Testimonials Archives - Khiron Clinics

Should I Have a Role Model for My Recovery?

steve — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 23:37:40 +0000

Recovery is a lifelong process, and sometimes the journey is ever-twisting, with no predictable road in sight. For many people, role models are considered an excellent way to strive towards their goals in recovery – by following someone who has gone through similar experiences and has been successful in recovery, you too can look at the steps they’ve taken to get to where they’re currently at. Many celebrities are coming forth with their mental illness and/or addictions, making it easier than ever to find someone who inspires you. For example: Russell Brand now serves as a voice for those in recovery, as he is going on 15 years of sobriety.

There are typically two types of people whom you may look up to in recovery: general role models and mentors. A general role model may be someone who inspires you and who you may want to follow after in your recovery, but they’re not close enough to you to provide immediate guidance (ex., Russell Brand). A mentor is someone whom you know that you reach out to for advice, guidance, and support throughout your recovery. Some treatment centers have a system in place for connecting current clients with alumni of the program, which can serve as mentors throughout your time there and sometimes even after. With this type of program, you’ll likely be able to discuss with them the following:

Their history with mental illness and substance abuse
How they sought help and if there was a particular life event that warranted this
Difficult moments and champion moments in recovery
Advice
Support and encouragement

A 2015 study published in the journal Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy assessed 21 participants for substance misuse and explored their social networks and quality of life, recovery ability, and social identify. Researchers from the study found overall that participants who connected with non-substance users found greater importance in their recovery, thus leading them to enhanced quality of life. Mentors can become part of your social network by helping you reach your recovery goals and helping you work through challenging emotions and situations that could hinder your recovery.

Stop the cycle of merry-go-round treatment and find the solution you’re looking for in trauma treatment. Through effective residential treatment, Khiron House helps you find the path you need toward health and wellness in recovery. For information, call us today. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours). USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

The post Should I Have a Role Model for My Recovery? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

What Instruments Are Used with Sound Baths?

steve — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 01:23:44 +0000

One of the amazing aspects of human life is that we have such unique, diverse ways of healing and restoration. For some, music provides a soothing, ritualized harmony that mirrors peace and serenity in the back of their mind. For others, writing provides a compelling opportunity to reflect on past grievances and achieve new insights. Others still may find relaxation and meditation to be extremely beneficial, providing them with the space they need to achieve balance. With holistic therapy practices, south baths are a beautiful way to feel connected and grounded through sound.

First, you may be wondering – why is it called a sound bath? Does it involve an actual bath? No, it doesn’t – the Washington Post highlighted in 2017 an interview conducted with a sound bath mentor Monte Hansen, who explained sound baths: “We define them as an immersion in sound frequency that cleans the soul.”

While this may sound very “spiritual”, it is – Livestrong, a website dedicated to fitness, health, and recipes, has noted that because the sound of soothing instruments can place people into a meditative state, sound baths have the potential to relieve anxiety, depression, and even make it easier for those who generally find it difficult to meditate. In terms of instruments, there are a variety that could be used, such as:

Singing bowls
Chimes
Didgeridoo
Harp
Gongs
Crystal bowls
Voice (through chanting or singing)

Tibetans have been using the practice of sound baths for around 2,000 years, so this ancient healing practice isn’t something that’s new. In a fast-driven world, most of us are looking for peace, grounding, and clarity – sound baths can really help with this because they tune in with our inner rhythm and sound. We’re able to find comfort in the long tones that are used and may even be better able to focus on the sounds rather than on placing meaning to the thoughts that come and go.

If you decide to try a sound bath, remember to treat it as you would any other form of meditation – don’t force yourself to sit uncomfortably, and don’t try to force thoughts out of your mind. Accept the experience with an open heart and mind.

The post What Instruments Are Used with Sound Baths? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

How Prevalent is Misdiagnosis?

steve — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 23:29:16 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a person’s story, shared on The Mighty: “I really couldn’t comprehend this new diagnosis…Reading different articles and books, I realized I couldn’t identify with this diagnosis. It didn’t sit well with me at all, and I felt frequently upset at being misunderstood by the professionals.”

In reading this, how well does it resonate with you? Do you feel that the diagnosis you currently have just doesn’t “fit”? According to CBS News, approximately 12 million Americans are misdiagnosed each and every year. This number is gravely alarming, and can have profound consequences for many people. According to a study highlighted by CBS News, researchers believe that about 50% of diagnostic errors result in severe harm to others. Why is this happening to so many people? There are several potential reasons for this:

Not enough time spent on identifying the problem
Diagnosis is often based on the health professional’s best guess – typically by observable behavior they see that day (which may or may not depict everything you’re really experiencing)
Having a mental illness often dampens a person’s ability to really show or express what they’re going through, which can make it more challenging as well
Everyone has a bias as to what they believe is really the cause – making diagnosis quite difficult

A 2014 study published in the journal PLoS One sought to explore causes of “diagnosis overshadowing” – misattributing physical symptoms to that of mental illness – and researchers found several themes. Crowded environment, time pressures, targets, and stigmatizing attitudes were all found to take effect when it came to misdiagnosis – giving us several more clues to this unfortunate phenomenon. What can you do to help prevent misdiagnosis?

