How to Avoid Self-Sabotage in Recovery
Once you’ve completed a drug or alcohol treatment program and re-acclimatized yourself to daily life, the genuine hard work of life in sobriety begins. Self-sabotage in recovery is common, especially in the early stages. All the skills and wisdom your treatment team imparted to you become less useful if you aren’t willing to stick with your program and put in the effort. Here are some tips to help prevent a relapse and avoid undoing the work you’ve already done toward achieving sobriety.
1. Set New Boundaries
Your relationships with others can play a pivotal role in your successful recovery process. Healthy friendships will benefit you, but you may find the need to cut ties with people who aren’t supportive of your new goals and lifestyle. Anyone who enabled your addiction in the past could lead you astray now that you are clean and sober, whether they tell you they miss the “old you” or continue to drink in front of you, even after you’ve asked them not to.
2. Learn to Recognize (and Shut Down) Negative Self-Talk
You’ll probably experience days where everything is going smoothly and you feel like you’re on top of the world, but there will also be rough patches where nothing seems to go your way. Don’t succumb to the negativity that threatens to drag you down. Telling yourself things like “I’ll never be able to do this” is setting yourself up for failure. Negative self-talk is one of the most common forms of self-sabotage in recovery. You’ll need to learn how to identify that tiny voice in your head and tell it to leave you alone.
3. Ask for Help When You Need It
Isolation is a quality that characterizes addiction. Addicts learn to spend time alone, walling themselves off from the world around them. You will need to unlearn this habit, and quickly. Addiction recovery is one of the most significant challenges you’ll ever face. No matter how motivated or committed you feel, there will be times when you falter and need the support of your friends, family or 12-step group to pick you up and be there for you. Asking for help is not a form of weakness or an admission of failure.
4. Use Stress-Management Techniques
The world is a stressful place, and there will always be demands on your time. Stress is one of the most common relapse triggers for recovering addicts. Employing stress-management techniques like yoga, journaling, meditation and exercise is one of the best ways to avoid self-sabotage in recovery.
5. Don’t Skip Recovery Meetings
Your recovery meetings are an integral part of your success, especially in the earliest stages of your sobriety. Many addicts fall into a trap of assuming they’re “all better” and stop attending their regular group meetings, believing they’ve made all the progress they can. If you feel your current group isn’t as helpful for you as it could be, by all means, mix things up and try a different one, but don’t stop going altogether.
6. Follow a Healthy Lifestyle
Sometimes, recovering addicts try other means of capturing a buzz after they quit drinking and using drugs. For example, you might be tempted to drink too many overcaffeinated beverages, or eat a lot of sugary snacks. For your addiction program to be at its most effective, you must stay healthy and fit. Shun processed foods in favor of fresh produce. Stay hydrated, exercise regularly and get plenty of sleep, and you’ll have more of the energy you need to rebuild your mental and physical health.
Steer Clear of Self-Sabotage in Recovery
Addiction recovery is your opportunity to become the best version of yourself by breaking bad habits and avoiding the impulse to set yourself back. Use what you learn from your treatment program to be more resilient and discover all the amazing potential that awaits you. You’ll need to be patient if you hope to achieve the breakthrough moments associated with getting clean and sober.
To learn more about Beach House or the recovery options we offer at our beautiful Florida rehab center, call 877-370-2108 or reach us online today.