Sober Holiday Events in Recovery Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Hollywood

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Strengthen your recovery and sober support network by taking sober friends in some of the following West Hollywood, Hollywood and Los Angeles events. Changing your behavior and activities will open new avenues for fun. Try some of the following:

 

West Hollywood Recovery Center Marathon Holiday/New Years Meetings,

December 24th-4pm-2AM, December 25th-9am-2AM, December 31st-4pm-2am, January 1st 2019   9am-2pm, 626 Robertson Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90069.whrc.org

 

AA AT CENTER MARATHON MEETINGS, December 25 and January 1: 11:00pm – 11:00pm, AT Center, 1773 Griffith Park Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027

 

NA WESTSIDE ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S EVE MARATHON, Meetings: 10:00pm – 2:00am, Westside Hope Center, 11313 Washington Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90066

 

#BOOM! Alcohol and Drug-Free New Year’s Event, December 31, 2016 8:00 PM – January 01, 2017, West Hollywood Park Auditorium, 647 N. San Vicente Boulevard

UNLOADED LA’s 1st Sober New Years Eve Party, December 31st 8:30PM Green Truck 9040 Lindblade St. Culver City, CA 90232. eventbrite.com

LACMA Cinema: Mary Poppins Returns December 15; Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf December 18, Pink Martini (Band…) December 31

Walt Disney Concert Hall Concerts: A Chanticleer Christmas December 19, Holiday Sing-A-Long December 22;

 

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

 

Sober Holiday Events in Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, Encino

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Support your recovery by taking sober friends to holiday events in Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys and Encino. Replace the habits and relationships practicing during addiction. Not only will your recovery be enhanced, you’ll find new ways to have fun! I

Try some of the following:

 

NA SAN FERNANDO VALLEY ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S EVE MARATHON MEETINGS

Meetings: 9:00pm – 4:00am, Reseda United Methodist Church, 18120 Saticoy Methodist Church, Reseda, CA 91335

 

Radford Halls Marathon Meetings, December 24, 25 and December 31, January 1, 13627 ½ Victory Blvd.

 

LA Kings sponsored Outdoor Ice Rink, December 14 – January 6 Toganga, Woodland Hills

 

The Nutcracker Ballet, December 19, The Soroya, Northridge

 

Ballroom Dancing, December 20, Arthur Murray, 4633 Van Nuys Blvd

 

Holiday Concerts, December 15 and 22, 7pm, St. Francis De Sales, 13360 Valleyheart Dr., Sherman Oaks

December 14, Shepherd Church, 19700 Rinaldi St.

 

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

 

 

 

Sober Holiday Events in South Bay, Torrance, Redondo Beach

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Taking sober friends to holiday events in South Bay, Torrance, Redondo Beach will build your recovery and sober support network. Those practices and relationships from addiction need replacement. Your recovery be enhanced, and new ways to have fun will be learned!

 

NA WESTSIDE ANNUAL NEW YEAR’S EVE MARATHON, Meetings: 10:00pm – 2:00am, Westside Hope Center, 11313 Washington Blvd, West Los Angeles, CA 90066

 

Torrance Lomita AA Central Office, 1645 Arlington St. (310) 320-3861

 

Christmas Eve and Day, New Year’s Eve and Day Holiday Marathon, The Snake Pit Alano Club House 9604 S Figueroa Paramount 90003

 

The Night Sky Theater, December 16, 2pm, Torrance Theatre Company, 1316 Cabrillo Ave., Torrance

The Most Classical Holiday Music Ever, December 16, 8pm, James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Dr., Torrance

Big Band, Lou Giovannetti’s Holiday Show, December 16, 8pm, James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Dr., Torrance

The Nutracker Ballet, December 22, 7pm, December 16, 8pm, James Armstrong Theatre, 3330 Civic Center Dr., Torrance

Antique Street Market, December 23m 8am, Downtown Torrance, 1317 Sartori Ave.

LA Kings sponsored outdoor ice rinks, Redondo Beach and the Port of San Pedro

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans and Medi-Cal contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

Recovery at Home: Where Long-Term Sobriety Happens

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Sober practices and recovery skills need to be applied directly at home and in real life. Recovery is much more than understanding the problem and helpful solutions. Recovery is behaving and practicing newly learned skills at home. Recovery is avoiding and/or coping with relapse triggers which occur in daily life.

