Bipolar Diagnosis Complicating Alcohol Recovery - Essay Example

Bipolar Diagnosis Complicating Alcohol Recovery? Battling an addiction to alcohol is difficult under the best of circumstances. An understanding ofthe physical, mental and spiritual elements of alcohol addiction is an important step in recovery. But what happens when a diagnosis of Bipolar disorder is added to complicate alcohol recovery? Bipolar disorder is best treated with medications specifically designed to treat this illness. Your approach and attitude towards taking this medication can actually help your alcohol recovery. Viewing the new medication as a fresh start is one positive way to approach your treatment. Understanding that Bipolar disorder is a serious illness that can affect all aspects of your life should be a positive motivating factor for taking your medicine as prescribed by a physician. Alcohol recovery can be difficult and dispiriting. Having another illness added can make it even more so. View the help you receive from your bipolar medication as a new start that can sustain your continuing alcohol recovery. End of Life Resources Approaching the end of life is something that we all will face. There are many ways that families deal with end of life issues. Each family and their loved one that is facing the end of life have unique needs. There are resources within and beyond the family that can help meet these needs. Often, individuals nearing the end of life are concerned that those they leave behind will not remember them. As one nears the end of life, it is a good opportunity to share stories and memories with the family that has brought all of the participants joy. This can help assure everyone involved that memories will continue even after the afflicted person is deceased. Outside agencies such as hospice organizations can help to tend to the physical and emotional concerns of the dying. Sometimes caring for the sick can be a physically and emotionally draining process for the family. Home nursing and hospice care can help relieve some of these burdens. Finding the Spiritual in Psychotherapy Psychotherapy is a very broad term and can be use in many different ways. Many different practitioners espouse various methods of communication and therapy. All of these practitioners and doctors have the same goal, however. This goal is improved mental health for the patient. Patients in psychotherapy can feel that the doctor or the therapist is the key to them overcoming their troubles. While the therapist is vital to the process, real healing must come from within. Finding the spiritual in psychotherapy is a great way to help enhance the healing experience. Spirituality allows you to feel connected to the world beyond your own psyche. This connection is rich and insightful into our own experiences and the nature of the world if we will develop our spiritual selves. Involving our spiritual selves in psychotherapy ensures that our whole person is involved in the healing process making the entire process more enjoyable and successful. Get a Spiritual Handle on Anxiety Disorders Anxiety disorders can drive all of the pleasure and joy out of your life if you allow them to go untreated. Psychotherapy is a great way to be treated for anxiety disorders. Trained therapists can help you discover the causes or develop behaviors or develop routines in your daily actions and thoughts that help you overcome anxiety. In addition to psychotherapy, developing a sense of spirituality can help you to control anxiety and reintroduce joy and fulfillment into your life. Understanding all of the facets of your self is essential for being a strong, confident person. Understanding you place in the world from a spiritual point of view is very helpful in developing a stronger sense of self. Spirituality coupled with psychotherapy is very effective at helping people deal with their problems. Together, they can help you to see beyond yourself while causing you to look deep within yourself at the same time. Both of these types of self-knowledge are essential for overcoming anxiety disorders. Is God Required in Drug and Alcohol Treatment? Overcoming drug and alcohol addiction is a very difficult challenge. Millions of people have, however, overcome these powerful addictions. One question that is often asked by individuals undergoing drug and alcohol treatment concerns God. Is God required for me to be successful in drug and alcohol treatment? After all, many 12-step programs encourage their members to believe in a higher power. The reality is you must find what works for you in drug and alcohol treatment. For many people, believing in God and having a spiritual understanding of life is the same thing. Other people find spirituality has nothing or very little to do with God. Most people that recover from drug and alcohol addiction recognize and admit that it was helpful for them to acknowledge the existence of a higher power. Many of them think of God as that higher power. Some do not. What is important is that you examine your own beliefs and understanding of the world so you can find a safe, sure path to recovery. Low Self-Esteem Our ideas about ourselves have been developed over many years during childhood and adolescence. Some people have matured through these phases of life and have immerged as adults that have healthy, accurate self-images. This positive self-image