HEALTH – self help books & health articles resources for – fighting ADDICTIONS

YOUR HEALTH:
self help books & health articles for –
Addictions and how to deal with them

ADDICTIONS & self help health strategies to overcome them. Directory of self help resources and articles– more self help resources in the “Recovering from Trauma” sections.

Are you a Smoker, addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes? Are you an alcoholic? Do you abuse prescription drugs? Are you addicted to “comfort foods”?

Only you know the answers to these questions. No one can tell you what you don’t want to deal with, if you are in denial about your addiction.

Your addiction can also relate to addictive behaviour problems.

There are many sources of help for dealing with addictions and addictive behaviour.

This page will be loading more and more self help resources as we find them on the net.

Without good health it is nearly impossible to maintain a state of Happiness and Wellbeing. Pain and Disease will inevitably detract from any headway you make in your Positive Attitude towards life and your day to day activities.

You need to both nurture and feed your body and to protect it from vulnerable areas of attack.

Take the time to check out any disease or addictions areas that may be of concern to you. Take preventative action, improve your nutrition, get more active in fighting addictions and maintain your mental health for a well balanced life.

Motivate, educate and empower yourself with over 4,000 free personal development Self Help resources, articles and downloads.

Kicking the Caffeine Habit, self help addiction article by Caroline MacDougall

Health and wellbeing self help article on overcoming unhealthy addictions:

You may have just visited your health practitioner who told you to quit drinking coffee because of the caffeine effects. Or your body has been giving you alarm signals that it no longer tolerates caffeine like it used to when you were younger.

But you love that coffee habit! It’s the morning brewing ritual. It’s the aroma of the roasted beans. And it’s the caffeine jolt that makes waking up seem easier, not to mention the headaches that can be severe when you miss your next cup of coffee.

Don’t worry, there is an easy way to quit, some satisfying alternatives to replace that roasted brew, and plenty of good reasons to do it now.

You can get off of caffeine and its effects painlessly using a weaning process that gradually reduces your caffeine intake while you rebuild your natural energy supply. The solution is herbal coffee.

Like herbal tea that is caffeine-free and made from herbs that are brewed like tea, caffeine-free herbal coffee is made from herbs, grains, fruits and nuts that have been roasted, ground and brewed just like coffee.

Herbal coffee is high in potassium, an electrolyte mineral that stimulates nerve impulses, helps oxygenate the brain, lowers blood pressure and enhances athletic performance. Herbal coffee helps you rebuild your own natural energy supply by nutritionally supporting your body’s energy production.

No more drug induced jolts that leave you with an energy crash a few hours later!

Coffee has become a fixture in our lives because of one thing. It is an excellent drug delivery system for caffeine. A coffee drinker wants, expects, and has grown to require an energy lift. But let’s look at this more closely.

Does caffeine deliver an energy lift? To answer that, we have to define what is energy and what isn’t. We know food delivers energy. Food supplies calories in the form of carbohydrates, protein and fat which, when metabolized, give the body glucose, vitamins and minerals that feed the brain and the muscles. Without real metabolic energy, our bodies can’t perform.

But what do caffeine and coffee supply? They don’t contain any nutrients so they aren’t feeding our brain and muscles. In fact, they don’t give us energy at all. They give us stress. Caffeine is a drug that stimulates the adrenal glands to produce the classic “fight or flight” syndrome.

Epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol are released by the adrenals into the blood stream to shut down any ancillary systems that require energy, like digestion and immune protection, so that all the body’s energy can be channeled into survival.

This was great for facing saber tooth tigers and other life threatening dangers, but what happens when our bodies are kept in this emergency state day in and day out, all day long?

Well, imagine that your adrenal glands are like a bank account. The answer to how long you can continue to make repeated withdrawals against your reservoir of good health and longevity depends on your genetic inheritance and other lifestyle habits. But you can be sure of one thing. Caffeine and caffeine effects deplete energy, it doesn’t supply it.