 

The protection an inpatient or residential treatment program provides may eventually guard against necessary real-world practice of recovery. Early sobriety stresses, triggers and “wreckage” at home are best approached with the support and guidance of an intensive outpatient program and peer group.

 

Many people who have been discharges from an inpatient or residential setting without the continuing support of outpatient drug and alcohol rehab often relapse. They find that they aren’t prepared for sober independent decision making and action. Relapse triggers and wreckage are encountered without the support of a peer group or intensive outpatient treatment program (IOP).

 

Many people think that “drug and alcohol rehab” means spending a lot of time and money to move into a treatment center. The actual advantages of traveling a distance from home to start recovery is challenged by the evidence and experience with intensive outpatient treatment. Long-term recovery happens at home.

 

Rather than avoiding the daily triggers and wreckage which are part of drug or alcohol abuse (use disorders), intensive outpatient treatment (IOP) guides participants through the toughest times in the real world, when support is needed most. Rather than moving away from life’s problems, intensive outpatient treatment for addiction integrates recovery skill into real world, at-home practice.

 

Sometimes “containment” or submitting to the control of an inpatient setting is necessary. Once a person is medically and psychologically stabilized, the life-long practice of making sober choices begins. Reliance on environmental and supervisory constraints eventually needs to be surrendered as a free and sober life begins. In recovery, voluntarily making sober choices in the real world requires practice.

 

In intensive outpatient treatment (IOP) participants are coached to apply principals of recovery in their personal lives. The ultimate choice for sobriety eventually becomes an independent and growing drive for wellness. It becomes an essential ingredient in daily life.

 

Residential or inpatient treatment may be required where medical detox is needed, or to protect a participant encountering behavioral or psychiatric disorders. Sometimes the drive to use is so great that a sober living situation apart from the home environment becomes necessary. A sober living rental with others in recovery can be useful while people attend an intensive outpatient program (IOP) or while early recovery is being maintained.

 

Financial, occupational and relationship damages have often been encountered during the progression of drug and alcohol abuse (use disorder). The time and expense of treatment should not add to these stressors. They can add to the challenge to stay sober.

 

Many people may not have the resources to pay for residential treatment costs not covered by insurance. Increasingly, insurers pay for only a portion of a residential treatment stay. If residential treatment is medically necessary, it’s vital that the participant and family get a written estimate of the likely costs they will encounter. Before you commit to inpatient treatment, make sure that you are informed and prepared for whatever payment and payment planning is required.

 

(1)   “Subjects benefited equally from outpatient and residential aftercare, regardless of the severity of their drug/alcohol problem.” Differential effectiveness of residential versus outpatient aftercare for parolees from prison-based therapeutic community treatment programs. William M Burdon1, Jeff Dang2, Michael L Prendergast1, Nena P Messina1 and David Farabee 1, *Corresponding author: William M Burdon wburdon@ucla.edu, 1University of California, Los Angeles, Integrated Substance Abuse Program, Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2007, 2:16 doi:10.1186/1747-597X-2-16 

“Previous reviews have concluded that there was no evidence for the superiority of inpatient over outpatient treatment of alcohol abuse, although particular types of patients might be more effectively treated in inpatient settings. We consider the implications of our findings for future research, especially the need to examine the conceptual rationales put forward by proponents of inpatient and outpatient treatment, i.e. mediators and moderators of setting effects.” The effectiveness of inpatient and outpatient treatment for alcohol abuse: the need to focus on mediators and moderators of setting effects, JOHN W. FINNEY, ANNETTE C. HAHN, RUDOLF H. MOOS Article first published online: 24 JAN 2006 DOI: 10.1046/j.1360-0443.1996.911217733.x Addiction Volume 91, Issue 12, pages 1773–1796, December 1996 

