What is Stress: Guided Imagery for Addictions

Addictions, Alcohol, Drugs, Gambling
Guided Imagery Can Help Recovery for Addictions

Ask yourself today....
What is missing and needed in my life to make me
happy and feel fulfilled?
Then.... realize.... the choice is up to you.

Why do people use alcohol and practice addictive behaviors?

donna Basically, people use substances such as alcohol and other drugs because they like the way these substances make them feel.

Pleasure is a powerful force. Your brain is wired so that if you do something that feels good, you will probably want to do it again. All drugs that are addicting can activate and affect the brain's pleasure circuit.

According to The National Institute on Drug abuse (NIDA) and Alcoholic Anonymous, "in order to recover from an addiction, one must get to the core issue and heal that first". In other words:

"I've never met an addict
that didn't have a deep unresolved issue.

The key to recovery is to get to understand yourself, what you are feeling and then work through it with the help of a therapist or group counseling. The use of Guided Imagery by way of a Guided Imagery C. D. is utilized in recovery programs across the nation with great success.

What is an addiction?

An Addiction is a disease that affects your brain and your behavior. You have control over your choice to start using drugs, but once you start, their pleasurable effect makes you want to keep using them.

When you become addicted to alcohol or other drugs, your brain actually changes in certain ways so that a powerful urge to use drugs controls your behavior. Someone who is addicted uses drugs without thinking of the consequences, such as problems with health, money, relationships, and performance at work or at school.

Coping with Addictions and Recovery
Guided Imagery Can Help Recovery from Addictions

When you or a loved one are struggling with an addiction such as smoking, alcohol, or drugs, it is extremely difficult and stressful for everyone involved.

There are many negative ways people choose to cope: Smoking, drinking, taking pills, even prescription pills, smoking pot, self harming and many others.

People that don't learn to deal with the inevitable challenges and difficulties in life are at greater risk for a lifetime of health issues.

In addition, research has shown that not only is death from lung cancer increasing, but cigarettes may also be responsible for other health complications as well. Smoking is not a beneficial, permanent, or healthy way of dealing with stress.

Drinking has been shown to have a harmful effect on the liver leading to many illness including liver cancer. Any type of addiction can have serious affects on an individual and his or her family.

However, if you or a loved one are dealing with an addiction such as smoking, gambling, drinking, and even food addictions, there is help and there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The first step is awareness and knowing that there is an issue. Nobody can change a person that has an addiction, it has to come from within. They have to make the first choice.

Guided Imagery is beneficial for people dealing with addictions and those affected by other’s addictions. Guided Imagery can help relieve donna

e stress and boost one's self-confidence and get them on the road to recovery.

Many National Chapters of Alcoholic Anonymous and Narcotic Anonymous utilize our Guided Imagery C. D.'s as part of the recovery process.

Getting to know yourself, and love yourself is the first step. You can and will recovery, if you want to.

You are in charge of your own destiny.

One of the best C.D.'s we have for facing issues head on and moving in the right direction is Courage, Strength and Hope and Mountain Reflection.

Click here to view our Guided Imagery products

Anger is one of the leading issues facing us today. It is one of our most powerful emotions. Unfortunately, we don't realize that anger is just one letter away from danger.

It is not possible to turn on the television or read the newspaper without learning about another horrific tragedy caused by bottled up anger.

While not always in the news, we constantly encounter daily smoldering of pent up feelings that, if not dealt with properly, can greatly damage our lives, relationships, jobs, and families.

Disturbingly, so many people and relationships are being diminished daily in value and quality because of inadequate management of anger.

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The key factor in transforming a person's approach to anger is self-awareness, such as what triggers an individual's anger.

As a person slowly simmers over anger-producing thoughts, the body begins to react physically (increased heart rate, blood pressure, sweaty palms, etc). It also begins to react emotionally, as if they were in an actual episode of threat or harm.

Even old, deep-rooted expectations and resentments can lead a person to havoc and a point of no return.

Anger can be a motivating force, inspiring a person towards positive change. However, all too often continual pent-up anger can shift the direction of a person's life towards a potentially negative, risky, and unhealthy path of self-destruction.

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A person must become aware of what their own individual triggers are (ie lack of appreciation, being nagged, lack of sleep, low blood sugar, too much caffeine).

When a person feels out of control, overwhelmed, or taken advantage of, it is common for emotions such as anger to set in.

It is often wrongly stated that anger never hurts anyone. However, studies at Tufts, Cornell, and Stanford University have shown that repressed anger kills millions of people a year by suppressing the immune system, leading to severe illnesses including heart attacks, cancer, and more.