The Adrenal Glands and Stress Prevention

More than 150 hormones including DHEA, testosterone, and estrogen are produced or metabolized by the adrenal glands. These extraordinary glands are thus very important to good health and longevity. If you’re whipping them everyday with caffeine, expect your aging process to accelerate especially as you hit your forties when hormone production starts to decline.

High levels of cortisol, which unfortunately can stay elevated as long as 18 hours after a cup of coffee, will compromise your immune system and interfere with your body’s ability to fight off pathogens. And if you are one of those coffee drinkers who can go right to sleep after a double shot of espresso, ask yourself, why am I still waking up exhausted and reaching for another cup of coffee?

You may sleep, but caffeine interferes with you reaching the stage of deep sleep called Stage Four sleep where your body does its essential rebuild and repair work.

And how about the way you feel when driven by caffeine? Remember the last time you or someone else flew off the handle when faced with an everyday challenge?

It would be interesting to know how many cups of coffee preceded the meltdown, because caffeine lowers the brain’s “stress threshold”. Events that we would normally handle with aplomb, suddenly become insurmountable.

Consider that most working adults consume 300 mg or more of caffeine (20 oz of drip coffee) before lunch, often on an empty stomach. Research shows conclusively that this can produce anxiety, irritability and in some individuals, panic…exactly the opposite of what we need when facing life’s inevitable delays or conflicts.

If you or your mate end the day stressed out and exhausted, depressed and worried, remember that caffeine is the greatest cause of stress in our culture.

Rebuild Your Natural Energy Supply

When a coffee drinker quits caffeine, they miss that drug induced jolt that gave them the sensation of having enough energy to get going. What they really need is a true natural energy lift. Herbal coffee, unlike coffee beans, actually has calories because it is made from herbs, grains, fruits and nuts that contain food nutrients.

article on overcoming unhealthy addiction continued on HE84 Kicking the Caffeine Habit

“CONQUERING THE SMOKING HABIT”
Nobody can force a smoker to quit. It’s something each person has to decide for himself, and will require a personal commitment by the smoker. What kind of smoker are you? What do you get out of smoking? What does it do for you? It is important to identify what you use smoking for and what kind of satisfaction you feel that you are getting from smoking.

“Preventive Maintenance for Smokers”
Many smokers are using carotene supplements. This substance is a vegetable form of Vitamin A and converts to Vitamin A in the body. Both carotene and Vitamin A provide protection for mucous membranes and all surfaces coming in contact with air. Many diabetics cannot convert carotene to Vitamin A. There seems little difference in the action of the two substances, and a daily dose of 15,000 units of regular Vitamin A is probably as effective as a carotene supplement.

“The Goal Setting Blueprint”
Why is goal setting important? Because without goals you don’t go anywhere!

Whenever you see anything worthwhile being done anywhere, it’s because someone is behind it with a passion, a belief and a goal!

When it comes to your personal life and your business, goal setting can make the difference between mediocrity and excellence and accomplishment.

“Why Junk Food Adverts Promote Bad Health”
A lot of advertising is devoted to pushing the foods that contribute to obesity.

In particular, they are heavily advertised on the television and specifically in connection with programmes that children watch, except in the relatively few places (such as Sweden and Quebec) where this is forbidden.

This is especially worrying partly because of the great increase in childhood obesity and partly because the food habits we acquire when young tend to persist throughout our lives.

“The Power of Healthy Words”
How would you like to improve how you relate to others and become more energetic at the same time without having to purchase anything?

Here’s a surprising truth – one of the most powerful weapons to enhance your life is your own tongue!

“The Truth about McDonalds and Children”
The United States is the fattest nation on earth. Sixty-five per cent of American adults are overweight; 30 per cent are obese. In the decade between 1991 and 2001, obesity figures almost doubled.

But the truly shocking thing is that we’ve taught our kids how to be fat, too. Obesity rates in American children remained stable throughout the 1960s, but they began to climb in the 1970s.

“The Top Six Ways to Stay Motivated”
I receive many emails from people that basically ask the same question: How can I keep myself motivated long term?

This seems to be quite a common dilemma for many people so I want to address it because it can be done! Here are my tips for staying motivated:

“The Pain of Instant Gratification”
What a great world we live in. You want something, you get it!