“Greater service intensity and satisfaction were positively related to either treatment completion or longer treatment retention, which in turn was related to favorable treatment outcomes. Patients with greater problem severity received more services and were more likely to be satisfied with treatment. These patterns were similar for patients regardless of whether they were treated in outpatient drug-free programs or residential programs. The positive association between … greater levels of service intensity, satisfaction, and either treatment completion or retention-and treatment outcome strongly suggests that improvements in these key elements of the treatment process will improve treatment outcomes.” Relationship between drug treatment services, retention, and outcomes. Hser YI, Evans E, Huang D, Anglin DM. Neuropsychiatric Institute, University of California-Los Angeles, 1640 South Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA. yhser@ucla.edu 

National studies indicate significant reductions in recidivism following outpatient treatment Pre-treatment Post-treatment, Drug Abuse Reporting Program (DARP), National Treatment Improvement Evaluation Study (NTIES), Treatment Outcome Prospective Study (TOPS) 

Outpatient treatment of probationers leads to fewer arrests at 12 and 24-month follow-up (Lattimore et al., 2005) vs. untreated probationers 

High-risk probationers receiving outpatient treatment experience 10-20% reductions in recidivism (Petersilia & Turner, 1990, 1993) 

Reductions in probationer recidivism durable for 72 months after outpatient treatment (Krebs et al., 2009) 

Outpatient treatment more effective than residential treatment for drug-involved probationers (Krebs et al., 2009) and during reentry (Burdon et al., 2004) 

Greater benefits for the cost for outpatient treatment in non-offender samples (CALDATA, French et al., 2000, 2002) 

Aftercare services among drug-involved offenders can significantly reduce substance use and re-arrest (Butzin et al., 2006) 

Outpatient aftercare services can reduce likelihood of re-incarceration by 63% (Burdon et al., 2004) 

Aftercare services provide $4.4 – $9 return for every dollar invested (Roman & Chafing, 2006) 

“…(M)ore severe patients experienced better alcohol and drug outcomes following in-patient/residential treatment versus out-patient treatment; on the other hand, patients with lower baseline ASI drug severity had better drug outcomes following out-patient treatment than in-patient treatment. Treatment setting was unrelated to alcohol outcomes in patients with less severe ASI alcohol scores. Conclusions Results provide some support to the matching hypothesis that for patients who have higher levels of substance use severity at intake, treatment in in-patient/residential treatment settings is associated with better outcomes than out-patient treatment.” Day Hospital and Residential Addiction Treatment: Randomized and Nonrandomized Managed Care Clients; Jane Witbrodt, Jason Bond, and Lee Ann Kaskutas Alcohol Research Group, Constance Weisner, University of California, San Francisco, Gary Jaeger; Kaiser Foundation Hospital, David Pating, Kaiser San Francisco Medical Center, Charles Moore Sacramento Kaiser Permanente, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology Copyright 2007 by the American Psychological Association, 2007, Vol. 75, No. 6, 947–95 

“Compared to those receiving no treatment, those receiving nonresidential treatment took longer to fail or recidivate. However, those receiving residential treatment did not differ from those who received no treatment in time to failure. In the treatment-only model, nonresidential treatment participants took longer to fail than their matched residential treatment counterparts.” The impact of residential and nonresidential drug treatment on recidivism among drug-involved probationers: A survival analysis. Krebs, C. P., Strom, K. J., Koetse, W. H., & Lattimore, P. K. (2009). Crime & Delinquency, 55, 442-471. 

 

Orange County Thanksgiving Holiday Sober Events

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Thanksgiving is the beginning of a season of celebration, yet a season which can be threatening to early sobriety. Maintaining a plan of recovery while others “party” can be challenging and strengthening if successful.

 

The seduction of trying “one drink”, “one toke” or “one line” can be overwhelming to someone new to recovery who hasn’t had the practice of avoiding these circumstances and using buddies. Building relationships with others in recovery and practicing recovery enhancing relationships is essential for establishing long-term sobriety.

 

Many recovery (Alano) clubs sponsor sober events during the holidays. Following are events in Orange County for this Thanksgiving Holiday, provided by the Orange County Alcoholics Anonymous Central Office:

 

 

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

South LA County, South Bay, Hollywood Thanksgiving Holiday Sober Events

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Thanksgiving can be the beginning of a season which is a challenge to early sobriety. Seeking recovery from addiction, people new to sobriety may find it difficult to avoid using or drinking while others celebrate.

