Getting sober is difficult, but staying sober is even more difficult. When you leave our high-end treatment centers, you will be on track to success. However, it’s still a hard road. A medical professional will help you continue treatment in the form of outpatient services or a 12-step program to ensure you get the help you need while transitioning back to regular life after rehabilitation. However, it would help if you took action, too. Here are 5 tips for staying sober after addiction treatment.
We care about your success in reaching your recovery goals and hope these tips for protecting your sobriety are helpful.
1. Eliminate Temptation
Cravings, or urges to get drunk or high, may hit when you return home. You don’t want to make it easy for yourself to slip back into old habits. In fact, you want to make a relapse difficult. Do this by reducing or eliminating temptations and triggers from your environment. To do this, get rid of drugs and alcohol in the home.
One of the best tips for staying sober is to avoid going to places where dangerous substances are readily available to you. You may even need to limit the amount of contact you have with certain people in your life if they are not good influences. As you get used to a sober life, you may start to allow more and more temptation back into your life. Be careful. Many people report that the cravings never go away, and you don’t want to give in after being successful for so long.
2. Surround Yourself With Sober People
The people you surround yourself with directly influence you and the decisions you make. It’s important to have sober friends to do things with. They can help keep you away from drugs and alcohol. They can also act as an example of how to behave around people who do partake.
While you may not get rid of bad influences in your life completely, it’s good to surround yourself with sober people, too. Another of the best tips for staying sober is to make sure that the people around you are positive and supportive of your goal of sobriety. This positivity will help you believe that you can do it, and you will start to be more positive yourself.
3. Care For Your Mental Health
Many addiction problems derive from mental health issues, such as depression, mania, or anxiety. People may use toxins to either numb the pain or provide an adrenalin rush. A therapist can provide support for both the mental health issues and the addiction problem.
By finding the root of your mental problems, the therapist can get to the bottom of why you feel the need to use substances in the first place. A therapist generally offers one-on-one services, but you can look into group sessions or family sessions, too. If the therapist recommends it, a psychiatrist may prescribe medication. Of course, there are other ways to care for your mental health, too. Other tips for staying sober include meditateion, creating art, or focusing on your career.
4. Stay Healthy
Recovery is all about your health. Drugs and alcohol take a pretty serious toll on the body, and eliminating them will dramatically improve your health. Keep the momentum going by improving other aspects of your health as well. Eat better by eating fruits, vegetables, lean protein, and whole wheat. It would help if you also exercised a couple of times a week. This could be the start of a health journey that could put you in better shape than you’ve ever been.
5. Celebrate Milestones
It’s important to celebrate the milestones in your sobriety. This activates the reward center in your brain and can encourage you to keep up the hard work. Give yourself a treat when you reach 30 days sober. When you reach one year sober, give yourself an even better treat. This should teach you to celebrate everything in your life, not just sobriety.
Celebrate when you do well at work or when you accomplish a goal. Don’t be afraid to include the people who have played a part in your recovery to celebrate with you to show them how much their support helped you.
Getting out of recovery is only the beginning. You still have a long way to go, and you want to put yourself in the best position possible to succeed. With a good treatment plan and a positive environment, you can stay sober. Learn more about how to get and stay sober by contacting Design for Change Recovery today.
