sober living

Finding Freedom In Sobriety

May 20, 2018 // by Aton Center

Those suffering from addiction find many, many befits from early sobriety. One of those immediate benefits is regaining their personal freedom. It occurs to those who attend treatment at AToN Center that their drug or alcohol abuse actually made them feel sadder, more depressed, more anxious and more isolated.

Early recovery over 30 days at a residential treatment center like ours, affords the individual the structure, guidance and practice to regain their personal freedom.

Virginia Woolf spoke to the topic of freedom, “To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves”. 12 Step and SMART recovery programs help the individual make positive, healthy, safe choices. In effect, the recovering individual learns how to cope with cravings, monitor their thinking and take responsibility for their actions. In short, sobriety helps the individual to take back control of their lives and to enjoy this new found freedom.

Chris McDuffie, MA RRW
Chemical Dependency Counselor
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Balance Your Life

March 28, 2018 // by Aton Center

One of the six foundations of recovery as taught at AToN Center is to Balance Your Life. Having balance and a healthy lifestyle includes having fun! Whether it be a creative outlet, the great outdoors, playing sports or just hanging out with friends, many people in recovery find it helpful to develop (or rediscover) hobbies.

It’s natural to consider the activities that you liked prior to recovery, although for many people these activities are laden with triggers due to being tainted by previously participating in the activity while using. Often it is difficult to un-pair these associations.

We make it a point at AToN Center to help residents begin to have fun again without substance use. We do so by incorporating play/fun into our program via hiking, paddle boarding, bowling, mini-golf, the zoo, playing music (Rock To Recovery), playing games like ping pong, and many other outings and activities.

Often the key to actually having fun is to participate in activities you enjoy with like-minded people. Many individuals who love music and concerts often have strong associations with drinking and drugging while they saw live music in the past. In fact, for many bands and music festivals there is a well-known culture that normalizes excessive drinking and drugging. These types of events are particularly difficult for those in recovery because there is such an emphasis on drugs and alcohol. For the newly sober, and even the more seasoned, a music festival would be a high-risk activity. It is good to know that recently there is more of a sober presence at music festivals such as Bonnaroo and even at Phish shows!

There’s even a growing sober club scene! These exciting opportunities do not completely negate the risk involved in these activities but they provide support for those who do want to participate. Find more on sober clubbing here.

Dr. Sanders
Program Director
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Good, Clear Times

February 11, 2018 // by Aton Center

Think back to the good times of your childhood. Images may come to mind such as running around for hours on end in a park playing football with friends. You may remember long bike rides to the ice cream parlor down at the beach. You might think about hiking trips through the forest with camp fires, marshmallows and sunsets. Think of the Pizza Party that was held in class after a recital or performance.

Think of how “in the moment” you were during these times, not a care in the world. You just enjoyed the activity without a thought of tomorrow. In sobriety you can be return back to these experiences. Times can come when you are clear minded, relaxed and engaged in healthy activities with loved ones. It will take work and perseverance to return back to this centered mentality but remember, you did it once, you can do it again.

Chad K. Cox PsyD

AToN Center 888-535-1516

Opposite Action = The Art of Creating Change

January 11, 2018 // by Aton Center

Sometimes in recovery we have to do things we don’t want to do and not do the things we want to do to get positive results and evoke change in our lives.

This concept can be challenging to say the least and many struggle in recovery to get to a point to be willing to do some of the things is takes to remain clean and sober. We have to work hard to build motivation and keep it going as to continue to stay willing to live a life of recovery.

Addiction can be riddled with living in instant gratification, doing what we want, when we want, and not doing things that are either disliked or don’t make sense to us that we become conditioned to this way of life. Making the switch to taking opposite action as a coping skill in recovery can be a huge step and really helpful in early recovery for gaining positive results.

Making small steps in this direction to begin might be more manageable, for example adding structure where there might not have been by getting up earlier, making the bed if that was not happening, having a reading or writing exercise at bedtime or wake up to shift your mood, calling someone for daily accountability, going to meetings when you don’t want to go, eating breakfast, making sure you get plenty of sleep each night etc…

There are many ways you might add or take away activities as well as ask others for feedback on how to take opposite action to strengthen your recovery today.

Enjoy The Journey
Kristin Colton CADC II
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Sometimes It’s The Small Things

November 25, 2017 // by Aton Center

Often times, treatment for substance and alcohol abuse can focus on big picture issues. This can include working on a marriage strained under the pressures of addiction, the need to change an unsustainable work environment, deciding that one can no longer stay sober and live in their home, and many others. These issues are very important and need their due attention, but at times, one may take comfort in focusing on the small things:

This can mean stopping everything for a cup of tea.

This can mean calling an old friend and making them laugh.

This can mean listening to your favorite song or album, laying on the carpet and breathing deeply, or doing a few minutes of yoga.

Though they may seem small, these brief moments of respite can offer you just enough grace to make it through the challenges that are presented and have one more sober day.

Chad K. Cox PsyD

AToN Center 888-535-1516

Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention

July 7, 2017 // by Aton Center

At AToN Center we get to practice Mindfulness together in group and look at how it can be used in daily life and in high risk situations.

Mindfulness is moment-by-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, characterized mainly by “acceptance” – attention to thoughts and feelings without judging whether they are right or wrong. Mindfulness focuses the human brain on what is being sensed at each moment, instead of on its normal rumination on the past or on the future.

We practice the SOBER Breathing Space in group which can be used anywhere and at any time as it is brief and simple.

