New Version 5.1 and A Few Changes

Version 5.1 is soon to be uploaded to the Apple Store for their approval and then release.  It's coming peeps ~ I promise!

What is new?

Background/Logon Privacy Screen
MANY users asked us to blank out the screen when the app goes into the background mode and also for when it's brought back into the foreground.  This visual "hide" was asked for privacy purposes and we felt this was very important.  so - added!!  You will see the difference both when the app goes into the background mode as well as when the app brings you back to the logon screen (if you use the password feature).

Facebook Integration is Removed

Another change that you will also notice is that all "Facebook shares" directly from the app has been removed.  While this might come as a sadness to some, we hope that after this explanation you will understand.  As of iOS9, Facebook requires that all apps register with them to get an ID number.  There needs to be a call back to Facebook that checks to make sure this app is valid by checking the ID number.

What this now does is make a permanant connection between the App and your Facebook ID.  In the PAST you could share directly to Facebook and there was no record of the recoveryBox app - In fact, Facebook didn't even know about the app.

With this new change by Facebook, we felt that is intrusive.  We PRIDE ourselves in keeping the data and anything related to recoveryBox completely private.  Because we don't control anything on Facebook's side we decided this was best.

recoveryBox and the developers NEVER see your data as it resides only on your device. We have no backend servers where your data resides - and this is completely for privacy reasons.

And so, while this feature was nice to have, you can accomplish the same thing by taking screen shots and then uploading them to Facebook. Sorry about the extra step - but, well, we hope you understand.

Please note..this does not have any affect on Twitter tweets. They do not have the same requirements as Facebook and so we decided to leave that in the app.

iOS9 Ready
Well, let's just say we did this :)

Bug Fixes 

• We fixed the bug where users could not edit custom triggers.  Opps.  Sorry about that.
• Also, added new logo image that was missing for Twitter Tweets
• Reduced memory footprint

Want to kick the addiction, hurt, habit, or hang-up? Download recoveryBox and be accountable.  

Random Resource ThuRsday - Inhalants

Many times when we talk about addictions we immediately think about drugs and alcohol. Thinking about inhaling something is not the first thing that comes to mind but it is one of the most easily accessible of "things" to become addicted to.

Think about it, what's under your kitchen sink? Or in your garage? Sniffing inhalants is an addiction that starts when kids are young. Yes, kids DO go in the garage and sniff a can of paint. And just one time can cause irreversible brain damage or even death. It's a horrible addiction.  Keep reading to become educated on inhalants. Parents when you talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol, don't forget this IS a drug even if it's legal to get.

To find out more visit Drug Free World's Post on Inhalants or visit their entire site.  It's filled with loads of information. 

Below is the post from Drug Free World.  Become Educated!

Celebrate Recovery

Many people think that a traditional 12 Step program is the only option out there for help with recovery from an addiction.  And at one point, I too thought that was the case.

But then, a person very close to me told me about Celebrate Recovery. Her description was very much like a 12 Step Program but then something about it really intrigued me.  And so I attended my first meeting and very much liked it.

There are lots of churches who offer the Celebrate Recovery program to help with addictions, but also hurts, hang-ups and those bad habits.  If you are not comfortable with a traditional 12 step program (and yes those are great and so work too)..check out this other option. www.celebraterecovery.com

What I personally thought that differentiated  Celebrate Recovery from a traditional 12 Step program was that at meetings, there is a time of worship, the "higher" power is now God, and that all addictions worship together before breaking apart into groups based on addiction.  In fact, that was my favorite part - celebrating everyone's victories together no matter what the habit was as well as hearing so many different testimonies.

If you are curious, recoveryBox, the App featured on this blog works with a sponsor or accountability partner for both a traditional 12 step program or the Celebrate Recovery program.

Get help today with your hurt, hang-up or habit.

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recoveryBox Addiction Recovery App - Your Complete Accountability Sobriety Toolbox

When You Feel the Crave, What Routine Do You Do?

One of the most important parts of being able to deal with an addiction is knowing what our triggers are.  Once we figure those out, we can start to reprogram ourselves with "new habits" that we insert into the place of the "old habits" when we sense those triggers or cravings.

For instance, a young girl bites her nails down to nibs and to the point that she can't use her fingers anymore because of the pain. Upon, tracking her data she realizes that she was bored and therefore started biting (and didn't even know it). But as she started to pay attention to the fact that she was bored, she began to figure out her cue and then inserted a new behavior...get up and go get a glass of water.

Another example, a young successful business man ends up drinking and has created such a bad habit of it that his wife has left him. He doesn't understand why because he provides for her every need.  Upon figuring out his triggers, he realized that his anxiety kicks up every time he's about to close a huge business deal. In order to deal with the anxiety he heads to the bar to kick one back and take the edge off.  But it has come to the point that anytime he feels anxiety he automatically heads to the bar. Now, he recognizes his anxiety and instead of heading to the bar (old habit) he has inserted a new habit of calling his accountability partner/sponsor that he met at Celebrate Recovery.

