Relapsing during addiction recovery is when the urge to use overwhelms you to the point where you fail to resist it, and you find yourself using again. This is more than just a simple error or mistake – to most people, it’s an act of self-betrayal that can take a lot of emotional strength to overcome. Not only do you have to come to terms with the fact that you’ve gone against something very important to yourself, but you must find a way to forgive yourself to move forward and do your best in preventing relapse before it happens.
Addiction recovery is very much about learning to come to terms with your past, and promise to yourself that you will do better – not just for others, or out of some misguided sense of punishment, but because that is the best thing for yourself and you want the best for yourself.
Many people ignore this crucial fact, covering up the self-love and gratitude aspects of addiction with distractions, pity or self-doubt. It doesn’t matter if you consider it spiritual or psychological – if you cannot come to terms with the things you have done and agree to give yourself another chance, then you won’t have the confidence in yourself to stick to recovery, and sobriety. This faith in your own abilities is tested even further after a relapse, and it is after these relapses that it is hardest to find hope for yourself.
That’s why we need the support and affirmation of others to help build us up to the point where we feel we are strong enough to turn our backs on addiction once and for all and help in preventing relapse. But you can prevent yourself from having to go through such a journey of relapse, through one straightforward way: Improving yourself.
By improving yourself and molding yourself in recovery to be someone you can be proud of, you can help in preventing relapse by by fighting both the psychology of addiction, and how it feeds on our negativity, and the neurological effects that addiction has on the brain, by relearning how to use your reward system effectively and working on the parts of your brain that may have been damaged from drug use. Here are a few example ways in which to improve your chances of preventing a relapse in the new year, and over years to come:
Preventing Relapse: Take Up Painting Or Music
The effects of art therapy on addiction have been noted, but you don’t need to seek approval from a therapist or enter a controlled environment to begin learning an art form, and then experimenting with it. Art, however, takes time and patience, and a lot of focus. This can be especially frustrating to someone in early recovery, who may be struggling with the neurological consequences of addiction, and their effects on both a person’s behavior and cognitive ability.
Thus, art can be an effective way to train these faculties, and learn the reward behind spending countless hours being bad at something, only to get better, and receive the recognition you deserve for it, while discovering a creative outlet that allows you to convey emotion in times when words just will not do – an issue that many have over the course of their recovery journey.
Get Into Hiking
Nature has a profound effect on people who struggle with addiction – in fact, being one with nature has a profound effect on people in general. It is good for your health, both physical and mental, and in turn can be an effective way to help rehabilitate someone, and help in preventing relapse, after an addiction by taking them outside of the repetitive stimuli of the city environment or indoor world, and out into a world of fresh smells, incredible sights, and real living things.
The exact reason for why we feel good when we’re out in forests and parks isn’t entirely understood, but it is well understood that it is important for us to be outside occasionally. Hiking not only provides you with an opportunity to take in a breath of fresh air and take in all of nature’s sights, but it also provides you with the opportunity to get some exercise, without having to necessarily to do in the sterile environment of a commercial gym, or at home, where the motivation to exercise can be difficult to come by.
Exercise is something every human being needs to live a healthy life and keep a healthy body, both of which can make a difference when going through early recovery. But that does not mean you have to suffer to stay fit. If other forms of exercise don’t sit well with you, then hiking may be an enjoyable way to burn calories, stay strong, and help in preventing relapse all at once.
Try Out A Sport
For some, the one thing lacking when it comes to exercise is proper incentive. While good health and physical fitness are rewards in and of themselves, they don’t necessarily inspire a direct sense of accomplishment. Rather, they take years to materialize and maintain, and the effects of exercise are rarely seen in the mirror at a drastic pace. Change is constant, and it’s difficult to track your own.
A sport, on the other hand, is numerical and tangible. There is a sense of competition, either with yourself or with others. The incentives are clear, and depend entirely on your own effort and skill. The rules are set, fair, and reliable. All a sport needs is your input.
It’s a fantastic way to improve yourself – and a wonderful way to help in preventing relapse, by focusing your attention on something entirely different and entirely motivating. You don’t have to go pro – even something as simple as timing and tracking your jogging to improve distance and speed can become competitive, and give you a more engaging way to train, rather than following a program you find boring.
Learn To Cook
While it is a basic life skill and many people can cook, most people cannot cook well. Many people simply throw ingredients together to create a passable meal and satiate their hunger, not out of love for food or appreciation for the harmony between different combinations. If you’ve ever felt like cooking is something you could get into but never had the push to really try to, now may be the perfect opportunity for you to get started.
It has never been as easy to learn how to be a great cook than today. However, it still isn’t glamourous. Get ready for spending many hours doing tedious kitchen tasks, prepping ingredients, practicing your chopping, and learning to use all the utensils and tools of the kitchen.
It may take time, there will be failures and frustrations, but there are few things people respect as much as good cooking. Everyone needs to eat, and if you happen to be extremely good at making delicious things, you’ll have no trouble making plenty of new friends. Speaking of which:
Make New Friends
Drug addiction recovery can be quite lonely at times. You may have had to leave some friends behind when making the change over to sobriety, and even if you did reconnect with others, relating to addiction together – or to similar hardships – can be hard. Tackling these issues on your own is even harder.
With some friends, that can all become much easier. Among the many other ways of preventing relapse in the new year, take it upon yourself to meet new people, and connect with them on things that truly matter to you.