After chatting with the lovely Arielle Lore about her journey from addiction to living her best
life, I was so inspired to share some tips with you. Everyone is going through something or has
been through something that shaped who they are, despite what social media looks like or
how people portray their lives. As someone who struggled with alcohol abuse as a coping
mechanism and has overcome a true rock bottom, I understand how lonely and scary it can
feel to be in a position you can’t seem to get yourself out of. I wanted to remind you that you
are not alone and are capable of incredible things. You still have time to be whoever you
want to be.
Below are a few methods that worked well for Arielle on her journey through recovery to help
bring you more knowledge and break the stigma around reaching out for help. If you’re
struggling with any sort of addiction, there are people who care about you, want you here,
and want to help. I’ll be sharing a few resources below as well. I encourage you to listen to the
entire episode between Arielle and me because I find her story incredibly inspiring, and I’m
sure you will, too.
Getting to the root cause through intensive therapy
You all know I’m a huge advocate for therapy and can attest to its benefit in my personal
healing journey, so I wasn’t surprised at all to hear Arielle tell us how beneficial intensive
therapy was for her. Basically, intensive therapy is like traditional therapy – just, well, more
intensive — you have sessions with a therapist as you usually would, just in greater frequency
and duration.
This can be so beneficial for someone working through addiction because it allows them to
speak to someone frequently and be properly supported during a very pivotal and
challenging transitionary period. Intensive therapy also allows someone to get to the root
issue of what might be causing the addiction and help take steps toward healing the
underlying problem at hand.
Support is everything
For Arielle, “Finding like-minded people who were going through the same thing as me was
the saving grace.” It’s essential to surround yourself with people who can support and
understand you during this time. I know this can be such a challenging time that makes you
want to isolate yourself, but participating in support groups, making friends with similar
interests who are also in recovery, etc, can be so helpful and inspiring. It helps to have people
around you who you feel can actually understand what you’re feeling and hold you
accountable when things get difficult.
Transcendental meditation and adopting stoicism
“For dealing with anxiety, meditation was number one for me,” Arielle tells us. She practices a
specific type of meditation, transcendental meditation, which she’s a huge advocate for, but
recognizes the benefits of all kinds of meditation. Arielle explains that this type of meditation
makes her feel anchored and energized in a calm way and says she saw massive benefits
from the very beginning.
She’s also a huge fan of the idea of stoicism, which she explains is essentially accepting life
on life’s terms, not judging anything, and being less reactive and more accepting of life and
its many changes and challenges. Stoics, or people who practice stoicism, acknowledge that
people don’t have control over all or much of what happens in life. Instead, they realize that
worrying about things outside of their control is unproductive to a person who wants to attain
true peace. I’m so intrigued by this way of living and am excited to learn more about it myself!
I hope you found some of this information useful and above all, realize that you are never
alone in anything you might be going through. You don’t have to struggle alone or face
challenges without the support you deserve, so I really hope episodes like these help
destigmatize the fear around reaching out for help. No one is perfect and we all go through
challenges, it’s normal and completely okay to reach out for support.
To listen to Arielle and my entire episode, you can find it at the link below, along with her
social handles and some resources for you or anyone needing them.
IG: @ariellelore TT: @ariellelore
Resources
SAMHSA’s National Helpline
https://findtreatment.samhsa.gov
1-800-487-4889
American Addiction Center Alcohol
https://alcohol.org/
866-506-4932
American Addiction Center Drug Abuse
https://drugabuse.com/
877-907-6127
American Addiction Center Rehabs
https://rehabs.com/
888-204-8698
National Institute of Mental Health
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/
1-866-615-6464