You need something, you buy it! You don’t have money, you charge it!

You don’t deny yourself anything……do you? Why should you? If it feels good -do it! Right? WRONG!

“6 Steps To Overcoming Your Worst Habit”
How ashamed are you of your habit? How much do you want to get over this habit? Thinking about the amount of “satisfaction” you gain from your habit, where would you place it on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest?

“9 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You Just Don’t Feel Like It”
Achieving the really big goals and dreams always involves breaking it down into do-able little steps.

Assuming that you’ve picked a goal or dream that you really love working at, then most of the steps are a delight to take.

No matter how much you love your dream and no matter how much you love your work, there are going to be tasks along the way that you really don’t want to do.

“Are You Addicted To Your Activities?”
Activities – such as sports, creative projects, reading, work, TV, meditation – can be a wonderful way to relax, express yourself, or connect to yourself.

Or they can be an addiction. How can you know the difference?

“7 Tips to a Healthier, Happier You.”
Health and happiness are not that difficult to have in one’s life.

It just takes some attention and some action to insure that you have as much of both as you desire. Far from being difficult, tiring exercises, getting healthy can be quite easy.

“6 Steps To Overcoming Your Worst Habit”
How ashamed are you of your habit? How much do you want to get over this habit? Thinking about the amount of “satisfaction” you gain from your habit, where would you place it on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest?

“What Stress is…”
No two people are affected in exactly the same way, or to the same degree, but most people living in our highly industrialized society suffer from its effects at one or more times during their lives.

Symptoms range from mind headaches, occasional bouts of insomnia, overall restlessness, digestive problems, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation and diarrhea, and abdominal pain.

“Alcoholism is a Treatable Condition”
Alcoholism is a very treatable illness. This has been confirmed by a study by the US National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which showed that majority of patients who attend government-supported treatment services recover.

“Guided Meditation Videos”
Meditation for total beginners….

Collection of meditation clips with Tonal relaxation & healing qualities and visuals. Just watch and you will feel amazing afterward.

“Discover Your Life Purpose”
Everyone has a life purpose; a unique and special something each of us is supposed to do in LIFE.

A life purpose is not a specific job or career, it is much deeper and much more fulfilling. Now, you can uncover your own life purpose.

You can do it the easy, fast, modern way, using a modestly priced online program, or you can uncover your own life purpose using the more difficult (but free) old-fashioned do-it-yourself method.

“7 Solutions for Practical Stress Management”
Stress is amazingly persistent, even seductive. We get used to feeling tight and tense. Though positive thinking has its place, unless it is backed up by practical wisdom it tends to get overwhelmed and fade away.

Here are seven proven ways you can get a new handle on stress.

“Meditation and visualization for relaxation”
Meditating can help bring mind and body into a state of harmony. It is a way to balance an active life with calming period of inner reflection, and has the benefit of promoting easy, restful sleep.

Regular meditation, combined with positive affirmations, can help you to “centre” your mind, alleviating stress and allowing you to see a clear way forward through the daily problems and challenges you may face.

“How to Cope with Difficult People”
In my travels across North America speaking on motivation and human potential I hear the same question asked repeatedly, ” How can I become more assertive?” There is no doubt about it, there are people in our lives who are harmful to our health and we don’t like it one bit.

“21 Days to A Positive-Attitude Habit”
This may come as a surprise… but your attitude is more important than your aptitude in determining your success in life!

Just how critical is attitude to achievement? Well, take a look at one of the greatest inventors of the last two hundred years

“Eight Keys to Happiness”
I visit my mother in a nursing home several days a week.

Each time I leave I am grateful for being able to walk into the bright sunshine on my own two legs.

There are so many things to be thankful for in my life – among them good health, my skills and abilities and caring relationships.

I find that stopping to appreciate what I have helps me to stay positive and has a direct impact on how happy I feel.

“Finding Balance In A Tilted World”
I was recently talking with one of my entrepreneur friends. He has started three businesses in the last several years—a budding entrepreneur.

