The Phases of Addiction Recovery – Part 1 (Ep. 306)

By learning this Phases of Addiction Recovery Model, you’ll be much better equipped to go from a state of addiction to a state of recovery. In this episode, Matt Finch provides you with the step-by-step process that empowers you and gives you a competitive advantage at starting and finishing the process of preparing, detoxing, repairing, rewiring, and recovering.

Overview of the main topics in this episode:

• What is addiction?
• What is addiction recovery?
• What are the Phases of Addiction Recovery?
• Addiction is the continued use of a substance or behavior despite significant negative consequences
• Using a substance or behavior as a resource is when pleasure and positive benefits greatly outweigh the pain and negative consequences, making the substance or behavior a subjective resource for a net increase in quality of life
• When pain and negative consequences outweigh pleasure and positive benefits it now is causing a net deficit in the quality of life and it’s an exhausted resource
• Addiction Recovery is the process of healing from, outgrowing, and transcending the addiction to where the substance or behavior becomes undesirable and moot subjectively
• The Phases of Addiction Recovery is a mental model and strategic sequence and blueprint to bridge the gap from addiction to an addiction-free life
  • 1 – Preparation – Learning/Researching/Planning
  • 2 – Detoxification – 1) Getting substance out of body 100% and 2) detoxing body in general
  • 3 – Repair (Rest, Rejuvenate, Restore, Rebalance, Recharge)
  • 4 – Rewire
  • 5 – Recover
• Phase 1 – Preparation
  • Learning and Researching
  • Planning and Preparing
  • The Preparation Phase ends when the Detoxification Phase begins with either a Taper or Cold-Turkey of substance or behavior
  • The final step in the Preparatory Phase is to schedule the start date and have everything prepared for the start of the Detox
  • The Prep Phase can last anywhere from days to weeks to months or even a year or longer
• Phase 2 – Detoxification
  • There are 2 subdivisions of the Detox Phase
    • 1) Substance or Behavior Detoxification
    • 2) Biochemical Detoxification of things like heavy metals, toxins other than drugs or alcohol, chemicals, food additives, artificial ingredients, etc.
  • There are 2 ways to detox the substance or behavior
    • 1) Taper (Fast, Moderate, Slow)
    • 2) Cold-Turkey
  • You can taper or cold-turkey from home or outpatient or inpatient using natural remedies, drugs, or both, and mainstream and/or alternative methods or treatment programs
  • The detox phase can last days to weeks to months or even a year or longer
• Phase 3 – Repair
  • The repair Phase is when you Rest, Rejuvenate, Restore, Rebalance, Replenish, Restabalize, etc., and you Repair Brain, Gut-Brain Axis, CNS, Endocrine, Adrenals, Liver, etc.
  • Some people get Post-Acute Withdrawal Syndrome (PAWS) and this occurs after the acute detox phase.
  • PAWS is a bio/psycho/social syndrome that starts within 1-2 weeks or so after the acute detox is over. It results from a combination of damage addiction has done to the brain combined with the psychosocial stress of living life without the substance or behavior you were previously addicted to
  • The Repair Phase can last from weeks to months or a year or longer
• Phase 4 – Rewire
  • Rewiring usually is the longest Phase and most people continue to return to active use of the substance or behavior before their neural pathways of addiction have faded away and been replaced with neural pathways of wellness from addiction
  • Correcting things like neurotransmitter deficits and imbalances, hypoglycemia, endocrine dysfunction, and up-regulated or down-regulated CNS, etc. can be done pretty quickly often within weeks to maybe 1-2 months in severe cases of PAWS when using proven strategic natural therapies
  • Rewiring powerfully takes time though as when neurons fire together they wire together. Long-term severe addiction can take a year or even several years before the pathways of addiction that were superhighways fade away to one-way dirt roads and in their place on top of them are built superhighways of wellness from addiction neural circuitry systems
  • Due to the fact that Rewiring is a slow process usually, the active neural pathways that make using the substance or behavior easy to return to often lead to the person re-activating the addictive process, and then the progress made in Rewiring goes away and the addiction wiring gets stronger again
  • The key is to have Patient Endurance to get through the Rewiring Phase and focus a lot on things that Rewire you faster such as:
    • BDNF through exercise and Lithium Orotate
    • Personal Development (Reading, Journaling, Mindfulness, Therapy, Counseling, Coaching, etc.)
    • Spiritual Growth (Religious practice, Faith, Meditation, Prayer, Church, Bible Study, Buddhist Temple, Confession, Christian Counseling, Spiritual Seeking, Eastern and Western religions, and metaphysics)
• Phase 5 – RECOVER!
  • The entire process of going through these Phases is the process of Recovering from Addiction
  • The Final Phase is called Recover but it’s not a Phase it’s actually a finish line
  • In the Stages of Change, this is the final Stage which is called Termination and it comes right after the Maintenance Stage of Change
  • It’s up to you whether or not you want to be a person that is permanently in recovery or not – your identity is yours and you can shape it and interpret it how you want
  • AA members and NA members call themselves addicts or alcoholics or addict/alcoholics their entire lives even if they have been sober for 40 years straight
  • I don’t call myself an alcoholic or addict or a person in recovery. I am not sober, not in recovery, and none of that
• The keys to recovering from addiction in a nutshell are:
  • 1) Know yourself
  • 2) Know addiction
  • 3) Know the phases of recovering
  • 4) Start the process
  • 5) Keep going even when it gets hard
  • 6) Finish

Links to main resources from this episode:

• Patient Endurance for Addiction Recovery (Ep. 268)
• Total Alcohol Recovery Course
• Ultimate Opioid Detox Course
• Recovery Coaching with Matt Finch

Questions? Email matt@fitrecovery.com

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Disclaimer: This episode is for informational/educational use only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult with your physician if you believe you may have a health condition.