Treatment

Setting boundaries is an essential part of the recovery process. Most people think this relates only to setting boundaries with others, but setting boundaries with themselves is a pivotal aspect as well. Personal boundaries are the mental, emotional, and physical limits we decide to hold ourselves accountable to as we navigate the world. Setting boundaries is not always easy, but the benefits they will bring to you are worth any initial discomfort.

It is sometimes easy to forget the weight our words of encouragement and praise carry and their effect on others. Being intentional about sharing the good you see in your loved one’s progress in recovery can assist them to stay motivated as they encounter the ups and downs along their path of sobriety. Actions such as sharing praise or rewarding someone when they exhibit a healthy change in behavior crucial to their recovery, are examples of positive reinforcement.

Your body and mind respond to situations and circumstances, but you can use willpower to mold your choices. Willpower is highly contagious, especially in treatment and especially when it creates positive results. Many people understand that by using your strength and mindset, you can achieve anything. Willpower gives you the motivation to pursue a goal in life and offers self-control, but how does willpower work with addiction recovery? Can it influence others?

Trauma has a way of affecting us in not just an emotional sense but also our physical bodies. Because of its effects on the brain, our mental and physical functioning will change due to trauma. Although trauma can alter our bodily functioning, the body has an amazing healing process when unprocessed trauma gets reintegrated into the mind. In addition, many researchers believe that working to release the energy of stored trauma in the body will also help release the tissues and muscles that have been locked in a holding response pattern since the initiating traumatic event.

When applying your mind to something, you can visualize the outcome before acting upon it. Visualizing yourself in addiction recovery is vital to the success of your recovery goals. When you aim to change a habit you have in your life, visualizing the result can help you achieve it. Visualization creates positive habits and progress towards your self-growth and future, and it makes all the difference in the path to recovery.

Cravings are an unfortunate inevitability throughout the recovery process. They can be extremely intense in the early phases of recovery, such as during detox and residential care, but can persist throughout any stage of recovery. Those who have worked hard to maintain their sobriety for years can still experience cravings from time to time. Each individual needs to remain prepared to combat these intense feelings to avoid regressing to more destructive practices regardless of the length of their sobriety. Cravings can manifest in many ways. While some may stem from identifiable sources or stressors, others may be unclear in their roots and need more focus and dedication to uncover their origins.

In the world of recovery, hitting “rock bottom” has become somewhat of a right of passage to get someone struggling with addiction to seriously consider getting help. However, is hitting bottom, or reaching your lowest personal point in addiction, truly a necessary step to precede getting help? The fact is that addiction is easier to treat when treated earlier, so getting help before hurting yourself or others is a much better option before waiting to hit rock bottom.

Addressing and overcoming an addiction to drugs or alcohol is a taxing experience, and the ongoing process will have many ups and downs. It is essential that each person find their own methods of maintaining motivation throughout the process and maintain sobriety after one’s treatment program has ended. Motivation is a critical part of every step of recovery and helps keep each person moving to reach their next goal or milestone in their sobriety. However, it is also common for an individual to harbor some resentments or reluctance to participate in a recovery program or be less than enthusiastic about many therapeutic approaches. Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) is an approach designed to help an individual become better equipped to move through a recovery program successfully and find a personal stake in recovery and reason for achieving sobriety.

Rehabilitation programs do an excellent job of orienting you to a daily routine that keeps you accountable for your commitment to substance abuse recovery. After you’ve left the comfort and safety of a facility, finding a new routine is one of the main keys to maintaining the success you’ve achieved from treatment and continuing your journey toward sober living. The emotions one feels in these early days of recovery are anything but easy, and having a plan of what to do when painful emotions surface helps reduce any chances of backsliding. Finding the right approach for you when effectively managing the turbulent emotions in early recovery takes time. Everyone will have their unique formula of what works best for them. If you don’t know your preferred coping mechanisms, the list below details some good places to start calming any anxious thoughts about substances that arise.

The SODA technique may be a beneficial tool to implement into your daily life if you struggle with anxiety. This method is used to reframe a situation or negative thought, and it’s a very simple way to bring in mindfulness and de-escalate anxious thoughts and feelings surrounding a given situation (and no, it doesn’t have anything to do with drinking something!) SODA refers to the acronym stop, observe, detach and affirm, and practicing SODA helps to bring the out-of-proportion and exaggerated thoughts typical to anxiety back into a more balanced view. By following and practicing each step, you can build more awareness of your inner thoughts, evaluate your mindset and create a more positive, optimistic attitude. Thoughts are an extremely powerful component of what we feel and how we behave, so it is through changing your thoughts that you can ultimately change any behaviors that do not serve your greatest good.

Over the past twenty years, no drug has seen a higher increase in overdose deaths like opioids. The opioid epidemic killed 49,860 people in the year 2019 alone, with its deadly grip affecting people of all backgrounds and demographics. With its effects so far-reaching and devastating, those suffering from opioid dependency need viable treatment options as part of the solution to ending the opioid crisis. One of the popular clinical treatment options available for those recovering from opioid abuse is the Vivitrol shot.

Learned helplessness usually has a role to play in most individuals’ dependency. Either learned helplessness was a causative force in the inception of their dependency, or they developed learned helplessness in the process of failing to quit and perpetuating it. Whichever way learned helplessness affects your dependency, the good news is that it can be unlearned given the right tools.