Tuesday, September 25, 2012

7 Proven Ways to Resist

When you decide to stop smoking the most difficult part is to resist the urges. It doesn't matter that each craving lasts only 3-5 minutes. It's still the whole 5 minutes to battle with your willpower! These 7 tips will help you to resist the urge to smoke one urge at a time.
1. Remind Yourself Why You Quit
Every time you experience a craving remind yourself why you quit. It's the excellent idea to take a blank index card and list all the reasons why you decided to quit smoking. List as many as you can, the more the better. If necessary, take the second index card. Carry them with you all the time. Every time you feel the urge to smoke take the index card and slowly read all your reasons why you decided to stop. After you finish reading your urge will pass! (If not, read them one more time or come up with more reasons.)
2. Reward Yourself.
Make it a habit to reward yourself at the end of each nonsmoking week. Think of something you want (it doesn’t have to be something expensive, a nice home made meal or hot bath will work). Take the index card and write down what would you give yourself at the end of the week. When the urge comes take a look at the index card with your reward. Isn't it worth coping for 3 minutes? :)
3. Be prepared for your urges!
Get yourself prepared for the urge to smoke in advance. In most cases something triggers the craving (certain feelings, people, or places). You have to know what triggers the urge.
Lets do a really quick exercise. Take a blank piece of paper and divide it into 2 columns. On the one side list your triggers (like “stuck in traffic”, “drinking morning coffee”, “arguing with colleague”...) and in the second column write down the alternative course of action.
For example, instead of smoking while drinking your morning coffee you could read a newspaper. Instead of smoking after the hot argument with your colleague you can take a walk around a block or write down everything you think about this person, then tier this piece of paper in shreds and throw it away. Don't be lazy, write it down! This exercise really works!
4. Call your friend.
This method works great. Call someone who can support you, who can talk with you for a couple of minutes. You can call your nonsmoking friend, or someone who's trying to quit smoking too.
5. Distract yourself with a quick task.
Think of a small task you have to do, something what would take you 5-10 minutes. Make a call, send a fax, make yourself a cup of coffee, water the plant in your office. Anything! Your task is to distract yourself until the urge will pass. (Hint: Try to find activity that makes smoking impossible!)
6. Drink a Glass of Water.
Take a glass of water and drink it with a straw. First of all having something in your mouth to chew on will help, second it will take you a couple of minutes to drink the whole glass and the urge will pass. Plus, don't forget that you're supposed to drink 8 glasses of water every day!
7. Power Tip.
That’s the disgusting one, but it often works. Print a small picture of smoker's lungs (you can find one here: [http://www.quitsmokingsupport.com/lungphotos.html]) and put it somewhere in your wallet. I know the view is not pretty, but something like this can stop you dead on your track from lighting up. Take a look! Really! THIS could be your lungs! You love yourself, and you respect your body. Why harm yourself?

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Alcohol and Drug Rehab Treatment

Choosing the right alcohol or drug rehab center can make all the difference when it comes to entering long-term recovery from an addiction. The task of finding the “right” drug rehab center is complicated by the fact that there are over 13,000 drug rehab facilities around the country. Each of these treatment centers is unique, but being unique does not necessarily mean that they are all equally good. It does, however, mean that you have many drug rehab centers to choose from and if you do not find the right one immediately you should continue searching as there are many high quality centers.
Here are ten questions to help you in your search for the right drug or alcohol rehab facility.
1. How does the treatment center define success and what is their success rate?
Many drug treatment facilities will have had independent reviews of their success. However, success can be measured in many ways. One treatment center may say they have a 74% success rate, but only be considering clients who remain sober for 6 months; another center may claim a 68% rate based on the results of clients after one year. Whatever their claimed success rate you will want to know how they measured it and what they consider success.
2. Are they accredited as a drug rehab center? And if so by whom?
There are a handful of national accreditation organizations including Joint Commission On Accreditation Of Healthcare Organizations (JACHO) and Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), among others. Organizations accredited by these bodies frequently have undergone site reviews and have measured up to national standards.
3. What are the credentials of their staff?
Most states have a system for credentialing drug and alcohol counselors. These individuals may be Certified Addictions Counselors (CAC) or Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselors (CADC). These are minimum certifications, lead counselors should hold be MSW or LCSW level or higher.
4. Do they provide medically supervised withdrawal?
With some drugs proper withdrawal supervision can be a matter of life or death. If the treatment center does not have a detox center can they recommend one for attendance prior to treatment.
5. What does a typical week in their drug rehab facility look like?
There should be a balance of group and individual therapy. Education sessions, opportunities for reflection and support groups along with other components.
6. Can the provide testimonials?
True, no treatment center would put on display their failures, but they should be able to tell you about their successes.
7. How do they assist in setting up aftercare?
Aftercare has been found to be crucial to the success of long-term recovery. A good treatment center should either offer aftercare of be able to assist you in locating aftercare in your community.
8. Do they have a diverse group of counselors, and how will you be matched up?
One of the primary determinants of treatment success is a good client-counselor relationship. Therefore, a match between counselor and client should be worked towards.
9. What is their treatment modality or philosophy?
Find out if they are 12-step oriented, use motivational, cognitive or behavioral therapies, and then ask them to explain any terms you might not understand.
10. Do they work with your insurance company or can they set-up a payment plan?
Make sure you ask if they can work with your insurance company, or if your insurance does not pay for treatment work out how payment is to be handled.
Use a systematic program for identifying treatment centers which may be right for you. You may wish to print these questions out and keep a separate worksheet for each center’s answers. Remember, the right drug rehab center is waiting for you to call today.