He was relating some of the joys he has experienced in those enterprises: a sense of freedom from the corporate world, pursuing his dreams and passions, setting his own schedule, controlling his destiny and a large potential for financial rewards.

“What Have You Done For Yourself Lately?”
This article helps individuals and entrepreneurs to set boundaries for their business in order to be more productive and live the life they want.

Remember the old Janet Jackson song, “What Have You Done For Me Lately?” Maybe you don’t and maybe I am just dating myself! This song was about a declaration of what a woman wants from her man. The point of the song was that the woman does everything for her man but what has he done for her other than cause her grief?

Hypnosis- The Facts and The Fallacies, self help article on using hypnosis to help in overcoming addictions, resource from MindMotivations.com & Rick Collingwood

In many cultures the phenomenon of trance has a long history stretching beyond ancient Egyptian times. Hypnosis by comparison has a much shorter history, which somewhat incorrectly can be traced to the 18th century when an Austrian born physician by the name of Franz Anton Mesmer claimed that he had discovered and perfected a certain control of the human energy field, which he called animal magnetism.

Mesmer believed that physical and mental illness was mostly caused by a lack of or an incorrect alignment of an ethereal magnetic substance that flowed down from the heavenly bodies. He also believed that he was a vessel for this so called animal magnetism and that he was also able to transmit it to others. Modern Quantum Physics has now shed a tremendous amount of light on Mesmer’s postulations.

The first significant figure to appear in the post Mesmerism era was the factual father of hypnosis as it is understood today, he was James Braid. Braid rejected animal magnetism and Mesmerism but recognised that the phenomenon of trance had much therapeutic value.

He originally and falsely believed that hypnosis was a form of nervous sleep and named his trance method neuro-hypnotism, which he later shortened to hypnotism. Braid understood that verbal suggestion could be used to induce trance and that trance, once produced, significantly increased acceptance to suggestion. Briad often emphasised that it was more so the patients’ willing responsiveness than the hypnotist’s power that made hypnosis so remarkable effective.

Another pioneering hypnotist was a Scottish surgeon named James Easdaile. Easdaile performed several thousand surgical procedures using hypnosis as an anesthetic. Many of these were major operations, including seventeen documented limb amputations. Because of an absence of pain or shock for his patients, Easdaile’s post surgical mortality rate was only 5%, while the then expected mortality rate using conventional medical methods was 50%.

Perhaps the greatest setback and primary reason that the many benefits of hypnosis faded into an incorrectly perceived arena of mind control, mysticism, satanic possession and opportunistic entertainment, was the fact that after using hypnosis therapeutically for five years the so-called father of modern psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, suddenly began to reject its effectiveness. In 1910 Freud gave a lecture stating that he had become dissatisfied with being able to induce only a small percentage of his patients into deep trance. This dilemma probably came about because of his dubious ability as a hypnotist.

The legacy of Freud’s abandonment of hypnosis is well summed up in the writings of the American psychiatrist Dr D.H. Malan, who wrote “Freud unwittingly took a wrong turn by rejecting hypnosis, which led to disastrous consequences for the future of psychotherapy and an enormous increase in the duration of treatment, using a method which itself has now become, to say the least, of doubtful therapeutic effectiveness.”

One of the most beneficial aspects of hypnosis is the ability of the subconscious to allow the conscious mind and the physical body to release accumulated stress. People don’t usually go to sleep in the classic sense of the word during hypnosis. More so they drift into a highly focused state of non-emotional relaxation and nobody will do any deeper into trance than they allow themselves to go, excepting perhaps when the hypnotist has convinced them otherwise.

It has been scientifically proven that there is a strong and effectual connection between the mind and the body, and also that an excessive accumulation of day-to-day stress is the primary cause for many of today’s physical and mental illnesses. Hypnosis can release physical, mental and emotional tension from the nervous systems in the body and the mind.

article on overcoming unhealthy addictions continued below on Hypnosis – the Facts and Fallacies.

Hypnosis – The Facts and The Fallacies, self help resource from MindMotivations.com & Rick Collingwood