Recovery is a process. Giving up an addiction leaves a lot of space and time in a person’s life. It creates a void. Along with that, recovering addicts have the task of learning a new set of coping skills for substance abuse. To live a healthy life, it is critical to find and utilize good coping methods.
Below, you will find a list of coping skills for addiction and ideas on how to start coping with triggers in recovery. Figuring out how to cope in a productive way is the key to recovering and working through addiction.
Concentrate on Mental Health
It’s important that people in recovery are able to express themselves in a way that works for them. It’s also important that mental health is not forgotten. Mental health coping skills in recovery can reduce stress. Methods include practising meditation, deep breathing and positive affirmations.
Express Pain and Anger
Sometimes, pain and anger cannot be looked past or fixed by trying to push past it. In this instance, it is helpful to channel those feelings and thoughts into something productive. For a lot of people, exercise is extremely helpful. Studies suggest that exercise may reduce or stop drug use.
Exercise has the potential to decrease substance use because it produces functional neuroadaptions, which influences an individual’s awareness of developing a substance use disorder, and serves as an alternative, non-drug reinforcer.
When an individual has substance addiction, it can lead to a causal decrease on exercise. This is because the time and income spent on recreational activities would be spend otherwise and the specific substance decreased the individual’s ability to engage in exercise.
You can also use and express pain or anger in other ways, like journaling, painting or participating in any other artistic activity.
Focus on the Positive
Negative thinking has a huge impact on recovery. Focusing on the difficult or hard parts of life can quickly lead to a downward spiral. That doesn’t mean that you should push aside negative things. However, learning to deal with them and then letting them go is one of the best coping skills for substance abuse.
In recovery, being honest is part of the healing process. Talking issues out with family, friends, or a trusted therapist is worth the time. Coping with triggers in recovery isn’t easy. Hiding the struggles that are faced day to day could lead to relapse. Choosing to be honest, instead, will lead to success.
You might be scratching your head when you see this term, “practising gratitude”. What does that mean? Well, practising gratitude is more than saying thank you when good things happen. Practising gratitude is about seeking things to be grateful for. It’s important to take note of the great things happening in life so that they can be recalled in tough times. A gratitude journal is a great method of coping with triggers in recovery.
When looking at coping skills for substance abuse, the most important thing to remember is that addiction is a struggle. Pain, anger and sadness come with recovery process and shouldn’t be ignored. The recovery process is a lot easier to deal with and more successful with the right coping methods. When you channel these feelings into something positive, they are much easier to overcome. Coping skills in recovery are necessary, but they don’t have to be complicated.
If you or someone you know has relapsed, the first step is detox. Neworld Medical Detox can start the road to recovery. Want to start your journey to a new world? Contact us today to see how we can help you get there.