It is possible to replace unconstructive and often catastrophic responses to thoughts that yield an anger episode.

Staying in control and being rational with thoughts can go a long way towards staying in control.

Trying to stay focused on "what is real" can reduce the trigger points and bring a person back into control of their thoughts and reactions.

The power of a vivid imagination is real. Just imagining a stressful situation has been clinically shown to evoke the same biochemical reactions that would appear if it were real.

Therefore it is just as powerful when a person can step back and envision the situation rationally and calmly. In addition, through imagery, they can use the power of their mind to visualize their reaction in a controlled and calm manner.

The use of Guided Imagery during episodes that may evoke negative feelings such as anger or resentment allows a person to work through issues and provides lifelong coping strategies.

By way of imagery a person is able to replace their old, unconstructive reactions with peacefulness, tranquility, confidence, and control.

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Guided Imagery gives a person control to choose how they interpret an event. Staying focused and learning new behavior techniques can significantly change a person's outlook on life.

It is important to remember: There is only one letter difference between ANGER and DANGER. When a person is not in control of their emotions, dangerous, consequences can occur.

When people refuse to let negativity into their lives they recognize positive qualities about themselves that they never knew existed. They are able to take a deeper and more inward look at their life with greater self respect and appreciation. Continual Stress or Anger has been clinically proven to increase the risk of heart disease as well as many health issues including cancer.

Guided Imagery has now become standard of care in hospitals around the globe to enhance the overall health of a person.

Individuals are now in an era where taking charge of our health and lifestyle has become a main focus.

Numerous Guided Imagery Research Studies have shown that the best way for a person to live a healthy, long and invigorating life is to want it and work towards it."

The mind doesn't realize the difference between the thought and the actual event. If you are thinking negative thoughts, negativity can engulf you. On the other hand, saying positive thoughts can boost your mind and attitude to all time highs.

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The choice is yours and yours alone how you "choose" to live your life and on what path you wish to follow.

Individuals can actually heal quicker and feel empowered, strengthened, fresh and rejuvenated. They are able to return to their routine lifestyle quicker and with a revitalized direction and outlook.

The use of Guided imagery is increasingly being used by health care professionals, wellness centers and corporations. In addition it is routinely being used globally as an additional tool to aid in the prevention and treatment of many illnesses.

Self Harming, Self Injury, Eating Disorders, Addictions
Guided Imagery Can Help During the Recovery Process

Guided Imagery, Inc.
Life Coaching Resource Center
Meet Diane Tusek
President, Founder of Guided Imagery, Inc.
President, Founder of Life Coaching Resource Center

"You are not alone"

meet

Over the past 30 years, Diane Tusek
has successfully “guided” over 1 million people
with her world renowned researched Guided Imagery C.D.'s

Diane’s world-renown Guided Imagery Research has been considered "the benchmark research ” in the world. Diane is recognized as one of the most respected and compelling experts in the field of Guided Imagery. Diane Tusek's Guided Imagery CD’s are rated #1 in the world by many wishing to decrease stress, anxiety, pain and enhance a person's coping skills. They are recognized as being instrumental in allowing others to gain control back into their lives.

Self injury is not something that people want to talk about. However, it is estimated that 2 to 3 million Americans self harm. It is in epidemic proportion. The majority of people who self -injure are women between the ages of 13 and 30, but there are harmers ("cutters", injurers, etc) of every age, gender, and economic group.

People who practice self injury behaviors are not usually suicidal. They do however, intentionally inflict injuries upon themselves, usually in response to an enormous amount of stress or trauma in their life. Self Injury or harming may vary from minor cuts that heal quickly to very serious wounds that leave permanent scars. This is also known as "Deliberate Self-Harm Syndrome". bodyseigebook

If you or someone you know self-injures, please get professional help right away. This is just an overview of a very complex myriad of syndromes.

In his book Bodies Under Siege, Favazza states: "Self injury usually indicates that somewhere during development that person didn't learn good ways of coping with overwhelming feelings or stress. They’re not sick or insane; they just never learned positive ways to deal with feelings and emotions for various reasons.

Positive coping skills can be learned at any point in life. People who self-injure can learn to use new and healthier coping mechanisms. This process may take years to develop with the help of a skilled therapist familiar with this condition.

The late Princess Diana's word's shocked the world when she admitted in a television interview that she intentionally cut her arms and legs and had thrown herself down a flight of stairs on more than one occasion. FINALLY, self-injury -- the practice of deliberately cutting, scratching, burning, or otherwise injuring one's own body -- was about to come out of the closet. After that interview thousands of self-injury survivors called or wrote the media in response to that interview in just the United States alone.