allows them to take risks that often result in rewards. They live happy, meaningful lives that have a basis in high self-esteem. Many people, however, have had experiences in life that have altered how they view themselves. Their low self-esteem and lack of self-worth can cripple them and drive joy from their lives. A very positive way to gain self-esteem and a more realistic self-image is through psychotherapy. Meeting with a therapist can help you to reexamine experiences you have had that may have resulted in low self-esteem. Psychotherapy can help you to work through your current esteem issues so that you can once again experience the thrill of taking a risk and enjoying the rewards of your hard work. Not Sure if Alcoholics Anonymous is Spiritual? Many organizations exist to help people break their addiction to alcohol. One of the most famous of these organizations is Alcoholics Anonymous. This organization acts as a forum and support group for people that want to be healed from their addiction to alcohol. There are steps that need to be followed as a part of the recovery process in Alcoholics Anonymous. One of the most misunderstood steps is one where the recognition of a higher power is recognized. Alcoholics Anonymous is the best place for the deep healing of wounds caused by alcohol abuse. This is because Alcoholics Anonymous requires the participants to try to take a spiritual approach to recovery. Unfortunately, many individuals hear the word spiritual and immediately think of churches and God. Alcoholics Anonymous does not force any religion on any participant. What is encouraged is an exploration of things beyond the control of the individual and the individual’s true place in the natural and human world. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religion, but participants are expected to engage spiritually in their recovery. That is why Alcoholics Anonymous is such a great place for deep healing. Spiritual Health Does Include Physical Health The mind, the body and the heart are often used to symbolize different aspects of the human condition or human beings themselves. The mind is the center of our cognitive reasoning, the body is the source of our physical prowess and the heart is the symbol of our emotional intelligence. Taken together, these combined natures are often referred to as the human soul. Our spiritual lives, the lives we lead when interacting with the cosmos or contemplating our place in nature, are wholly wound up and connected to our physical beings. Physical health and activity is inseparably connected to our spiritual health. Improvements in our physical condition can be linked to emotional health and spiritual health. When our bodies are cared for and are working properly, our minds are free co engage emotionally and spiritually with others on a more regular basis. Having the needs of the body met in a healthy manner will allow us to attend to our emotional and spiritual needs as well. As Maslow was so clever to point out, our spiritual and emotional needs cannot be met until our physical needs are addressed. You Can Be Spiritual When Dealing with Difficult People Working in close contact with difficult people is one of the most common and most stressful things many of us will ever encounter. Difficult people can drain us of our enthusiasm and vigor for life. Finding a way to deal with difficult people while maintaining our mental and emotional health is important for all of us. Taking a spiritual approach when dealing with difficult people is one of the healthiest things we can do. Exercising spiritual qualities such as displaying empathy, and being willing to forgive can go a long way towards developing an understanding, working relationship with a difficult person. Understanding that no single person is without bad habits and character flaws can really make dealing with difficult people easier. The problem does not go away, but how you react to them is tempered by a more forgiving, spiritual understanding of human nature. This approach can help us to see the traits in difficult people that we like or even admire. It can help us to cope with them when they are not acting the way we feel they should act. You Can Have a Spiritual Life and Not Be Religious Spirituality and religion are two subjects that are often confused with one another. Spirituality and religion are not necessarily joined at the hip. The outer embellishments of religion are often things such as public prayer, attendance at a church, synagogue or temple and sometime as particular style of mode of dress. These outward indications of spirituality in most religions are intended to develop and inner spirituality for the adherent. The problem with these displays being mistake for actual spirituality revolves around the fact that no one can see what is happening on the inside of the individual during these acts. No one can see what he or she is thinking or feeling. As a result, some people that appear to be very religious are not very spiritual on the inside. The spiritual person thinks and feels beyond the self. The spiritual person seeks for meaning in the difficulties that we all face in life and tries to use these difficulties to achieve a greater understanding of life and the role they are to play. Religion may have been intended to produce spirituality, but the fact is there is no guarantee that it does. Read More