 

Practicing the avoidance of the first use of alcohol or drugs is important but the temptation to rationalize that “it’s just one” is often too great. Sober support systems and activities where people new to sobriety relate with others who have been there is a vital ingredient to long-term sobriety.

 

Many Alano Clubs and sober groups sponsor events during the holidays which provide support for people who are engaged in a sober lifestyle. South LA County, South Bay and Hollywood are locations for the following events for a sober Thanksgiving Holiday.

 

Long Beach – MWA Alano Club – 1pm Pot Luck on Thanksgiving and all scheduled meetings

 

Paramount Alano Club (Snake Pit) – Marathon meetings 8am – 11pm

 

Cypress– Twin Town Alumni is hosting a “Tired of Turkey BBQ  on Saturday 11/24/18 12pm – 4pm at Veteran’s Park in Cypress – Corner of Ball Rd. and Denni St. under the pavillion

 

Hermosa Beach–  The South Bay Alano Club is provides dinner for those without family or Thanksgiving Plans. 1:00pm, 703 11th Pl, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254; 310.374.2131

 

Hollywood– Van Ness Recovery House, 1919 N. Beachwood Drive, LA, (323) 463-4266 is hosting a Thanksgiving Day Open House from 1pm-5pm to include food, drinks and fellowship. It is free of charge and open to all

 

 

 Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

 

 

Drug Epidemic and Death is MORE than Opoids

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A recent article by the Los Angeles Times

By Melissa Healy

September 20th, 2018 | 11:50 AM

Americans have long construed drugs of abuse as choices. Poor choices that can cost users their lives, to be sure, but choices nonetheless.

But what if drugs of abuse are more like predators atop a nationwide ecosystem of potential prey? Or like shape-shifting viruses that seek defenseless people to infect? If public health experts could detect a recognizable pattern, perhaps they could find ways to immunize the uninfected, or protect those most vulnerable to the whims of predators’ appetites.

In a war against drugs that has yielded few victories and spawned plenty of unintended consequences, these are radical ideas. But a comprehensive new study of drug-overdose deaths aims to give researchers the data they need to discern previously unrecognized patterns in the widening epidemic of drug abuse — and, maybe, to devise policies that really work.

The new research makes clear that over close to four decades, the collective toll of drugs on Americans has followed an upward trajectory that looks less like a steady rise and more like the chain reaction that builds to a nuclear explosion.

The drugs that exact this toll have changed: Methamphetamine, cocaine, prescription narcotics and heroin have all dominated the killing fields of American drug use at some particular time and place.

Put those disparate trend lines together, though, and the curve representing fatal overdoses grows sharply steeper between 1979 and 2016. The death toll from drugs has doubled every eight years, according to the report published Thursday in the journal Science.

“Inexorable,” Dr. Donald Burke, the study’s senior author, called the trend. And frightening, too, since it appears that drug overdose deaths will continue unabated.

That a single, regular pattern of exponential growth would emerge from the combined death tolls of so many distinct drugs was an “aha moment,” said Burke, who studies global public health issues at the University of Pittsburgh.

“It came as a surprise,” he said. But the insight also reinforced his longstanding suspicion “that there are other patterns out there that we sometimes can’t see when we’re standing too close.”

Opioid abuse claimed 49,068 American lives in 2017, and the spreading crisis has galvanized the country. But the new analysis makes clear that prescription painkillers, heroin and synthetic fentanyl (which killed more than 29,000 Americans in 2017) represent only the latest chapter in a history of drug-related deaths that reaches back decades.

Add in the deaths due to cocaine, methamphetamine and a growing number of other drugs and the death toll from overdoses last year reached 72,306. That’s more than the number of American lives claimed by breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.

With greater resolution than ever before, the new research chronicles a scourge of drug-related deaths that has ping-ponged across the country, ravaging new communities from year to year and sometimes abating just as mysteriously — only to explode elsewhere in a different form.

Between 1999 and 2003, for instance, an early spike of cocaine deaths appeared in New Mexico’s north-central counties surrounding Albuquerque. By 2004 to 2007, similar pockets of outsized cocaine-related death rates had metastasized in Florida and North Carolina. And by 2012 to 2016, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Massachusetts and Rhode Island had become cocaine-overdose hotspots.

