How to Rebuild Your Life After Addiction
Beating addiction is possible. A poll conducted in 2012 revealed that more than 10 percent of all Americans have beaten an addiction to either drugs or alcohol.
But life after addiction is far from easy. While you might think you’re out of the woods after beating an addiction to drugs, alcohol, or something else, the truth is that you have to continue working at your recovery in order to avoid relapsing.
How is this possible? There are a few steps you should take when rebuilding your life after addiction if you want to be successful. Check them out below.
Create a Daily Routine
In the beginning, life after recovery can feel strange. You likely used to spend the majority of your days drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs, which didn’t leave much time to do other things.
Now, you seemingly have all the time in the world and don’t know what to do with it.
If you meander throughout life without any sense of purpose, there’s a good chance you will end up turning back to the alcohol or drugs that put you in this position in the first place. Rather than going that route, come up with a daily routine and then stick to it.
You should physically sit down with a paper and pencil and create a schedule for your day. That schedule should list everything from what time you will eat breakfast to what time you will go to bed–and everything in between!
By setting a schedule for yourself, you will keep your body and, maybe more importantly, your mind busy at all times. It will prevent you from slipping back into bad habits because you have too much free time on your hands.
Incorporate Exercise Into Your Routine
Those who are addicted to a substance usually don’t spend much time caring for their bodies. They’re too busy putting bad things into their bodies to worry about exercising and eating right.
As part of your life after addiction, you should make a concerted effort to eat better. You should map out a daily menu for yourself and find ways to give your body the nutrients it needs.
You should also consider either joining a gym or going to a park every day or every other day to exercise. Exercise has proven to be beneficial to those recovering from addiction.
While you might be incredibly out of shape now, you can get your body back into shape within just a few weeks and start feeling better because of it.
You have put your body through hell in recent years due to your addiction. Why not take the time to do something good for it by exercising? It will rehabilitate your body and give you something to do other than think about your addiction and the profound effect it had on your life.
Make an Effort to Learn Something New Every Day
When you’re recovering from addiction, you spend a lot of time learning about both yourself and the addiction that was robbing you of the experience of living your life.
You likely spent hours either learning from others as part of a group or learning from books that you read about addiction.
Why stop learning now that you’re done living the life of a drug addict?
You should take the free time you have now and use it to continue to educate yourself. And you don’t necessarily have to just spend time learning about addiction.
You can learn how to cook. You can learn how to knit. You can learn how to do, well, just about anything.
Learning is something that can be fun, and you will likely appreciate the opportunity to learn a lot more now that you’re sober. You will remember the things you learn and take pride in retaining information.
Learning will help to make your brain strong again. You will enjoy rebuilding your life after addiction when educating yourself is a part of it.
Continue to Get Treatment for Your Addiction
The recovery process is never truly over for someone struggling with addiction. You might not have cravings for alcohol or drugs anymore, but that doesn’t mean you’re ready to stop attending meetings or seeing a therapist for your problem.
While you might be inclined to move away from treatment, you should continue to do whatever it is that got you beyond your addiction. You might feel strong right now, but all it takes is one weak moment to slip back into a really dark place.
Continuing treatment will give you a solid support system and ensure you don’t lose track of all the progress you’ve made. It will also provide you with a chance to help others you might encounter along the way.
Keep in Touch With Those in Your Social Circles
One of the worst things you can do during life after addiction is isolate yourself from your friends, your family members, and others who helped you battle your demons.
When you lose touch with them, that’s when trouble can creep up again.
While you might be ashamed of some of the things you said and did while battling addiction, don’t lose sight of the people who were there for you when you needed them most. They are likely ecstatic about your current condition and want to continue to see you do well in the world.
You should make it a point to see friends and family as often as you can. If nothing else, it will guarantee that you always have someone to talk to if you ever need it.
If you’re not ready to start attending social gatherings right away, that’s OK. You can start small and begin by meeting with one or two people at a time.
But over time, it’s a great idea to allow your social circles to grow again. Being surrounded by others is an effective way to avoid the temptations of addiction.
Do you feel like life after addiction is starting to get the better of you?
Call us at (888) 700-5053 and we would be glad to answer your questions. Take back your life by starting your journey today.
