Category: Addiction Recovery

Why Long-Term Addiction Rehab Produces Better Outcomes

a man from a long term rehab center looking at the camera

Why Long-Term Addiction Rehab Produces Better Outcomes

For most people, rehab means a 28-30-day stint in a recovery clinic. That standard care often feels like a long time for many of us, especially when we have to take time off of work, away from childcare, and away from other life responsibilities and goals. At the same time, modern medicine and research increasingly shows that 30 days is not enough to offer the full term of support and care that most people need. For that reason, long-term addiction rehab, or rehab that extends up to 6 months, is increasingly available. Here, long-term addiction rehab facilities often adjust the treatment model to the patient. This means that you receive care for as long as your doctor and provider thinks you need it.

The 30-day treatment model still offers convenience and an alternative to those who can’t afford a longer term of care. However, continuing with outpatient treatment after an inpatient stay is still recommended. There are many reasons why long-term addiction rehab produces better outcomes than the traditional model. If you’re considering investing in longer care for you or your loved one, it’s important to understand why, and what the differences are.

Based on Biological Recovery

Most people are aware that recovering from the physical impacts of addiction can take a very long time. Few of us are aware of just how long. For example, the early impacts of addiction on the reward system typically fade within 30-90 days depending on the individual. After 30-90 days of treatment, your brain will be at a semi-permanent state of “recovery” for the next 12-24 months. From there, you’ll continue to heal, but more slowly.

For many people, it does take 1-2 years before your brain resembles a “control” subject of someone who hasn’t been addicted to drugs or alcohol. For example, it typically takes about 14 months for your brain to show levels of dopamine transporters at levels similar to those of persons who have never been addicted. Brain imaging from persons who were abstinent after alcoholism also showed that the longer individuals were abstinent, the better brain recovery was. For example, individuals who were abstinent for 10 months were significantly more likely to show normal volumes in areas of the brain related to executive control, salience, and emotional processing than individuals who were sober for 1 month.

On the other hand, your brain may never fully recover from addiction. The earlier you start using or drinking, the more permanent changes will be. For example, adolescents who heavily drink are likely to never have a brain that functions the same as a control subject who never had an addiction. Still, that just means you’ll need more ongoing support, rather than that you can’t live without drugs or alcohol.

Essentially, your body takes a long time to recover from addiction. Spending one month in rehab can help you to overcome the worst of cravings. For many others, that process takes up to 90 days. From there, you’ll still have a long uphill battle as your brain slowly returns to normal.

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Benefits of Long-Term Drug Rehab

Long-term drug rehab is typically delivered in one of several ways, depending on your resources and time. These include:

A longer stay of 90+ days in a rehab facility where you’ll receive full support and ongoing care in a facility, followed by aftercare when you leave
A 30-day stay in residential treatment followed by 6+ months of outpatient treatment
A 30-day stay in residential treatment followed by a stay in a sober home and 6+ months of outpatient treatment

Here, you’ll normally get a therapy and counseling schedule that’s very similar to what you’d get in a shorter-term rehab. However, it will extend for longer. You’ll also get additional tracks of long-term self-care, physical health, mental recovery, social recovery, etc., to help you rehabilitate back into your life, rather than just helping with the immediate pressing issue of the substance use disorder.

Building Structure – The longer your stint in rehab, the more time you’ll have to build the structure and habits that allow you to live in a healthy way. For example, most people are aware of the “24 days to build a habit” maxim. Few of us are aware that in reality that scales from 14-90+ days. The longer you have to repeat habits like daily exercise, cleaning, self-care, meals, etc., the more you’ll be able to make those routines a normal part of your life, without extra effort. Therefore, spending more time in rehab means you’ll have more time to make structure a normal part of your life. You’ll also have more time to benefit from structure set up by someone else, so you don’t have to worry about or think about things like ensuring you’re eating well, that you’re getting enough exercise, etc. You’ll get the healthy lifestyle while having the headspace to focus on your recovery, managing your mental health, and working through counseling and therapy.

