Many people who struggle with addiction never get treatment. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is that they worry that they can’t put their life on hold while they go through addiction recovery. We have so many obligations and responsibilities that the idea of taking time off to heal can be just as scary as staying in the addiction. Putting your addiction recovery first involves rebuilding your foundation so that you can move forward with confidence and hope.
Initiating Addiction Recovery
The first part of addiction recovery can be the most grueling. You’ve been maintaining a particular routine for a while. Even if that routine isn’t healthy, you’re used to it. Change is scary even when it involves moving toward wellness and healing.
Putting your addiction recovery first is not selfish. Most people need to pull themselves away from the overwhelm of everyday life so that they can get away from the external stimuli that are driving them to use. Stepping away from work, family obligations and toxic relationships allows you to look inward. When you have time with yourself, you can focus on your needs instead of everyone else’s.
Dealing with your demons can be distressing, though. That’s why immersing yourself in treatment is one of the most effective ways of beginning your road to addiction recovery. You’ll have professional support and access to medically assisted treatments to curb cravings and help you manage withdrawal. You’ll be surrounded by a community of people who understand what you’re going through.
Change Is Necessary
It’s easy to resist the idea of change. Staying where you are is comfortable.
But your battle with addiction is not going to change unless you make some adjustments to your life. But so many people try to get clean while they’re entrenched in the triggers that lead them to use.
Your life is not going to change if you don’t change anything. That sounds simple and obvious, but so many people hope to shift their behaviors and patterns without varying anything else in their lives. When you avoid change, you make yourself vulnerable to retaining your destructive habits.
While you might feel as though you can’t leave everything behind to go to rehab, you need to ask yourself if it’s worth it to get a solid footing when it comes to addiction recovery.
Consider the following questions:
• Have you attempted addiction recovery on your own before?
• Was it successful?
• What changes did you make at that time?
• What other changes could you have made?
Answering these questions truthfully will help clarify your path to addiction recovery. Once you recognize the changes that you need to make, you must focus on those requirements. Taking care of your needs isn’t selfish. It’s the way to set yourself up for success in recovery.
Putting Your Addiction Recovery First After Rehab
Recovery is a life-long affair. You’ll need to focus on your efforts long after you leave rehab.
This is a challenge for many people. While you’re in acute addiction treatment, you have no choice but to put yourself first. After you leave rehab, you must learn how to navigate a world that feels as familiar as it is strange.
If you have had care and support around the clock, you need to ensure that you’re strong enough to stay sober on your own. You’ll have tools that you can use to cope with stress, manage cravings and reduce the risk of relapse. Putting your addiction recovery first means that you’ll need to draw on those tools frequently.
That might mean that you have to remove yourself from certain social situations. You may need to be more vocal about what you need from your spouse. You might require time to engage in practices such as yoga, meditation, exercise or nature walks to stay balanced. You must create positive behaviors that remind you that sobriety is still your main obligation.
Creating a New Life in Addiction Recovery
You should continue receiving follow-up care after you leave rehab. Perhaps you attend support groups or meet with your therapist weekly. Don’t let the duties of your everyday life interfere with your healing. You may need to ease back into the new routine. Jumping back into a stressful life can put you back where you started.
At the same time, you don’t want to isolate yourself in your new existence. But returning to the same social circle that you had before may not be the answer. If you used substances in certain situations or with specific people, you might need to avoid those circumstances now. It’s ok to form new bonds and break the ones that held you in an unhealthy place before.
Making addiction recovery a priority involves surrounding yourself with people who can support you. People who have dealt with recovery for more than a year can help you get through your own battles.
Many experts recommend that you don’t enter into a romantic relationship for one year after becoming sober. A budding romance can be fulfilling and exciting, but it can trigger hormones and behavioral patterns that are associated with your addiction. Plus, focusing on someone else distracts you from your more important work, which is to concentrate on yourself.
Navigating addiction recovery is not easy or straightforward. You may not be used to putting yourself first because you’ve always put your addiction first. Remember that you’ve chosen to move forward on this journey. Be gentle with yourself, but remain firm in your dedication to yourself and your addiction recovery.
For more information about our addiction treatment center, call 866.951.1824
