Mental Health and Addiction

Lecture 1

Introduction - Welcome!

Lecture 2

Course Overview

Lecture 3

Stages of Change - Precontemplation, Contemplation, Preparation, Action, Maintenance, Relapse

Lecture 4

The Chicken or the Egg - What came first? Mental health struggles or addiction?

Lecture 5

Understanding Grief - How grief plays a role in addiction and also grieving the loss of an addiction

Lecture 6

Trauma and Addiction - Not everyone with an addiction experienced trauma

Lecture 7

Your Physical Health - Nutrition, Fitness and Sleep

Lecture 8

Living with Intention - How to be more present and focused

Lecture 9

Your Social Circles - Family, Friends and Professional Relationships

Lecture 10

Your Environment - Changing your environment one simple step at a time

Lecture 11

Self-Care - How to make time for self-care and why it’s an important part of the healing process

Lecture 12

Treatment - Your treatment needs to be unique to you and your situation

Lecture 13

Conclusion - Thank you

Lecture 14

Bonus - You won’t want to miss this

When someone is fighting an addiction they are on a stage of change. It’s important to know which stage you are on so that you can learn from your past and strive to keep changing in a positive way. Another thing to know here is that the stages aren’t always linear; meaning you can go back and forth between stages and sometimes you can be on one stage for years and another stage can last as little as a few hours.

So the stages of change are:

• Precontemplation

• Contemplation

• Preparation

• Action

• Maintenance

• Relapse

  
  

So precontemplation is the stage where the person does not know what lies ahead but to others, their behavior is a little problematic, but not enough for anyone to intervene. For example, a kid in highschool who is always drinking or smoking marijuana just a little bit more than their peers. This could be a young professional who drinks nightly to take the edge off. For behavior addictions like sex or porn it could be someone who is engaging often and choosing those activities over hanging out with their friends or maybe it’s made them late to work a few times. A new mom who is finding it hard to cope with motherhood who finds herself winding down each night with a bottle of wine.

The next stage is contemplation. This is the stage where the person is noticing their behavior is a little more risky than most and that there are negative consequences tied to their behavior. Maybe that kid in highschool got a DUI. Outwardly they may just chalk it up to a silly mistake but internally they are starting to wonder if this could be a real problem. The young professional is finding it harder to socialize in any environment without having a few drinks beforehand. For someone who is addicted to sex, perhaps they have contracted an STI or cheated on their significant other, or someone who is addicted to porn, they are choosing porn over having sex with their partner. The new mom finds herself drinking at 2pm instead of 5pm. During this stage, a person might begin to think to themselves that they should stop or that they will stop soon. Some may even look into ways they can stop such as buying self help books or looking online for things they can do to help.

Next is preparation. During this stage, a person has recognized that there is a problem and they know they will need to change. They have committed to making this change and started to prepare. This could be in a way of reading about how to change online, buying books, enrolling in courses online, talking to friends about getting help and so on. Some people get stuck in this change for a while and don’t know how to make the jump from preparing to action and others might use less time to prepare and go right into action. That kid in highschool is now 25 and and has confided in family and friends, telling them that he feels he needs to stop and is going to start cutting back. The young professional is now engaged to be married and knows if they don’t get cut back as soon as possible they risk losing the person they love most. The person addicted to sex has started to research 12-step meetings online and is considering going next week. The porn addict is wondering how they can keep porn off their phone.

The next stage is the action stage. In this stage, a person has suffered enough negative consequences to know that they need to stop before things get worse. They are making plans to stop their behaviors such as reading and implementing techniques from the self help books they bought, going to 12-step meetings, and even rehab. Traditional rehab isn’t for everyone and there are a lot of barriers to actually going but people can be in action stage in other ways even if they are not able to attend an expensive traditional rehab facility. For example, taking this course and implementing the techniques and using the tools they are given is a form of action. Most of you taking this course are in either late stage pre-contemplation or action.

In this stage the guy in highschool goes to rehab with the help of his parents. The young professional has started to go to AA meetings and is attending church on a regular basis. The sex addict is active in online self help groups and has started to read books on sex addiction. The person addicted to porn has deleted and blocked porn sites with the help of their partner.