Heat maps show that from 1999 to 2016, cocaine overdoses exacted their heaviest toll on black men between the ages of 30 and 60, and began surging again in a slightly older population of African American men in 2016.

Unusually high rates of deaths attributed to methamphetamine show up first between 2004 and 2007 in New Mexico, this time in counties to the southwest of Albuquerque, as well as in Nevada and Northern California. By 2012 to 2016, pockets of methamphetamine death would also erupt across Southern California, western Arizona, Oklahoma, and parts of Montana, the Dakotas, West Virginia and Kentucky. These deaths tended to be concentrated among rural white men in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

The birth of the prescription opioid epidemic is evident as early as 1999 to 2003, again scattered across New Mexico but concentrated in the counties surrounding Albuquerque. By 2004 to 2007, hotspots had broken out across Nevada and Northern California, and in Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee. By 2008 to 2011, virtually all of Nevada was suffering a disproportionate rash of opioid deaths, and outsized overdose rates had erupted in pockets across Washington state, the desert counties of Southern California, Florida, southern Ohio and Maine.

Prescription opioid death rates have clustered heavily among white rural men over 40. Of all drug abuse deaths, only prescription opioids — and more recently, heroin and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl — have bitten deeply into the lives of women.

The earliest deaths from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl were seen between 2004 and 2007, almost entirely in West Virginia. By 2008 to 2011, clusters cropped up in eastern Oklahoma and in California’s Lassen County. Between 2012 and 2016, hotspots broke out across northern California, Maine and the midwestern Rust Belt.

Among whites, synthetic opioids in 2016 claimed higher death tolls among men in the prime of their lives — those roughly 25 to 45 years old. But among African Americans, synthetic opioid deaths cut deeply into men between 50 and 60 years old.

The study relies on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System, which has not required consistent details of drug-related fatalities to be reported. As a result, county coroners or medical examiners did not always specify the drug or drugs involved, or only listed it as an “opioid” drug. To reflect such cases, Burke’s team lists deaths due to “unspecified drugs” and “unspecified narcotics” as separate categories.

Linda Richter, director of policy research and analysis for the Center on Addiction, said the study results are a stark testament to the failures of the U.S. response to substance abuse.

Health officials have stigmatized addiction, underfunded treatment, and haphazardly responded to the emergence of crises like the epidemic of opioid abuse. That has fueled the unrelenting rise in drug deaths documented by the study, and in the geographic eruptions of drug-related crises it reveals, she said.

“To prevent new drug epidemics, we can’t keep focusing on one drug or another or wait to respond until overdose deaths reach epidemic levels,” said Richter, who was not involved in the study. Something has to change, she added, and this new way of looking at overdose data can shed some light on what should be different.

Burke and his colleagues cited “push” and “pull” factors that may prompt overdose deaths of certain drugs to wax and wane. Experts widely believe, for instance, that the development of abuse-resistant formulations of prescription painkillers, along with depressed prices for street drugs, led many addicted people to abandon prescription drugs in favor of heroin. Meanwhile, “sociological and psychological ‘pull’ forces may be operative to accelerate demand, such as despair, loss of purpose, and dissolution of communities,” the authors wrote.

What clearly emerges from the data is that something profound has happened in the United States since the 1980s to make its citizens more inclined to self-medication and its dangers.

“There’s a treasure trove of information in there,” said Dr. Steven H. Woolf, a physician and public health expert at Virginia Commonwealth University who was not involved with the new study. Researchers will be able to draw on this data to explore the effects — intended and otherwise — of drug trafficking policies, and to decide where in the country to concentrate resources, he said.

“Those details are very valuable,” Woolf said. “But we shouldn’t miss the forest for the trees. The larger question is, why is it that Americans have been dying at greater rates of drug overdose since the 1980s?”

In his own research, Woolf has documented a pattern of declining U.S. life expectancies and linked it to what have been called “deaths of despair,” a powerful confluence of rising rates of suicides, drug overdoses and deaths linked to alcohol abuse. Those trends “all point to this larger issue of Americans reacting to some kind of stressor and some sense of desperation in their lives. And we won’t get control of the drug overdoses unless we identify the root causes that are driving the behavior.”

