering fully from your addiction. Make sure to slow down and take enough time (more than 30 days) to move through the process of healing. Check out my new website where you can download any episode right from my site along with other useful information for those in recovery. Look for our new daily shows, which are five minutes or under! Listen in for yourself or for a friend. You can also find our new short episodes on our Facebook page. Share this podcast with a friend and leave us a review! Show Notes: [02:00] Relapse starts before we re-engage with drugs and alcohol. [03:05] How you can connect with us on social media and our website. [04:05] Complacency and how this mindset can sneak into your life. [07:20] When you find that you're being complacent, find an activity to challenge yourself! [08:33] Sobriety can lead to overconfidence, make sure you avoid this pitfall. [10:51] Make sure you're not hanging out with old friends who are a negative influence on you. [13:53] Comparing yourself to others is not a positive mindset to have at any time, especially when you are becoming sober. [17:20] Don't be an "Eeyore" and have a cloud of doom above your head all day! [20:37] Most people have a combination of one or more of the above mindsets. Links and Resources: Real Recovery Live Chat Real Recovery Talk on the Web Real Recovery Talk on YouTube Leave Real Recovery Talk a review on iTunes Rock Recovery Center Real Recovery Talk on Facebook Ideas for a show? Email us tom@realrecoverytalk.com and ben@realrecoverytalk.com Brad Jensen | Key Nutrition Coach

5 Min or Less Prioritizing time when getting sober Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk When getting sober we find that we are likely unemployed, lacking any meaningful relationships with family or loved ones due to our addiction, and have a lot of extra time on our hands. The question is, what do we do with all of this time? 🤷🏻‍♂️ Well, if you are in a detox or inpatient type program then there really isn't much to do outside of what the program tells you to do. But if you are in some sort of outpatient program or living on your own then you may find you have a lot of extra time that you need to fill. If we don't take the action steps necessary to fill this time with productive tasks or things to do then we could find ourselves spending a lot of time in our heads, which is not a good place for us to be. 😖 It goes without saying that we will need to find employment at some point in time. So go out and find a job, this cannot wait. Also, as newly sober people we need to rely on sober friends and sober support networks. These are things that we can work on as well. Find new friends, spend time with them. Do productive things that will help you progress life. Whatever it is that you find yourself doing make sure you have balance. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. Balance is key, with everything. Exercise and fitness is very important but that doesn't mean spend five hours a day in the gym and another five hours researching the latest fad diet and fitness programs. Go to the gym, get a good workout in, leave and move onto the next thing. Go to the library, research a new career path that you want to endeavor on. Make new friends, create new hobbies, experience new experiences.

Often times people will look at failure as a setback. I encourage you to look at failure as an opportunity to improve. When people relapse continuously it's easy for them to fall into the mindset of "I will never be sober". This is unrealistic thinking, just because we relapse doesn't mean we're not going to ever be able to achieve long-term sobriety. This does not lessen the effect of relapse. We often times hear relapse is a part of recovery, that couldn't be further from the truth. Relapse is a part of recovery only if we let it. In the case that we relapse, let's look at the things that led up to the relapse. Ex: have I stopped reaching out to sober supports? Have I stopped going to meetings? Am I becoming angry and short tempered easily? Did I treat my family and loved ones any differently? Did I set the bar too high for myself? Did that relationship ending assist in my relapse? What can I learn from this relapse? If we can ask ourselves these questions and answer them honestly, then this relapse becomes an opportunity for us to learn. If we can learn what led up to the relapse and prevent it from happening again then we just failed forward. Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk

5 Min or Less There are certain things that we can do when in early recovery that will help us feel better mentally emotionally and spiritually. It is vital for us to do all three of these in conjunction with our support program and or treatment. These three things are: Exercise: 🏃🏃‍♀️🏀🏊‍♂️move a muscle change a thought. This doesn't mean that we have to take on CrossFit, powerlifting or Pilates. Start small, go for a walk. Anything is better than nothing Eat right: 🍏🍌🥑🥦🌽🥔 not 🍔🍟🌭🌮🍕🌯The food that we put in our body is going to directly affect the way that we feel. Rather than pumping a bunch of highly processed highly palatable foods into our body, let's eat nutrient dense foods that Will make us feel a lot better in the long run. Eat quality proteins, fruits and vegetables and non-processed carbohydrates. Start out small make one meal a healthy meal rather than all our meals being fast food and ice cream Prayer and meditation: 🙏🙏 If you're working some sort of 12 step program, he will come to find out that it is spiritual in nature. So if you are not already doing so, start a practice of prayer and meditation into your life and you will feel a lot better spiritually. Visit: www.realrecoverytalk.com for all the episodes Ben and I Can be reached at: Ben@realrecoverytalk.com Tom@realrecoverytalk.com Also Follow us on FB and YouTube @RealRecoveryTalk