As you work through the process of addiction recovery, you may hear stories of people who stay trapped within the cycle of addiction and seem to be in and out of treatment forever. You may even be one of these people. Either way, the idea of needing to return to treatment or feeling like you can’t make progress can be very frustrating.
However, it is possible to do things differently and complete treatment with results that you can maintain. Recovery is a lifelong journey with many ups and downs, but there are things you can do to break through the roadblocks in your progress. Using these techniques, you can break free from the cycle of addiction and continue your success.
Understand What Success Looks Like for You
To determine what success looks like for you, review your list of goals you made during treatment and the reasons you wanted to achieve them. Close your eyes and picture who you are and where you want to be in one year from now, three years, five years, and so on. Adjust your goal if necessary and observe how you are currently working towards those long-term goals. Take one goal at a time and ask yourself: what could your life look like at those different points in the future if you accomplished that goal? What would it look like if you did not?
Success in recovery should mean that you no longer feel the need to use the substance you were addicted to, but it should encompass much more than that. After all, maintaining recovery naturally leads to success in other areas of life. Having gone through treatment, you will have more personal direction as well as more time and energy previously wasted on continuing your addiction that you can invest in other aspects of your life. What can being clean and sober do for your career? Your relationships? Your ability to achieve the items on your bucket list? To become who you want to be?
The more specifically you can picture what maintaining sobriety can enable you to do with your life, the more motivation you will have to succeed. Motivation is an essential foundation for the lifelong commitment of holding yourself accountable and putting in the necessary hard work.
Maintain Motivation
Though motivation is important, it is used most efficiently when coupled with an effective treatment that works for you. Since you have worked through a great deal of recovery already, motivation is a critical aspect to focus on to keep pushing you through. Learning about the different treatment options available and pinpointing exactly what has and has not been helpful for you in the past can help you determine your path going forward. If you find the treatment plan you have started is not working as efficiently as you desired, discuss different options with your treatment team and consider what adjustments you can make.
However, do not give up on a treatment plan prematurely. Most treatment options will not have instant effects. If you have earnestly engaged with your plan for a few months and are still not seeing progress, figure out which aspect of your plan may be lacking. It may not be the whole treatment plan but one small aspect of it that needs to change. Remember that, as with most things, treatment is a learning process and will likely take intelligent adjustments before you can make it a success.
Stay Consistent
One of the major reasons individuals fall back into the cycle of addiction after completing treatment is their inability to remain consistent. Engaging in habits and techniques that help you live without substances after treatment is essential. Recovery is a lifelong process. Returning to old habits after treatment can lead you back into the cycle of addiction.
Remaining consistent requires making good choices every day. Promise yourself that you will continue practicing the healthy mindsets and habits you have learned no matter how long ago you completed treatment. Use the techniques you developed to benefit you throughout your life. They are not meant to be used temporarily but should become a natural component of your lifestyle.
Be Proactive About Skill Retention
During treatment, you tried a variety of skills and techniques and discovered which ones made a positive impact on your recovery and overall well-being. It is important to remember the lessons you learned and remind yourself of the problems that substance use brought into your life. Remembering the importance of each aspect you learned will help you establish a form of retention leading to success.
To help make this process easier, maintain a journal after treatment. If you encounter any struggles or setbacks, write down details of the occurrence that you can reflect upon later. Having a journal to refer back to can drastically increase the retention rates of the concepts you have gained through treatment and put them to use in the real world. If you find yourself having a desire to fall into old habits or use substances again, review your journal entries and observe the way you felt when using them. This can help remind you that the substance is not worth the risks and recovery process for a second time.
Addiction recovery is not over after you complete treatment. To break the cycle of addiction, you have to make long-term adjustments to your lifestyle. Keeping the healthy habits you learned from treatment will help you maintain recovery. View the skills you learn in recovery as life skills, not temporary treatment skills. Find a treatment plan that works for you and use that information to adjust your lifestyle. Stay consistent with your progress, and don’t stop engaging in your new habits after completing the treatment phase. Work to retain the information you learn and keep it in the forefront of your mind for quick utilization. Take accountability for your choices and actions after leaving treatment, and always be aware of the risks of relapse. To learn more about how to be successful in recovery, reach out to Dream Recovery today at (949) 732-1960.
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