Recovery not only requires you to quit the addiction, but it also includes rebuilding life after. Whether it’s changing your lifestyle habits or social circles, addiction recovery will inevitably need change. Here’s how you can start over after addiction.
Consult an Addiction Professional
Meeting with an addiction professional like a licensed alcohol counselor or psychologist can help you create an efficient intervention. For instance, for drug abusers, an addiction professional might suggest getting monitored Buvidal subcutaneous injections at intervals.
The shots keep individuals from experiencing the “highs” of heroin and other opioid use if they are tempted to use again. Professionals often include Buvidal and other medications as part of a patient’s comprehensive treatment program aside from standard counseling for severe cases.
Professionals can also suggest the best approach and help you seek the best treatments and follow-up plans to help you stay sober after addiction.
Join a Support Group
Peer-led support groups can be helpful when you’re trying to rebuild your life after addiction. From Alcoholics Anonymous to Gamblers Anonymous, joining these groups can help you find other people who can relate or deal with the same types of issues as you are. It’s a great way to keep yourself sober as people in these groups often hold each other accountable and often share inspiring success stories.
Create and Maintain a Regular Routine
An excellent way to keep yourself sober is to discipline yourself. You can do this by creating and maintaining a routine. It helps you by keeping your mind and body busy every day. After all, having excess unstructured time can increase your risk for relapse.
Explore Different Hobbies
Keeping yourself busy with productive activities or hobbies is a great way to prevent relapse after addiction. After all, being freshly sober can be challenging, especially if you don’t have a hobby to keep yourself distracted. So whether it’s learning how to play an instrument or exploring a new sport, get a hobby to help yourself.
Explore Issues Your Addiction Might Be Covering Up
Generally, most people resort to harmful coping mechanisms since they struggle with traumatic situations or difficult emotions that haven’t been processed. Instead of ignoring these issues and succumbing yourself further to your addictions, address them.
Explore your problems by seeking out a qualified therapist to help you see the story behind your addiction — and how you can overcome it.
Try to Experience Emotions Instead of Avoiding Them
People often get addicted to something to escape from feeling painful emotions. However, remember that it’s only a temporary solution and can make the problem much worse. To battle your cravings after fighting off your addictions, try to experience your emotions instead of battling them.
Painful emotions are usually held in the body and are experienced as tightness or constriction. You can fight this off by spending 5 to 10 minutes a day, meditating, and focusing on the sensations you’re feeling. Practice mindfully and honor or welcome any emotions you might feel.
Write a Journal
Writing a journal or journaling is one of the best ways to stay on track after battling addiction. It’s a helpful activity that can help you get painful feelings off your chest. So, whenever you want to indulge in your unhealthy desires, write the thoughts and feelings you’re experiencing at that moment instead. Doing this can take off your mind from the cravings.
This technique is best done before going to bed, especially if you often toss and turn, ruminating over stressful issues — and your past addictions.
Practice Self-care Every Day
After overcoming addiction, you should now be more aware of taking care of yourself. After all, self-care is a crucial part of life in recovery. It contributes to your health and well-being, maintaining a sense of balance in your life. Although the effectiveness of self-care practices vary significantly per person, these can be anything from meditating every day to taking up a new hobby.
Give Yourself Some Grace
No matter how much you discipline yourself and how hard you try, you’ll never be perfect. You’ll likely succumb to your desires, especially during early recovery. When this happens, don’t put yourself down. Give yourself some grace and move forward! An excellent way to fight this is by surrounding yourself with supportive people eager to see you through your success and failures.
Remember, rebuilding your life is a process, and starting over won’t happen overnight. It’ll take time, patience, and hard work. So, take it slow, and you’ll fully recover in no time!
Entering rehabilitation and becoming sober is difficult enough, but restoring your life after addiction is even more complicated. You’ll need to overcome your withdrawal symptoms and cravings, and it can be challenging. Fortunately, following the tips mentioned can make the process a bit easier — starting your road to recovery in full swing!