From Sensation and Avoidance to Serenity

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Addiction creates heightened needs for sensation. Its consequences produce the need for avoidance. What was once a short-term thrill or remedy, becomes a repeated pattern of running to and from. Attachment to the chemical solution becomes increasingly strong.

In the turmoil created by using short-term solutions over a long span of time, medium to long-term reward is sacrificed for immediate satisfaction and relief. Financial, work and legal problems, interpersonal conflicts and/or isolation, and emotional distress build.

Only after the consequences become insurmountable do people caught in the addiction-cycle seek help. Taking a pill to solve an addiction is very seductive for both the consumer and the
pharmaceutical manufacturer. Ironically, we seek another drug-induced solution for what proves to be a destructive practice over time… immediate reward and remedy.

Many alcoholics and opioid addicts prefer taking naltrexone or buprenorphine in the absence of counseling or therapy.

We invest enormous amounts of research time and investment seeking the magic pill- our cultural gears are synchronized to physical fixes. Personal or psychological change requires laborious and unattractive learning, effort and practice.

Moving away from home into a sensational treatment center seems much more interesting than commuting to and from counseling sessions on a daily basis. When change actually needs to be made at home with family and friends, people seeking recovery often prefer to seek relief from their problems by moving somewhere that feels remote. The problems at home wait.

At what point does someone engaging in recovery detach from the immediate reward/ relief cycle?

When do we start to pursue intermediate and long-term solutions and appreciate incremental gain?

When does recovery become its own reward?

Biological, psychological and social effects of substance use disorders subside at different rates for each person. The length of time spent in an addictive cycle, personality, social and occupational support, and access to effective treatment all influence the rate at which a person may engage and progress in their personal course of recovery.

There is a point at which a recovering person realizes that they are no longer looking for a quick fix and instead find themselves satisfied with the present. More will come and regardless of our expectations, recovering people become excited at seeing change.

Beauty is found in the simplest things. Love and respect are shared not only with family but with other people around us. Trust replaces fear. Humility replaces looking better than the next guy. We become comfortable where ever we are standing.

“Today” is a gift of recovery. Rather than chasing for the next sensation or remedy, people in recovery know that the solution is in the present, taking the best next step.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844

EAPA San Fernando Valley

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EAPA San Fernando Valley
August 24, 8:30am Networking 
9 – 11 am 2 CE Presentation (without break)
Managing and Understanding the Angry Client/ Employee
Anita Avedian, M.S., LMFT, CAMS-IV, Certified v  Anger Management Specialist IV, Director, Anger Management 818 
 
Meeting Location: Foundations Los Angeles
For details, special accommodations or to RSVP, please contact Naheed Awan (240) 381-8154 naheed.awan@gmail.com. 2 CE Credits provided through CEPA #13918 CAMFT approved continuing education provider for MFT, LCSW, LPC. $15 members, $20 nonmember fee (refund policy at door). Please notify of ADA accommodation needs. 
EAPA SFV meets the fourth Friday at each month for 2 CE presentation.
 

Learning Objectives:
•Understand anger versus aggression versus rage
•Learn the characteristics of an angry person
•Identify when anger is a problem in the workplace
•Recommendations for HR or EAP when dealing with employees who are at risk
 
The Mental Health Organization launched a report in 2017, regarding “Boiling Point” which focuses on the problem of anger.  In this report, they state that 64% say that the world is becoming an angrier place and almost a third of the people reported that they have a close friend or family member who has problems controlling anger. We have seen employees “lose it” with a burst of anger in the workplace, however, when does it cross the line into a serious situation where we need to take action?  In this seminar, we are going to get a better understanding of anger versus aggression and examine the signs of anger problems in the workplace.  It is important for HR and therapists to recognize the difference between appropriate and inappropriate expressions of anger in the workplace and how to intervene. 
 