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Health News

The hurricanes have been beating Florida to a pulp and causing untold property damage in that area of the country.
I have two good friends who live in the Tampa area, so I've been calling down there frequently to check on things.
I've already told you much about my friend Matt. And as you know, he and his family were over in China for awhile, so they missed much of the action (which is a good thing)
But my other good friend, Chet Rowland lives in Clearwater Beach, and he didn't miss a thing.
In fact, I was watching my local news here in Seattle a couple weeks ago, and here's this reporter doing a story on the Florida hurricanes.
But here's the catch...
She's standing on Clearwater Beach, with the pier in the background, trying to stay on her feet as the wind is howling through at incredible speeds.
I couldn't believe it!
Not just because of the winds, but because I saw the pier in the background.
I recognized that pier, because it's just down the beach from where my friend Chet lives..
So what do I do?
I immediately pick up the phone and give him a call.
Isn't it funny how we react when we're concerned about those we care about?
As the story unfolded, Chet, and those who live in that area didn't fair too badly. But there were plenty of others who were seriously hurt by the hurricanes.
In fact, Chet even commented, "I'll bet you're going to have a lot of people from this area calling you as a result of these hurricanes."
And he was right.
You see, in addition to running the Health Articles and News Update site, I'm also an indoor air quality expert, and my specialty is in black mold.
I work with people across the country, showing them how to locate, clean-up and prevent mold growth in their homes and workplaces.
Anyways, let me get on with the story.
I think it was only a couple days after I'd talked with Chet.
I get this email from a client in Florida.
She starts telling me how she had bought some of my products a few months ago (before the hurricanes). I'll just go ahead and share it with you.
Here it is...
Kevin, I've been having health problems for months. After watching a news story on black mold, it got me thinking.
I then went on the internet and started doing some research and that's when I found your.
I was a little skeptical to order anything online, but since you had that 30-day trial offer, I decided to give you a try.
I got your package in the mail and was amazed by everything you covered. You took me step by step through the process and made it so easy for me to find the mold problem in my home.
It ended up being water leak from the washing machine that was causing all the damage.
We got it fixed, and now I've never felt better. You have no idea what it's like to have my health back again, and I want to thank you for that.
And now, with all these hurricanes, a lot of our friends will be needing your help too.
I'm helping them as much as I can, but I'm no expert, so I'm also telling them how to get in touch with you.
I'm so glad there are still people like you in this world who are willing to help others, especially in a time like this.
Betty Wiggins
And she wasn't kidding either.
It's like Chet and Betty both had a vision of the future.
We've had tons of people calling from the Florida area, and we've been making sure they get the help they need.
You see, people in Florida are now forced to deal with the water damage that's been done to their homes because it's so extensive.
But most people don't realize how important it is to take care of any water damage, and to do so right away!
Water problems that aren't addressed will escalate into a full blown mold problem, and this puts you and everyone in your home at risk.
Because the demand has been so high, I'm offering a no-charge teleseminar on October 11th in order to help get this valuable information into your hands.
If you (or anyone you know) needs to find out how to wipe out the black mold threat in your home, you won't want to miss out on this.
Here's just some of the topics we'll be discussing:
  • The 5 tell-tale danger signs of black mold... any one of these puts you, your family, and your home at risk
  • How to find out if black mold is the cause of your health problems -- without a visit to the doctor's office
  • The 3-step method to locating mold... that anyone can do, without spending a fortune to hire a professional