Cutting seems to be the most common type of self-injury. "Cutters" often use razors, utility knives, scissors, needles, broken glass, or whatever they find to make repetitive slices on their arms, legs or other body parts. Some people burn themselves with cigarettes or lighters, others pull out their own hair.

Many people who self harm or self injure say they do it because they normally feel "numb" and cutting helps them to "feel alive." Others talk about the "sense of control" they may get from self-injury. This may be the first time or thing that they have felt a sense of control in their lives. Most agree that incidents of self-injury are triggered by stress and anxiety..

Self-injury (i.e., cutting, burning, etc. ) is usually kept secret, and the "cutter" often feels deep shame and guilt from this ritual. People who self injure or practice the unhealthy behavior of cutting or burning are at risk for infections if their wounds are not treated properly. Permanent scarring can also result from self injury and often does. Many people who self injure wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts, and turtlenecks even in warm weather to conceal the marks they've left on their own bodies from cutting or burning.."

The pressures of our children and teens today has taken on toll of epidemic proportions. It is reported that over 8 million children and teens have resorted to self harming (i.e. self injury, self mutilization, cutting, burning, etc) out of a sense of relief from the pain that they are feeling inside.

Individuals who practice the behavior of self injury or self harming by way of cutting or burning tend to be dysphoric and spontaneous. They often have deep rooted emotional issues that they are not able to deal with in a healthy way. They are often suffering from depression. In addition, they often have mood swings and levels of depression, rejection and some underlying feeling of rejection, despondency worthlessness.

In a clinical research study on self injury (i.e. self harming, self mutilization, etc) Herpertz (1995) states that "...usually some sort of interpersonal stressor, increases the level of dysphoria and tension to an unbearable degree.

The painful feelings become overwhelming: it's as if the usual underlying uncomfortable affect is escalated to a critical maximum point. "Self injury behavior has the function of bringing about a transient relief from these [high levels of irritability and sensitivity to rejection]," This conclusion is supported by the Research Self Injury / Self Harming study by Haines and her colleagues.

According to The American Pediatric Association, "individuals o razor

often look at they self harming and self injuring behavior as a way of dealing with unbearable sorrow or tension in their life." They have not "learned how to communicate or cope in a healthy way.

Another Research study on self harming and self injury suggests that the chemical wiring in the brain may often determine who self injures and who doesn't. Simeon et al. (1992)

They discovered that individuals who self injure tend to be extremely angry, impulsive, anxious, and aggressive, and presented evidence that some of these traits may be linked to deficits in the brain's serotonin system. Zweig-Frank et al. (1994) also suggest that degree of self injury or self harm may be related to serotonin dysfunction.

Self harming (i.e. Self Mutilization, Cutting, Burning, Bulimia, Anorexia, Self Injury, etc) has been defined as hurting oneself to relieve emotional pain or distress. The most common forms of this behavior is cutting or burning.

Many adolescents and teens today are struggling to cope with an enormous amount of stress in school, at home, and in relationships. Many of these youths are over scheduled and feel pressured and hurried. They are often overwhelmed by the internal and external stresses of family responsibilities, homework, sports, and expectations by teachers and friends.

They haven't been taught how to cope in a healthy way. Children and btmad

teens often have unresolved feelings that they are unable to express, such as anger, extreme sadness, loneliness, shame, depression, and guilt.

Some people actually feel that dealing with physical pain is easier than dealing with emotional pain. Self injury is often a way that people can punish them self. They often feel unworthy, guilty, and are encapsulated with low self-esteem.

They are confused by their feelings and are embarrassed to come forth and talk to anyone about them. They become withdrawn, isolated and can fall deeper and deeper into depression. It's called many things -- self inflicted violence, self injury, self-harm, para suicide, delicate cutting, self-abuse, self-mutilation (this last particularly seems to annoy people who self-injury).

Tracey Alderman describes in her book, Scarred, "Self injury is the act of attempting to alter a mood state by inflicting physical harm serious enough to cause tissue damage to one's body."

Children and teens that self harm are not crazy, they are not suicidal. They are kids from all walks of life, males and females and from every social economic family. They are kids that haven't learned to properly manage their stress and emotions properly.

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Self harmers don't do it because they have bad parents, or come from a bad family. They do it because they don't know how to deal with this bottled up rage and anguish inside of them.

They need help, they need intervention from a person that is not directly involved with them. They need a professional therapist that is qualified to work them through the many issues and emotions that they are dealing with.