Ongoing Care –Traditional rehab means you get a few weeks of detox followed by a few weeks of intensive therapy and care. With long-term rehab, you get detox and then as much ongoing therapy as you need. This means that your program is completely scaled to meet your needs to help you work through pressing issues as they come up and then to continue to help you build healthy coping skills, healthy life skills, social skills, etc.

A Focus on Life Rehabilitation – Long-term drug rehab means you can shift the focus of mental healthcare away from triage and focusing on immediate issues like cravings and addiction and towards helping you build the skills for a healthy and happy life. That means skills to cope with cravings, time management, emotional regulation, learning to build healthy and fulfilling social relationships, introducing self-care, learning to manage mental health, etc. That will, eventually, mean you’re set up to be much more stable and healthy when you do go back to your life.

Support as Long as You Need It – If you’re staying in rehab as long as you need it, you can get the care you need. That means continuing each part of your track until you’re actually ready to graduate. That means you can focus on recovering from and dealing with cravings for as long as you need. When you’re ready to move on from that, you can do so. You can spend as much time as you need to learn how to manage stress, emotional regulation, and anything else that comes up during the course of your treatment. That will, eventually, give you a much better baseline to deal with and manage yourself and your life. Recovery at your own pace also means you can get treatment for years on an outpatient basis, and you don’t have to stop going to care until you’re ready to do so.

Aftercare – It doesn’t matter how long treatment is, you should always get aftercare. That means options to restart treatment and to have checkups, ongoing sessions with counselors, and meetups with your peers. Long-term addiction rehab typically provides that as a standard part of treatment, meaning you know that when you graduate from care, you’ll have follow-up sessions to ensure you’re still doing well, you’ll have opportunities to reconnect with people, and you’ll have opportunities to give back where you want to.

Long-term addiction rehab is an investment because it takes more of your time and for longer. However, it provides you with a baseline to build a healthy life, to get treatment at your own pace, and to stay in care for as long as you need it. It’s not the right solution for everyone, but for many people, it means you’re opting into long-term support and structure, so you get what you need to stay clean and sober.

If you or your loved-one struggles from alcoholism or other substance abuse please contact us today and speak with one of our experienced and professional intake advisors about our alcohol rehab, detox, partial hospitalization, and residential treatment programs. 10 Acre Ranch also has specialty tracks like our pet friendly drug rehab and couples substance abuse treatment programs. We’re here to help you recover.

The Many Triggers that Precede Relapse

If you’re moving into recovery, you know that relapse is an ongoing threat to your health and your progress. Unfortunately, the risk of that will always be a problem, which is why many people in recovery continue to get help, go to aftercare, and continue to seek out both nonprofessional (self-help) and professional (counseling, therapy, sober homes, etc.) help. While it’s important to ensure that you have ongoing care and resources to reach out to in case something goes wrong, it’s also important to understand what can cause a relapse, how to recognize an impending relapse, and how to reach out for help.

That often starts out with understanding your triggers. Here, it’s important to keep in mind that triggers are unique and personal. Yours might be very different from what’s on this list. Therefore, managing yourself and your recovery will almost always include some amount of self-awareness, logging when you feel cravings, and figuring out what makes you crave drugs or alcohol. You can work on that with a counselor or therapist. However, many people experience some variation of the following triggers, which may help you to recognize and react to your own.

What Are Triggers?

Triggers are incidents which push your brain into a response to use drugs or alcohol. In some cases, the trigger is to directly drink or use. In other cases, the trigger is something that sets off a chain reaction that eventually results in relapse.

Triggers are things that most people think of as negative. For example, we’re all used to hearing about triggers for PTSD, where traffic jams can cause someone to relive the experience of a car accident or how fireworks may cause a veteran to relive an experience of gunfire or bombing. Yet, triggers can also come from positive events. A promotion may trigger you into feeling like you should get to celebrate and have a break and that might end up in a relapse.

It’s also important to keep in mind that triggers don’t have to kick off an immediate reaction. You could experience something that sets things in motion, resulting in a relapse in 2 months. However, the trigger remains the thing that kicked it off. Learning to recognize those triggers and cope with them in healthy fashions will help you prevent the relapse.