The next stage is maintenance. This is where the person has sought help, made progress and is in recovery and doing all the things they need to do to avoid relapse. They are focusing on their physical and mental health, they know what to do to avoid triggers. Although the next stage is relapse it is not a stage that is inevitable - not everyone has a relapse. A lot of people do so we will talk about that stage next. It’s also important to note that there is some controversy and talk in the addiction field about a final stage being termination. I have not listed it here but you should know that it is a stage for some people. Most people stay in maintenance and spend their whole lives making sure they don’t have a relapse. But for some, they can terminate their addiction; meaning they’ve done what they needed to do and know that their addiction will not happen again. They no longer have triggers, think about things in a compuslive way and go on to act as if their addiction never existed. It takes a long time to get to that stage and some experts even believe that termination should not be a stage at all - maintenance is important for a life long recovery. Whatever you believe is fine, I personally don’t really like labels too much so if you feel you can achieve termination I say go for it. But it’s not really relevant to anyone taking this course as this course is geared for those who are in pre-contemplation and action stage and those hoping to get to maintenance. So whatever you believe, you don’t really have to decide or form an opinion for a while so just take this knowledge for what it’s worth and you can revisit this later on down the line.

The last stage is not a stage that is inevitable but it is common and that’s the relapse stage. When a person relapses they may relapse for days or years or they may relapse for a few minutes only. Either way, a relapse is a relapse and once it’s done they go back to one of the stages. Sometimes people relapse and stay in pre-contemplation. This means, someone may have been taking all the steps to change and then given up, relapsed and think to themselves, I never really had a problem, I don’t know what I was thinking. Some may go from relapse right back to maintenance. It just depends on the person. If you do find yourself having a relapse just know that you can pull yourself out of it as quickly as you got in but the key to doing so is to recognise the relapse as soon as possible and get yourself back on track immediately. The longer you wait, the harder it is to do so.

Addiction and mental health go hand in hand and in fact they are under the same umbrella. People who struggle with addiction often find that they also struggle with their mental health. The question you might ask is, what came first? Mental health struggles or addiction struggles?

There are many ways to go about figuring this out and once you know then you can work on an individual plan that will help both your addiction and mental health.

The first thing you’ll want to do is think back before you engage in the substance or behavior of your addiction? Were you, at that time, struggling with your mental health? If so then it is likely you started to use substances or engage in risky behaviors to feel better. You used this as an escape to bandaid the negative mental health feelings. For example, some people drink alcohol or watch porn to escape depression or anxiety.

If you answered no to struggling with your mental health before using substances or engaging in risky behavior then it is likely that your addiction caused the mental health struggles. For example, people who use amphetamines often suffer from anxiety or perhaps too much alcohol, food, sex, porn, and cocaine causes depression.

Let’s say you can’t remember or you’re still unsure. Then I recommend doing a 30 day test. Once you are able to abstain from your behavior or substance that caused your addiction, if you are still struggling with your mental health then it is likely that your mental health struggle started before your addiction.

Once you know this information you can then start a treatment plan that tailors to your needs.

1. If your mental health struggles came first and you were using your addiction as a way to cope then it is very important that you get the treatment for your mental health while also treating your addiction. You may find this course to help with your addiction but it’s not a substitution for mental health treatment. You will need to talk to a mental health professional, get an assessment, diagnosis, and enrol into a treatment plan that includes therapy and/or medication.

2. If your addiction came first and that’s what caused your mental health struggles then your treatment plan should be tailored more towards making sure you are treating addiction which could be done through taking online courses or if needed you may need additional support via therapy, in or out-patient treatment. Everyone is different. While many people find they can kick their addiction using self-help guides and courses like this. Others may need something more intense that is overseen by addiction specialists. Either way, kicking your addiction is going to be very important. But while you are working on kicking your addiction, and it is likely that your mental health struggles will start to subside simultaneously, it's also very important that you take care of your mental health in the process. Here are some ways you can do that:

Self-care - self care is making sure you are taking time to do the things that make you happy. It’s not selfish, it’s important. There’s a misconception that self-care is getting expensive massages and facials every week and going to the spa. While you can certainly do that, it’s not necessary for most. Self-care can be doing simple things like getting into a good book, treating yourself to a nice healthy meal, binge watching your favorite series, playing with your dog, things like that. Self-care should be a mix of relaxing things and also things that are good for you: perhaps you enjoy swimming or going for walks outside in nature.