The best thing you can do is be as true to yourself as possible when speaking with a healthcare professional. Don’t try to hide the symptoms you’re experiencing, because that will only make it more challenging for them to understand your subjective experiences. Don’t be afraid to seek out second opinions until you get a diagnosis that you feel truly resonates with you. The road to recovery is a long one, but it’s well worth it.

The post How Prevalent is Misdiagnosis? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

What Types of Interventions Can Be Used for Social Anxiety Disorder?

steve — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 01:13:53 +0000

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) affects an estimated 7.1% of adult Americans in a given year. SAD is a disorder that involves a persistent fear of one or more social performance situations in which a person is exposed to unfamiliar people or potential rejection from others. In other words, a person with SAD often have anxiety that they will do something to humiliate themselves. Symptoms of SAD typically emerge in 3 categories:

Physical: Blushing, sweating, shortness of breath, chills, chest tightness, blurred vision, headaches, diarrhea, and more.

Cognitive: Negative thoughts, negative bias (discounting positive social experiences

Behavioral: Avoiding certain people or situations, using safety behaviors, leaving or escaping social situations

If you’ve been struggling with SAD, you may feel that your disorder will never get better. This belief is quite false, however; there are a variety of effective treatments that have shown you can recover from this. There are a number of tools and resources that you can use to help correct distorted thinking and perceptions, leading you to reduced stress and anxiety.

A 2014 study published in The Lancet Psychiatry sought to explore what interventions have been most effective for adults with SAD. Researchers analyzed many previous studies done on the subject to gather themes of effective interventions, totaling 13,164 participants. A number of successful interventions emerged:

Medication – benzodiazepines, SSRIs, anticonvulsants, and more
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) – a therapy approach that involves changes old, negative patterns of thought into newer, more productive ones
Exposure and social skills – education and practice with social skills in a safe, therapeutic setting
Psychotherapy – working with a therapist to talk about past, present and future concerns

Many reputable treatment centers offer a variety of these interventions, and you may even combine a few of them into your treatment regime. Since each person is different, it’s important that you move forward with a treatment center that places priority on customizable programs to ensure you receive the best care.

The post What Types of Interventions Can Be Used for Social Anxiety Disorder? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

How Do Those with Depression Experience Loneliness?

steve — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 01:05:32 +0000

Depression is a serious mental illness that can change what was once considered joyful and pleasant for a person to a dark, gloomy haze. If you’ve been diagnosed with depression, perhaps you’re feeling this right now – fatigue, feelings of hopelessness, and more can ensue and all you want to do is go right back to bed after you just got up; depression often affects sleeping, eating, and other behavioral patterns of a person as they become less engaged with the life around them due to the disorder’s all encompassing and demanding nature. If you know of someone with depression, understanding what they go through could help you provide them with more support – if you’re struggling with depression yourself, this could be a sign that you need to seek treatment today.

A 2017 study published in the journal Interpersonal and Biological Processes sought to explore states of loneliness amongst those diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD); a total of 417 females participated in the study, as researchers assessed them periodically for 20 months of follow up. Ultimately, the researchers found that participants were more likely to isolate themselves after social company, which further contributed to the development of MDD. Since those with MDD are more prone to experience negative perceptions of social interactions, anticipate rejection, show a lower positive response to rewarding situations, it’s more likely that these individuals will retreat to themselves when they can.

Everyday Health emphasizes a variety of actions that can be taken to help a person with depression counteract their feelings of loneliness:

Planning to participate in activities, even if you don’t feel like it
Exploring your spirituality
Set realistic standards for yourself when it comes to making and keeping friends
Call someone whom you can trust
Meditate
Engage in therapy

Loneliness may be a common experience for depression, but that doesn’t mean it’s something that will be there forever. Depression ultimately puts a dull, low, negative undertone to a person’s way of thinking – if you can remember this, you can take small steps to overcome it.