There is hope, and they can get better. They need support, patience and unconditional love.

Guided Imagery (i.e. Guided Meditation, Guided Visualization, Imagery) is a simple, well researched relaxation technique aimed at easing stress and promoting a sense of peace and tranquility at a stressful or difficult time in a person's life. Guided Imagery Meditation can be used by young children all the way up through the elderly.

Guided Imagery Research has also shown that stimulating the brain through imagery may have a direct effect on both the endocrine and nervous systems, which lead to changes in immune system function. The use of a Guided Imagery CD is a simple, low cost, and effective tool for stress reduction and stress management.

Guided Imagery (i.e. Guided Meditation, Guided Visualization, Imagery,) is a relaxation technique aimed at easing stress and promoting a sense of peace and tranquility at a stressful or difficult time in a person's life.

Guided Imagery can be used on a one on one process. However, most individuals choose to experience Guided Imagery by way of a Guided Imagery CD. (i.e. Guided Meditation CD, Guided Visualization C.D.). It has been clinically proven to promote wellness and optimize overall health.

Numerous Guided Imagery Research Studies have shown that Anxiety and Pain can be reduced by up to 65% within minutes. Guided Imagery Research has also shown that stimulating the brain through imagery may have a direct effect on both the endocrine and nervous systems, which lead to changes in immune system function.

Guided Imagery is a simple, low cost, and effective tool for stress reduction and stress management. Guided Imagery has been around for centuries, it has been termed by many words:

"...Guided imagery is a program of directed thoughts and suggestions that guide your imagination toward a relaxed, focused state. You can use an instructor, tapes, or scripts to help you through this process.

Guided imagery is based on the concept that your body and mind are connected. Using all of your senses, your body seems to respond as though what you are imagining is real. An example often used is to imagine an orange or a lemon in great detail-the smell, the color, the texture of the peel.

Continue to imagine the smell of the lemon, and then see yourself taking a bite of the lemon and feel the juice squirting into your mouth.

Many people salivate when they do this. This exercise demonstrates how your body can respond to what you are imagining. You can achieve a relaxed state when you imagine all the details of a safe, comfortable place, such as a beach or a garden. This relaxed state may aid healing, learning, creativity, and performance.

It may help you feel more in control of your emotions and thought processes, which may improve your attitudes, health, and sense of well-being.- - Web MD.

Guided Imagery Meditations is a simple, safe tool to aid in relaxation. There are no known risks are associated with it. Guided imagery is a process of directed thoughts and suggestions that guide your imagination toward a relaxed, focused state. (It can be done one-on-one or by way of a Guided Imagery CD).

Guided imagery is based on the concept that your body and mind are connected. Using all of your senses, your body seems to respond as though what you are imagining is real. An example often used is to imagine an orange or a lemon in great detail-the smell, the color, the texture of the peel.

Guided Imagery may help a person who self injures feel more in control of their emotions and thought processes, which may improve their attitude, health, and sense of well-being.
Our Guided Imagery CD's assist individuals to reflect on where they are in life, evaluate where they want to be and gently "guide them" to the place that they want to be.

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Click here to view our Guided Imagery products

Thousands of patients have stated that they instantly feel relaxed, tranquil and at peace while listening to the Guided Imagery C.D. well as afterwards.

Guided Imagery is a simple relaxation technique that can teach a person healthy coping skills that can follow them through the rest of their life.

The use of a Guided Imagery C.D. has been clinically shown to bring an individual to a state of tranquil relaxation in a matter of minutes. It gives a person self confidence that they are able to take control over their mental and physical well being.

Guided Imagery by way of a Guided Imagery C.D. has shown to be an effective way of coping with the the enormous pressures that self injurers feel inside.

If you are coming to this site as a person who is self-harming, or a concerned loved one or parent. It is important to realize that in order for a person to recover, they must get to the root of "what they are feeling." It is not uncommon to not know the answer. Individuals with severe traumas often keep them embedded deep inside.

Behind every self harming or self injury act, is a deep psychological core issue. Uncovering the The start to recovery is developing healthier communication and coping strategies.

Guided Imagery by way of a Guided Imagery CD has been shown to have a powerful and very effective impact on not only recovery, but also teaching individuals that recovery is possible. They need to develop more that what they are feeling is ok and that it is important to cope in a healthy way.
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In an eye-opening Guided Imagery Research Study on for Self Injury and Self Harming, Haines et al. (1995) led groups of self-injuring and non-self-injuring subjects through guided imagery technique sessions.