Taking care of you mental health also should include making sure you are eating and sleeping right. Junk food isn’t going to help your mental health so start looking into how you can have good healthy nutrition to make sure your mental health stays strong. Getting a good quality sleep and the right amount is also a way of taking care of your mental health.

Setting aside time for the mind and body to relax: This includes doing things like yoga or stretching, meditation, listening to music that makes you feel good, being present with your daily thoughts, and journaling.

Welcome to our next lecture on grieving the loss of an addiction. This is a tough topic that a lot of people don’t understand. Most people think, if I can just get my sex addiction under control I will be happy. This isn’t always the case. Short term most people feel sad, stuck, and bored. If you are feeling this, just know it’s normal.

Sex has been such a big part of your life - both good and bad for so long so taking it away will feel like a loss, even though recovery is supposed to make you feel better. Long term, it will but short term you need to grieve. You need to grieve the loss of sex and also the lifestyle that comes with it.

I used to work with foster kids and foster parents. We would get calls daily from foster parents so exhausted and fed up because the foster kid they took in is very disruptive and most have extreme behavior issues. The foster parents are often confused wondering why this is happening when they are giving the children a calm, nurturing, safe environment - one much better than where they came from. You see, when someone is operating at full stress, all day, that’s what they are used to. They are used to chaos and toxicity so when things suddenly become calm their brains get confused. They get bored and they don’t know how to handle it.

It’s similar for those who struggle with sex addiction. Sex addiction isn’t just about having sex, it’s the lifestyle that comes with it. So when you stop sex and also the lifestyle you should expect a period of time where you will be in a slump, feeling down, feeling pretty terrible.

Now if someone isn’t prepared for this, they may find themselves looking for that excitement and stress elsewhere. I’ve seen people go from sex addiction, to gambling addiction, to stealing, to drugs. You want to be careful not to trade one addiction for another.

Give yourself permission to gieve and feel sad. This period of time will be different for everyone. Some may have it harder than others. Some may need more time than others.

I usually say to give it up to 30 days. If after 30 days you are still feeling down and just not your normal self then you should make sure you talk to someone as you may have depression, anxiety or another undiagnosed mental or physical health condition.

Use those first few weeks in a kind and compassionate way. Give yourself permission to cry, to be lazy, to watch TV, to sleep in but keep in mind at the same time you don’t want to fall into unhealthy behaviors. Keep focusing on yourself and strive for good physical and mental health.

A lot of people who struggle with addiction have dealt with traumatic experiences and it’s important, if this is you, that you work through any past trauma in order to achieve a full recovery from your addiction. Working through trauma means that you see a mental health professional that focuses on trauma; usually this is a therapist.

You see, trauma actually changes the brain. Trauma affects three parts of the brain: the amygdala, the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex and all three of these are responsible for how the body manages stress. A lot of people with past traumatic experiences or PTSD use substances like drugs or alcohol or turn to risky behaviors such as gambling or sex to numb the mind. You see when someone is reminded of a past traumatic experience the amygdala goes into overdrive meaning they will feel the same way they felt when experiencing the traumatic experience firsthand. The hippocampus has reduced activity so it’s impossible for the brain to know if the experience is in the past or the currently happening now.

When someone thinks about a past traumatic experience their prefrontrol cortex becomes suppressed so they are not able to control their fear so they become reactive. So if you are using substances or behaviors to suppress those memories, it’s not something that you are going to be able to just stop doing. It’s a process that will take time.

If you are in treatment for PTSD or anxiety due to past trauma, working through the past trauma is what’s going to make you more confident in controlling triggers. When in treatment, you will have the tools necessary to deal with traumatic thoughts as they come so that you don’t have to resort to your addictive behaviors.

