In the United States, 31.9 million people aged 12 years and older are current illegal drug users and have used them within the last 30 days. While going to rehab can help with your addiction recovery, dealing with addiction is a lasting process.
For many people, the hardest part of addiction recovery is staying sober after leaving rehab. Do you want to learn more about how you can achieve lifelong sobriety and reduce your risk of relapsing?
Keep reading this article for the top tips to follow to stay sober after treatment.
Create Supportive Relationships
One of the most important things you can do to stay sober after going through addiction treatment is to create supportive relationships. Often, people in recovery feel isolated, which makes it easy for negative habits to reemerge.
Having supportive relationships in many aspects of your life will help you stay sober after recovery.
It is also important that you avoid falling back into old relationships that may have contributed to your addiction. For example, if you have a group of friends that are still regularly using substances, spending time with them may be too overwhelming.
Instead, find people that are supportive of you by taking charge of your emotional support. This can be a support group, a partner, or even a mental health professional! If you are looking for recovery services to provide support, Hired Power can help!
Identify Personal Triggers
Another important part of recovery is learning to identify your personal triggers to prevent future relapses. There are many external triggers that may make it easy to start using again.
This may include certain people or places, situations, and even things that cause a lot of high stress. When you experience these triggers, it may lead to thoughts or cravings about your substances.
Learning to identify the triggers will make it easier to avoid them in the future and stay sober.
Join a 12-Step Program
Something else that can help you stay sober after rehab is joining a 12-step program. There are many programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) that help individuals in recovery.
It provides you with group discussions and an automatic support network of people in your same situation!
You can join a 12-step program anywhere across the nation to help you stay accountable for your sobriety.
Prioritize Exercise and Nutrition
When you are newly sober, it is essential that you prioritize proper exercise and nutrition. If you were addicted to a substance, whether it was alcohol or narcotics of some kind, it is likely that it affected your health.
Many drug addictions can lead to nutrient deficiencies, lost weight, and other health issues.
To combat this, you need to begin fueling your body with nutrient rich food! This will help both your physical and mental health. You also need to start working out consistently.
Exercise reduces stress, boredom, and even anxiety. Prioritizing a healthy lifestyle will help you feel balanced and will help you improve your overall health.
Have a Structured Schedule
Having a structured schedule is another important part of addiction recovery. When you have too much going on and too many things factoring into your life, it can add unnecessary stress and may trigger you to use substances.
When you have a structured daily or weekly schedule, it allows you to set goals for your recovery!
Plus, it helps as you are newly sober, as it will provide you with things to do each day and can even distract you from your cravings.
Avoid Old Habits and Routines
One reason why many people relapse after rehab is that they start going back to their old habits and routines. If you are staying in the same place and spending time with the same people where you first started using, it might be easy to slip back into your substance use.
To avoid this, you must stay away from the people who supplied you with your substances. You may also need to change other aspects of your routine to avoid these trigers.
Deal With Past Mistakes
Dealing with past mistakes is something that you cannot avoid during addiction recovery. It is part of ever 12-step program and many mental health professionals recommend finding ways to heal the past to improve your recovery.
It is common to cause harm to your friends and loved ones when you are using substances. However, failing to deal with these past mistakes can lead to guilt and emotional problems that may trigger a relapse.
While you cannot take back what you have done, you can find ways to repair the damages and make things right.
Celebrate Your Milestones
Finally, you should celebrate your milestones as you recover from an addiction! This is another important part of 12-step programs and individuals will often be rewarded with chips to mark their time in recovery.
When you are able to acknowledge the time and work you have put into recovery, it will be easier to stay motivated and stay on the path to lifelong sobriety.
Find ways to reward yourself without using drugs or alcohol. The best rewards are often experiences and activities that will help you stay motivated with your new lifestyle.
Stay Sober After Recovery With Each of These Tips
When you are going through addiction recovery, learning how to stay sober is the most challenging aspect. However, it is completely possible! By following each of these addiction recovery tips, you can enjoy sober living for years to come!
Do you want to learn more about addiction recovery? We can help! Our website features articles aimed to help you improve your health and lifestyle.
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