We ALL have habits that we wish we didn't have. Some are worse than others and some are downright dangerous. And we can change these habits, but it takes knowledge of what we are doing. By inserting a new habit into the spot of our old habit we can use the same cues as before and still get the same reward. The reward for the alcoholic was not the getting drunk (because no alcoholic says I like the hangover) but rather the temporary release of the anxiety feeling.

With that understanding, you can use recoveryBox to track what your triggers are. Don't confuse the cue verses the trigger. For the alcoholic, the trigger was not "closing the deal" but rather the feeling of anxiety. The cue was waiting for the closing of the business deal. We can't change the cues in life - they exist everywhere. But what does that cue trigger? Realize that feeling and then insert a new habit.

When you text/email your accountability partner, they can clearly see how to relate your triggers with your lights. It will be obvious to link together your triggers with habits. Your habits are being tracked by the light system. An accountability partner can help you see that triggers linked with red/yellow lights mean you are using healthy habits while green lights mean you have replaced bad habits with new ones.

While I know not everyone uses all pieces of recoveryBox (because there are a lot), they really do work together. I encourage you to use the light system in conjunction with the trigger tracking system. Help yourself and your sponsor figure out the puzzle to your behaviors by providing as much information as you can.

As always, if you have questions about how to use the recoveryBox app, please email!  Be supported!!

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Download recoveryBox Addiction Recovery App - Your Complete Accountability Sobriety Toolbox

Daily Devotions Directly from recoveryBox

New to recoveryBox, the iOS app for Addiction Recovery are daily devotions.  They can be accessed from the blog, or directly from within the app. These are short to be read quickly in the morning with a small thought to get your day going - focused in the right direction.  It's just a small way to encourage our app users - and to remember you are supported.

www.recoveryboxapp.com

Addiction Recovery iOS App

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Download recoveryBox Addiction Recovery App - Your Complete Accountability Sobriety Toolbox

Visually Searching recoveryBox ~ Discovering our Habits

The power of recoveryBox, the addiction recovery toolset, is being able to understand our habits. If we are being diligent about what we are doing and being accountable, it will become obvious that are making progress by seeing your yellow/red lights diminish while the number of green lights (which are new healthy habits) continue to grow.

By looking at our new visual chart it's easy to see - wait, yellow lights always occur on Friday nights but only on weeks where (and you fill in the blank); or I see I'm not really tracking my lights on Wednesdays I see.

While it might sound obvious that we should know this already, it's often not. Those living in recovery for an addiction are usually living day by day and often hour by hour. So being able to see what's going on visually is an important part of the recovery process.

Are you ready to try recoveryBox?

Here is what one reviewer wrote recently when recoveryBox 5.0 came out.

Better and Better 

     

by Hunnybajjer

I appreciate that there is constant improvement on an already powerful and helpful app. You are always responding to feedback and making things better. Thanks for s great app.

We are listening and welcome all feedback. We want to make sure recoveryBox is not just another app - but an important tool as part of your recovery journey to living a life of freedom. Download it today!

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Download recoveryBox Addiction Recovery App - Your Complete Accountability Sobriety Toolbox

Entering Yesterday's Lights..Here's a Hint..updated for iOS7

So you skipped a day entering your lights, but you decided to go back and enter them because it affects your weekly numbers.  BUUUTTTT..you find that each time you have to reset the Date Spinner or Category Spinner........

Nope...you don't!  Here's a hint.

Go to More Tools -> Preferences

There are 3 VERY important settings that you can enable to help make this faster.

1.  Retain Date: this will keep the date of the LAST light your entered.  It's great for entering historical "lights".

2. Retain Category: if you are a person who likes to enter each entry separately for a Category, then enabling this to on will help you out also when entering historical "lights". No more resetting of the category. It will keep the spinner set to the last Category entered.

3. Retain Number of Lights: this is not as important but maybe you are entering an entire week's worth of "lights" and you are entering them by day and category and you know you had the same number for each day.  This is what will keep that number spinner on the last previous entered number.


These preferences are only there to help you stay compliant by allowing "entering of your daily lights" to be as flexible as possible.  So go ahead and quickly enter past lights to create the complete picture.  It's easy and fast.

Don't have recoveryBox the iPhone app for addiction recovery, check out www.recoveryboxapp.com

recoveryBox 5.0.4 is coming soon

recoveryBox 5.0.4 is soon to be released.

Here are the latest features and fixes:
~ TouchID signon option
~ Added password recovery option on password screen
~ Bug fixes and Code optimization tweaks
~ New recoveryBox icon

If you found a bug or would like to suggest a new feature, please feel free to send us an email.