If you are using substances or behaviors constantly to suppress your thoughts then the first step might be to reduce your use so that you can start to really feel and think about those memories again and use the tools you receive from therapy to work through them.

The good news is that the brain can be rewired; this is called neuroplasticity but in order for that to happen you need to be able to not use your addiction as a way to escape certain thoughts. It’s a delicate balance and the timing must be right but for the best outcome, eventually, anyone who struggles with past trauma and addiction will need to manage their substances and behaviors for the right therapy to work properly.

Welcome to this section on your physical health. There are three components to having good physical health and that’s nutrition, fitness and sleep. All should be focused equally in order to have the best chance at kicking your addiction. But before this, it’s important to make sure your body is okay and that’s why I always recommend you make a doctor’s visit to get a checkup including blood work. It’s important to know if there are any major medical needs that need to be addressed such as high blood pressure or cholesterol, and can also pin point quick fixes such as being low on a certain vitamin or mineral. Oftentimes, people with an addiction neglect their physical health so it’s important to address any medical concerns early on.

So let’s start with food. What you put into your body is going to make a huge difference in how you feel. I always say it like this; you can stop your behavior, you can do all the right things, and can technically be in recovery but if you’re eating junk food and not taking care of your body then you’re not going to feel that much better. If you want to feel good and in control you need to take control of your nutrition. This is often very challenging for most people but don’t think of this as a deity, think of this as a lifestyle change and there are numerous ways to get there. Some people prefer to follow a nutrition plan until they are confident enough to do it on their own. If a nutrition plan isn’t your thing that’s okay. I recommend making small changes each week to your nutrition so that it doesn’t feel like you’re missing anything. For example, let’s say part of your morning breakfast includes yogurt. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with yogurt per say, most yogurts are loaded with sugar - too much sugar. So maybe switch to a plain or low sugar yogurt. Maybe you have a bowl of ice cream after dinner. Perhaps next week you can substitute ice cream for a bowl of fruit or cut down the days you have to ice cream until you get to no days. Everybody has room to improve. So watch your serving sizes and quality of food. Aim to cook more at home, eat whole foods, whole grains and more vegetables. Having a healthy diet can also help with mood, mental health and can help with triggers and cravings.

In addition to nutrition, it’s also important to focus on fitness. A lot of people start off with having little to no fitness in their life so I would never expect any of you to go from that to running a 5k in two weeks. It needs to be a gradual plan that incorporates fitness. Fitness doesn’t have to be daunting so it should not be something you find boring or uninteresting. Not everyone wants to go work out in a gym. Some people prefer things like hiking, swimming or riding their bike. It’s important to figure out what motivates you and what brings you joy. Otherwise, burnout generally comes after about 1-2 weeks.

And the last part of it is ensuring proper sleep. When you struggle with addiction, having sleep issues generally is part of that. The sleep thing generally works itself out with a bit of effort and time but sometimes people develop sleep disorders which do need to be addressed by a doctor. Lack of proper sleep definitely halts the recovery process so it's important to tackle sleep early on. So to get better sleep it’s important to look at two things; are you getting enough sleep and is your sleep high quality? Remember earlier how we talked about sticking to a schedule. One of the best things you can do for your sleep is to create a bedtime and stick to it. Put your phone away 1-2 hours before sleep and aim to get 7-9 hours each night. So if you are waking at 6am for work you should aim to get to bed somewhere between 9pm and midnight - you know your body and how much sleep you need so you may be more on the 9 hour side where someone else may be more on the 7 hour side but regardless make sure you are consistent and feel well rested throughout the day.

So to recap - to take good care of your physical health you need to focus on your nutrition, fitness and sleep. Next up we’re going to talk about Living with intention. See you there.

Intentional living is how you beat your addiction. It’s making a plan and sticking with it. It’s being able to live in the moment and knowing how to handle things that are not in your control. When you live with intention you can get through tough moments. When you aren’t prepared and walking through the day without thinking, things will happen and you will unconsciously react to them.

