Drug abuse affects the brain and other major organs of the body very badly. It can make it difficult to think straight and cause other health issues. Living a healthy life helps improve organ health and get the body back on track.
How to Rebuild Your Life: Strategies for Long-Term Recovery
When you engage in physical activity, you’ll be reducing your risk of premature death by 20%–35% and significantly improving your mental health, aiding in addiction recovery. No doubt, addiction caused some health issues and unhealthy changes in your body. Now that you have moved past substance abuse, rebuilding your life after addiction it’s time to take your health back into your hands! Once you’ve completed a stay at an addiction treatment center like an Orange County rehab and return to life, the real work to restart a new life after addiction begins. Addiction is a complex intermingled pattern of physical and mental discomfort.
Build a Support Network
Another thing to be careful of is to avoid replacing one addiction with another. Additionally, you should avoid performing dangerous activities in an attempt to recreate the rush of adrenaline that comes from using drugs. We will come back to discussing what you can do to stay drug free and find success in life. First, let’s cover a few things that you may want to avoid so that you will have the best chance for good health and long-term sobriety.
- We all make mistakes; what matters is that we learn from them.
- Cochran wasn’t ready to leave Saban, but as his addiction worsened over the next few years, he finally agreed to join Smart at Georgia.
- Write about the things you truly enjoy doing and see if you can refine those thoughts to break through and figure out what might work best for a future career or hobby.
- That’s not to say that you should only hang out with people who are sober.
Create a sober friendship network
Recovery is a lifelong journey; a new routine can replace uncertainty and fear with stability and security. Research approximates that it takes days for an individual to form new habits and integrate them into their regular routines. During the first two months of sobriety, newly implemented activities may become instinctive and familiar, providing a solid foundation for recovery.
Make a plan to overcome challenges and setbacks
- By reaching out to your therapist and support group for guidance, together, you identify any triggers that led to your relapse and develop strategies to manage stress more effectively.
- If a person can’t forgive you right away, don’t get angry, but don’t beat yourself up either.
- Acknowledge the mistakes of your past, apologize for them, and then move on.
- Cochran returned to Georgia to prepare for the abbreviated 2020 season.
- For example, some people, after quitting drugs, get in the habit of shoplifting.
- When Saban left Michigan State to take over the Tigers in 2000, he hired Tommy Moffitt, Cochran’s strength coach in high school, to oversee his weight room.
Keep persevering, accept the situation and in time they may choose to forgive you. Staying persistent in recovery means pushing through these frustrations and continuing along the path of recovery. Recovery can be challenging, and it is critical to be honest with yourself when you are struggling to prevent relapse. Specific – To set clear goals, you are effectively communicating what you want to achieve. These are well-defined goals that help you understand what you want and the why behind it.
The website Heroes in Recovery is full of inspiring stories of people who are successfully battling addiction. This site is great because you realize that you are not alone and that everyone is dealing with a mental health issue of some sort. Once in recovery, consider returning to school or seeking vocational training to improve your job prospects.
Practice Healthy Coping Mechanisms
They keep a watchful eye on you at dinners and parties as they drink glass after glass of wine, beer, or cocktails. Modern security systems employ high-tech, sophisticated software that time stamps and matches purchases with camera footage. For example, some people, after quitting drugs, get in the habit of shoplifting. Most often, this behavior is not because of a lack of resources or a need to steal due to hunger or poverty.
There are alternatives to spiritual recovery programs.
It’s likely that some of the people in your life are wary of trusting you completely or believing that you are truly trying to change. If you think of it from their point of view, they probably have reasons for those feelings. So instead of getting frustrated, work on communicating that you understand their position and don’t expect an immediate improvement in the relationship. Make it clear that you know you will have to work to regain their trust and that you are open to doing what it takes. See, if you suffered from addiction, you struggled with one of the most difficult and complex diseases in the world. Substance abuse is a disease that literally rearranges the brain and creates a dependency that can’t be broken easily.
Top 10 things to do when learning to love yourself and reclaiming your life after addiction
If you have experienced severe addiction, you faced some of the worst and most complex diseases in the world. Forgiving yourself can give you everything you need to move forward. Do not blame yourself or feel ashamed of how you experienced something that happened.
