Monthly Archives: May 2015

1-800 Counselor Phone Support

800-counselorPalm Partners is a drug rehabilitation and recovery program located in Delray Beach, Florida. The organization provides a 24 hour hotline for individuals interested in learning about addiction treatment options.

Their website also provides an online chat alternative for speaking with an addiction counselor. Individuals facing addiction often alternate between being sick & tired of what they are going through and just giving in to the addiction as a result of being tired of the fight. Apprehension and feelings of fear have kept many addicted people from actively seeking help.

Speaking with supportive professionals (as well as others in recovery) can provide hope that people really can recover, and regain their quality of life.

From year to year, there has been a continual rise in the United States in the prevalence of addictive disorders. Over the past 5 years in particular, opioid addiction has moved into the forefront of both media coverage and general public awareness.

Some professionals contend that addiction treatment resources have shrunk over the last 15 years as a result of cuts in state funding and third party insurance coverage. What the next few years holds remains a question at this point in time. While there is interest in expanding addiction treatment services across the country, government funding is limited due to the growing national deficit and inability of government leaders to revitalize the economy through appropriate business incentives.

Cassava Recovery App For Mobile Phones

cassava-appA new mobile phone app for recovering people was released last month by Elements Behavioral Health based out of Long Beach, California. The app is called Cassava and it provides a number of nifty features such as a daily reflection, a support group meetings finder based on your location, and a personal sobriety tracker that measures one’s number of days drug free.

In addition to days sober, the app allows users to record in a personal journal format their moods, daily nutrition, and even sleep patterns. An important part of growth in recovery is following new disciplines and remaining aware of self-care needs. The Cassava app can function as a useful toot for recovering people aiming to feed their recovery on a daily basis.

Another potentially helpful feature of the app is the inclusion of “recovery tips”. These function as reminders and suggestions for ways to cope with relapse risks. Addicted people, particularly in the early phase of recovery, are more vulnerable to sudden urges to use and often need a means of redirecting their thinking in order to sidestep a build-up of thoughts that feed the urge to use. Reading recovery literature has always been a potentially useful action step that helps to short circuit urges and cravings.

The app is free and can be downloaded from the Apple website. While it is designed for Apple iPhone 5.0 and above, I was able to install the app on version 4.0 and it worked well.