When we’ve had enough in our active addiction and are ready to make that change to turn our lives around, we ask for help, or some of us may get an intervention, or legal issues made us quit using. Whatever the case may be, the steps toward recovery usually start with discontinuing the use of drugs and going to detox for a bit and continuing to a treatment center and hopefully completing with a set of coping skills that we can use when life shows up. But no matter how much time we have or how much education on recovery we’ve obtained, relapse will always be fear, so follow the five rules of recovery and relapse prevention, and your life can get easier.
There are five pretty simple rules that can make your life in recovery easier. These rules can be guidelines to double-check if you are ever in doubt or get scared that you might relapse because, believe it or not, if you have broken one of these rules, there is a chance you are on your path to relapse.
1. Change Unhealthy Life Habits
When you are inactive addiction, you gather many unhealthy habits and negative patterns. However, when you change the everyday habits in active addiction, you start gaining new healthy habits that can become positive patterns.
One way to change your bad habits is to avoid high-risk situations like people, places, and things. This means:
People – People you used with or people who encouraged you to use are common triggers for relapse.
Places – Places where you use or where you went to get drugs or alcohol are common triggers.
Things – Things that you use with, such as drug or alcohol paraphernalia, are powerful triggers.
Until you get a good hold on your addiction and are no longer triggered, its best to avoid your drinking friends, your favorite bar, and having alcohol in the house, avoid people who you used with, driving by your dealer’s neighborhood, and remove all paraphernalia from your house. Of course, you can’t avoid all high-risk situations. But if you’re aware of them, you won’t get caught off guard, and you will have a chance to prepare yourself. If you’re not prepared, small triggers can quickly turn into strong cravings. Then those cravings can turn into a relapse.
2. Ask For Help And Develop A Sober Family
Addiction can be lonely. Most people usually end up cutting off everyone and using on their own. When you are trying to recover, doing it alone can be difficult and impossible. Recovery involves learning to reach out and ask for help. Besides family and therapists or counselors, you can go to support groups such as AA or NA, where everyone has more or less been in your situation and are more than likely willing to give you advice or listen to your troubles.
3. Be Honest
While you were in your active addiction, you were lying 24/7 from where you were, where you were going, why you needed money, and it just became second nature after a while. Recovery requires complete honestly to yourself and everyone around you. If you are lying, you are hiding something to do well in your recovery.
4. Practice Self-care
When you use, you are usually trying to escape some kind of feeling and want to escape and feel, so you can say that drugs and alcohol were your forms of self-care and self-medication.
In recovery, you can still self-medicate and be selfish and treat yourself, so you feel better in tough situations. You just have to find different and healthy ways to do this. Such ways can be taking a walk on the beach, meditation, yoga, going to the gym, reading a book, and so many other ways you can relieve your stress or anxiety. Sooner or later, these healthy activities become habits and second nature when you start feeling the least bit off.
5. Don’t Try To Cut Corners
When you are serious about your recovery, there should not be any negotiating or cutting corners. Recovery will be tough and won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. So give yourself a chance, and you will be grateful that you did after waking up sober and happy day after day.
At Addiction Recovery Institute of America, we offer safety and comfort for men and women affected by addiction. Strengthen your recovery in a caring, supportive, and structured environment. Call us now to continue down your road to recovery.
Start Your Path Of Recovery Today At Aria Fl
The Addiction Recovery Institute of America understands that there are many ways to treat substance use. Every person’s circumstance is different. Additionally, factors like age, medical history, family history, the quantity of the substance used, and many other factors need to be individually addressed.
To ensure that each of our clients can reach their recovery goals, the addiction specialists at ARIA customize each program to their unique needs. We also offer the full spectrum of drug and alcohol rehab programs so that individuals can get the tools they need for lasting sobriety, no matter the severity of their addiction.