AACE Metrix

12/04/2026

12/04/2026

Supporting your body with balanced nutrition can play an important role in recovery. Visit our website for more information.

07/04/2026

Episode 2: You’re hiding more than you want to.

Sometimes substance use can gradually become something we keep private — avoiding conversations, downplaying how much we’re using, or feeling the need to manage it quietly on our own.

Carrying this alone can feel heavy. Feelings of secrecy or isolation are experiences some people report when they’re struggling with alcohol or other substance use.

Speaking with a qualified health professional may help create a safe space to talk openly and explore what support might look like for you.

If you would like to learn more about support options, visit our website.

04/04/2026

As the school term comes to an end, many teachers begin to feel the cumulative pressure of a demanding term. The upcoming school holidays can provide an opportunity to pause, reflect, and consider what support might be helpful moving forward.

Teaching is a profession that carries significant emotional and professional responsibility. If alcohol or other substance use has become a way of coping with stress, structured support may help you explore healthier strategies.

The AACE Metrix Program offers a non-residential, evidence-informed recovery program designed to fit around professional commitments. With flexible scheduling, it can be accessed during the school holiday period or planned around the next term.

If you’ve been thinking about making a change, this break could be a practical time to reach out and learn more.

📞 1800 468 001
🌐 www.aacemetrix.com.au

02/04/2026

31/03/2026

School holidays can be a chance to pause.

For many teachers, the school term can be demanding — long days, high responsibility, and little time to focus on your own wellbeing. As the holidays approach, it may be one of the few opportunities to step back and reflect on how you're really doing.

If alcohol or other substances have started to feel like a way to cope with stress, exhaustion, or pressure, you’re not alone. Reaching out for support can be an important step toward understanding what’s going on and exploring options for change.

Taking care of yourself matters too. If you would like to learn more about support options, visit our website.

27/03/2026

Episode 1: You’re functioning, but exhausted.

From the outside, everything might look fine. You’re working, showing up, and keeping things together. But inside, it may feel like every day takes an enormous amount of effort.

Constant exhaustion, even while managing responsibilities, can be a sign that extra support could help. Speaking with a qualified health professional may provide space to explore what’s going on and consider strategies that support your wellbeing.

If this resonates with you, you’re not alone.
If you would like to learn more about support options, you can visit our website.

09/03/2026

Putting life back together can feel overwhelming — but support is available. 🧩

The AACE Metrix Program is a structured, confidential outpatient program designed to support people who may be experiencing challenges with alcohol or other substances. Our approach is evidence-based and delivered by qualified clinicians with experience in addiction treatment.

The program is designed to fit around work and family commitments, providing a private pathway for people seeking professional support.

If you’re considering support for yourself or someone close to you, you can learn more or contact our team for information.

📞 1800 468 001
🌐 www.aacemetrix.com.au

26/02/2026

The word "addiction" is derived from a Latin term for "enslaved by" or "bound to." Anyone who has struggled to overcome an addiction — or has tried to help someone else to do so — understands why.

Addiction exerts a long and powerful influence on the brain that manifests in three distinct ways: craving for the object of addiction, loss of control over its use, and continuing involvement with it despite adverse consequences.

While overcoming addiction is possible, the process is often long, slow, and complicated. It took years for researchers and policymakers to arrive at this understanding.

In the 1930s, when researchers first began to investigate what caused addictive behavior, they believed that people who developed addictions were somehow morally flawed or lacking in willpower.

Overcoming addiction, they thought, involved punishment or, alternately, encouraging them to muster the will to break a habit.

The scientific consensus has changed since then. Today we recognize addiction as a chronic condition that changes both brain structure and function.

Just as cardiovascular disease damages the heart and diabetes impairs the pancreas, addiction hijacks the brain.

Recovery from addiction involves willpower, certainly, but it is not enough to "just say no" — as a famous 1980s slogan suggested.

Instead, people typically use multiple strategies — including psychotherapy, group therapy and self-care — as they try to break the grip of an addiction.

Another shift in thinking about addiction has occurred as well. For many years, experts believed that only alcohol and powerful drugs could cause addiction.

Neuroimaging technologies and more recent research, however, have shown that certain pleasurable activities, such as gambling, shopping, and s*x, can also co-opt the brain.

Although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) describes multiple addictions, each tied to a specific substance or activity, consensus is emerging that these may represent multiple expressions of a common underlying brain process.

17/02/2026

This is recovery.

15/02/2026

🔹Relapse Warning Signs - by Addiction Actually🔹
🔹 By recognising these signs you may have a better chance to guard against relapse.🔹

🔹 1. Mental changes
🔹 2. Attitude changes
🔹 3. Behaviour changes

🔹 Scientific research tells us that relapse is a process consisting of three disintegrating phases: emotional, mental, and, finally, physical -- the point at which we cross over from high relapse risk - to actual relapse. Whether this is drugs/alcohol or behavioural/process addictions.

🔹 Throughout these phases there are plenty of warning signs - or red flags that something is not quite right, or something is definitely wrong with our recovery.

🔹 Warning sings reveal themselves as our inability to cope with our emotions, with changes in our thinking, attitudes and behaviours in recovery that -- if left unaddressed -- lead us straight back to active addiction.

🔹 Often relapse happens because we ignore these signs, preferring to believe the quality of our recovery is not suffering.

🔹 Based on the fact that we are not using drugs, drinking, gambling and so forth , we delude ourselves that we have nothing to worry about, that we are safe. Immune almost to relapse.

🔹 On the other hand, if we become aware of what is happening to us through recognizing these warning signs/red flags, then we can make healthy choices and take recovery measures to stop the process developing into a full blown relapse.

🔹 As a reminder of awareness and vigilance, the image in this post is a summary of the common changes that lead us down the slippery slope. It highlights changes in our thinking, directly to using again.

🔹 This is important learning point as no one is guaranteed to survive a relapse.

🔹 - Addiction Actually. December 2025. All rights reserved.
Image Credit : Hamrah Addiction Booklet.


🔹

31/01/2026

Addiction Actually - Expectations v. Reality.