When you live with intention you are acutely aware of what you are feeling at any given moment. Like right now, are you listening to my voice or are you thinking about something else, like what’s for dinner tonight or looking at your phone because a notification popped up.

So how do you live with intention? It’s not easy. The first thing you need to do is create a routine or make a schedule and practice sticking with it. This is really difficult for a lot of people. But I can tell you if you start to practice this you will get better and things will get easier. So in your journal, plan out your whole day, including weekends. This is not to say you can’t have down time. Of course you will want to have downtime as that’s a way for your body and mind to relax but put that in your schedule. Once you’ve made a schedule then you can start to practice living in the moment. Not thinking about the past and not worrying about the future. Multiple times per day bring your thoughts back to the present moment. When you eat, when you shower, when you’re driving or working - when your mind starts to wonder, tap into those thoughts and ask yourself what purpose does thinking about this give? You’ll likely find that it has no purpose. Like thinking about a negative conversation you had with a co-worker last week. Don’t allow that negativity to take up your brain space. Now there will be times where you will have to think about things that aren’t in the present moment but you can make that thinking intentional. For example, are you planning a birthday party for a family member? Of course you will need to think ahead for that but make that intentional. Does thinking about right in this moment help you now? Probably not. But you could schedule some time to do the thinking and planning.

When you start to live with intention and be present with your thoughts you will be able to control your triggers and urges with much more clarity. And this is how you work through your addiction. It’s not easy, it will take time and practice but once you start to change your thoughts, processes and patterns you will begin to thrive.

Up next: we are going to talk about your social circles. See you there.

Welcome back. The final part of this section is how to navigate your social circles. This includes family, friends and professional relationships.

So there’s a lot that goes into being able to navigate social circles. Let’s first talk about family.

Okay so oftentimes it’s our family, our first encounters ever with people, that drive us to be the way we are. I’m not saying everyone’s family has caused them to have an addiction. But it’s important to look into family relationships as a whole to see how they may help or hinder your ability to recover from this.

Toxic family members do not help. They may not be a direct cause of your addiction but they may be causing you stress that does not help you in any way. When you have a toxic family member and you are working on yourself, your recovery and so on, they are only going to get in the way and if you allow them to keep that toxicity into your life it will make it that much harder to kick this addiction. So for example, let’s say you have a sibling who is constantly berating you for your decisions, manipulating you in any way they can and takes advantage of you a lot. This will not make you feel good about yourself or your relationships and you will need to create some space. You will need to start to set boundaries with them so that you can allow yourself time to heal. I’m not suggesting you kick them out of your life for good, but rather, let them know that you are demanding time away from them while you work through this. It’s a lot easier said than done, I know this. But it’s the only way.

On the flip side, if you have a family member who is supportive, kind, caring, nurturing and has always been there for you no matter what, you will want to make sure you find a way to nurture that relationship and keep them in your life. Maybe you haven’t been the best person to them and that’s okay. As you start to heal you can start to refocus on building those strong relationships.

Now friends are a bit different and these are the people you choose to have in your life. My advice is similar for friends in that you want to analyze those relationships and if you have toxic friends, then create some space or even cut them out of your life. If you have great friends then you will want to nurture that relationship. People who struggle with an addiction often find themselves in particular situations with their friends. Many people have ruined friendships due to their addiction.

And I have this advice for you. If you are struggling because you have ruined friendships due to your addiction you need to come to terms with what has already been done. The past is the past and you can’t change that.

If you feel it would make you feel better to reach out to those friends and apologize, that's great, then do that. You Don't have to but if you think it will help you, you should. However, you must know that the apology may not give you the outcome you are hoping for. I work with a lot of students who have burned a friendship due to their addiction, they apologize and the friend is unwilling to accept it and then they are like well why did I even bother to apologize?

An apology must come with no strings attached and if you are not ready for that then I say, let bygones be bygones and move past that part of your life. If you are okay with and genuinely want to apologize to someone you hurt then apologize and move on. Don’t expect to be friends again immediately or ever but it’s not something you need to dwell on. Remember, living with intention and focusing on the present moment? You need to do that. If an apology is a way to clear your conscience then by all means, do it. And then be done.

