How to Turn Addiction Recovery Into a Fresh New Start for Your Life
Today's post comes from a special guest, Rufus Carter from Recovering Works. Recovering Works is a resource for individuals who have a substance abuse disorder and are looking to get back on their feet. On his site, Rufus talks about his personal journey from recovery to establishing a career for himself. Fast forward to today and he is now a personal trainer. Go Rufus! Here is his take on how to turn addiction recovery into a fresh start.
When you think of rehab, you may focus on recovering from your addiction. But addiction recovery can be a time for renewal in other areas of your life too. You can use this time to make some real changes, like the ones below, and make a real impact on your long-term recovery.
Make a Move and Make It Less Stressful
When you are recovering from an addiction, it’s important to distance yourself from your triggers. Triggers are often emotional, but they can be connected to physical objects as well, including your home and neighborhood. So, it may be helpful to relocate in order to give yourself a fresh start, but moving can be very stressful. It’s a big change to your life and there are so many steps to take into account from start to finish. To make things easier and reduce the stress that can lead to a relapse, use this helpful move planning tool from Angie’s List to help check tasks off of your list. Useful tips include downsizing your belongings to make your move less overwhelming and making sure your utilities and address are switched to the new place.
Connect with Positive People Who Support You
A change of address can be a good thing when you are in recovery, but often what’s really needed is a change in your relationships. Many times, the people you were friends with in the past are also the people with whom you practiced your addiction, which makes them a trigger as well. Even if your friends or loved ones never drank or did drugs with you, those negative relationships can be detrimental to your long-term recovery efforts. You need to learn how to move past negative connections without feeling cut off from people as a whole. Be firm in your efforts to end your toxic relationships, allow yourself some time to process the loss, and then get back out and make new friends. Know that you are worth getting to knowing, and make an effort to connect with people who have similar healthy interests as you.
Ask Loved Ones to Help Hold You Accountable
Sometimes, you need a break from people in your life, while other times you need your friends and family members to make your recovery work. Social accountability can be a helpful tool in attaining and maintaining your sobriety, so reach out to people you trust for support. That could mean attending group meetings to find a supportive sobriety partner or simply celebrating your recovery successes with your loved ones. Those positive affirmations can mean so much when you are trying to overcome something so complex and difficult. To help your family and friends, share some sobriety support tips with them so they will know the best ways to help you. Maybe you need someone to be on call at all times, or you may just need some honesty. Whatever will help your recovery, don’t be afraid to ask for it.
Support Your Recovery with Healthier Habits
As you step into this new chapter in your life, you’re going to be making some of the big changes listed above. It’s important to note, however, that making smaller modifications may be equally effective for encouraging your recovery. Health experts and addiction researchers are beginning to see a strong connection between exercise and sobriety. Devoting time to running, swimming, or other fitness activities provides a distraction from routine cravings, but exercise can also provide relief from the mental health issues that are at the root of many addictions. So, how can you make fitness a part of your daily routine without adding more stress to your life? You could use a fitness app to keep track of your exercise goals and clean up your diet too.
When you make the decision to address your addiction, you are doing much more than breaking the cycle of alcohol or drug abuse — you are opening up your life and heart to new beginnings. So, make this time of renewal count by making positive changes to the areas of your life that matter the most to your recovery.
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