Anita Avedian is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (Licence # LMFT 38403) and has been in practice since 2001. Anita has offices in Sherman Oaks, Hollywood, Glendale, and Woodland Hills. Her specialties include working with relationships, anger, social anxiety, and addictions. Anita is the Director of Anger Management 818, with 10 locations, helping both self-referred and court-ordered individuals seek help with their aggression. Anger Management Essentials is an approved NAMA model which is used for anger management certification. Moreover, Anita is an Authorized NAMA Trainer and Anger Management Supervisor for certifying anger management specialists. She is a Certified Anger Management Specialist IV and a Diplomat Member of NAMA. She offers monthly training throughout the West Coast to certify counselors in anger management. She authored Anger Management Essentials, a workbook for aggression, which has been translated into Spanish, Armenian, and Hebrew. Anita is the co-Founder and President of the California Chapter of the NAMA which is the California Chapter of Anger Management Providers, and the Founder of Toastmasters for Mental Health Professionals.Anita recently appeared on Good Day LA discussing Road Rage. 

CLICK HERE TO RSVP/CONTACT US

Real Time Recovery in Real Life

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When you find yourself with an addiction or alcoholism, do you move away or do you change in real life? External remedies are often sought to solve internal matters. Eventually, change has to happen in real life in real time.

A safe and comfortable retreat where all needs are met sounds like a great idea and some can actually afford such luxuries. Most of us find that engaging in recovery happens best during life’s activities and challenges. Recovery skills can only become effective when they are practiced with common day problems in real life.

A brief respite may help but long-term avoidance creates new problems. Avoiding work difficulties, conflicts with others, financial challenges, and craving triggers postpone the practice of recovery. Recovery only occurs when we face our skeptical coworkers and boss, become honest with our resentful spouse and children, set out a payment plan for the accumulating bills and debts, and when we walk past the bar or a using buddy on our way to a meeting.

Families with addicted loved ones often want to send them out for repair. A new changed person is expected after a couple of months in residential treatment or rehab. We hope that whatever happens behind those walls “takes” and magically changes years of well-practiced drug seeking and chasing the high.

Addiction is a shortcut to pleasure and relief from discomfort and pain. The immediate result of ingesting a chemical replaces the social and occupational activities normal people employ to take care of themselves. We lose our social, occupational and personal management skills.

What is learned in comfortable and safe surroundings need real-world practice to become useful. Eventually, we as recovering people eventually need to face our own capacity for choice. We cannot continue to be monitored and contained in an observed treatment center forever.

Recovering alcoholics and addicts label moving to avoid problems, “taking a geographic”. It is avoidance of responsibility and magical thinking. The problem remains through space.

Wherever you go, you eventually find yourself… you take your problems wherever you go. Treatment and rehab should not be another “geographic” escape from the problems and the consequences of a life that has become unmanageable. Facing the wreckage, triggers, and problem behavior at home is required if a solution is to be found.

Recovery starts with avoiding the first drink or drug… abstaining from addictive substances one day at a time. That beginning may be inside a safe and supportive rehab or treatment center, or the beginning could be at home with the direction, instruction and support of an intensive outpatient program. The practices of recovery must be established at home in the long term… postponing may feel comfortable but avoidance becomes its own bad habit.

Intensive outpatient drug and alcohol treatment provides an “at home” process of learning, understanding, becoming increasingly aware, practicing new skills, and monitoring personal ideas, feelings and behaviors. In intensive outpatient treatment, people discover at home, with loved ones and at work, with coworker a new way of acting. An openness to learn and understand new ideas, and to practice new behaviors and skills is developed naturally, where it is needed the most. An outpatient support group and professional helps find new ways of facing triggers, people, places and things which were once part of the addictive lifestyle.

New friends and acquaintances who understand and support sobriety are gained, and can be maintained over the long-term in outpatient treatment. Leaving outpatient treatment or rehab doesn’t mean losing all the supportive relationships and practices that may be fragmented when leaving a residential program.

Intensive outpatient treatment can be as or more effective than residential treatment as demonstrated by research. It is also much more affordable and accessible, especially if insurance coverage is to cover the costs of treatment.

Twin Town Treatment Centers is immediately accessible to all Los Angeles and Orange County residents, is accredited by The Joint Commission, and is certified by the California DHCS. All network HMO/PPO/EPO insurance plans contract with Twin Town Treatment Centers to provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Our phone is answered by real people. We can see people on the same day you call. (866) 594-8844