Here are the steps to SOBER Breathing Space

S-Stop : pause wherever you are.
O-Observe : what is happening in your body & mind?
B-Breath : bring focus to the breath to help you focus and stay present.
E-Expand awareness : to your whole body & surroundings.
R-Respond : mindfully vs. automatically.

Kristin Colton CATC II
CD Counselor
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Fear Blocks Acceptance

June 16, 2017 // by Aton Center

For most people needing recovery, coming to accept that they are having difficulties due to their substance misuse is often a terrifying process. To the dismay of family, friends, and employers the person misusing substances often looks as though he/she is the last person on the planet to grasp the gravitas of the addiction. The outsider looks at the suffering loved one and cannot grapple with how the inflicted substance abuser does not seem to see or feel the impact of his or her own harmful actions.

Whether it is drugs, alcohol, sex, gambling, or even a combination on all of these, the person misusing drugs appears to be the last one standing who is willing to accept that there is a life-threatening problem.

What takes the addict so long to accept their plight? Why doesn’t he or she just quit? Change for the sake of change is hard. We typically do not change our toothpaste, our choice of movies or genre of books that we read or even our own diet when we know we need to. For the suffering individual the warning signs seem so apparent and so abhorrent that friends and family may want to scream out, “Why do you not see what we see?” I submit that that addict is terrified of the thought of living life sober or drug free.

Up to the period of accepting his or her emotional and physical condition, the often-terrified substance abuser will go to huge and typically disastrous lengths to either prove that he/she is not an addict or delay accepting the reality of self-destruction. If friends and family are fortunate, the suffering individual will not die during this perilous and seemingly absurd stage; Philip Seymour Hoffman, for example, will never have an opportunity to try to be sober again.

The suffering person has typically tried to give up the addiction before, probably dozens of times. Each time a stretch of sobriety was put together, sometimes several days, or months or maybe even years. The struggling person has felt the pain of living life on life’s terms without the crutch of the drug and does not like it one bit; it is just too painful of a compromise. Enter: relapse, or prolonged abuse. The lesson: I’ll never try sobriety again! That was painful!

I submit that the person needing recovery needs a program of recovery unlike anything he or she has tried in the past. A 12-Step or SMART program that is designed to educate the sufferer about the impact of his/her disease and how to live a life that is rewarding, fulfilled, and empowering enough to live life on life’s terms. AToN center affords our residents the quintessential program of help and support to carry the addict through their scariest stage of sobriety (the first 30 days) and addresses the fears and turmoil that those in recovery hoped drugs and alcohol would rid them of.

Chris McDuffie

CD Counselor, MA, RRW

AToN Center 888-535-1516

Breaking Ties With Bad Influences

May 21, 2017 // by Aton Center

In working with residents at AToN Center, part of our curriculum is dedicated to addressing the social circumstances that may have promoted or enabled our residents ongoing addictions.

Humans are designed to form connections with others and breaking these ties, even when there is obvious dysfunction, can still be a difficult process. The scope of the problem can range from learning what to communicate to a neighbor that you might have shared a beer with at a barbecue, to setting a firm boundary with a partner still in active addiction. Many times the first part of the process is to get right with yourself before you will even know how or what to communicate to others.

Changing yourself is a difficult enough process, but once some momentum has been gained in being clear from your addiction, then you may start to develop a confidence that can be instrumental in setting and maintaining healthy boundaries with others. Often times others can be resistant to your changes, even if these are for the better. They may see your progress as a threat to your connection. What is important is to have compassion, communicate respectfully and learn that you can still be OK even if another person is not happy with the boundary you are setting.

There can be a loss in letting go of that negative influence but in doing so you are protecting your recovery and opening yourself up to new, healthier connections.

Chad K. Cox PsyD PSY23320
AToN Center 888-535-1516

The Importance of Balance in Life & Recovery

February 28, 2017 // by Aton Center

Balance. When discussing a group on the topic of Family Dynamics at the AToN center I present a model of parenting that can also be a helpful model for self-management. Researcher Diana Baumrind (1966) developed described different parenting styles and based this model on two variables: Control and Responsiveness. Control refers to how much of the parenting is about the parent’s agenda and direction.

Responsiveness is about how much the parent attends to the child’s desires, needs or wants. The balanced parent offers each of these variables. They are at times disciplining and give firm direction and boundaries. They are also at other times lenient, accommodating and give the child a path towards getting their wants and needs met. As the healthy parent provides these to the child so the addict can provide these to themselves.

Rather than being overly harsh and punitive towards your self and your recovery you can take time to nurture and care for yourself and be forgiving. Rather than continue the seemingly endless indulgences there can also be a self-discipline that puts in the work necessary for a better reward.

Balance in these domains can be difficult but being aware of the integration of the dichotomy can be the first step forward.

Chad K. Cox PsyD PSY23320
AToN Center 888-535-1516

Food for the Soul

January 28, 2017 // by Aton Center

Sometimes we can look at addiction from the perspective of feeding something that is in us, a need, a desire, a craving… Learning to feed ourselves in a way that is nourishing and healthy can be a difficult task in sobriety.

Feeding the Soul is a good place to begin…

There are two types of food for the soul that help many people in recovery and other communities.

First, understanding for our warped mind. Reading recovery literature and learning recovery tools can be a way of feeding the mind in an area that we have been starving.

Second, incorporating a practice of prayer and meditation. In this sense a way of asking and receiving that in which we have been neglecting can help us to find meaning and purpose in our lives. Both of these methods can soothe many of the uncomfortable challenges ahead in our recovery journey.

Live for today, feed the soul, sobriety is possible!

Kristin Colton, CATC II
CD Counselor
AToN Center 888-535-1516

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