Another thing I want you to be prepared for is that sometimes apologies don’t go the way they intend. Sometimes the other person just wants to move on as well and you being present in their life again can bring back negative emotions. I had a student insist once that they needed to apologize to a friend. I was talking with him and told him that I thought it was too soon given the situation. But he wanted to clear his conscience.

So they sent them a text apologizing. The friend, not surprisingly, had words for him. Really not nice words and was like why are you texting me, i hate you, I told you I wanted you out of my life and so on. So this reaction was expected. Now, it really does depend on where you’re at emotionally with everything. My advice was for them to not respond and let everything go and focus on the future and what they can control. But this sparked a ton of emotion. My student was texting them back, asking them why they can’t be forgiven, it caused this whole back and forth thing that set my student back weeks. Not just days but weeks.

So what I”m here to tell you is that you have to work on yourself first. You have to be strong in your recovery and mentally prepared for situations to not go as planned. Of course my student thought that by apologizing to his friend, his friend would be like okay I accept your apology and let’s be friends again. But you need to be realistic and understand that not everyone is willing to accept things.

There may be situations that have occurred where you have hurt people in your life. And that’s something you need to work on and as you progress through this course you will find that it will be easier for you to accept things that have happened in your past.

Now I want to conclude this lecture by talking about your professional relationships. This mostly includes your work. Part of a holistic approach is looking at every aspect of your life and understanding whether it’s helping your recovery or not. Now this depends on what you do for work and how your addiction may have impacted your work life and relationships with your colleagues.

Everyone here is going to have a varying degree of what they do professionally. If you don’t feel your addiction has impacted your work life then that’s great and now going forward you can focus on improving your relationship with your colleagues. Freeing up mindspace from this addiction will allow you to be a better employee and a better coworker.

If your addiction has impacted your work, you will need to figure out if it’s best to try to repair your professional relationships or if it’s better to try to find a new opportunity so that you can move past this.

Your environment plays a huge role in how you are able to process emotions. I want you to take a second and pause. Look around you - what do you notice? Do your surroundings make you feel good about yourself? If not, what can you do to change it?

Now everyone’s situation here will be different and I do understand that for a lot of people simply changing your environment isn’t easy. So I want to lay out a plan here that will help you make small changes to your environment until it’s a place where you feel happy, comfortable and it’s a place that makes you feel good about yourself.

So first, start really simple and small. Look around the room you are in. Look at the things you can see and touch. Is your desk messy? Is there enough light in the room? Does it smell good? Maybe you have your lunch dishes that need to get to the sink, or perhaps there’s giant pile of laundry next to you that needs to be washed or put away. Having a nice space can make a huge difference. So start here and think of things that are in your control that you can change to make you feel better.

Once you fix your immediate space then I want you think a bit bigger. And some of these changes may not happen immediately as you may need more planning but what can you do to make your room feel better? Perhaps you could paint the room a different colour or get new window coverings. Maybe you could get an air purifier or some candles to make it smell good. What do you hear? Some nice music can also be beneficial to your mental health.

Once you’ve focused on your room then go bigger - your home. What is life like where you live? Is the environment good for you and your mental health? If not, what are some things that need to change? Again, this isn’t something that you can just change overnight - this part will take some long term planning. Maybe you need to kick out toxic roommate or get your partner to sign up for couples counselling. Maybe it’s time to upgrade or downgrade your home to accommodate your current financial situation. Maybe you need a house cleaner or you need to spend a day de-cluttering. Perhaps you need to make time to get out of your home if you’re spending too much time at home - going for walks in nature regularly can improve your mental health. Or if you don’t spend enough time at home maybe you need to adjust your schedule so that you can.

Another part of your environment that people don’t really think about is their work. If you are spending 8 hours each day in an office - what does your workspace feel like? Maybe you spruce that up. What about the people you work with? Do you need to change your work situation?