Triggers can be anything. They also vary per person. The things that cause you to drink or use won’t be the things that cause your peers to drink or use. However, there will be overlaps.

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What Are Some Common Relapse Triggers?

There are hundreds of things that can count as “triggers”. In fact, there’s no real limit on them. However, the following items include some of the most common triggers that precede a relapse.

1. Stress

Stress is the most common relapse trigger. It’s also one of the most common triggers for addiction. This means that stress management should be your number one priority in recovery. If you feel like you have to escape from life, you’re setting yourself up for a relapse. Learning stress management strategies, taking stress to directly reduce stress in your life, and proactively learning how to handle situations and incidents in a manner that mitigates stress will all help you to stay clean and sober. Taking steps might mean stepping to a less stressful job, trying to reduce commute, hiring a babysitter, working to live in a quieter area, getting rid of tasks that cause you a lot of stress, learning mindfulness or meditation techniques, improving how you dela with situations, and much more. The important thing is that you take active steps to reduce stress so that you don’t find yourself triggered into drinking or using. Here, talking to your doctor will be an important step.

2. Feeling Bad

Feelings of negatively such as anger, grief, sadness, loneliness, and boredom are all triggers for substance abuse. In fact, if it makes you feel like you want to get away from it, it’s probably a trigger for you. That’s especially true while you’re in recovery, because you’ve already trained your brain that drinking or drugs is a way out of whatever you’re feeling. If you feel bad for example because of a breakup, difficulties at work, a traumatic event, or even just feel lonely and sad, you’ll probably feel a lot of internal pressure to use. And, that can mean that you will be triggered to relapse because you’ll have pushed the buttons that lead to drinking or using again – providing you don’t find healthier coping mechanisms in the meantime. The bad news is that negative emotions are an unavoidable part of life. You’re going to want to start working on healthy ways to manage and cope with negative emotions, and the sooner you do it, the easier staying in recovery will be.

3. Feeling Good

It’s unfair that feeling good can also be a trigger, but it can be. Here, many of us associate good times with substance abuse. That can mean you are triggered into using by good times. For example, you get married, you get a promotion, a new car. What do you want to do? You want to celebrate. And, what do you associate with celebrating? Substance abuse. Being aware that this is a risk can help you to mitigate it. However, you’ll also want to make sure you have people to talk to, that you have a good idea of how to have fun without relapsing, and that you can figure out how to feel like you’ve had a party and an outlet without substance abuse.

4. Re-exposure

The most common trigger that most people run into is exposure. However, that can be very multifaceted. For example, re-exposure can mean:

To Substances – If you’re not used to being around a substance you might find that even being able to smell it is a trigger. People with alcohol problems can relapse after smelling old beer in a cup. For this reason, most people eventually want to try to expose themselves to substances to ensure they can stay in control and that they learn to cope with cravings under the supervision of a therapist or counselor. If you do that, it should be after discussion and agreement with your therapist. However, sudden exposure to a substance can mean you end up facing unexpectedly strong cravings, don’t even think before using the substance, or otherwise just react and end up relapsing. Habit can take over but so can strong cravings.
Locations – You might be surprised to walk into a room where you used to get high or drunk and find that you’re experiencing cravings or worse just reacting without thinking but it’s a common experience. It’s important to watch yourself around places you used to abuse substances in, places you used to buy substances in, and places where you used to hide substances. For example, most people are aware that a liquor store is going to be a problem if they have an issue with alcohol. Most people don’t realize that taking the route home from work past the liquor store can trigger an automatic reaction to park their car in the lot and get out. Those kinds of automatic reactions can be surprising, and they can result in relapse because you’re just following habits without thinking.
People – People can be triggering in multiple ways. For example, if you used to abuse substances with them. Or, if they resulted in you using to begin with. People who caused trauma that resulted in escapism, people who were around a lot when you were using, and people who cause a lot of stress can all result in a triggering experience. Here, you’re typically better off working towards exposure therapy and learning to cope with these triggers, because you can’t always avoid people.

In every case, re-exposure can put you at risk of a relapse.