Each person experienced the same four scenarios in random order: a scene in which aggression was imagined, a neutral scene, a scene of accidental injury, and one in which self-injury was imagined. The guided imagery scripts had four stages: scene-setting, approach, incident, and consequence.

During the guided imagery sessions, physiological arousal and subjective arousal were measured. The results were astonishing. Subject reactions across groups didn't differ on the aggression, accident, and neutral scripts.

However, In the Self Harming or Self Injury Guided Imagery Script, the control groups went to a high level of arousal and stayed there throughout the script, in spite of relaxation instructions contained in the "consequences" stage. In contrast, self-injurers experienced increased arousal through the scene-setting and approach stages, until the the decision to self-injure was made. Their tension then dropped, dropping even more at the incident stage and remaining low.

These results provide strong evidence that self-injury provides a quick, effective release of physiological tension, which would include the physiological arousal brought on by negative or overwhelming psychological states.

As Haines et al. states, Self injury (i.e. self harming or self mutilators) often are unable to provide explanations why they practice the self-injury behavior Participants reported continued negative feelings despite reduced psychophysiological arousal. This result suggests that it is the alteration of psychophysiological arousal that may operate to reinforce and maintain the behavior, not the psychological response.

In other words, self-injury may be a preferred coping mechanism rainbow

because it quickly and dramatically calms the body, even though people who practice self injury may have very negative feelings after an episode.

They feel bad, but the overwhelming sychophysiological pressure and tension is gone. Herpertz et al. (1995) Self mutilators usually disapprove of aggressive feelings and impulses. If they fail to suppress these, their findings indicate that they direct them inwardly.

Guided Imagery (Guided Meditation, Guided Visualization, Imagery) is a relaxation technique aimed at easing stress and promoting a sense of peace and tranquility at a stressful or difficult time in a person's life. It can be used by young children all the way up through the elderly.

Guided Imagery has been shown to promote wellness and optimize overall health. Numerous Guided Imagery Research Studies have shown that Anxiety can be reduced by up to 65%, and it has been shown to decrease pain and bring a person to a state of tranquility in a matter of minutes.

Guided Imagery Research has also shown that stimulating the brain through imagery may have a direct effect on both the endocrine and nervous systems, which lead to changes in immune system function.

Guided Imagery is a simple, low cost, and effective tool for stress reduction and stress management.

The world renown benchmark Guided Imagery Research Study at The Cleveland Clinic (i.e. Cleveland Clinic Guided Imagery Program) and Washington Hospital Center in the 90's brought Guided Imagery to the forefront for health care, corporations, schools and everyday homes for health maintenance.

Most importantly, Guided Imagery (Meditations) gives a person back control of their life. They are able to settle down. Guided Imagery for Insomnia has made a tremendous impact on individuals around the globe.

The world renown benchmark Guided Imagery Research Study at The Cleveland Clinic and Washington Hospital Center in the 90's brought Guided Imagery to the forefront for health care, corporations, schools and everyday homes for a healthy way to cope with stress, anxiety and traumatic issues often too difficult to talk about.

Guided Imagery is an important and valuable tool for any person young or old to com britthead

e to grips with what they are feeling.

They learn techniques to identify "why" they are feeling the way they are. By words of the story on the Guided Imagery (i.e., Guided Meditation, Guided Visualization, Imagery) CD to help them:

They are embraced with the feeling that they are a special unique individual and are no different than anyone else. The use of Guided Imagery by way of a Guided Imagery CD is a new beginning, a new direction on their journey of life. They can and they will move though this. They are going to be ok.

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Guided Imagery is a valuable tool to help the young all the way to adulthood to learn simple, safe and refreshing techniques to help them cope in a healthy way for the rest of their lives.

Our Guided Imagery CD, Courage, Strength and Hope for Teens and Preteens, gives a teen tools to work through their emotions, let them go, and move forward in their lives. It is possible to get better; they just need to learn new and healthy coping skills.

Guided Imagery (i.e. Guided Meditation, Guided Visualization) CD Courage, Strength and Hope for Teens and Preteens has been used by thousands of teens to help them find root causes for their issues and work through any emotions they may be dealing with. It also has been shown to teach them positive coping skills that they can use for a lifetime.

Courage, Strength and Hope for Teens and Preteens has made a lifestyle change for not only the teens, but the entire family.

Click here to view our Guided Imagery products

Thousands of patients have stated that they instantly feel relaxed, tranquil and at peace while listening to the Guided Imagery C.D. well as afterwards. Guided Imagery is a simple relaxation technique that can teach a person healthy coping skills that can follow them through the rest of their life.