The post How Do Those with Depression Experience Loneliness? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

What Interpersonal Difficulties Does Someone with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) Face?

steve — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 00:48:36 +0000

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is diagnosed with problem drinking becomes severe – according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), approximately 15.1 million adults experienced an AUD in 2015. If you or a loved one have been diagnosed with an AUD, you’ve likely experienced one or more of the following:

Drinking more or longer than originally intended
Several failed attempts to quit drinking
Strong cravings associated with use
Continuing to drink despite problems and consequences it has in various parts of life
Getting into dangerous or risky situations when alcohol is involved
Drinking in higher amounts and more frequently in order to reach a desired effect

AUDs can certainly affect a person’s mind, body, and spirit, including their interactions with others. Studies have shown time and time again how important social connections are to mental health and well-being, but AUD can get in the way of this in a number of ways. A 2016 study published in the journal Addiction sought to explore social cognitive deficits in those with AUD. A total of 756 individuals diagnosed with AUD, and a total of 681 individuals considered “healthy” (to serve as a comparison group) were included in the study. Researchers found that facial recognition, particularly with disgust and anger, were significantly impaired. Theory of mind (TOM), also known as the ability to attribute mental states such as beliefs, intents, desires, emotions, knowledge and more, was also shown to be significantly impaired from AUD.

Social cognition involves our ability to interpret other peoples’ feelings and emotions, as well as our ability to understand the influence that our thoughts have on our feelings, the formation of self-concept, personal perception, and more. Since AUD can change behavioral and structural regions of the brain, it can certainly affect social cognition. If you’ve been struggling with an AUD, it’s time to seek help now. The sooner you seek help, the greater the chance you can ameliorate some of the damages done from severe drinking patterns.

The post What Interpersonal Difficulties Does Someone with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) Face? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

How Did Robin Williams Experience Addiction?

steve — Tue, 13 Nov 2018 00:31:51 +0000

Note: If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Your life matters.

The world mourned when it was discovered that actor and comedian Robin Williams lost his life to suicide in August of 2014. The actor made a huge, positive impact on the world with his amazing performances in movies such as “Mrs. Doubtfire”, “Mork & Mindy”, and more. While we will never know the reason behind Williams’ death, we can try to understand his life a little better, to get a new perspective on what celebrities’ and other people go through – even if they “appear” to be doing very well. Taking a glance into Robin Williams’ past, we can see that he struggled with addiction.

According to various news sources, Williams dealt with cocaine addiction and alcoholism, but quit cold-turkey approximately 6 months before his first child, Zachary, was born in 1983. As one of his friends told People Magazine (and as stated in The Guardian): “…No therapeutic support. He just quit.”

Robin Williams once explained in an interview that for many people with an addiction, they are most often trying to ease some pain. For him, alcohol seemed to help him ease fear and anxiety, at least temporarily. However, he did mention the fact that eventually, it becomes a problem and a person can feel even more isolated than they did before. In another interview where he recalled the paparazzi capturing him drunk and high, he stated, “Most of the time you just realize you’ve started to do embarrassing things.”

For Robin Williams, it seems that substances were an attempt to escape painful feelings he was experiencing. This type of coping mechanism is called self-medication, and it can certainly become harmful to a person’s health, leading them to addiction and potentially worsening the symptoms of a psychological disorder that person may have.

HBO has created a new documentary of Robin William’s life called “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind”. The goal of the documentary is to provide insight into Robin’s life as depicted through interviews with friends and family, footage, audio clips, and more. If you’re currently struggling with a mental illness and/or substance abuse, speak with a professional from a reputable treatment center today. Your life matters. Recovery is possible. Don’t give up.

The post How Did Robin Williams Experience Addiction? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

What is Dialectical Thinking?

steve — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 00:21:26 +0000

Take a quick moment to assess your current thinking patterns. When an issue arises or you feel stressed/irritated/anxious, where do your thoughts go? Do you find yourself using the terms “always” or “never”? In recovery, especially during challenging times, it’s easy to think that we will “never make it through” or that we will “always” struggle with a particular issue. Most often, we don’t realize that this type of thinking is actually detrimental to both our mental health and recovery at large – by thinking in “black and white” terms, we cut out all of the complex, interweaving factors that represent reality. Dialectical thinking is defined as, “The ability to view issues from multiple perspectives and to arrive at the most economical and reasonable reconciliation of seemingly contradictory information and postures.”

Wow – what does this mean, and how can two contradicting aspects be simplified into one reconciliation? Let’s take a look at some examples of dialectical thinking:

“I am struggling and I am going to be just fine.”

“I relapsed and I am continuing to work hard in my recovery.”

“Today is a dreadful day and I have the power to turn it around.”

“I make a lot of mistakes and that’s perfectly fine, because I’m human.”

Do you see one single word that is in each of these sentences? And. Not “but” or “yet” – the word “and” helps us to accept one opposing phrase and another at the same time, not despite one another. You may be thinking – how relevant is this to my recovery? Extremely relevant, in fact; a 2015 study published in the journal Learning and Individual Differences found that dialectical thinking actually mitigates any detrimental effects that occur from a situation, which makes a challenging situation much easier to deal with and move forward from.

The next time you find yourself applying a sense of permanency to a situation, correct yourself by thinking of a positive that also goes along with what you’re going through. Life is more of a grey area, and there are so many shades of grey to go along with it. You’ll see over time that with practice, you’ll be able to find multiple perspectives for life’s situations, and they won’t affect you as negatively as perhaps they did before.