Getting Help

Moving into recovery means dealing with yourself, your cravings, and your triggers. It means working to understand yourself, what makes you tick, and what makes you want to escape. It means talking to addiction treatment professionals and trying to work towards finding healthy coping mechanisms. And, it means having accountability so you can check in, have people help you when things are starting to go badly, and get support. Recovery is often not a straightforward path, you may have setbacks, you may need additional treatment, and you might slip up. It’s important that you have the support system in place to ensure you can get that help when you need it.

How Scripture Can Help a Christian in Recovery

a man recovering from addiction reading his Bible

How Scripture Can Help a Christian in Recovery

If you’re recovering from a substance use disorder, you’re likely moving back into life one-step at a time. Here, God and your spirituality should be an important part of that. That’s so much true that more than 70% of all addiction recovery centers in the United States rely on Christian-based programs to help guide patients into recovery. As you graduate those programs and move back into life on your own, you’ll still need God to help you. And, what better guidance than his Word in the form of Scriptures.

Here, it’s also important to keep in mind that it’s not enough to have a copy of the Bible. You need to invest, you need to go to church, attend your meetings, read from the Bible, and take steps to actively live in the right way. When you do, you might find that the Scripture is a powerful and motivating force, a comfort that you can turn to when you’re uncertain, and a source of wisdom you can look to again and again. You can find your favorite verses, take time to read chapters, and find time to spend with God every day through those verses.

Inspiration

The Bible is full of beautiful verses that are often extremely relevant to those of us struggling with addiction. The Bible even talks about recovering from addiction. In those verses, you can find inspiration, empowerment, and the realization that you are not alone.

“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” _ 1 Corinthians 10:13

You will take inspiration from things that matter to you. However, the Bible is a wealth of inspiration, stories of people who succeeded against terrible circumstances, and the ongoing reminder that God is there. Taking time to find inspiration, to remind yourself that you are walking paths that others have walked before you, and to remind yourself that you can do this will give you inspiration to keep going.

Motivation

Motivation is not how you make it through rehab and recovery. At the same time, it can be a powerful force in getting you started and keeping you on track. The Scripture can offer that motivation, reminding you of what you are fighting for, giving you reasons to fight, and reminding you of how good life can be when you’re healthy and whole.

“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but I will not be mastered by anything.” _ 1 Corinthians 6:12

Here, you can look for reasons to keep going, you can find scriptures that talk about who you are, that represent you, that represent who you want to be, and you can continue to find motivation in those, even as you grow and change in your recovery.

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Comfort

Making space in your life for daily prayer, reflection, and reading the Scripture can be meditative, calming, and a good way to find peace. It’s important to take time to Talk to God. But, it’s also important to take time to Listen. That means taking time to read his Word, even if it’s a few verses per day.

For example, it’s often a good idea to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk with God before bed or when you wake up. Following that with reading the Scripture gives you a way to calm down, to find peace, and to find comfort before moving to bed or before starting your day. Taking 15 minutes a day to read through the Scripture will give you insight and food for thought over the day, it will mean you’ll be in touch with God, and it means you’ll have a space of calm to look forward to every day.

Taking that time and space to listen to God also means you’ll be feeling more in touch with yourself, more able to experience gratitude, and better able to see the good things in your life. The perspective of the Scripture can shift your view of the mundane to one of gratitude, calm, and peace at what you have, and that can be a powerful part of recovery.

Guidance

Figuring out who you are as you move into recovery can be a challenge. For many of us, moving out of addiction means feeling line a sinner, like we are unworthy, and like we must earn our place at God’s side before we can call ourselves a Christian. The Bible is full of sinners and from Eve to Ruth to Saul on the Road to Damascus, who would later become one of the greatest of the Apostles, it’s full of redemption.

That can be an extremely important part of your recovery. That’s especially true if you’re looking to frame your past, to find a place to fit yourself in your faith, and to figure out how you can be Christian despite your past. The Bible will offer you that peace

That will help you find peace and find quiet, to find meaning, and to come to terms with yourself and with the world around you.

