Wellness and the Treatment of Addiction - Wellness Day 2011 - ONE80CENTER.COM

ONE80: What are you thoughts about incorporating a better understanding of wellness as it relates to the treatment of addiction

Dr. Timothy Fong, , Director of the UCLA Addiction Medicine Clinic : Just defining the term "wellness" is the first part. In our field of Addiction Psychiatry and recovery, wellness has really begun to take on a new term over the last 5 years. It really means not just staying sober. Staying sober is just one part of wellness. Wellness is about self-care, sleep, nutrition, and stress management, and all sorts of things not just staying sober. I think the term wellness is so much better than just "sobriety" or "abstinence" cause really its telling us we want to change not only how we feel but how we think, how we behave in a much healthier fashion. As an example, one of the things we do in recovery at UCLA and a lot of us in Addiction Psychiatry so much of our time is spent on sleep. How many hours sleep are you getting? Nutrition, what are you putting in your body that will feed your brain and help your recovery? Exercise, how are you getting exercise and if you are not, why not? And lastly stress management. So much is talked about stress management as really critical. But rarely do we talk about what it is. In order to be well as I see it, you have a wide variety, what I call a portfolio, of coping skills. And I think wellness and recovery is having a big toolbox and a lot of different things to help you manage your stress and increase your coping strategies.

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