Cocaine addiction kills the appetite, boosts the metabolism, and provides a false energy that makes you think that you don’t have to eat to survive. After cocaine addiction treatment, many in recovery have a hard time figuring out how to eat properly. Many women are upset when they gain weight in drug addiction recovery and find that they have low energy and feel rundown most of the time. Learning how to eat well and create a healthy diet can be a crucial part of your success in sobriety. Here are some tips to help you eat well, stay healthy, and get your metabolism back on track after cocaine addiction.

• Plan a week’s meals at once. If you take it meal by meal, you’ll get bored if not overwhelmed with the constant maintenance that comes with trying to find something healthy to eat every few hours. Instead, designate one day a week as meal planning day. Find healthy recipes, create a grocery list, and make as much as you can ahead of time. If you have extra, freeze pre-portioned single servings for next week.
• Take healthy snacks with you. If you work for longer than a few hours at a time or are on the go often, make sure that you are not at the mercy of restaurants for your nutrition. There are a lot of hidden fat and calories in restaurant food and, when you’re hungry, it’s harder to make positive choices. Bring a sandwich, a fiber bar, a piece of fruit or another healthy snack with you at all times and if you know you’ll be out for a meal regularly, (e.g., lunch at work each day) plan ahead and bring what you’ll need.
• Always eat breakfast. In order to get your metabolism going every day, you have to kickstart your body with breakfast. Avoid sugary pastries or high-fat breakfast meats and choose something small – a whole grain piece of toast, with half a piece of fruit and a hardboiled egg – just to let your body know that the day is starting.
• Workout. If you feel like all this healthy eating is thickening your waist line, don’t think for one second that starving yourself or relapsing on cocaine is the answer to slim down. Instead, kick up your efforts in the exercise department. If you’re out of shape, start by taking a daily 30 minute walk and increase the time or turn it into a jog-walk when you feel up to it. If there’s a sport you used to like, try to find an amateur league to play with or take a class to ease your way back in. Take a yoga class, start parking further away from the store, or take the stairs instead of the elevator – anything to increase your caloric burn and boost your metabolism in a healthy way.

What’s your favorite way to stay healthy in recovery and avoid relapse? Leave a comment and let us know!

It’s a common story among crystal meth addicts: women, especially, fall victim to crystal meth addiction or amphetamine addiction because they want to lose weight – or they don’t want to gain it. The added energy is a bonus as well, allowing overworked women to keep up with children, family members, spouses or partners, work and more. One of the biggest obstacles to women in crystal meth rehab is the change in their metabolism when they stop taking the drug and the weight they gain as a result. It can mean serious depression during and after treatment and many women relapse quickly after treatment in order to get their weight under control – simply because they haven’t learned healthier ways to maintain their goal weight.

When crystal meth addiction treatment is woman-centered and addresses the issue of healthy living, women addicted to crystal meth can make great strides in drug and alcohol addiction recovery and remain drug-free for years.

Methamphetamines and Weight Loss History

The effects of weight loss and appetite suppression caused by methamphetamines have long been noticed by the medical community. In the past, it was relatively easy to get a prescription for methamphetamines or amphetamines in the form of diet pills. The problem that the medical community quickly found was that the initial effect of appetite suppression lasted for about 30 days – then, patients needed a higher dose in order to maintain that level of weight loss. After a few months of increases – and the constant need for increases – patients were addicted to the stimulant drug and had no way to stop taking methamphetamines without immediately gaining back all the weight they lost and more. Doctors soon began pulling the prescriptions and now those kinds of drugs are only available to those who are morbidly obese and in serious health crisis due to their weight.

Effective Crystal Meth Rehab Should Address the Issue of Weight Loss

Weight loss is not the only reason that women develop a crystal meth addiction – some want the added stamina to get everything done on their to-do list, others use it for sexual purposes, others feel that it adds to their “badass” image – but even if one of those other reasons is also a part of a woman’s crystal meth addiction, weight loss is often also an issue. Women who are considering crystal meth addiction treatment should make sure that the rehab they choose is aware of the issue of health and body image and provides care designed to increase a woman’s ability to take care of herself properly after treatment without gaining weight.

For some, a certain amount of weight gain may be healthy – most are underweight when they begin treatment – and psychological treatment may be needed to help women to develop a more healthful body image. For others, too much weight gain after crystal meth addiction can mean other chronic health issues including diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and more. It’s important that crystal meth rehabs provide health food, incorporate exercise into the treatment plan and address the issue of body image and self esteem in multiple aspects of treatment.

If you would like to learn more about our woman-centered drug and alcohol rehab programs, contact us today.

Food addiction among women is a common occurrence; in drug rehab, it is almost ubiquitous: women who struggle with addiction to drugs and alcohol very often also have co-occurring food disorders. These disorders look different in different women, but some of the most common include bulimia, anorexia, binging, yo-yo dieting and weight loss. Living with co-occurring disorders of drug addiction and food addiction can make the experience of drug rehab doubly difficult for women. The only solution is a drug addiction treatment program that addresses both disorders simultaneously.

Food Addiction in Women Addicts

For most female food addicts, eating is emotional. Just like with drugs and alcohol, the tendency is to hide the amount of food eaten, lie about what was eaten or how much, and eat differently alone as opposed to in front of other people. For drug addicts who are also addicted to food, food may be used in an attempt to ease withdrawal symptoms or to replace drugs or alcohol when trying to quit alone. Unfortunately, when drug addiction and food addiction exist simultaneously, food often compounds the problem of drug addiction: female addicts tend to eat inappropriately despite emotional and physical consequences, organize their lives and choices based on food, or trying to control the addiction by making severe choices and placing rigid and arbitrary limitations upon their eating.

Food addiction and drug addiction can manifest so similarly that it is extremely helpful to apply the coping skills learned at drug rehab to recovery from food addiction at the same time.

Why Do Women Addicted to Drugs Have Food Addictions?

Just like drugs, food serves to provide some women with a means of escape. Bad self esteem, trauma, problems in relationships or at work, and chronic depression are all primary reasons that many women first turn to drugs and food. The “happy” chemicals released by eating comfort foods or sweets are similar in some ways to those released by using drugs, though on a smaller scale and for a shorter period. Unfortunately, the resulting health issues and the compulsive behavior as well as the constant cravings make it almost impossible to stop effectively and safely without professional help at an addiction treatment center.

Developing a New Food Addiction During Drug Rehab

Another phenomenon is the woman who begins drug rehab addicted to heroin, cocaine, alcohol, marijuana or some combination thereof, and finds that she replaces her drug of choice with compulsive behavior with food. Replacing drugs with another obsession-food, a new relationship, gambling, sex, et cetera-is extremely unhealthy as the focus should be on finding a healthful balance in your life that allows you to feel free rather than tethered to any one thing or activity. Notice how you are feeling as you progress through recovery and share your concerns about developing food addictions and other co-occurring disorders with your therapist and counselors to make sure that you get the treatment you need.

If you would like more information about co-occurring disorders, food addiction or how drug and alcohol addiction affects women, contact The Orchid and start your healing process today.