Getting in Touch with God

For many of us, the scripture is a way to talk to God, not to say things to him, but to listen. That means opening your mind and your heart to experience wonder, to acknowledge the higher power of God, and to recognize yourself in His plan. The Scriptures are the closest we have to directly listening to the Word of God, and making time to listen to read, to talk about, and to understand it is an important part of finding ourselves again as Christians. That will help you to feel connected, like you’re part of your community, and like you get the guidance and support you need from God, even though most of that support will come in the form of the people he puts into your life.

Moving Forward

As you move into recovery, your faith, your ability to dedicate time to it, and your acceptance of God as part of your life will be an important part of your recovery. Making time to read the Scripture, to find motivation in it, to find inspiration in others who have pushed through, and to find new ways to connect with God will give you the help you need in that recovery.

Eventually, recovering from a substance use disorder means taking care of yourself, mind, body, and spirit. That means going to rehab and getting mental health help and counseling, it means taking care of your body and eating well and exercising, and it means investing in your spirituality by connecting with God, talking to him, and setting aside time to Listen and read the Scripture. Of course, none of that will ever replace going to treatment, connecting with your Christian community, and being part of it, but all of it will help you as you move towards Recovery and building a new life for yourself.

How to Take Care of a Pet When You Are Newly Sober

Woman Taking Care of her Pet after recovery

How to Take Care of a Pet When You Are Newly Sober

If you’re just out of recovery and you have to take care of a pet, it can mean extra challenge. In fact, if you don’t yet own a pet, most recovery groups will recommend waiting to get one. Here, recovery groups often start individuals out on buying a plant and keeping that alive first. Once you’ve proven you can do that, you can start with pets. But, if you already have a pet, you’ll have to jump right into taking care of and managing the life that is in your care. That can be a massive responsibility.

The good news is that there are plenty of strategies you can use to ensure you’re providing good care for the animals in your life – even when you’re newly sober. These tips will help you make the right decisions and the right calls.

Take Your Pet to Rehab with You

An increasingly large number of rehab and treatment centers will offer pet care during recovery treatment. This means that you can simply bring your pet with you and continue offering it care while you work on yourself. That’s often relatively easy as you can keep a cat in a room with you, birds in cages, and rehab often involves hiking and plenty of time to walk, so dogs can also get exercise.

Of course, bringing a pet to rehab with you will reduce the number of rehab centers you can choose from. On the other hand, it means that caring for your pet is part of your schedule from day one. It is good to be able to focus on yourself first and foremost during recovery. However, rehab offers plenty of time for pet care, which means this can be a great option.

Ask for Help When You Need It

You won’t always have the headspace or the time to care for your pet. It’s important that you learn to reach out and ask for help when you need it. That might mean having a pet sitter. It might also mean having someone come over to help you with cleaning a litter box or cages when you notice you’re having trouble keeping up. If you treat early sobriety like being in recovery from being sick or like having a depression diagnosis, you’ll understand that you will have good and bad days. Some days you will need help. That may mean having someone on call to help you with your pet so that you know your pet gets the care it needs. Asking for that help can be hard because it can make you feel like you’re not being enough for a pet, but it’s important to recognize that you are sick and you do need help sometimes. If you can’t do that, then your pet may actually go without because you are in recovery and you won’t always be healthy enough (mentally or physically) to offer the care your pet needs.

Work Pet Care into Your Routines

Moving into recovery often means building good routines into your life. That means good food, exercise, and taking care of your home and space. It’s important that your pet be part of those routines from day one. For example, if you have a dog, you can make multiple long walks a day your exercise routine. That means you and your pet get the care you need. You can also work cleaning up after your pet into your morning routine. For example, taking 10 minutes before and after bed to check food and water, to clean up messes, etc., can be extremely good for your pet. Of course, any pet will also need extra time for play and for enrichment, which means setting that time aside. But, providing you make it part of your routine, you’ll have a better idea of when to do it and how to do it. Creating that routine will also help you to maintain good pet care even when you are having a bad day and are having a hard time.

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Have Someone Check in on You

Keeping up with your mental health and your recovery can be difficult. It’s important that you have someone looking in on you. That means two things. The first is social accountability. Here, you know someone is checking in on you so you have external motivation to do something that should be done. That can be more helpful than most people realize. For example, if you’ve ever suddenly had the motivation to clean right before guests show up, you’ve experienced social accountability. It can be surprisingly powerful, even for things you want to do like taking care of your pet.