The post What is Dialectical Thinking? appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

Compulsions And Trauma

steve — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 20:38:56 +0000

We have a deeply ingrained need to survive and we have a quick impulse which allows us to act in a second’s notice in order to protect our livelihood. Compulsions, however, are a bit different from our survival impulses. The difference between a compulsive behavior and an impulsive behavior is resistance and want. An impulsive behavior can be rationalized, either before or after the behavior takes place. A compulsive behavior, on the other hand, is completely irresistible, meaning someone feels as though they must act on that behavior and there is no resisting it. Moreover, the behavior is being done against one’s wants- they don’t want to be behaving compulsively, but they cannot help it.

Compulsive behavior is part of our nature as humans but can become problematic when unresolved trauma plays a part in the story. Consider the life of someone who feels compelled to act in sexual promiscuity, despite their desires for a more normalized, healthy sex life. Someone from the outside might judge such an individual as a pervert, a feind, or someone disturbed. Compulsive behaviors come from somewhere. Rarely would it be the case that someone just spontaneously develops a sexual compulsion without an origin source. For many men and women, the source of their compulsive sexual behaviors is trauma. Most often, sexual trauma inspires compulsive sexual behaviors. Other compulsive behaviors like addiction, alcoholism, gambling, shopping, exercising, eating, and many more, all can originate from trauma. Whatever pain the trauma left behind is exactly what the compulsive behavior is seeking to remedy with that irresistible urge. Problematically, compulsive behaviors can end up causing just as much pain than the trauma itself creating a painful cycle.

Trauma pierces the body’s nervous system network and sends out a ripple effect to every area of the brain which interacts with the nervous system. The brain’s ability to regulate fact, fiction, reason, and logic, are suppressed while the body becomes overly excited. A tingling, electric, chemical reaction to fulfill a physical need will override any kind of reasoning in the mind; vice versa, an obsessive, all-consuming thought in the mind may override any kind of objection brought on by the body. In order to regain control of one’s body and mind, one has to take the brave stop of volunteering themselves to walk through trauma, heal their pain, and create the changes necessary to live a different life.

Life doesn’t have to be lived within the imprisoning walls of compulsive behavior, or behind the scars of trauma. The answer to changing the troubling behaviors brought on by trauma lies in healing the trauma itself. Your chance at healing has arrived. Take the opportunity.

Trauma is most often the root cause of many emotional, behavioral, and mood disorders. Until you can heal your trauma, you will find great difficulty finding the healing you need to live a life of recovery, health, and wellness. At Khiron House, we provide effective residential treatment and cutting edge therapies which seek to transform mind, body, and spirit from the effects of trauma. Call us today for information. UK: 020 3811 2575 (24 hours) USA: (866) 801 6184 (24 hours).

The post Compulsions And Trauma appeared first on Khiron Clinics.

Can You Create Your Own Family This Holiday Season

steve — Fri, 28 Sep 2018 21:00:36 +0000

Sometimes, for distinct reasons, our biological families become detached from our lives. Whether part of our control or not, this split in the dynamic of those we grew up around or were raised by can be painful – for many, the holiday season brings back sad feelings, especially if loved ones are missed but are not longer around. Whether you’re in recovery for mental illness or addiction, the holiday season is a special time to really hone in on your self-care. Eating healthy, getting plenty of exercise, and treating yourself to new activities and people conducive to your recovery are excellent ways of showing yourself some love. This holiday season, it’s about creating your own family – one that uplifts you, supports you, and will be there for you when times get hard.

The following are some excellent tips for creating your own family this holiday season:

See what’s going on at your treatment center. Do they have an event that you can attend to meet others in recovery who may not have family? Talk to a leader in your program to learn more about holiday opportunities.
Host your own get together. Invite those you’ve met in your program to get to know them better and celebrate. After all – when it comes to recovery, you’re all in this together.
Recognize that family can be one person – even a pet. Many people have this grand envision that families all over the world, of at least 10 people are more, are getting together in harmony. This isn’t true! In fact, more and more people are creating their own families – even if for a brief while it only includes your partner, your pet, or a good friend.
Celebrate your own progress. One of the most important people whom you need to get to know and love is…..you guessed it…. yourself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with spending time alone this holiday season, playing some “feel-good” music and cooking up a beautiful holiday dinner that you can eat as leftovers for the next week. Many people do this, and it can even make you a stronger person in doing so.

A 2016 study published in the journal Substance Abuse highlighted the importance of social support in building one’s sense of community in recovery. Find people who want you to succeed, and who are trying to push forward in their recovery journeys as well. You never know who may become part of your family until you try.

The post Can You Create Your Own Family This Holiday Season appeared first on Khiron Clinics.