And even a bigger picture - what is the city like where you live? Does your neighbourhood align with your personal values and what you want from life? I’ve worked with clients who live in a big city and it’s just too busy for them so moving somewhere quieter worked better for them. I’ve also had clients who wanted to move to be closer to family, closer to good schools, closer to big parks, public transportation, shopping and so on. If you are stuck in a place you don’t want to be - you need to work on changing it. Again, this isn’t something that will happen overnight but you need to start making plans for how you can change it.

Don’t just accept that things aren’t nice - you deserve to be in a place that is nice for you. It doesn’t have to be big or expensive, just a place where you can heal and thrive and be happy.

Taking care of your mental health isn’t just about treating a mental health condition. It also includes making sure you are taking care of yourself in a holistic way. We’ve talked about making sure you take care of yourself physically, socially and your environment but it’s also important to take care of your mind. I think sometimes people think of self-care as something that’s luxurious and expensive like getting a massage or a facial but there’s so much more to it than that. Sure, that can be a part of self-care but I can’t imagine anyone going for a daily massage at a spa and self-care needs to be implemented more than just once every few weeks. Self-care should be something that is done daily.

Self-care is going to be unique to you and your likes. What makes you feel good? What makes you feel relaxed and happy? Realistically how can you make time to do these things? It doesn’t have to be the same thing every day but you should find time for self-care often.

So make a list of things you like doing. Think outside the box. For example, I had a client that really enjoyed ironing. For most people, ironing is a chore but for him he really found it quite relaxing. Maybe you like listening to podcast or stories or perhaps you like to read or do jigsaw puzzles. If you have an odd hobby don’t think that because it may sound weird to others it’s not a form of self-care. Anything can be self care as long as you like it.

One of my clients would schedule time out every night to enjoy a cup of tea and watch an episode of their favourite show on netflix. That may seem like something everyone does but if this makes you happy I want you to own it and make it even more enjoyable. We talked earlier about living with intention - so part of your self-care routine could be watching that show on Netflix every night from 8-9pm after a nice warm shower, under a warm blanket with a nice warm drink. Perhaps you light a candle or snuggle with your dog. This will help you with making sure your environment is nice as well. What you don’t want to do is not plan it, just turn on your show and binge mindlessly for hours and then wonder why you find it hard to sleep.

Another thing to consider, especially if you are time constricted, is how you can incorporate some of the other topics we’ve been talking about into your self-care routine. Is there a particular form of fitness you enjoy that is also care? Maybe it’s yoga, swimming or hiking. Do you enjoy baking or cooking? Maybe you can start to learn how to cook in a healthier way. If you are struggle with your energy perhaps a 30 minute nap in the afternoon - that can be self-care. A day out with your mom can be self-care and also a way to connect with someone you love.

We’ve been talking about so many things in this course and I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. I want you to figure out how you can combine these topics and start making lifestyle changes that can help your mental health. When you are recovering from an addiction, a lifestyle change is essential and incorporating these changes can make all the difference.

Treatment for your addiction should be unique to you. When exploring your different options it’s crucially important for you to make sure you find something that not only focuses on the addiction you’re struggling with but also focuses on your mental health as your addiction and your mental health go hand in hand.

Some people can kick their addictions on their own with a lot of self discipline while others may need professional care. There is no right or wrong way and what works for you may not work for someone else.

For those who need something urgent or life saving this could mean in-patient rehab with medically monitored detox. These options are very expensive so if you feel you need this it’s important to weigh out your options.

There are outpatient programs too which are a bit less expensive and allow you to go home every night after treatment.

Most people do benefit from some sort of counseling or therapy however, it can take time to find the right person. The right match isn’t always the first person you see and if you are seeking a mental health professional it’s okay to put yourself first. If the person you are seeing isn’t the right fit then please do continue to look for someone who is.

There are self help groups and 12 steps programs, There are online programs like Live Rehab or CSPMA. Whatever you choose, just know that you are making the right decision by taking action and moving forward to a better life. It’s not easy taking this step. I hope the topics in this course have given you some insight on how you can manage your mental health and addiction at the same time.

This short meditation is one for a good pick me up - you can listen to it any time you need a little boost. It's a reminder to you about how strong you are and how you can overcome any challenges that come in your way.