In addition, having someone check in on you can help you to notice sooner when you start to do badly. You might be struggling but someone will realize it and may help you to break out of it before things go bad. And, if they can’t, they will likely be able to help you take care of your pet so your pet does not lose the added care. That will be better for your pet and its wellbeing either way. Of course, that does mean having a self-help group, having people visit you, having that check-in, and that can be hard to ask for and hard to maintain.

Talk to Your Therapist

You might not be ready to take care of a pet. It’s important to accept that. It’s also important to accept that if you can’t take care of your pet right now, you should be getting help. That help might mean having someone drop by daily to help you with pet care. It might also mean having your pet live with a friend or family member for a bit while you work to recover your physical and mental health. Recovering from a substance use disorder is a lot. You might need help. You might have ups and downs. Your bad days might be so bad you cannot or can barely take care of yourself. Having a pet at the same time means taking on responsibility you might not be ready for. That means talking to your therapist, getting help, and figuring out what you’re capable of.

It’s always a good idea to wait with getting a pet if you can. However, pets can help with loneliness, they can help you to feel loved, they can give you a good baseline for self-care, and they can provide external motivation for doing things. On the other hand, if you wait till you’re further into recovery, you’ll be in better shape to ensure your pet has the care and emotional stability from its caretaker that it needs. Whatever situation you’re in, don’t be afraid to reach out, ask for help, and try to involve your pet in your therapy and recovery. Eventually, taking care of a life is a big responsibility and it should be an important part of your life, including your rehab and your self help and support. That can mean added complexity, but it will mean you get companionship, and your pet gets the care it needs.

Good luck with your recovery and with taking care of your pet.

The Importance of Prayer in Addiction Recovery

The Importance of Prayer in Addiction Recovery

If you’re recovering from a substance use disorder, it can seem like it dominates your life. For many of us, alcohol or drugs take over every part of our life, including our faith, while we’re addicted. Stepping away from that and moving into recovery gives you the chance to open up and to find your faith and your spirituality again. And, doing so can mean that you open yourself up to peace, to finding motivation to stay in recovery, and to finding a new lifestyle that helps you to stay clean and sober. If you want God to be an important part of your life moving forward, embracing prayer and talking to Him is an important part of the process.

That can be seen in how almost every self-help recovery group focuses on using prayer and embracing a Higher Power. Prayer is an important part of acknowledging that you are not alone, that you have someone to talk to, and that you have time to are committed to connecting to God and working towards creating a better life for yourself.

Taking Time Out

Making space in your life for daily prayer gives you time to step out of your busy life, to find peace, and to have some quiet. Try taking ten to fifteen minutes before bed and when you wake up to talk to God. That should involve sitting and thinking about what you want to say, framing what you want to share, and then saying it. Here, some people have an easier time writing things down, which gives you more space to figure out what you want to say. In either case, you’re taking the time out to contemplate over your day, to figure out what you need help with, what you’re looking forward to, what you’re grateful for, and what’s important. That can be valuable for framing the rest of your day. It’s also valuable for giving you insight into what you’re doing and in asking for help with.

Finding Peace

Taking time to talk to God can give you perspective, it can help you to find peace with who you are and what you are, it can help you to find resolution for your past actions, it can help you to make peace with yourself. Of course, just talking to God isn’t enough. However, taking the time to talk, to be honest, and to share what you’re feeling and how you feel about it with God can open your life up to making better changes, to investing in growth, and to understanding yourself better.

Taking time to be honest to God and to share how you feel will also make it easier to share with the people in your life. That will, in turn, improve your ability to build those relationships, will improve your ability to clear up how you feel, and will allow you to work on yourself from a better understanding of yourself.

That will help you find peace and find quiet, to find meaning, and to come to terms with yourself and with the world around you.

