Even after getting the help you need to get sober, the road to recovery is an ongoing process. The first few years, unfortunately, are often the most difficult to navigate. Learning how to make better choices, steering clear of vices, rebuilding relationships, and picking yourself back up physically and mentally is a lot.
For however long you were struggling with addiction, your behaviors were geared towards feeding your addiction. You may have stopped eating regularly, keeping up with your hygiene, paying the bills, socializing with others, and other basic life necessities.
Though you have be sober for a while and provided with tools from Florida rehab centers (or wherever you chose to get help from), actually applying them once you’re back home is a different story. While you may be stressed and even afraid of what lies ahead, you can rebuild your life after getting sober. Below are a few tips on how to make things easier.
Find a Positive Environment
If you’re presently living with others who still suffer from addiction or essentially won’t support the journey you’re on, relocating may be the best option for your continued progress. Staying in a negative environment will make it easy to relapse. If you can’t afford a place of your own right now, try seeing if you can stay with relatives who are more supportive.
Continue With Outside Therapy
Simply because you’ve completed a rehab program doesn’t mean that you no longer need the support of medical professionals. Whether you enroll in an outpatient program or schedule visits with an addiction therapist on a regular basis, you need help. Retraining your brain and adjusting to the realities of being outside of rehab is an ongoing struggle. Your therapist or group therapies help you to remember where you came from, where you’re trying to get, and how to stay away from vices.
Keep Up with Your Health
You can’t battle addiction (or lead a more positive life) if you’re not physically and mentally fit. The many years of abuse have wreaked havoc on your body and you have to keep working to strengthen it. Prep meals and store them to ensure you’re eating 3-5 times a day. Stay hydrated by drinking a glass of water with each meal and then increase your daily intake until you’re drinking half your body weight in water. Enroll in a cycle studio or gym class to get the motivation to stay active. Create a nighttime routine with lots of self-care to ensure you’re getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Do what you have to do to keep up with your health.
Maintain a Schedule
Under no circumstances is it okay to have too much idle time on your hands. Though some downtime is good, spending too much time doing nothing can trigger a relapse or cause you to fall off track with your goals. Try to maintain a full schedule. Find a full-time job, go back to school, volunteer somewhere, spend time with family, just try to keep your days full going forward.
You took the first steps towards overcoming addiction by getting help and becoming sober. Now that you’ve gotten treatment, advice, and tools from medical experts, it’s time to put what you’ve learned to good use. The road won’t be easy in the beginning, but if you stick to the advice above, eventually you’ll create a more positive life for yourself.