We Are the Patient Experience
The decision to seek treatment often comes at a time when an individual is facing alarming truths about themselves for the first time. With a leap of faith, they entrust their care to our professionals, who strive to guide them toward relief and recovery. Once treatment begins, patients are asked to allow themselves to become vulnerable and do hard work to change life patterns. Each day is filled with individual, group and family therapy, and the topic of conversation can become very uncomfortable. Simply put, entering a treatment program can be scary, anxiety-provoking and extremely hard work. High Focus Centers [...]
Establishing a Routine During Recovery
Recovery is part of the healing process and often times requires individuals to adjust their schedules and establish a routine in order to have success during this stage. The structure that a routine provides helps those in recovery to maintain normalcy and make a smooth transition back to their work, family, and home life. A routine during this time can include everything from personal care such as sleep, exercise, and diet, to establishing a work and social schedule. Here are some tips to follow during recovery. Create a Structure at Home: While in recovery it is important to designate times [...]
Finding Drug or Alcohol Treatment in New Jersey
It is a crucial moment in your life. After ignoring or denying it for such a long time, you have accepted that there is potential to be significantly better off than you are right now. Relationships with friends or loved ones are damaged, and they’ve been begging you to get help for a long time. You don’t feel as well as you used to – physically or emotionally. Your mind is consumed with getting high – not because you are getting that same euphoria you used to get, but only because it makes your withdrawal symptoms go away. You have [...]
Decreasing the Chances Your Loved One Becomes Addicted to Painkillers
For some people, debilitating pain is almost commonplace. Prescription painkillers may initially provide relief from physical pain, but continued use over time will often result in a dangerous drug dependency. . However, becoming addicted to painkillers doesn’t have to become a way of life. If your loved one has been routinely taking opioid pain medication for a long period of time, it’s important to understand ways in which you can support them. Learn the effects of painkiller addiction and how you can begin to increase the chances of your loved one staying addiction free. First, it is important to know [...]
The Top 13 Tips to Responsibly Care for Your Prescription Medications
Like most people, you have a mini pharmacy of outdated prescription drugs in your medicine cabinet in the bathroom. If you use painkillers and/or other prescription drugs, they could be life threatening should they accidentally be ingested or misused. So, how do you keep yourself and others safe from developing or feeding a drug addiction? It’s all in how you use, store, and dispose of your prescriptions, and these 13 tips make living with prescription medications in your home much safer. Using Your Prescription Pills Take as Directed No more, no less. If instructed to take with food, never take [...]
Getting Mental Health Care for Your Teen: Part II
Last week, we took a look at how to begin treatment for your teen at High Focus Centers. Now, we take a look at the available levels of care and provide some context to help you determine how to best help your loved one. For more information about High Focus Centers outpatient programs, click here. For help, call (800) 877-3628 or fill out our online contact form to have a member of the High Focus Centers admissions team contact you. Outpatient Programs If you think of the movies you have seen, with the therapist sitting across from an individual patient (who is [...]
Getting Mental Health Care for Your Teen: Part I
Worried About Your Child? Start Here! Sometimes parents must ask questions or reach out for help in order to ensure the health of their child. Your close relationship and proximity to your child gives you a unique insight into their mental health and, as a parent, it’s important to trust your instincts when they tell you that changes in your child's mood or behavior are more than just a phase. If you have realized that your teen may be suffering from depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues, you need to know where to turn. The mental health system can [...]
Four Ways to Beat the Holiday Blues
The holidays can be a difficult time for just about anyone, but for those battling depression, the holidays have the potential to do real damage. This time of year is loaded with triggers that can lead to drug and alcohol abuse, relapses, suicidal thoughts and actions, or other life-threatening, self-destructive behavior. For teenagers, the stress of family holiday gatherings added to the already high pressure of young adult life can be particularly painful. Although facing the holidays is inevitable, making poor choices doesn’t have to be. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression this holiday season, try [...]
Identifying Signs of Depression/Anxiety in Your Teen
“It’s just a phase.” “She’ll grow out of it.” “He’s a teenager, that’s normal.” We’ve all had rebellious thoughts and mood swings during our teenage years, but sometimes teenagers and their parents are facing more than just the occasional moodiness. According to a news release by the World Health Organization, “half of all people who develop mental disorders have their first symptoms by the age of 14.” Before dismissing your teen’s behavior as just a phase, consider his or her lifestyle and habits. If you believe your son or daughter may be suffering from depression, be on the lookout for [...]
Reinventing Date Night: 4 Tips for Partners of those in Early Recovery
So the cat is out of the bag - your significant other is in recovery from an alcohol or drug addiction. You begin to tell close friends and family hoping to get support for yourself and your partner while traversing a potentially new and unfamiliar road. Perhaps a few hours, days, or weeks later someone ultimately asks you the question. You might have been pondering the answer yourself, or perhaps you haven’t even given it an ounce of thought. Either way, it eventually arrives: "So does this mean YOU can't drink anymore, either?" After being asked this question, a plague [...]
Yoga for Recovery: Why Spend Treatment Time on the Floor?
Let me start by being completely honest. I was skeptical about yoga for a very long time. The thought of being surrounded by flexible hipsters wearing tight pants in a hot room seemed, well, awful. Don’t you have to be able to touch your toes, stand on your head, and not pass out in a 100 degree room? Don’t you have to utter “Namaste” daily while walking around with a Starbucks frap in one hand and a yoga mat in the other? Fine. I’ll also be honest and admit that I’ve never tried yoga but just thought this to be [...]