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Experiencing Wonder

One of the primary goals of groups like Alcoholics Anonymous is to get you to experience wonder, to acknowledge a higher power, and to recognize yourself as a tiny part of a larger plan. Prayer is part of that process because it means stepping back and acknowledging that you have to ask for help, you have to be grateful, and you are a small part of a larger plan. Realizing that and feeling it through daily prayer and connection with God can be an important part of your recovery.

That’s true whether you’re praying on your own, in a church, or as part of your AA support group. Talking to God means acknowledging who and what He is and that means experiencing wonder. And, that will be good for your recovery and your ability to say that things are out of your hands, you are merely responsible for making the decisions that guide you as best as possible on the route you want to be on.

Finding Positivity and Gratitude

Prayer should always be about sharing gratitude, about sharing what you have, and about acknowledging and accepting that gratitude. That often means shifting perspective to start looking for the things you’re going to be grateful for. For example, if you decide to share at least one thing you’re grateful for every day, you’ll have to look for that. And, that can mean shifting to a mindset where you’re actively looking for positivity – which will be good for your recovery. That’s especially true for addicts who very often focus on the negative. If something is wrong, we focus on it, aggrandize it, and make it more and more of a problem – that’s often addiction talking and pushing us to use or drink more – but it creates a negative outlook that decreases our quality of life. Taking the time to talk to God and to be grateful can reverse that cycle.

Self-Awareness and Perception

How often do you take time to sit down with yourself to look at yourself, who you are, how you interact with others, and the choices you make? Taking time to talk with God means doing that every day and having an honest conversation about your thoughts, feelings, motivations, goals, and how your actions line up with those. That can improve your awareness of how your actions align with who and what you want to be, can allow you to set daily goals, and can allow you to have a better understanding of not just who you want to be but who you actually are. Eventually, that will help you with recovery, and it will give you insight into yourself and what you need to do to get to where you want to be.

For example, talking to God can allow you to identify and refine your beliefs. What do you think being a good person looks like? What do you think a good person acts like? Are you doing that? You’re holding yourself accountable by telling it to God every day and working with Him as you learn, grow, and change.

Moving Forward

If you’re moving into recovery, chances are, you’re moving into a church, AA group, or other support group as well. It’s also important that you do so, because connecting with God is not a thing that most people do alone. It’s important to have guidance, to get support, to have people to talk to, and to be able to ask for help when you don’t feel heard or like your prayers are being answered. Having a church with a pastor to guide you can be an immensely important part of developing talking to God. Most importantly, it allows you to take asking for help, being honest about yourself, and committing to doing and being good into a community where you can put that into practice.

Alcoholics Anonymous insists that its members acknowledge a higher power by joining AA. That means stepping away from ego, recognizing ourselves as an equal part of everything around us, and understanding that we are part of a network, a community, a group. Learning how to live that means working with others and your church, AA community, etc., is a great place to start – and that will kickstart your prayer and being able to talk to God more than anything else. Good luck with your recovery journey.

Why Finding New Hobbies Is Important for Long-Term Recovery

a happy young woman found a new hobby painting

Why Finding New Hobbies Is Important for Long-Term Recovery

If you’re just getting started with recovery, it can be a lonely experience. The first thing that most of us realize is that we have lost our hobbies, the things we do with our spare time, and many of our friends. That can put you in a position where you don’t know what to do with your spare time and that can leave you feeling bored, lonely, and unfulfilled. Those and other reasons are part of why it’s important to find hobbies for your long-term recovery.

You’re probably accustomed to people pushing anything they can at you in recovery. Crafts, yoga, music, painting – pretty much anything. That’s often because picking up new hobbies can be immensely good for you, for your self-esteem, and for your recovery. At the same time, it’s also important for you to find hobbies and to move at your own pace, so you can invest as you’re ready to do so.

Hobbies Build Your Self-Esteem

Starting and sticking to a hobby can boost your self-esteem and your confidence. Both of those are an important part of long-term recovery. However, hobbies can help you to build those skills in a natural way, which will in turn influence your behavior, attitude towards recovery, and your approach towards your life. Hobbies give you something to work on for yourself, meaning you can start out being proud that you’re sticking to something that you’re not yet good at, learn to be good at things, and build your skills – increasing your confidence not just in your ability to do the hobby well but also your ability to learn new things, to get good at things you started out being bad at, and to understand how you progress at those new skills.