If you want to know more about recoveryBox, the addiction recovery toolbox, check out our site.


If you are ready to make the best decision of your life and begin the journey to recovery, download recoveryBox and be accountable today!  It works!!

Tracking our Sobriety Anniversary Using recoveryBox

Sobriety Anniversaries are an important part of recovery. Don't let the addiction take the celebration out of recovery. Using recoveryBox, track one or more addictions and their anniversary dates. Add a motivating picture to get you through the hard time. See how to set it all up.

Do You have to Give Up Your Old Friends - Random Resource ThuRsday

Random Resource ThuRsday brings to your the question "Do you have to stop seeing all your old friends in order to recover?"

This comes from a Great Blog I found called Changing Lives Foundation.

Do you have to stop seeing all your old friends in order to recover?

April 24, 2012 in AA Related, Al-Anon Related. . ., Ask Joe, Relapse, Why Don't they Just Quit,Why Don't They Just Quit? Book Excerpts by jherzanek | 2 comments

ASK JOE:
Old friends and recovery:

Q: Do you have to stop seeing all your old friends
in order to recover?

A. It depends

When I was first getting off alcohol and drugs, many of my old friends
were just like me. I knew that being around drugs and being around
people using them was a bad idea. Exposing myself to the wrong influences
would have been a set-up for relapse. It wasn’t easy to let go of
some of my longstanding relationships. At the same time, though, I was
meeting new people who were also in recovery. I quickly learned that
my new lifestyle and old friends were kind of like oil and water—they
just didn’t mix.


After several weeks of sobriety, I started to see these old relationships
in a different light. I tried to talk to some of my old friends about recovery.
A few of them actually quit using. Others began to avoid me. I stayed
busy concentrating on not using. It was a little depressing, in a way. I
wanted so much to help them change, but many just weren’t interested.

This is a difficult time for the recovering person. There is a sort of
lag-time between leaving old unhealthy relationships and developing
new and better ones. It doesn’t happen overnight—but it will happen.

Trust the process and trust God to provide. For myself, I knew what was
at stake. I had to do this or soon return to the old life. The void in my
social life was going to be filled one way or another. This is one more reason
why support groups are important.

Recovery means making many changes,
and some are more difficult than others.

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recoveryBox Addiction Recovery App - Your Complete Accountability Sobriety Toolbox

Random Resource ThuRsday ~ Support Systems

Last post, we talked about the upcoming features being added into recoveryBox.  The Twitter and Facebook integration.  The premise being it's an extension of your support system if you so desire.

Today is Random Resource ThuRsday and I'd like to continue with the concept of Support Systems.

I ran across a post just about this idea and how it's more than an accountability partner by David Sack MD. Here is the blog post link for the entire article or read below for bits and pieces.

Dr. Sack refers to a piece of addiction treatment that is tried and true - the Support System.
This is where one tried and true component of addiction treatment – a strong social support system – can bolster long-term recovery. A social network can keep recovering addicts invested in their recovery program even if they lose motivation, get discouraged, or become complacent or over-confident.

Research suggests that social relationships provide emotional support, a sense of belonging and stress relief. While higher levels of social connection improve quality of life, lower levels have been linked to relapse.

Here are five steps that will lead the recovering addict to the support they need:

1. Ask for Help - it's NOT a sign of weakness he writes.  And I can attest to that.  Talk to a good friend, find a counselor, pray with a spiritual leader, involve the family (but make sure they are not CoDependent)

2. Choose wisely - this should go without saying BUT when we are in a state of despair, it's hard to figure out just who you can trust, or who really is stable enough to ask into our support system. There are always clues but if you are not sure ask for help in making that determination.

3.  Attend some sort of meeting - this is critical. It can be a traditional 12 Step meeting, it could be a group therapy meeting, Celebrate Recovery or combine them.  He suggests finding one with like addictions because of being able to relate to each other.  Having been through that I agree completely.

4. Remain focused - it's so easy to start feeling good and want to return to "normal life", but the reality is, recovery takes time and so be selective about the types of activities you return to.

5. Be patient - and goodness knows this one takes practice.  It's hard to open up because of leaving yourself vulnerable. You have to process everything you say and do on a daily basis.  Becoming engaged in social settings is not easy so don't be too hard on yourself.  Remember, there may have been bridges burned as well and repair work will take time.  I believe the more patient you are about recovery the better chance of you becoming recovered!

recoveryBox, the mobile iPhone app for addiction recovery can be a huge part of your support system. Use it with your sponsor/accountability partner, counselor, and soon social friends.  Keep yourself accountable to others and yourself.

If you haven't downloaded it yet, get it at the Apple Store today.