That’s even more true if you make that a social hobby, like pottery or dancing, where you’ll get into contact with others and you’ll be able to grow as a group.

Hobbies Build Your Self-Discipline

Hobbies can require significant self-discipline. That can mean emotional regulation and managing your emotions when you fail. It can mean discipline and practice and ensuring that you keep going, keep making classes, keep practicing. It can also mean sticking with a schedule and a program so that you do actually learn. All of that will help you to develop your sense of discipline, which will transfer to other parts of your life.

Being Comfortable with Yourself Alone

Being comfortable alone and by yourself also means knowing what to do with yourself. And, knowing what to do with yourself means having an idea of what you like, what you’re good at, and what makes you feel like you’re spending your time in a way that you want. Investing in hobbies means that you’ll be able to build those skills and figure out what is a good way for you to spend your time. For example, you might find out that you really like making things with your hands. You might find out that bullet journalling is a great way to help you feel in control of your agenda. You might also decide you like getting to move and exercise. Knowing what you can fill your time with when you’re alone will make you feel less alone because you’ll be more open to spending time with yourself. And, that’s important even if your preferred hobbies are something like watching TV or reading a book rather than making something. Knowing how to keep yourself company is important, and many people just out of rehab don’t know how to do that.

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Finding Enjoyment

Do you know how to have fun with your free time without drugs and alcohol? For most of us, long-term substance abuse means we’ve mostly forgotten. Sure you used to have hobbies and you might even want to go back to those, but remembering how to just sit down and have fun with something or with people without any substances can be hard. Building hobbies means you’ll get to find that again, to build up to it slowly, and to learn how to have fun with nothing but what your brain produces naturally. Of course, that might not happen right away. Many people actually experience emotional blunting in early recovery, where the brain is incapable of correctly regulating serotonin and dopamine, which means that it can feel like you feel nothing at all when you think you should be enjoying yourself. Hobbies help with that further by building up slowly – you’ll start out in positions of not being good at what you’re doing and the enjoyment will come with practice -and that’s perfect for learning how to enjoy yourself again.

Finding new Coping Mechanisms

Most people don’t think of a hobby as a coping mechanism. However, once you start a hobby, even something like knitting can help you to stay clean and sober. Why? It gives you something to fill your free time with without getting bored. It forces you to concentrate and do something with your hands, which can help you wait out cravings. It gives you something to de-stress with (although that will require a certain amount of fluency with the hobby). You won’t try to play guitar and feel less stressed a week into learning, btu long-term, it will give you something to turn to in order to reduce stress and to relax. And all of that can be a powerful addition to your recovery now and for the long-term.

Meeting New People and Friends

Having hobbies is an important part of meeting people, of finding people you have things in common with, and of sharing achievements and goals. People who share hobbies feel more emotionally fulfilled, more connected, and more in-touch with those around them. That’s especially true when you turn to physical hobbies like dance, yoga, martial arts, etc. However, you can share a lot with your class even with something simple like sharing a pottery class, learning to play a game together, meeting up with a group of people to play boardgames once a week, or learning cooking together. Of course, not every hobby should be with other people. At the same time, ensuring that at least some of what you do with your free time is social can be a great way to add that connection into your life – and that will be good for your long-term recovery. Most importantly, hobbies don’t have to be about other people in order to include them, because groups, classes, and meetups are all extremely common and you can just look for one and join it.

Moving Forward

New hobbies can be hard to start. It can be difficult to figure out what you like. And there’s a lot that goes into trying new things, figuring out what you want to stick to, and then doing so. At the same time, taking that time and investing in finding new hobbies can help you to improve your quality of life, improve your recovery, and give yourself coping mechanisms for the long-term. Not every hobby will be good for you or good for your recovery. However, finding something you can invest in, can stick to, and can work on improving at will improve your sense of self-esteem and confidence, your discipline, will broaden your social circle, will help you feel connected to yourself and others, and will give you a way to have fun, while reducing stress levels. And, all of that will be good for your recovery.